10 Fun Facts You Never Knew About Trivial Pursuit

Find out more about the board game called “the biggest phenomenon in game history”

1Thegame was created on December 15, 1979, by Chris Haney and Scott Abbott, two Canadian newspaper editors. Haney and Abbott were friends and came up with the idea when playing Scrabble and drinking beer. They wanted to make their own game, and soon Trivial Pursuit was born. However, it was not until 1981 that the board game was commercially released.

2Thedesign of the game board is based on a ship’s wheel – six separate spokes leading to the centre or winner’s circle.

3Theartwork for the game was created by 18-year-old Michael Würstlin. He was unemployed at the time and took the job because his unemployment insurance had run out. He chose to invest in five shares of stock and earned enough money to start The Würstlin Group, a successful marketing company based in Toronto.

4Haneyand Abbott realised they needed $75,000 to create a prototype game board and game pieces, and print the cards. They searched for investors and many people turned them down. But, in the end they got

34 people to invest. Four years later, those investors were each getting five-digit dividend cheques.

5TrivialPursuit hit the public in 1981. One game cost around $58 to make and it was sold for only $12. It didn’t start to make a profit until it was licensed to Selchow and Righter in 1983.

6By 2014, more than 100 million copies of the game had been sold in 26 countries in at least 17 different languages.

7An abundance of special editions of Trivial Pursuit have been released since the original edition, often appealing to specific interests, including a Disney edition for families. Some of the well-known ones include:

Star Wars Classic Trilogy Collector’s Edition

Lord of the Rings Movie Trilogy Edition

The Rolling Stones Edition

Power Rangers 20th Anniversary Edition

Baby Boomer Edition

Trivial Pursuit Mini Pack: Hollywood Flicks

Trivial Pursuit: Country Music.

8Theoriginal game had 6000 questions printed on 1000 cards.

9Haneyand Abbott were taken to court by Fred Worth in 1984 over the fact that they had copied Worth’s published trivia books. The judge dismissed the case, ruling that trivia wasn’t able to be copyrighted.

10Itis estimated Trivial Pursuit has made over US$2 billion.

Two friends came up with the idea when playing Scrabble and drinking beer