At Pub Trivia Australia, our Big Screen Trivia is run in-house by hundreds of Australian venues. Setup takes under 15 minutes. But the venues that get the most from this format aren't chasing a quick crowd fix - they're building a community of regulars who plan their week around your venue.
The best trivia nights don't fill seats. They give people a reason to come together, form teams, build rivalries, and return. That's what transforms a quiet Tuesday into a revenue floor - and a revenue floor into a loyal local institution.
This guide covers both the practical and the strategic: how to get the technology running, how to use trivia as a tool for filling quiet nights, and how to build the kind of player community that keeps showing up.
The short answer: Big Screen Trivia runs on your existing screens via PowerPoint, needs no technical setup beyond an HDMI cable, and is the most effective tool Australian venues have for converting a quiet midweek night into a community-driven weekly event.
Pub Trivia Australia's Big Screen Trivia packs are professionally designed PowerPoint trivia games built for Australian pubs, clubs, and venues. Each pack includes questions, picture rounds, answer reveals, and all hosting materials. You almost certainly already have the hardware.
| What you need | Details |
| Pub Trivia Australia Hosting Pack | Includes the game, player registration and answer forms, scoresheet, restaurant vouchers, and drink cards |
| Laptop with Microsoft Powerpoint | Desktop app (Microsoft 365) recommended - the browser version alters fonts and affects the visual quality |
| TV or projector | Any screen already in your venue works |
| HDMI cable | Standard, available at any hardware store |
| Wireless microphone | Standard, available at any hardware store |
| Pens for players | Buy a box, keep spares behind the bar, ask teams to return them at the end |
Most Australian venues are fully set up and running in under 15 minutes.
Choose how you want to receive your game:
Not sure which suits your venue? Browse Big Screen Trivia packs here.
Your Big Screen Trivia game runs as a PowerPoint presentation through Microsoft 365. No configuration needed - just open and present. The presentation is fully designed with high-resolution images and built-in questions, ready to go.
Three setups cover virtually every Australian venue:
Already running a multi-screen setup through Foxtel or a Nightlife music system? Use that same connection. Your trivia displays across all screens simultaneously - no extra equipment required.
Your host presses the spacebar to start each round and reveal answers. Timing is built into the presentation design. The game does the heavy lifting - no technical knowledge needed on the night.
Most venue owners run trivia once, see a decent crowd, and move on. The venues that build real communities treat trivia differently: as a scheduled weekly anchor, not a promotional afterthought.
The quiet night problem is real across Australian hospitality. Monday to Wednesday, most venues operate at 30-50% capacity while fixed costs hold steady. Trivia fixes this by giving people a specific reason to choose your venue, on a specific night, with a specific group. That predictability drives attendance. The trivia is the vehicle - the habit is the destination.
Big Screen Trivia has a structural advantage over paper-based formats for filling quieter nights: the visual experience is a social signal. When screens are lit up with high-resolution images and a live game is running, it draws attention from people already in the venue and creates visible energy that attracts walk-ins. A table with answer sheets does not do that.
Here's what the format does for a quiet night:
This is one of the most deliberate design decisions in our format - and it's what sets Big Screen Trivia apart from buzzer-based systems.
When teams write their answers on paper, something happens that no app or buzzer system can replicate: they talk to each other. They debate answers, argue over spelling, whisper theories across the table. That discussion is not a side effect of trivia - it is the product. It's the social glue that makes people feel like part of a group rather than just a customer at a venue.
Buzzer formats reward the fastest individual. Pen and paper rewards the team. The difference in community outcomes is significant: pen-and-paper trivia teams develop a shared identity, give themselves a team name they're proud of, and come back because they want to defend their standing - not just because the trivia was fun.
Key insight: The regulars who've been coming to the same trivia night for five or ten years aren't loyal to the questions. They're loyal to their team, their table, and the ritual. Pen and paper is what creates that ritual.
Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday are the strongest trivia nights across the venues we work with. Monday is a tough ask for most venues - foot traffic is too low and the week feels too fresh. Mid-week hits the sweet spot: people are ready for a social break but the weekend hasn't arrived yet. If you're starting out, Wednesday is the most consistent performer.
Key insight: The goal is not to fill the room on night one. It's to fill it consistently by night eight. Recurring trivia builds its own audience through habit and word of mouth - but only if the night is fixed and reliable.
Running trivia once is straightforward. Running it every week in a way that builds a loyal community is a different discipline - and that's where the real revenue lives.
We provide trivia games to hospitality teams across Australia - and the content is not an afterthought. Every pack is designed with care on every slide, built specifically for the big screen, created in PowerPoint for seamless venue playback, and tested on over 1,000 live players each week before it reaches a single partner venue. That's not how most trivia suppliers work. Some play a game once then sell it. Some create content in an office and distribute it without ever seeing it run in a real room. We're boots on the ground. We know what holds a crowd for two hours and what loses them after twenty minutes.
Some of the venues in our network have held the same weekly trivia night for over 15 years straight. That kind of loyalty doesn't come from a generic pack. It comes from content people genuinely look forward to, delivered by a team that keeps showing up. The venues that last share a handful of non-negotiable practices.
Fix the night and the time. This sounds obvious but it's the most common failure point. If your trivia night moves around, you lose the habit loop. People need to be able to tell their friends "we do trivia every Wednesday at 7pm" without having to check. Pick a night, lock it in, and treat it like a standing commitment.
Fresh content every week. This is where venues that try to DIY their trivia consistently fall short. Regulars notice repeated questions faster than you'd expect. A weekly subscription to Pub Trivia Australia's ready-made packs solves this entirely - a new, fully designed game arrives before every event, so you're never scrambling for content or accidentally recycling questions.
Market it consistently. Don't overthink it. You don't need a big promotional push every week. Once your crowd builds, the heavy lifting is done. What matters is showing up in the same places, every week, without fail. The two non-negotiables: a weekly post on your social channels confirming trivia is on tonight, and your trivia night listed in the events section of your venue's website. That's your baseline. Use the digital posters and social graphics included in your subscription pack when you want to push harder - for a new season, a themed night, or when numbers dip - but don't set and forget. Consistent, low-effort visibility keeps the habit loop alive for regulars and signals to new customers that this is a real, recurring event.
Keep the format consistent. Six rounds, same structure, same approximate runtime. Regulars form teams based on knowing the format. Changing it breaks their confidence in the experience.
The realistic trajectory for a new weekly trivia night looks like this:
The venues in our network that have run trivia for a decade did not start with a packed room. They started with a reliable format and kept showing up.
Running recurring trivia is significantly easier with a subscription than with one-off packs. Here's what you get each week with a
Big Screen Trivia has a structural advantage over paper-based formats for filling quieter nights: the visual experience is a social signal. When screens are lit up with high-resolution images and a live game is running, it draws attention from people already in the venue and creates visible energy that attracts walk-ins. A table with answer sheets does not do that.
Here's what the format does for a quiet night:
Dwell time increases significantly. A trivia night runs approximately 120 minutes. Every team that sits down for trivia is at your venue for two hours minimum, ordering drinks across multiple rounds.
Groups come in together. Trivia is a team activity. Where a couple might come in for one drink, a trivia team of four to six people arrives together and stays together.
It creates a reason to visit, not just a reason to stay. The distinction matters. You're not just retaining customers who were already there - you're giving people a destination reason to choose your venue on a night they would otherwise stay home.
This is one of the most deliberate design decisions in our format - and it's what sets Big Screen Trivia apart from buzzer-based systems.
When teams write their answers on paper, something happens that no app or buzzer system can replicate: they talk to each other. They debate answers, argue over spelling, whisper theories across the table. That discussion is not a side effect of trivia - it is the product. It's the social glue that makes people feel like part of a group rather than just a customer at a venue.
Buzzer formats reward the fastest individual. Pen and paper rewards the team. The difference in community outcomes is significant: pen-and-paper trivia teams develop a shared identity, give themselves a team name they're proud of, and come back because they want to defend their standing - not just because the trivia was fun.
Key insight: The regulars who've been coming to the same trivia night for five or ten years aren't loyal to the questions. They're loyal to their team, their table, and the ritual. Pen and paper is what creates that ritual.
Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday are the strongest trivia nights across the venues we work with. Monday is a tough ask for most venues - foot traffic is too low and the week feels too fresh. Mid-week hits the sweet spot: people are ready for a social break but the weekend hasn't arrived yet. If you're starting out, Wednesday is the most consistent performer.
Key insight: The goal is not to fill the room on night one. It's to fill it consistently by night eight. Recurring trivia builds its own audience through habit and word of mouth - but only if the night is fixed and reliable.
Running trivia once is straightforward. Running it every week in a way that builds a loyal community is a different discipline - and that's where the real revenue lives.
We provide trivia games to hospitality teams across Australia - and the content is not an afterthought. Every pack is designed with care on every slide, built specifically for the big screen, created in PowerPoint for seamless venue playback, and tested on over 1,000 live players each week before it reaches a single partner venue. That's not how most trivia suppliers work. Some play a game once then sell it. Some create content in an office and distribute it without ever seeing it run in a real room. We're boots on the ground. We know what holds a crowd for two hours and what loses them after twenty minutes.
Some of the venues in our network have held the same weekly trivia night for over 15 years straight. That kind of loyalty doesn't come from a generic pack. It comes from content people genuinely look forward to, delivered by a team that keeps showing up. The venues that last share a handful of non-negotiable practices.
Fix the night and the time. This sounds obvious but it's the most common failure point. If your trivia night moves around, you lose the habit loop. People need to be able to tell their friends "we do trivia every Wednesday at 7pm" without having to check. Pick a night, lock it in, and treat it like a standing commitment.
Fresh content every week. This is where venues that try to DIY their trivia consistently fall short. Regulars notice repeated questions faster than you'd expect. A weekly subscription to Pub Trivia Australia's ready-made packs solves this entirely - a new, fully designed game arrives before every event, so you're never scrambling for content or accidentally recycling questions.
Market it consistently - but don't overthink it. You don't need a big promotional push every week. Once your crowd builds, the heavy lifting is done. What matters is showing up in the same places, every week, without fail. The two non-negotiables: a weekly post on your social channels confirming trivia is on tonight, and your trivia night listed in the events section of your venue's website. That's your baseline. Use the digital posters and social graphics included in your subscription pack when you want to push harder - for a new season, a themed night, or when numbers dip - but don't set and forget. Consistent, low-effort visibility keeps the habit loop alive for regulars and signals to new customers that this is a real, recurring event.
Keep the format consistent. Six rounds, same structure, same approximate runtime. Regulars form teams based on knowing the format. Changing it breaks their confidence in the experience.
The realistic trajectory for a new weekly trivia night looks like this:
Weeks 1-3: Small crowd, mostly regulars and curious walk-ins. This is normal. Do not cancel.
Weeks 4-6: Word of mouth starts. Teams who came once bring friends. Crowd size becomes more consistent.
Weeks 8-12: Regulars begin booking tables in advance. You'll notice the same faces every week. This is the habit loop forming.
Month 3 onwards: Your trivia night has its own identity. People plan their week around it.
The venues in our network that have run trivia for a decade did not start with a packed room. They started with a reliable format and kept showing up.
Running recurring trivia is significantly easier with a subscription than with one-off packs.
Here's what you get each week with a Pub Trivia Australia weekly subscription:
A freshly written Big Screen Trivia game (PowerPoint, fully designed)
Player registration and answer forms
Scoresheet with automatic tallying
Digital event poster for social media and in-venue screens
Table talkers and coasters for the week's event
Restaurant vouchers and drink cards for prizes
Everything arrives before your trivia night. You open it, plug it in, and run the show.
Big Screen Trivia is a complete, professionally designed PowerPoint trivia game built for pub and venue use. Pub Trivia Australia's packs include questions, picture rounds, answer reveals, and all hosting materials, so venues can run a polished trivia night on their existing TV or projector without creating content themselves.
Connect a laptop to your TV or projector via HDMI, open your Pub Trivia Australia PowerPoint pack, and press play. Setup takes under 15 minutes. No special equipment or technical knowledge required.
You need Microsoft PowerPoint, part of Microsoft 365. If you already have Office on your laptop, you're ready to go. The browser version of PowerPoint can alter fonts, so the desktop app is recommended.
Yes. If you connect your laptop directly to the TV via HDMI, no wifi is needed at all. Wifi is only required if you're using a Chromecast for a wireless screen connection.
Pick a fixed night - Tuesday, Wednesday, or Thursday all work well for Australian venues - and run Big Screen Trivia at the same time every week. Avoid Monday; foot traffic rarely supports it. The format works because it gives groups a destination reason to visit, extends dwell time to around 120 minutes, and builds a habit loop that brings regulars back without prompting.
Most venues see consistent crowd growth by weeks 4 to 6, with a recognisable regular base forming by weeks 8 to 12. The venues in our network that have run trivia for 10 or more years started the same way: a fixed night, a reliable format, and good promotion and patience through the first few weeks.
Each week you receive a fully designed Big Screen Trivia game, player answer forms, an automatic scoresheet, a digital event poster, table talkers, coasters, and prize vouchers. Everything needed to run and promote the night is included. Contact us to see subscription options here.
Yes. If your venue already has multiple screens running through Foxtel or a Nightlife music system, plug your laptop into that same connection. Your trivia presentation displays across all screens simultaneously with no extra equipment.
115+ venues across Australia run Pub Trivia Australia games each week. We know what builds a loyal weekly crowd - and we know what kills one. Every venue with a packed trivia night started exactly where you are now: a screen, a pack, and a night that needs filling.
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