Why We Love Trivia Board Games

Trivia Board Games Are More Popular than Ever—Here’s Why

What was the name of the dog on the Jetsons? Who sang the #1 hit song Tammy? What company introduced the Firebird in 1967? Trivia board games that pose questions like these are hugely popular—both at home and, these days, even in bars. And not just with the egghead crowd.

In our trivia game Boom Again, we include more than 2,400 questions on pop culture for people who grew up in the Baby Boom years. So, we’ve given a lot of thought to all things trivia.

Why do people love trivia games so much? We have a few observations….

Trivia games give you an opportunity to show

We often tend to focus on in-depth knowledge as a benchmark of how smart a person is. After all, if you’re going to make a living as an expert in something, you’d better know it inside and out. Would you want to be operated on by a surgeon who just knew a few things about cutting you open and extracting your appendix?

Traditionally, trivia games like Trivial Pursuit favored those who could recall arcane and obscure facts.  Now that was really about bragging rights!  But sometimes it’s nice to celebrate that other type of knowledge. You know, the fairly useless kind. The stuff we’ve picked up over the years—whether in school, because it’s a hobby, or just out living and enjoying life.

So, whether you prefer to thump your chest for remembering which symphony Beethoven left “unfinished,” or like the high-five moment for knowing who was affectionately called “The Piano Man,” there’s a show-off moment waiting for you if you pick the right trivia game.

It helps you connect

Thanks to trivia, you’re able to build a community through the sharing of common knowledge. When playing trivia, you might discover that an acquaintance you’ve never had much to say to is nailing every television trivia question—just like you are. Then you really do have something to talk about.

This is especially true with trivia games, like Boom Again, that are played in teams. You get to interact with your fellow teammates as you try to figure out if it was, say, Wolfman Jack or Wolfgang Puck who made a cameo appearance in the movie American Graffiti. (For the record, it was Jack – though Puck might have made him a delicious designer pizza.)

With the rise in specialized trivia board games, you get to dig into a favorite topic or subject

It used to be when you played a trivia game you needed to know a little bit about everything. Now trivia games are being released that focus on very specific topics. Boom Again, for example, zeros in on the pop culture of the Baby Boom era. If you lived during that era, you’re likely to know many of the answers because you listened to the music, watched the TV shows, and enjoyed all the fads and fun of the ‘50s, ’60s, and ‘70s.

It’s not just a trend with board games played at home, either. At bars across the nation, they’re hosting special trivia nights, often with a theme, such as “I Love Lucy” trivia, sports trivia or music trivia, or even more specifically, Beatles trivia.

Trivia board games are good brain exercise

Sure, to exercise your body you can go out for jog, but how do you exercise your brain? Playing trivia is a great brain workout—and a whole lot less sweaty.

In fact, research suggests that older adults who frequently participate in intellectually and socially engaging activities show higher brain function than those who don’t. In other words, you don’t have to necessarily be smart to play trivia but playing trivia might make you smarter (or at least help you hang on to the brainpower that you have).

And like jogging, experts say playing trivia games can provide a dopamine rush—so you’ll get a high whenever you play.

Knowing things helps, but a lot of it is the luck of the draw

While having a good general knowledge base is helpful in trivia, what you need to know is quite random. You might know next to nothing about, for example, geography. Still, you might have recently suffered through a friend’s long slide show of their hike of Machu Pichu, only to find that topic pop up as a geography trivia question.

Now your friends all think you’re a geography genius, and you’re feeling a lot more charitable toward that slide show you sat through.

Lastly, trivia board games are fun

And isn’t that the main reason you play games in the first place?

Oh, and to answer the questions above just in case you were stumped by any of them, it’s the Jetson’s dog was Astro, Debbie Reynolds was Tammy, and Pontiac made the Firebird.

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