Games & Family Quiz Apps

Which one suits your group

These three solve different problems, and the deciding factor is usually how many people are in the room and whether they are all looking at the same screen.

• Family Trivia is the party game. It runs on Apple TV, so everyone plays off one big screen, and the categories are generated rather than drawn from a fixed pack - which is what stops the third game night in a row from repeating itself. Kid-safe, and there are no in-app purchases.
• GeoGuess is the competitive one. A single street-level location, one guess at which country it is. It rewards noticing road markings, signage and vegetation, and it is the better pick for two people passing a phone or Mac back and forth.
• GeoExplorer AI is the exploratory one. You are dropped anywhere on Earth and score on how close your guess lands, with on-device AI hints when you are stuck. It also runs on Vision Pro.

Big screen or in hand

Trivia works on a television because the question needs to be visible to everyone at once and answering is a group act. Geography guessing is the opposite: it is a game of squinting at details, which is why GeoGuess and GeoExplorer are built for iPhone, iPad and Mac rather than the TV.

If you are after something to practise alone rather than play as a group, the learning and languages apps are the other side of that shelf - Accent Test moved there, since it is measuring a voice rather than running a round.

Memory Palace sits between the two. It is a memory game on the TV, with a score, a streak and a recall test at the end of every walk, but what it trains is a real skill: the Method of Loci and five other techniques memory champions use. It is quieter than trivia and works as well with one person as with a family calling out answers.

Christmas Advent Calendar is the seasonal one: from the first of December the whole family opens one door a day on the big screen, and behind it waits a carol, a quiz round, a recipe or a story. If you are looking for ways to fill the days before Christmas, advent calendar ideas for families has a list to start from.

Puzzport turns your own photos into the game. It finds the trips and days out in your library and makes each one into jigsaw puzzles and questions - where was this, what came next - and on Apple TV the whole family can build one together. Choosing a size for mixed ages is covered in how many pieces to choose.

Dirt Climb is the one with an engine. A physics hill-climbing game for Apple TV: two buttons and a lean, a tank of fuel and a hill that wants to flip you. Short runs suit a few minutes on the sofa, and the 40-contract career keeps going for weeks. It plays with the Siri Remote or any game controller - see hill-climb driving tips before the first steep crest.

If you are running an actual family game night rather than filling ten minutes, hosting a family quiz night covers the practical side - rounds, scoring and keeping mixed ages interested. If the appeal is the learning rather than the competition, learning world geography as an adult and how to guess where a photo was taken cover the skills these games train.