Organising a pub quiz at your pub: the complete playbook
For a pub, a pub quiz is one of the few activities that both fills a quiet evening and delivers regular guests. Whoever takes part comes with a group, stays for two hours, and drinks more in those two hours than during a normal visit.
The problem isn't the idea but the execution. Coming up with questions takes time, keeping score takes time, and one evening where the count doesn't add up costs you half the participants.
What you need
- A fixed evening. Every week or every other week, always the same day. Irregularity is deadly for turnout.
- Forty to sixty questions, divided into four or five rounds each with its own theme.
- Someone who hosts the evening and links the rounds together.
- A way to keep score that nobody doubts.
- A prize that's worthwhile without being expensive.
The setup of an evening that works
Length
An hour and a half to two hours, including breaks. Shorter feels like too little for the effort of coming; longer and the last round plays out in front of a half-empty room.
Rounds
Four or five rounds of ten questions. Vary the difficulty and make sure each round has its own character: general knowledge, music, images, something local, and a round that has nothing to do with knowledge, such as guessing or estimating.
The local round
This is the round that sets your evening apart from every other pub quiz. Questions about the street, the town, the history of the building. Regular guests feel at home and new guests learn something.
The local round is almost always the round that gets the biggest laughs, and the reason people come back.
Keeping score: where it goes wrong
Having guests hand in paper answers and marking them yourself costs you ten minutes between rounds, and in those ten minutes the energy in the room drops. What's more, discussion breaks out as soon as one answer is marked wrong.
The variant that solves that: guests take part via their own phone and the scores tally themselves. At TablePlay, each table scans the QR code, chooses a table name, and the standings appear live. No paper, no marking, no discussion. Check out the games to see which quiz variants are available, or the page for pubs to see how that plays out in a pub.
The questions themselves
Whoever writes a quiz for the first time almost always makes the same two mistakes: too difficult, and too much factual knowledge. A quiz in which a team gets two out of ten questions right isn't a challenge but a humiliation.
The distribution that works
- Two questions that almost everyone gets right. These are there to give the feeling of taking part.
- Six questions that require some thought or discussion. This is where the fun is.
- Two questions that almost nobody knows. These determine who wins.
The discussion in the middle is where a pub quiz gets its value from. A question that one person knows and the rest doesn't leads to no conversation. A question that four people can work out together, does.
Formats that do better than factual knowledge
Estimation questions (how high, how heavy, how many), picture questions, music clips, and questions where you have to determine an order. They have one thing in common: you can take part without knowing the answer. That keeps teams in the game who would otherwise drop out after round two.
Prizes that work
The prize doesn't have to be big; it has to be visible. A round of drinks for the winning table, a voucher for next time, or something on the house. A voucher has one advantage over cash: it brings the team back.
Hosting the evening
A quizmaster doesn't need to be funny, but does need to be clear. What keeps an evening running smoothly is almost entirely rhythm:
- Read each question twice, with a pause in between. Reading it out once guarantees a hand going up asking you to repeat it.
- Give the same thinking time per question, and say beforehand how long that is.
- Announce the standings after each round. That's the moment the room briefly wakes up.
- Keep the break short. Ten minutes is enough; go for a quarter of an hour and you'll lose half the attention.
The final round
Make the scoring of the final round count for a bit more, or hold back one round in which teams can wager points. Without that, a team ten points behind after round three is mentally done, and you'll notice it at the bar.
How to fill the first few nights
- Announce it three weeks ahead, not three days.
- Ask your regulars personally if they'll bring a team. That works better than any poster.
- Put the date on your Google profile and on social media, with a photo of the venue rather than a quiz logo.
- Make the first night easier than you'd like. Anyone who feels they have no chance won't come back.
What it costs and delivers
Budget two to four hours of preparation per night if you write the questions yourself, plus the evening itself. In return, a quiz night becomes the best-attended weeknight in most pubs, with higher spend per guest than average because people stay seated longer.
If you'd rather skip the preparation, have a look at what a ready-made table quiz costs at the prices page.
How long does a pub quiz last?
An hour and a half to two hours including breaks. Shorter feels like too little for the effort; longer and the final round plays out to a half-empty room.
How many questions do you need for a pub quiz?
Forty to sixty, split across four or five rounds of ten, each with its own theme.
How do you keep score without hassle?
Checking paper answers takes ten minutes per round and sparks arguments. Playing along via phone with automatic scoring removes both problems.
Which evening is best for holding a pub quiz?
A weeknight that's currently quiet, usually Tuesday or Wednesday. The aim is to fill a dead night, not make a busy night busier.
What's a good prize for the winners?
Something visible but not expensive: a round of drinks, something on the house, or a voucher. A voucher also brings the team back.
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