America’s Top Trivia Topics

America’s interest in trivia is as rich and varied as its national culture — from the California coast to the bright lights of New York City, U.S. QuizUp users have played millions of games across a medley of topics. Once upon a time, Americans had only the patrons of their local bar for trivia competition. Now, QuizUp fans can test their mental mettle against peers across the country and worldwide, in an ever-expanding community of users. Think no one knows Bon Jovi lyrics quite like you do? Odds are, there’s a guy named Lionel in Indiana who begs to differ. Just trust us on that one.

Although QuizUp users are legion in all corners of the country, the differences in regional trivia taste are fascinating. Why do users in one area gravitate toward particular topics, and how might that pattern diverge from that of neighboring states? What does a state’s favorite trivia topic reveal about its local culture and the interests of the people who live there?

We set out to gather and present the data on the most popular trivia topics nationwide and in each state, analyzing millions of games played on American soil. We then ranked the 50 most popular topics in each state in order of total games played.

In the map below, we’ve presented the single topic that ranked higher in a given state than in any other. For instance, if a particular topic was ranked No. 5 in one state and the highest ranking it received in any other state was No. 11, we designated the topic as that state’s favorite on the basis of relative interest. See our results below:

Some of the topics above correspond so clearly with state traditions that they seem like obvious winners in retrospect. The University of Alabama’s football fans are arguably the most rabid nationwide (“Roll Tide!”) while D.C. (included for our purposes though not technically a state) has self-explanatory reasons for its interest in U.S. government.

But what about the apparent oddities, such as New Jersey’s devotion to “SpongeBob” or Wyoming’s affinity for “My Little Pony”? What explains some states’ particular attachments to seemingly general subjects, such as Massachusetts’s proclivity for Basic Math or Virginia’s interest in Biology? Ultimately, explanations for these trends are speculative, but the facts we’ve found can fuel compelling conjecture. Maybe “My Little Pony” is a means for youngsters to engage with Wyoming’s longstanding equestrian culture? The multitude of plausible theories is part of the fun.

Moving beyond regional differences, we also wanted to know which topics Americans play most overall. Totaling the sum of all games played for every subject, we’ve ranked the 10 topics played most by users in the U.S.:

Nothing quite unites the diverse American populace like the consumption of goods and media, and the national taste in trivia is no exception. Two of the top 10 topics concern identifying logos for major brands and retailers, institutions with which virtually every American is at least passingly familiar. Interestingly, the popularity of the Disney Movies, Pokémon, and the animated smash-hit “Frozen” indicates either a strong nostalgic impulse among adults, or an increasing number of younger users who are using QuizUp to test their knowledge against that of other youths across the world.

Adults are almost certainly driving the popularity of the General Knowledge topic (intended, by definition, to appeal broadly) and the Movie Titles quiz, which spans film’s history across decades. The Best of QuizUp, a curated aggregate of much-loved questions from a number of different topics, enjoys an admitted advantage over a typical quiz — its questions are cherry-picked from hundreds of different subjects.

Whether your taste is largely in sync with the American public’s or you’ve found your own alternatives, the quiz content you love speaks volumes about your preferences and passions. After all, trivia is so appealing because it offers a delicious mix of contest and curiosity. As we test ourselves, we’re not just learning more about the topics we choose: We’re learning the limits of our own knowledge.

To try the topics America loves best, you can play QuizUp today (you really should).