Quiz of the year 2026: 40 questions on the year's biggest stories

Hello quizmanics. It's that time again, when quiz hosts everywhere start panicking about what to put in the big end-of-year quiz. We've done the legwork for you.

Below are 40 questions covering 2026, split into five rounds so you can lift one straight into an existing quiz or run the lot as a proper quiz of the year. Every answer has been checked against a source, and there's a link under each one so you can show your working when someone at table four insists you've got it wrong.

It's been a strange year. A sitting president was captured by foreign troops, Britain changed prime minister without an election, the first trillionaire arrived, and a goldfish learned to drive. Good luck explaining any of that to someone who spent 2026 off-grid.

How to use these questions

Most teams will know maybe half of these straight away, which is roughly where you want to be. A few suggestions before you print:

Don't run all 40 in a row. Five rounds of eight to ten is a lot of current events in one sitting. Scatter them between your usual rounds, or pick two rounds and bin the rest.

Read the rounds in order, but shuffle within them. We've put the easier questions near the top of each round. If your crowd is sharp, flip it.

Keep the explanations. The short note under each answer is often the bit people remember, and it gives you something to say while you're waiting for the groans to die down.

If you want to turn this into a proper quiz with a scoreboard and the answers on a big screen, you can build it in a few minutes with our free quiz creator.

Round 1: News and politics

1In January, US forces captured the sitting president of which South American country?

Answer:Venezuela(click to reveal)

Nicolás Maduro had been in power for roughly 12 years when a US military operation seized him on January 3rd and flew him to New York. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio later claimed his personal guard was largely staffed by Cuban nationals.

2Keir Starmer resigned as UK prime minister in June. Who took over the job in July?

Answer:Andy Burnham(click to reveal)

The then mayor of Greater Manchester won the Makerfield by-election on June 18th, got nominations from 379 of Labour's 403 MPs, and walked into Number 10 on July 20th as Britain's seventh leader in a decade.

3Which North African country appointed its first female prime minister in September?

Answer:Morocco(click to reveal)

King Mohammed VI named Fatima Ezzahra El Mansouri on September 29th after her party topped the parliamentary election. She's a lawyer and the former mayor of Marrakesh, and she called the appointment "truly historic".

4Donald Trump's push to take over which island territory prompted NATO allies to send troops there in January?

Answer:Greenland(click to reveal)

Seven NATO countries deployed forces to the Danish territory in an exercise called Operation Arctic Endurance. A rally in the capital, Nuuk, drew close to a quarter of the city's population.

5Which country mediated the ceasefire talks that paused the war between the US and Iran?

Answer:Pakistan(click to reveal)

The Islamabad Talks in April saw a 300-strong American delegation led by Vice President JD Vance sit down opposite a 70-strong Iranian team. The deal held, broke, got patched up in June and frayed again, which is more or less where things stand.

6Viktor Orbán lost power in April after 16 years in office. Which country had he been running?

Answer:Hungary(click to reveal)

Péter Magyar's Tisza party took 141 of 199 seats on a turnout of about 79%, enough for a two-thirds majority. Orbán conceded on election night.

7Zohran Mamdani became New York City's first Muslim mayor on New Year's Day, and its youngest in over a century. On which continent was he born?

Answer:Africa(click to reveal)

He was born in Kampala, Uganda to an academic father and the filmmaker Mira Nair. Bernie Sanders swore him in at the old City Hall subway station.

8Which country elected a former rapper as prime minister in March, months after youth-led protests toppled its government?

Answer:Nepal(click to reveal)

Balendra Shah, known as Balen Shah, beat 74-year-old former PM K.P. Sharma Oli in a landslide at the age of 35. His conscious rap about corruption had become the soundtrack to the protests that brought the old government down.

Round 2: Sport

1Which country won the 2026 FIFA World Cup?

Answer:Spain(click to reveal)

They beat Argentina 1-0 after extra time at MetLife Stadium on July 19th. Ferran Torres scored in the 106th minute, by which point Argentina were down to ten men after Enzo Fernández picked up a second yellow in stoppage time. Emiliano Martínez made 11 saves, reportedly the most by any keeper in a final.

2Which NFL team won Super Bowl LX in February?

Answer:The Seattle Seahawks(click to reveal)

They beat the New England Patriots 29-13 in Santa Clara. Running back Kenneth Walker III rushed for 135 yards and took MVP, the first running back to win it since Terrell Davis in 1998.

3Which Scottish city hosted the Commonwealth Games over the summer?

Answer:Glasgow(click to reveal)

The Games ran from July 23rd to August 2nd across a slimmed-down programme of ten sports. Australia topped the medal table with 70 golds, England came second, and the host nation finished fifth.

4Which NBA team won its first championship since 1973?

Answer:The New York Knicks(click to reveal)

They beat the San Antonio Spurs 4-1, ending a 53-year wait. Jalen Brunson took Finals MVP after a 45-point game five on the road, tying a record held by Michael Jordan.

5Which British middle-distance runner broke a 27-year-old world record for the mile in London in July?

Answer:Josh Kerr(click to reveal)

He ran 3:42.66 at the London Diamond League on July 18th, taking almost half a second off Hicham El Guerrouj's 1999 mark. He'd announced the attempt publicly in March and called it "Project 222", after the number of seconds he needed.

6Who finished as the World Cup's top scorer, picking up a second Golden Boot and becoming the tournament's all-time leading scorer?

Answer:Kylian Mbappé(click to reveal)

His 10 goals put him two clear of Lionel Messi and took his career World Cup tally to 22, one ahead of Messi and six clear of Miroslav Klose.

7Tadej Pogačar won his fifth Tour de France in July. Which country does he ride for?

Answer:Slovenia(click to reveal)

The win drew him level with Eddy Merckx, Bernard Hinault, Miguel Indurain and Jacques Anquetil on five titles. The final stage into Paris was shortened because police had been pulled away to help with wildfires in the southwest.

8Which country topped the medal table at the Winter Olympics in Italy?

Answer:Norway(click to reveal)

They were well clear of the field throughout, with host nation Italy in second and the USA third.

9Lucas Pinheiro Braathen won giant slalom gold in February, claiming the first ever Winter Olympics medal for which country?

Answer:Brazil(click to reveal)

Born to a Norwegian father and a Brazilian mother, he switched allegiance from Norway in 2024 and beat the favourite Marco Odermatt by 58 hundredths of a second. No South American had ever won a medal at a Winter Games before.

10Which cross-country skier became the most decorated Winter Olympian of all time, winning a ninth gold medal?

Answer:Johannes Høsflot Klæbo(click to reveal)

The 29-year-old passed three of his countrymen who had shared the previous record of eight: Bjørn Dæhlie, Marit Bjørgen and Ole Einar Bjørndalen.

Round 3: Entertainment and culture

1Which film won Best Picture at the 98th Academy Awards?

Answer:One Battle After Another(click to reveal)

Paul Thomas Anderson's film took six Oscars on March 15th, including Best Director. After 14 nominations and 30 years without a win, Anderson ended his speech with: "What a night, you guys. Let's have a martini."

2Which British miniseries won all four Golden Globes it was nominated for in January?

Answer:Adolescence(click to reveal)

The series went four for four, making it the biggest television winner of the night. Nikki Glaser hosted for the second year running.

3Dara won Eurovision in Vienna with "Bangaranga", a first ever win for which country?

Answer:Bulgaria(click to reveal)

The song topped both the jury vote and the televote on May 16th, finishing on 516 points. Bulgaria hosts the contest in 2027.

4Bad Bunny's "Debí Tirar Más Fotos" won Album of the Year at the Grammys. It was the first album in which language to take the award?

Answer:Spanish(click to reveal)

The title translates as "I Should Have Taken More Photos". He capped a remarkable week by headlining the Super Bowl halftime show six days later, opening with "Tití Me Preguntó".

5Which British singer won four BRIT Awards, including Artist of the Year, at the first ceremony ever held outside London?

Answer:Olivia Dean(click to reveal)

Her album "The Art Of Loving" dominated the night at Manchester's Co-op Live in February, taking Album of the Year, Song of the Year and Best Pop Act alongside the big one.

6Jessie Buckley won Best Actress for her role in "Hamnet", becoming the first woman from which country to win the category?

Answer:Ireland(click to reveal)

She plays Shakespeare's wife in Chloé Zhao's adaptation, and had already swept the BAFTAs, Golden Globes and Critics Choice on the way to the Oscar.

7Which superhero sequel finished as the highest-grossing film of 2026?

Answer:Spider-Man: Brand New Day(click to reveal)

It passed the $1 billion mark in a week and has since gone well beyond $2 billion worldwide, leaving "The Odyssey" a distant second.

8HBO's Game of Thrones prequel, based on George R.R. Martin's "Tales of Dunk and Egg" novellas, premiered in January. What's it called?

Answer:A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms(click to reveal)

It stars Peter Claffey as the hedge knight Ser Duncan the Tall, with Dexter Sol Ansell as his squire, a young Aegon Targaryen. A second season was ordered almost immediately.

Round 4: Science, space and technology

1In April, four astronauts flew around which celestial body for the first time since 1972?

Answer:The Moon(click to reveal)

NASA's Artemis II launched on April 1st with Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch and Canada's Jeremy Hansen on board. They came closest on April 6th, set a new record for the furthest humans have travelled from Earth, and splashed down off San Diego on April 10th.

2Which company's stock market debut in June made Elon Musk the world's first trillionaire?

Answer:SpaceX(click to reveal)

The IPO priced at $135 a share and closed its first day up 19%, valuing the company at well over $1.7 trillion. Musk holds roughly 42% of it, though he can't sell for a year, so the trillion is very much on paper.

3The world's timekeepers voted in October to abolish which occasional one-second adjustment to our clocks?

Answer:The leap second(click to reveal)

Meeting in Versailles on October 15th, the General Conference on Weights and Measures agreed to let clocks drift by up to an hour rather than correcting a second at a time. The change kicks in on May 20th 2027, and the first "leap hour" is centuries away.

4A total solar eclipse on August 12th crossed northern Spain and which north Atlantic island country?

Answer:Iceland(click to reveal)

It was Iceland's first total eclipse since 1954 and Spain's first since 1905. Totality lasted barely a minute over Reykjavik, and reached Spain close to sunset.

5Which toy company gave its first ever keynote at the CES tech show in January, unveiling a "smart brick"?

Answer:LEGO(click to reveal)

The brick is a standard size but full of electronics, using NFC to trigger lights and sounds in a set.

6The World Health Organization declared a global health emergency in May over an outbreak of which virus in DR Congo and Uganda?

Answer:Ebola(click to reveal)

The outbreak involved the Bundibugyo strain, and the WHO declared it a Public Health Emergency of International Concern on May 16th.

7NASA launched a new space telescope on August 30th, named after the astronomer known as the "Mother of Hubble". What was her surname?

Answer:Roman(click to reveal)

The Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope went up on a Falcon Heavy from Kennedy Space Center, eight months ahead of its original schedule. Roman was NASA's first chief astronomer. Science operations start in 2027.

Round 5: The weird and wonderful

1Which Winter Olympic sport involves sliding head-first down an ice track on a sled that looks a bit like a baking tray?

Answer:Skeleton(click to reveal)

Unlike luge, where competitors go feet-first on their backs, skeleton athletes lie face-down and steer with tiny shifts of their bodies. The name comes from the stripped-back, bony look of the early sleds.

2Alex Honnold free-soloed which skyscraper in January, making it the tallest urban structure ever climbed without ropes?

Answer:Taipei 101(click to reveal)

He got up the 508-metre tower in about 90 minutes, beating Alain Robert's 2009 climb of the Petronas Towers. Netflix broadcast it live on a 10-second delay, presumably for everyone's sake.

3Which Hollywood landmark was draped in bras in an unauthorised stunt to launch a lingerie brand?

Answer:The Hollywood Sign(click to reveal)

Sydney Sweeney and friends hung them from the letters to promote her label in January. The Hollywood Chamber of Commerce confirmed nobody had asked permission.

4A Dutch engineer built a motion-sensing car for his pet Blub and set a Guinness World Record with it. What sort of animal is Blub?

Answer:A goldfish(click to reveal)

The car carries a water tank with a camera watching which way Blub swims, and moves accordingly. Blub covered 12.28 metres in a minute on Italian television. The engineer reckons the tech could help people with disabilities, which is a nicer ending than the premise suggests.

5Merlin, who "talks" by pressing buttons with his nose, set a Guinness record in March for the largest Instagram following by what kind of animal?

Answer:A pig(click to reveal)

The potbellied pig has 1.1 million followers and a purple button that announces "I'm mad" when he's refused a treat. His owner describes him as a toddler: adorable and completely immovable.

6Police in Virginia found a raccoon that had broken into a liquor store. What state was it in when they caught up with it?

Answer:Passed out on the bathroom floor(click to reveal)

It had sampled the stock, knocked bottles off the shelves on what reporters called a "drunken rampage", then retreated to sleep it off. It survived and was released back into the wild.

7Fans at the Hershey Bears' annual Teddy Bear Toss throw soft toys onto the ice for charity. Roughly how many were collected in January 2026: 8,000, 81,000 or 810,000?

Answer:81,000 (81,796, to be exact)(click to reveal)

The 25th annual toss benefited more than 60 local charities. Louie Belpedio scored the goal that started the avalanche. The all-time record is still the previous year's 102,343.

Two tiebreakers

Closest wins, no conferring.

Tiebreaker 1: How many people attended matches at the 2026 World Cup across the whole tournament?

Answer:6,810,966 (source). Nearly double the previous record of 3,587,538, set when the United States hosted in 1994.(click to reveal)

Tiebreaker 2: In January, the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists moved the Doomsday Clock closer to midnight than ever before. How many seconds to midnight is it now?

Answer:85 seconds (source). It moved from 89, with nuclear tension, climate change and AI risk all cited.(click to reveal)

Building your quiz of the year

A few things worth knowing before you host this one.

Current events rounds age fast. That's the whole appeal, but it also means a quiz of the year is a one-night-only thing. If you're running weekly quizzes, lean on evergreen rounds for most of the night and save the topical stuff for a single round. Our general knowledge quiz questions and quiz round ideas cover the rest of the night.

Pictures help with news. Faces from the year work brilliantly as a picture round, and the ones above give you plenty to choose from: a new prime minister, a World Cup winner, an Oscar night. There's more on putting one together in our guide to picture round ideas.

Expect arguments about the Iran questions. Anything involving an ongoing conflict was moving while we wrote this, so keep the source links handy and be willing to accept a reasonable answer. It's a pub quiz, not a tribunal.

Say the answer twice. Obvious, but on a noisy December night with 20 teams in, it saves you ten minutes of marking disputes.

Once you've picked your questions, you can set the whole thing up in quizquiz.co and run it from your phone, with the questions on the big screen and scores updating as you go. Start with the free quiz creator, or read how to run a great pub quiz if this is your first time hosting.

Happy quizzing, and good luck in 2027.