The days of Alex Trebek’s cherished Jeopardy! and Scott Rogowsky’s controversial HQ Trivia are behind us, but that doesn’t mean trivia is over. There are dozens of trivia apps and quiz games online, and, truly, most of them are full of delightfully addicting competitions that have users accidentally increasing their screen time by hours a day.
I played a few dozen of the free versions of trivia apps accessible on my iOS phone, and picked out my favorites. Here are seven of the best trivia apps available for download.
1. Jeopardy! World Tour
You can’t win actual money, like you can on the show, but it’s a fun experience.
Image: JEOPARDY! World tour
The actual Jeopardy! show is in a bit of turmoil right now. After the death of beloved and longtime host Alex Trebek last year, the show has been cycling through guest hosts in an attempt to find a permanent replacement, including winner Ken Jennings, journalist Katie Couric, and talk show host and overall controversial guy Dr. Oz. The game app, which is free and downloadable for Android or iOS, still shows Trebek as the host.
You have two gameplay options, either playing solo in offline mode or against two randomly assigned opponents in a match. The flow matches that of real Jeopardy, with three topics and three numeric point choices below that allow you to choose the difficulty of the question and the points you’ll get if you answer correctly. Unlike the show, though, the answers are multiple choice. Players can use power-ups to help them out in each round, like removing answers that aren’t right or giving you some extra time to think. You can’t win real money, like you can on the show, but it’s a fun experience. There aren’t a ton of add-ons like the other games, but I find the simplicity of this trivia game to be comforting.
Jeopardy! World Tour is available for free on the Apple App Store iOS and on the Google Play Store for Android.
2. Trivia Star
Trivia Star is the ideal trivia game to play while you’re watching TV or listening to a podcast.
Image: trivia star
If you don’t want to play against opponents, Trivia Star is probably one of the best trivia apps out there. The questions allegedly get more difficult as the game progresses, but I haven’t really experienced anything too challenging. Trivia Star is the ideal trivia game to play while you’re watching TV or listening to a podcast — the stakes are low because you’re not playing an opponent, and the questions aren’t too difficult to answer while you multitask.
Trivia Star is available for free on the Apple App Store for iOS and on the Google Play Store for Android.
3. Trivia Royale
This game starts out feeling almost like a social media network of its own.
Image: trivia royale
Trivia Royale starts out by asking you for your age, makes you create an avatar, and asks you to turn on your camera “to start facetracking.” It recommends you join with Facebook so you can play with your Facebook friends, which is to say this game starts out feeling almost like a social media network of its own. Then, you pick from five categories — Disney, Friends (the TV show), general, history, or logos (like, brands) — and it matches you with a random real or bot opponent. More topics are added as you play, and if you pay $2.99 per week for the premium version, you have more access to fun, premium, pop culture-related topics like Netflix, Animal Crossing, and Bachelor Nation. It’s free and downloadable for Android or iOS, but the premium version also gets rid of ads, gives you access to live events, and you get endless tickets, which you need to enter into a Trivia Royale tournament. Since the trivia questions are siphoned into more specific categories, they can be a more challenging than the questions in other games. So if you’re looking to get stumped this might be one of the best trivia apps for you.
Trivia Royale is available for free on the Apple App Store for iOS and on the Google Play Store for Android. The app also includes in-app purchases available for premium features.
4. Psych! Outwit Your Friends
Ellen’s Psych! is reminiscent of Balderdash, where you write the weirdest but still reasonable responses to questions to trick your friends.
Image: psych!
Psych! was created by Ellen DeGeneres and seems to be inspired by games like Balderdash, where you’re encouraged to find the weirdest but still reasonable response to trivia questions to trick your friends. Each player answers a goofy but still plausible answer and once all responses are collected, players have to figure out which answer is correct. If someone chooses your submission or if you answer correctly, you get a point! For $2.99, you can remove ads.
One of the biggest problems with this trivia app is that you do have to pay for quite a few of the decks. And while Psych! is great for a game night, you can’t play with randos online or bots — you have to be with a group of friends who also have the app downloaded on their phones to play.
Psych! is available for free on the Apple App Store for iOS and on the Google Play Store for Android. The app also includes in-app purchases available for premium features.
5. Popcorn Trivia
The ideal trivia app for cinephiles
Image: popcorn trivia
This movie trivia game is a great app for cinephiles. It’s free on Android and iOS, and comes with quiz questions for all kinds of movies and genres. You earn popcorn that you can use to change up your avatar or spend them on premium question packs and points can earn you bonuses to use as lifelines on movie questions that are a bit too tough. There’s a single-player and multiplayer mode. The questions are more challenging than other games, primarily because they’re movie-specific.
Popcorn Trivia is available for free on the Apple App Store for iOS and on the Google Play Store for Android. The app also includes in-app purchases available for premium features.
6. Trivia Crack
Then, you match with friends or random opponents and play trivia in a series of six categories until there’s a winner.
Image: trivia crack
The branding and user experience of Trivia Crack has been so consistently solid that you really do have to give it to ’em. I started playing Trivia Crack in 2014, when Barack Obama was president and I was a student at the University of Arizona avoiding any and all classwork by defeating my peers with the then-useless material that wobbled around in my skull. The game is still pretty similar to how I remember it half a decade ago. You choose from five game options: classic, survival, treasure mine, triviatopics, and triviathon. Then, you match with friends or random opponents and play trivia in a series of six categories — entertainment, history, sports, art, geography, science, and “crown,” which gives you the option to choose the category — until there’s a winner. There’s a fun messaging option on the app to trash talk with your friends while you play.
The biggest downside, as is expected for most free apps, is that it’s pretty ad-heavy. For $1.99, you can buy the premium version, which is add-free. I’d also say that the questions are pretty easy, so I wouldn’t recommend this if you’re looking for something particularly challenging.
Trivia Crack is available for free on the Apple App Store for iOS and on the Google Play Store for Android. The app also includes in-app purchases available for premium features.
7. Trivia Crack 2
Trivia Crack 2 has more quiz-based gameplay options for when you’re bored of the classic version.
Image: trivia crack 2
Eerily similar to the original Trivia Crack, in the classic option of this quiz game you spin a wheel that lands on one of six question categories: entertainment, history, sports, art, geography, science, and “crown,” which gives you the option to choose the category. The goal is to answer correctly for each of the categories to win representative characters. The first player to win all of the characters wins the game.
Like the original version, it isn’t particularly challenging and the free version of Trivia Crack 2 has lots of ads. The in-app purchases in this quiz game are also pretty wild — going all the way up to $99.99 for some items. They’re primarily for in-game currency that can buy power-ups and pretty much help you win. I don’t particularly love the pay-to-win structure here, which makes it a losing experience to play with folks who pay for power-ups. Unlike the original version, Trivia Crack 2 has more quiz-based gameplay options for when you’re bored of the classic version.
Trivia Crack 2 is available for free on the Apple App Store for iOS and on the Google Play Store for Android. The app also includes in-app purchases available for premium features.