The rise in youth and Quiz nights.

When people think of a quiz night their minds drift off to charity fundraisers or an activity for the older generation. But now quiz nights have had a shift, some would even say a rise. Pub quizzes have now taken over the younger space, with 20 regular hotspots in Canterbury. 

The Good Home Pegasus is a great example of bringing in a younger age range of participants. Their quizzes run weekly on Tuesday nights and use the standard 8 round structure with an added Jackpot round. The different rounds each have their own individual topic which is revealed at the start of the night. The quizzes are designed to have a variety of different questions targeted towards different age brackets, but coming into a new focus of more pop culture to bring in their new set of clienteles. 

The Good home currently has 19 regular teams consisting of 6 players that attend the weekly event. This means that the quiz is almost at full capacity with some nights having to turn new teams away, as there is simply no room. 

20-year-old Sam Giddens and Sophie Heatherington have been attending the weekly quiz for almost two years now. 

“We heard about the quiz through a friend in the area, but like I didn’t think too much of the idea until I started playing and now i'm here every tuesday”

They both said one of the things that keep them going constantly is the overall atmosphere of the night. 2 for one pizza, mystery cocktails, a lively and entertaining host, well rounded base of questions and banter between other teams.

Both Sam and Sophie have noticed the rise in popularity especially with more and more young teams showing up weekly.

The night's Quiz master Jeff has been hosting quizzes all around New Zealand for 15 years, and has noticed the peak in young interest skyrocket in the last two years.  

‘It’s just really cool seeing the different age groups coming in. It really helps with the quiz because now there are a lot of pop culture questions and people my age just forget it…I've got no idea of computer games or anything like that.”

Like Sam and Sophie, he believes the greatest attraction is the overall feel of the night itself. Which is why businesses are now starting to use their hosts/ quiz master's to bring in their targeted aged audience.

“If a pub wants to have a lot of young people for their quiz nights a lot of the time now, they will get someone fun and young to be hosting the session”

After seeing the rise in popularity in quizzes like many quiz hosts and business, Jeff hopes that this is only the beginning of the rise in quiz nights and that more and more youth decide to get involved and shift stereotypes.