During these difficult times, there are many activities that you might be missing, particularly things that you frequently did with family and friends.

While many people are currently in lockdown around the world, a lot of people are coming up with creative and inventive ideas to stay entertained in their homes. By harnessing the strength of technology, communicating with others, and taking part in activities together can still be done with a quick message, call, or video call. 

If you’re used to seeing your friends regularly and heading to your local pub quiz, why not keep the tradition going - just in your own homes instead? You can all join in together online, from your individual homes, and take part in entertaining pub quizzes! Whether you are hosting your own quiz or your local is holding one, here are many ways that you can enjoy your pub quiz virtually. 

1) Choose the best quiz theme & name

If you are setting up your own virtual quiz, the first thing you should do is choose some fun themes for your quiz. Be creative, you don’t have to have a ‘sports’ round or a ‘general knowledge’ round if you don’t want to! You can incorporate guess the song rounds, a Disney round, or even guess the film stills rounds too. If you want, you could also create one theme for your pub quiz such as movies, rockstars, celebrities, and more - you could all dress up! Take some time to also come up with a memorable team name too to impress other teams - there might even be a winner for best team name, you never know.

2) Prepare the questions

When you are creating your own virtual pub quiz, developing the questions list is undoubtedly the most difficult part of a quizmaster. However, it is also an opportunity to be creative. The best type of quiz questions are if they are quick and easy - there’s no need to complicate them too much. There are many different types of quizzes online that can help give you inspiration. Buzzfeed has plenty of fun quizzes that you can play to gain inspiration. If you want to practice before the quiz and test your knowledge, then this new ‘What Are The Chances?’ quiz will test you on all sorts of chances and odds.

3) Choose where to host your quiz

When you are taking part in a virtual pub quiz, it’s useful to use a platform that has a split-screen and video chat app so that you can easily communicate with those taking part. For large and small scale quizzes, Zoom can be a popular tool to use as you can have a maximum of 100 people on one call.  For the free plan, you also only have a 40-minute time limit which might be enough time for your quiz as you don’t want it to run on for too long! Houseparty is another app, available on mobile and desktop, that has experienced a sudden surge recently. Its usage is easy and reliable, but it can only accommodate 8 people so this app would only be best if you were running a smaller quiz with friends and family.

4) Get your snacks and drinks ready

No pub quiz would be complete without some tasty snacks and drinks to enjoy while you answer the questions! While usual pub quizzes might have been limited to a bag of crisps or nuts, there are many other great snacks that you can prepare in your own home. If you want some delicious baked goods, then you can even try out baking Guinness cookies with Bailey's frosting if you like the sound of a glorious mixture of chocolate, Guinness, and Baileys Irish cream. If you want to also experiment with new cocktails rather than just your usual pint, then you can enjoy this tasty Whiskey Sour recipe at home with your very own happy hour!

5) Combine your quiz with drinks or beer festivals from around the world

Finally, another fun way that you can make the most your virtual pub quiz is by incorporating different elements from around the world! This could be perhaps having an Italian night with your quiz with pasta and Campari, or maybe an English one with fish and chips and a gin and tonic. If you’re holding weekly pub quizzes, then how about using this ultimate guide to international beverages to inspire you? You can experiment and try new flavors you might not have had before! Your quiz team could try Sake with Japanese night, Sangria for Spain, or stick with the traditional Guinness for Ireland. Currently, many drinks festivals have had to postpone his year, but you can still enjoy recreating them at home! There were many UK craft beer festivals that were set for 2020 such as the Bristol Craft Beer Festival and Great British Beer Festival - but you could purchase your own craft beer and enjoy them during your quiz night.