Where The Trade Buys UK Online Search Data Reveals: 1.3 Million People Have Become Pub Quiz Masters At Home In 2020

UK pub customers are now adjusting to the ‘new normal’ of booking a table in advance, ordering drinks direct to their tables through a smartphone app, a mellower ambience of low volume music, as well as the absence of entertainment - to help avoid people needing to shout, in order to minimise risk of transmission of covid-19 from tiny droplets in the air, known as aerosols.

The new pub experience is very different, and the changes really help to highlight to us, just how important pubs are to the way we build community in the UK and connect socially. One part of the pub experience that we clearly can’t function without is the pub quiz.

UK online search data shows that we’ve been missing our regular pub quizzes and whilst our local pubs haven’t been able to host them for months, the UK population has been carrying the torch on their behalf and become pub quiz masters at home. With the help of technology, namely the Zoom app, many people have gone virtual with their home pub quiz, bringing the lively activity to the living rooms of their friends and family too.

As a nation, it’s clear that we really love nothing better than unleashing our competitive side during the throes of our local pub quiz, showing off our random nuggets of knowledge, ribbing our friends about wrong quiz answers, catching up between question rounds and having a laugh with a drink in hand!

Here’s a flavour of what the UK online search data (2019/2020 comparison) has revealed:

• 2020 has been become the year of the UK home pub quiz – 1.3 million UK online searches have been made for ‘pub quiz questions’ in 2020 so far (a 932% YOY increase)
• Many of us have even made the leap into the new territory of virtual pub quizzes, to go head-to-head with others outside of our homes in 2020 – 229K people have made online searches for ‘virtual pub quiz’ so far this year (a whopping 381767% YOY increase)
• The zoom app has helped make our virtual pub quizzes possible, connecting to the homes of friends and family far and wide – 3.6 million online searches have made to seek out the ‘zoom app’
• The music category is the UK’s favourite round of the home pub quiz in 2020 – with ‘music quiz questions’ receiving 840K online searches, more than any other quiz question category
• Whilst most UK cities love the music round the most, Londoners been loving the geography quiz questions the most (50K online searches made for 'geography quiz questions' in 2020, more than any other quiz question category)
• The Geordies may be missing their local pub quiz the most as they have become the biggest ‘home pub quizzers’ of 2020 – with a 954% YOY increase in online searches for ‘pub quiz questions’ in Newcastle upon Tyne (the largest YOY increase out of 13 UK cities)

2020, The Year of The Home Pub Quiz
UK online searches - 2019/2020 YOY comparison (01 Jan to 30 June)
Showing all online search terms segmented by 13 UK cities (including the UK) - Newcastle, Manchester, Leeds, London, Birmingham, Nottingham, Liverpool, Belfast, Bristol, Sheffield, Glasgow, Edinburgh, Cardiff

Data published by Where The Trade Buys.

Where The Trade Buys (WTTB) is currently producing PPE for UK hospitality venues, workplaces, retail stores, education spaces, charity shops, the NHS and more. The company has also been involved in manufacturing face visors for NHS essential workers in the fight against Covid-19.