The landlord's blog Quiz nights
Phone quizzes in pubs: what works and what flops (our first week at Teal Farm)
Real numbers from the first days of an all-day phone quiz at Teal Farm in Washington: what people did, where they dropped off, and what we'd tell any landlord thinking of trying one.
On Tuesday 20 October 2026 we switched on an all-day phone quiz at Teal Farm in Washington. Every 20 minutes from noon, five questions go up on the TVs. Customers scan a QR code and answer on their own phones. No app.
This post is the honest version of how the first days went. The numbers are small. They're one pub, over a few days. But they're real, and they're more useful than a brochure.
The numbers
Over the first three days:
- About 50 scans of the QR code on our table talkers
- 40 people joined
- 33 people played
- 25 people joined the pub's email list
From launch to 22 October, players gave 668 answers over 70 rounds.
Let's do the sums. 668 answers over 70 rounds is under 10 answers a round. With five questions a round, that's about two players a round on average. That's not a crowd, and we won't pretend it is. Some rounds will have had more, some none. But it's people playing on a normal weekday, without anyone on the staff running it.
What worked
The QR on the tables
We counted about 50 scans of the QR on our table talkers in three days. That tells us something simple. People don't go looking for a quiz. It has to be in front of them, on the table, where their phone already is.
If you only take one thing from this post, it's that. A QR code on a TV across the room is easy to ignore. A card on the table with "play the quiz, win a bar tab" isn't.
No app
Of the 40 people who joined, 33 played. We think a big part of that is that there's nothing to download. Scan, type a nickname, play. Every extra step on a phone is a chance for someone to put it back in their pocket.
Short rounds
Five questions takes a couple of minutes. You can play a round between ordering and your food arriving. That matters on a weekday, when lots of people are in for an hour, not a night.
A reason to be in the pub
Anyone can play from anywhere, but there's a code on the pub TV that gives a 25% bonus. It's a small nudge that says "this is better in here".
The email list
25 of the 40 people who joined gave their email to join our list. The offers box is separate and starts unticked, so nobody is tricked into anything. We think people are happy to join a list when there's something in it for them, like a weekly bar tab.
What flopped, or what we're watching
Drop-off at the start
About 50 scans turned into 40 joins. So roughly one in five people scanned and didn't join. Some will have been curious and nothing more. Some will have scanned between rounds, seen a countdown and wandered off. We don't know yet. We'll keep watching it.
Seven people joined and didn't play
We think the same thing is going on. If you join with 15 minutes to wait, your pint might be gone before the round starts. We don't know for sure yet.
Quiet rounds are normal
An all-day quiz doesn't fill every round by itself. Two players on average is honest for a first week. A daily golden round at 8pm with double points is there to bunch people together at one time. It's too early to say how well that works.
Don't fight the big match
The quiz pauses for big matches and for our Tuesday live quiz. Nobody wants a quiz popping up in the middle of a penalty. A phone quiz should fit around the pub, not the other way round.
What about cheating?
It's the first worry every landlord has with phones at a quiz. It's not new. In November 2025 Startups reported a team being barred from a pub quiz in Greater Manchester, accused of whispering answers through smartwatches.
With a phone quiz, everyone has a phone in their hand anyway. Short answer times make searching harder, and keeping prizes modest takes the heat out of it. For a big-money quiz night, you'd still want a host keeping an eye on things.
What we'd tell any landlord
- Put the QR code on every table, not just on the TV.
- Keep it free to play and quick to join.
- Keep rounds short.
- Give people a reason to play in the pub, not at home.
- Ask for emails with a separate, unticked box.
- Expect small numbers at first, and count everything so you can see if it grows.
Sources
- Teal Farm's own figures from our system, 20 to 22 October 2026
- Startups: Is the pub quiz dead? (18 November 2025)
We checked every source on 23 October 2026. Rules change, so check the latest version before you act. Nothing here is legal advice.