How to host a bar trivia night with your TV and guests' phones

By the Hangtime Games team · October 26, 2026

A good trivia night fills a slow weeknight. People come in at 7, stay for three rounds and order another round of drinks between them. The hard part is usually the setup: a host with a microphone, answer sheets, pencils that walk off, and someone grading at the bar. Hangtime puts the board on your TV and turns each team's phone into a buzzer, so the game keeps score for you.

The setup: one TV, one browser, a phone per team

Hangtime is a web page, so you don't need a console or an app. You need three things:

• A TV everyone can see. The one over the bar is fine. A projector works too.
• Something running a browser on that TV. A laptop on an HDMI cable is the most reliable. A Chromecast or Apple TV you cast to from a laptop works well. Many smart TVs and Fire TV sticks have a browser app, but TV browsers can be slow, so test it first.
• Phones. Guests use their own. Nothing to download.

Open hangtime.games/host on the TV and pick Trivia Board. A four-letter room code appears. Each team goes to hangtime.games/play on one phone, types the code and a team name, and they're in. Pick 3 to 6 categories on the TV and press Start. Our how-to-play page has step by step help for each way of getting the page onto a TV.

Teams: one phone per team

Trivia Board fits 1 to 8 players in a room. At a bar, each “player” is a team sharing one phone. That gives you up to 8 teams on one TV, with as many people at each table as you like. The team captain holds the phone. Everyone else argues.

Here's how a clue plays. The team in control picks a clue on their phone. Every team races to buzz in. The team that buzzes first picks its answer on the phone. Right answer wins the clue's value and picks next. Wrong answer loses it, and another team can steal. One clue hides a Daily Double, where only the picking team plays and bets first.

Got more than 8 teams? Put a second TV in another part of the room and open a second room on it. Each room has its own code and its own scores. Write both sets of scores on a chalkboard and crown an overall winner at the end.

There's also a Teams switch in the lobby. It splits everyone into two teams, each player buzzing on their own phone, with points added up. It still fits 8 phones in total, so it suits a small table more than a full bar.

Write a category about your bar or your neighborhood

This is the round regulars remember. Go to hangtime.games/make and write five clues with their answers, easiest first. You get a code. In the Trivia Board lobby, type it under “Add a custom category” and it shows up on the board next to the built-in ones. It's free and takes a few minutes.

Some ideas for a venue column:

1. 200: The street this bar is on.
2. 400: The beer that's been on tap the longest.
3. 600: The year the place opened.
4. 800: The name of the bar's dog, cat or resident regular.
5. 1000: What this building was before it was a bar.

Breweries can do a column on their own beers. Restaurants can do the menu. A neighborhood column (the old movie theater, the local team, the bridge everyone calls by its old name) works anywhere. Fill the rest of the board with built-in categories. There are 580+ clues across 24 categories, plus live categories written fresh from each day's news.

How long a game runs

One Trivia Board game takes about 20 minutes. Teams get 15 seconds to buzz in and 10 seconds to answer, so the pace stays quick without a host reading clues out loud. The board also skips clues that screen has already shown, so your weekly regulars won't get the same questions next Tuesday.

A sample 90-minute trivia night

Each round is its own game with its own scores, so keep a running total by hand. A whiteboard behind the bar works.

Other weeknight formats

• Trivia night. The schedule above, same night every week. Consistency builds regulars.
• Draw night. Doodler is a Pictionary-style game for 2 to 10 players, about 15 minutes. One person draws on their phone and the drawing shows up on the TV as they go. Good between rounds, or as its own night.
• Word game happy hour. Wordy Birdy is a five-letter word game for 1 to 10 players, about 15 minutes. Everyone cracks the same word on their own phone. It's calm, so it suits an early crowd.
• Big group night. Bowl Game is Fishbowl in two teams, 4 to 16 players, about 30 minutes. It's part of the Launch Pack rather than the free games, so email us before you plan a regular night around it.

Prizes and specials

Prizes don't need to be big. They need to be wanted. A few that work:

• A bar tab or gift card for the overall winners.
• A pitcher or a shared appetizer for each round winner.
• A small prize for the best team name, picked by the staff.
• The winners' team name on the chalkboard until next week.

Pair the night with a food or drink special that runs during the game. A trivia night basket or a pitcher price gives teams a reason to order between rounds.

Noise and sound

Trivia Board plays game sounds through the TV. Browsers only play sound after a click, so click the TV page once at the start. The TV page has a sound button if you'd rather run it quiet. In a loud room, turn the music down a little during each round and back up during breaks. Guests' phones can make sounds too, so ask teams to keep their volume low. Everything that matters is on the screen, so nobody misses a clue in the noise.

What to know before your first night

• 8 teams per room. That's the limit for Trivia Board. More teams means a second TV and a second room.
• It's built for one room. Trivia Board is in person only. The race to buzz in needs everyone looking at the same board.
• Phones need a connection. Guest Wi-Fi or decent mobile signal for every team phone, and a solid connection for the TV device.
• Do a test run. Play a board with your staff before opening night. You'll learn how the TV setup behaves and how long your crowd takes.
• Pricing for venues. Trivia Board, Doodler and Wordy Birdy are free and work today. If you're planning a regular night, email hello@hangtime.games. We're a small family team and we'd like to hear how you're using it.