When it comes to trivia nights, most games are geared towards larger groups of players. But what about playing a trivia game with just one other person?
Sometimes, you just want a low-key trivia night—after all, a big trivia party can really deplete your social battery. For those times, there are plenty of two-player trivia games at your disposal. Whether you’d like to play with your partner, a family member, or a friend, these games are here to bring you joy, competition, and a healthy dose of fun trivia facts.
We’ve rounded up our nine favorite two-player trivia games for your perusal. Keep scrolling to find out which of these games is for you.
Trivial Pursuit
First on the list is Trivial Pursuit, AKA debatably the most famous trivia board game of all time. While Trivial Pursuit is often thought of as a large family game, it can be played with as few as two players.
Trivial Pursuit’s gameplay revolves around traveling around a wheel-like board to answer trivia questions. As you move around the board and land on category squares, you receive opportunities to answer trivia questions. When you get a question right, you earn a wedge piece colored to correspond with the category the question was from.
Players can only take one colored wedge per category, and they must continue playing until they’ve correctly answered at least one question from each. Once one player has obtained a wedge for each category, they win, and the game concludes.
In Trivial Pursuit, the number of players doesn’t necessarily affect how long gameplay may last. Additionally, some of the game is luck-based because a dice roll determines which space each player ends up on, and, by extension, which category they must answer for. Therefore, even if one player is more knowledgeable about trivia, they may not accumulate wedges quickly if they keep landing on the same category.
Things They Don’t Teach You in School
If your idea of a fun one-on-one trivia night is shooting the breeze, Things They Don’t Teach You in School is an excellent trivia game option for you. It’s a deck of 110 trivia cards from Hygge Games, with four questions printed on each card. You can opt to keep track of points or you can enjoy asking and answering questions back and forth, no incentivizing necessary.
These aren’t your grandmother’s trivia questions—they’re unusual and sometimes a bit raunchy. It isn’t called Things They Don’t Teach You in School for nothing!
Things They Don’t Teach You in School is recommended for ages 17 and up due to some mildly inappropriate trivia content—in other words, maybe avoid playing this game with anyone who you’re loath to discuss sexual content with.
- Why doesnâ€t the Mona Lisa have eyebrows? In what year was shampoo invented? What is the most common day of the week to have sex?
- A mildly offensive, highly entertaining party trivia game
- Contains 110 cards with more than 400 unexpected questions and answers youâ€ll never see coming
- Perfect for an entertaining dinner with friends and family and a great game for anyone who can never get enough fun facts and useless knowledge
- Players 2+ / Age 17+ / Box size 5.7 x 5.7 x 1.8 inches
Trivia Crack
Want a digital option for a two-player trivia game? Consider playing a few rounds of Trivia Crack by Etermax. This popular app allows you to compete against your Facebook friends in a head-to-head trivia showdown.
In Trivia Crack, players switch off spinning Willy the Wheel to determine which category they’ll be playing answering a question from. There are six categories: entertainment, sports, history, geography, science, and the arts.
After a player takes Willy for a spin, they have a chance to answer a multiple-choice question from the category they spun for. From there, they’ll either earn points and get a chance to spin again or turn over their turn to the other player.
If you’re especially stuck on a question, you can purchase power-ups that give you hints or extra time to answer. If you want to get extra competitive, these can give you an extra edge over your opponent.
Trivia Crack gameplay can last for an hour or two or span over the course of several days, depending on how often each player visits the app. You can sit down with your opponent and play at the same time as them, perhaps letting them look at your screen as you answer so they aren’t too unoccupied as they wait for you. Additionally, you and your opponent can play from separate locations, making this a great option for long-distance partners or friends and family that live far apart.
As an alternative, if you want to play a two-player trivia game but don’t have a willing pal around, you can opt for a random player match. There are loads of players looking for opponents all around the world, and Trivia Crack will connect you to anyone willing, able, and eager to play.
I Should Have Known That!
Want to bring the party atmosphere to your two-person game? Try out I Should Have Known That!
Like Things They Don’t Teach You in School, I Should Have Known That! is made by Hygge Games. It’s a deck of 110 cards with four questions on each card. These questions don’t have obvious answers, but some of them are so basic that you feel like you must know them in the back of your head, even if you don’t.
In I Should Have Known That!, no one accrues points. Instead, points are subtracted every time a question is answered incorrectly. This makes the stakes feel a little higher since getting question after question wrong can see your score go deep into negative territory!
Since I Should Have Known That! is just made up of a deck of cards, it’s easily portable. Consider stowing it in a carry-on or bringing it on your next road trip to play with your companion. It also serves great for an at-home pub trivia night!
- Is starboard on the left or right side of a boat? How do you say “Japan” in Japanese? Is a penguin a bird? How long did Sleeping Beauty actually sleep?
- In contrast to traditional trivia formats, you don’t receive points for answering questions correctly. Instead, points are subtracted for every incorrect answer!
- Contains 110 cards with more than 400 questions about things that you should know
- An addictively entertaining trivia game where it will only be a matter of time before you hear yourself say… Ahhh!... I should have known that!
- Players 2+ / Age 14+ / Box size 5.7 x 5.7 x 1.8 inches
Smart Ass
Smart Ass is a popular trivia board game known for fostering hilarious and wild game nights. If you consider yourself to be, well, a Smart Ass, Smart Ass will be pretty entertaining for you.
In Smart Ass, two or more players make their way around a circular board to answer Who, What, and Where questions. Each of these questions is made up of a set of four clues, written in first person and read back-to-back. These clues get progressively more obvious as they go. As they’re being read, any player can shout out the answer; however, in a two-player game, this aspect doesn’t come into play since one of the two players will be reading the clues and will know the answer.
Not to worry, there are still other elements of the game that add some spice. Dumb Ass and Hard Ass board spaces can incentivize players to answer more questions or take away their opportunity to answer by forcing them to skip their turn.
There are 411 Who, What, and Where cards in Smart Ass, so you can experience new entertaining clues game after game.
- Shouting Allowed: Play Smart Ass, the game where it's ok to yell out the answer, even when it's not your turn.
- Answer Correctly and Win: Be the first to answer the who, What, and where Am I questions, and move closer to being the ultimate Smart Ass
- More Content: Are you already a Smart Ass fan, but ready feel like you’ve played your original game to death? Have no fear! All new content is here! Smart Ass is new again, with completely new topics and clues.
- What's Included: Game Board, 6 Playing Pieces and Stands, 411 Question Cards, Jumbo Category Die, Jumbo Movement Die, Instructions
- Why We Love It: If you're looking for a fun family game that will get everyone laughing while they exercise their brains, Smart Ass is it! It's a fast-paced party game with tons of questions about people, places and things. You'll be surprised how much you know when the pressure's on to come up with answers quickly. The first person to answer the topic card correctly earns the point and the bragging rights among the group, of course!
Trivia 360
If you’re seeking out another great option for a digital two player trivia game, Trivia 360 is for you. Like Trivia Crack, Trivia 360 allows you to connect your Facebook account to the app so that you can go head-to-head against your Facebook friends, or you can play against another random app user. Either way, you’re sure to have tons of fun playing a one-on-one trivia battle.
Trivia 360 asks multiple choice timed trivia questions, often in sets of ten. Players have three lives, so they can only answer a maximum of three questions incorrectly to make it to the end of the round. Once a round has concluded, either because a player answered all 10 questions or it was cut short due to the loss of lives, the other player gets a turn.
If you’re feeling extra competitive, check out Trivia 360’s leaderboard, which features the high scores of top players from around the globe. See if you and your trivia pal can make it onto the board as you play round after addicting round.
Color Brain
Color Brain revolves around a simple premise: what color is the object listed on the question card? In Color Brain, players have a rainbow of color cards at their disposal, and they must race to put down the color card (or cards!) that match with the trivia card listed.
Sure, it might sound easy or overly simplistic to play a game that’s just about naming colors, but some of these questions are tricky. After all, how often do you think about the color of the Oreo logo?
Plenty of Color Brain’s trivia cards beg multiple color card answers, and it’s the duty of the player to pull all the necessary color cards from their hand as quickly as possible. For example, if you’re asked to name the colors of all of the original Skittle candies, you’re going to need to arrange all of those cards, stat!
You and your trivia buddy can keep track of points, or you can just play for fun as you make your way through Color Brain’s deck of 300 question cards.
- CRAFTY QUESTIONS: In this family board game all the answers are colors. Can you remember what colour the five Olympic rings are?
- COLORFUL ANSWERS: Colorbrain is one of the easiest family board games to learn. Each team holds eleven Color Cards in front of them. Together, they have to figure out which ones to put down to answer the question.
- RACE TO THE FINISH: Sounds easy? In this family board game you only get points when the other team gets it wrong!
- KIDS VS ADULTS: From Twinkies to flags, Scooby-Doo to Netflix,, this board game is filled with 300 questions that the whole family can join in with.
- EASY TO LEARN, QUICK TO PLAY: Colorbrain takes just 2 minutes to learn and 20 minutes to play. The perfect family board game for large groups (2-20 players) and ages 14+.
Half Truth
Half Truth is a board game that revolves around placing bets and taking chances. This game was developed by game design icon Richard Garfield and Jeopardy! legend (and current host!) Ken Jennings. Since these two legendary guys are behind it, you know Half Truth has got to be an excellent game.
In Half Truth, each question card has six possible answers listed on it. Three answers on each card are right, and the other three are incorrect. After reading the question, the card is laid on the board and all players place three chips down to bet on an answer (or multiple answers!) that they think are correct. Once the correct answers have been revealed, point tokens are distributed to reflect well-placed bets. Sometimes, a scoring die will be rolled to offer players the chance of a bonus point.
Half Truth is especially fun because players don’t have to take turns! Instead, both players will have a chance to bet on their answers for every question. And since these questions can be answered through the power of deduction, so even if a player isn’t knowledgeable about a certain topic, they’ll have a chance to fairly guess any question’s answer.
- TRIVIA YOUR FRIENDS WILL LOVE - Whether you're looking for party games, group activities, or just love trivia, the Half Truth board game is an exciting way to challenge your friends and family to see who is the smartest.
- PERFECTLY CHALLENGING - With only 6 possibilities, players place their bets between three right and three wrong answers trying to guess correctly. This board game is a great way to show off how much you know.
- FLEX YOUR SMARTS - One of the most unique trivia games available, Half Truth comes with 500 trivia question cards and a wide selection of categories to show your friends and family how much you know and how much they don't!
- BRAINIACS OF ALL AGES - If you're looking for board games for teens, young adults, and families than Half Truth is perfect for you. Our game is perfect for ages 12 and up.
- GET THE PARTY STARTED - Never have a boring party, sleepover, or event again! Break open Half Truth, one of the most fun party games around, and get the party started. The crowd will cheer with enthusiasm as the game heats up but remember, there can only be one winner!
Mind the Gap
Is there a major age gap between you and your trivia buddy? Why not celebrate it through a lively game of Mind the Gap? Embrace your generational differences for a truly unique trivia gaming experience.
During Mind the Gap, two to twenty players travel around a board game answering questions about four iconic generations: Baby Boomers, Gen X, Millennial, and Gen Z. Because this game revolves around generational differences, it would be the most fun to play with a family member that was born long before or after you, like a parent or a child. No matter the age of your other player, you’ll be evenly matched because all players will be called upon to answer questions about each of the generations as they move around the board.
There are five categories of trivia questions for each of the eras: slang and slogans, pop culture, music, headlines, and television and film. As players roll the dice to move around the board, they’ll land on different squares that correspond to these categories, as well as to the generations.
Mind the Gap includes fun challenge activities that veer from standard trivia questions. For example, you may be asked to perform an iconic dance move from a certain generation or hum a well-known song from another. This way, the trivia questions are somewhat multimedia, so there’s less of a chance you’ll get bored playing with just one other person. Plus, it allows you to get on your feet, which can make for an exciting and rowdy game.
- Great for the ENTIRE family - Grandma to 10 yr olds
- Pop Culture trivia questions that are fun to answer
- Challenge cards make you hum, dance, and act out iconic moments from the different generations
- Supports up to 4 teams of multiple players
- Great for holidays, game nights, office parties, get togethers, reunions, funerals... okay, not funerals.
Final Words
Thank you for reading through our list of the best trivia games intended for two players. We hope you’ve found a new game (or a few new games!) to add to your collection. These games will lend themselves well to smaller game nights and will help to bring you closer together to your trivia buddy. Looking for a trivia game to play solo? We’ve got a list of those for you too!
Got another favorite two player trivia game that we missed? Or a particularly memorable experience playing one of the games we included? Drop us a comment down below to let us know.
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