The first trivia was created by Scott Abbott, a sports editor of the newspaper Canadian Press and Chris Haney, photographer of the magazine Montreal Gazette. Both developed their first idea on December 1979 when they were discussing about which of them would be the best player on a board game. They convinced friends, family and acquaintances to invest in the first game.

Two years after they launched the first prototype of the game. Almost 1,100 units were sold in Canada. In February 1982 they introduced the game in the US at the American International Toy Fair in New York where they thought they would find it relatively easy to sell thousands of them, although they only sold a few hundreds.

The fact that they didn’t sell a lot of games did not make them give up. They convinced a small company to distribute the game. The result was a huge success and trivia became really popular in 1984 and only during that year about twenty million copies were sold. Seeing the success the multinational toy company Parker Brothers acquired the rights in 1988. Four years later the company would be bought by other big multinational industry, Hasbro.

Over the years, the game has been sold over one hundred million copies in 26 countries and in 17 languages. Nowadays is a real trivia mania in many countries. The game is played at events, parties and also at local pubs, where people gather to have a drink and get to answer some general knowledge questions.

Today we can find many versions of this game such as True or False where the player has to guess if the given statement is true or false. Usually you will get points for every correct answer but if you fail you could also lose some of them. This type of quiz usually has a lot of trick questions and you have to read carefully before answering. Another popular version is the Multiple Choice Trivia in which contestants have four possible answers to each question.

Another traditional type of trivia is the Bible Quiz, where players can test their Bible knowledge. It is played within christian communities, at the church and as part of catechesis to make it more fun for kids.

Finally we can also find Picture Quiz, where you have to guess the picture. Some of the most popular categories are logo quiz, celebrities quiz, flags and cartoons,

Trivia games have evolved a lot over the years. Now you can play trivia online, by yourself or against other players or even using an electronic version of the game that you can install in your computer. Mobile apps are well served with trivia and quiz apps. These allow you to play anytime and anywhere, as long as you have your phone with you. These type of apps are a great way of killing time while you learn interesting and useful facts.

Let me know in the comments what is your favorite type of Quiz? What is the last Quiz App you have downloaded?