How to Host a Live Quiz on YouTube Where Viewers Play on Their Phones
Run a live quiz on YouTube from start to finish: questions that work live, timing around stream delay, a 30-minute run of show, and viewers playing by phone or chat.
What you need
You need four things:
A channel that can go live. If you have never streamed on the channel, turn on live streaming in YouTube Studio first. YouTube can take up to 24 hours to enable it the first time.
The Live Studio on playout.video, with YouTube added as a destination. It runs in your browser, so there is no OBS to set up.
Ten to fifteen questions for a first show.
Your own phone, to scan the QR code and see what your players see.
Viewers play in two ways at once. They scan the QR code on the board and answer on a web page (no app, no account), or they type their answer in YouTube chat. Both count in the same game.
Step 1: Write questions that work live
A question on a live stream is read aloud, shown on screen and answered against a clock by people who are also watching chat. Write for that.
Keep it short. Viewers have to read the question and pick an answer inside 20 seconds. "What is the capital of Australia?" works. "Which Australian city, purpose-built as a compromise between Sydney and Melbourne, became the capital?" is too long to read in time.
Make the wrong answers plausible. Sydney, Melbourne, Canberra and Perth make a question. Canberra and three jokes make a giveaway.
Four choices is a good default. You can use 2 to 6 (keys A to F), but four are quick to read aloud and to scan on a phone.
Avoid "Which of these is NOT". Under time pressure people miss the "not".
Use free text answers sparingly. Typed answers suit one-word answers like a city or a name. Add every spelling you will accept to the accepted answers list. Longer answers lead to arguments in chat.
Start easy, finish hard. Make the first two questions ones most people get right. It teaches the mechanics and puts names on the leaderboard early.
Check facts that change. Records and rankings go out of date. Check them on the day.
Write in a spreadsheet. One question per row. You can paste straight from a spreadsheet or CSV into the quiz (up to 500 questions), and next week's quiz starts as a copy of this week's.
Step 2: Set the timing
Each question gets 20 seconds by default (anything from 5 to 300), and a single question can have its own time.
15 to 20 seconds for short multiple choice.
30 seconds or more for long choices, sums, or free text answers.
Then allow for stream delay. YouTube says most viewers of a low-latency stream are less than 10 seconds behind, and normal latency is slower. Phone players get the whole timer, because the phone shows the question the moment it opens. Chat players see it when their video does, so a viewer 10 seconds behind has 10 seconds less. If most of your audience answers in chat, add a few seconds, and push people towards the QR code.
After each question the board shows the answer for 8 seconds, then the leaderboard (top 5 on the Trivia board) for 8 seconds, then moves on by itself. So ten questions at 20 + 8 + 8 seconds take 6 minutes, before any talking. Turn off Move on by itself if you would rather talk between questions and press Next question when ready.
Scoring
A correct answer scores points, plus a speed bonus: the faster the answer, the more it is worth. Pick one of two modes:
Until the first correct answer. A player can keep trying and scores on their first correct answer.
First answer only. A player's first answer is the one that counts.
For multiple choice with an active chat, First answer only is the safer choice: it stops anyone typing A, B, C and D in a row.
Step 3: Build the quiz in the Live Studio
Open the Live Studio and add YouTube as a destination, plus Twitch, Facebook or others if you multistream.
Add the Trivia board to your scene. It shows the question, the choices, a countdown ring, the answer reveal, the leaderboard and the QR code to join, in your brand color and font.
Select the board and open its inspector. If you cannot select it on the canvas, select it from the Graphics panel.
Set Content to Quiz.
Type your questions, or paste them from your spreadsheet.
Set the time per question, the scoring mode and whether it moves on by itself.
Choose a host (see below).
Press Use this quiz.
The help article run your first live quiz has the same steps in more detail.
Step 4: Choose a host
No host. The board does the work and you talk when you want.
AI voice. A voice reads each question, calls time with the number of answers, gives the correct answer and announces the leader, in English or Spanish. Its lines also show as captions, with an "AI voice" label on the board. Every plan includes 10 minutes of AI voice a month; after that, the lines show as captions only until the minutes renew.
You, with a prompter. You read the prompts yourself. Best if you enjoy presenting.
The AI host reads the questions and calls time and results. It does not improvise or chat with viewers, so the banter is still up to you. More in AI host for live game shows.
Step 5: Go live and run it
Go live, then run the quiz from the Control panel in the studio's right rail. Press Start quiz when players have had time to join. During the game you can use Close answers to end a question early, Show leaderboard, Next question, Pause and Resume, and End quiz. When it is over, Play again starts it from the top.
Getting YouTube viewers to join
Keep the QR code on screen before you start, and say it out loud: "Scan the code to play, no app needed."
Paste the phone link. The Control panel shows the link and QR. Put the link in your description and pin it in chat. The link is per game and expires after 48 hours, so post a fresh one each show.
Explain chat answers. Viewers can type the letter of their answer (A, B, C, D) or the answer itself. They need to be signed in to YouTube to chat; phone players do not need any account.
Phone and chat players count together toward your plan's players-per-game limit. When a game is full, new phones see "This game is full". See interactive streams and player limits.
A run of show for a 30-minute quiz
Fifteen questions in three sets of five, with talk in between. At the default timings each set takes about three minutes.
Time | What happens |
|---|---|
0:00 | Welcome, tonight's theme, who won last week |
2:00 | Board on screen, explain how to play, give people two minutes to scan and join |
4:00 | Start quiz: questions 1 to 5 (easy) |
7:00 | Pause while the leaderboard is up: talk about the answers, greet the top five |
10:00 | Resume: questions 6 to 10 |
13:00 | Pause: a story, or a word with a guest |
16:00 | Resume: questions 11 to 15 (hard) |
19:00 | Final leaderboard and the winner |
21:00 | A poll on next week's theme (set up a Poll board beforehand; starting it asks to end the finished quiz, since one game runs at a time) |
25:00 | Thanks, when the next quiz is, sign off |
Pause while the leaderboard is up rather than in the middle of a question, so nobody loses time. A poll after the quiz on the same stream does not count as another interactive stream: the first game opens a window that covers every game on that stream (2 hours on Free, 24 hours on paid plans).
What to try first
Write ten questions in a spreadsheet: two easy openers, one hard closer.
Leave the timing at 20 seconds and Move on by itself on.
Use First answer only if you expect a lot of chat answers.
Scan the QR with your own phone before you go live.
Say how to join at the start, and again before question 1.
For the bigger picture, read what is an interactive live stream. Running it in a bar or for a community group? See quiz nights.
FAQ
Does YouTube have a built-in live quiz?
YouTube's live chat has polls and Q&A, which are useful for a quick question. They do not keep score, time each question or show a leaderboard on your video, which is what a quiz needs.
Do viewers need a YouTube account to play?
Not on their phone. Phone players scan the QR code, type a display name (up to 24 characters) and play, with no app and no account. To answer in chat they need to be signed in to YouTube, as for any chat message.
How many people can play in one quiz?
It depends on your plan: 10 players per game on Free, 100 on Creator, 500 on Channel and 2,000 on Business. Phone and chat players count together.
Can I run the same quiz on YouTube and Twitch at once?
Yes. The Live Studio multistreams, and chat answers count on YouTube, Twitch and Facebook. Viewers on other platforms play by phone. Everyone is on the same leaderboard.
What if a viewer's stream is 20 seconds behind?
On their phone they still get the full answer window, because the phone shows the question the moment it opens. Answers are judged by when they were given, not when they arrived. In chat they have less time, because they see the question late.
Can I reuse a quiz?
Play again restarts it in the same show. For next week, keep your questions in a spreadsheet and paste in a new set.