Pick a Category: Eight Rare-Answer Trivia Games

Rarest comes in eight category editions. Each one is the same rare-answer trivia game as the daily mix on the home page: seven "Name a…" prompts, 25 seconds each, and the less well-known your correct answer, the higher your balloon climbs. The difference is that every prompt comes from one subject, so you can play to your strengths, or practise the one where you always lose points.

SportsSportsA free sports trivia game where the rarest answer wins. Name an NBA, NFL or Premier League team, or a champion, few fans think of.ScienceScienceA free science trivia game where rare answers win. Name a chemical element, mineral, constellation, moon or dinosaur few people think of.MusicMusicA free music trivia game where the rarest answer wins. Name a Beatles, Queen or ABBA song, an opera or an instrument few people think of.Movies & TVMovies & TVA free movie trivia game where rare answers win. Name a Pixar film, Best Picture winner, sitcom or character few people think of.HistoryHistoryA free history trivia game where the rarest answer wins. Name a US president, British monarch, Roman emperor or battle few people think of.GeographyGeographyA free geography trivia game where rare answers win. Name a country, capital, river or volcano few people think of and your balloon climbs higher.Food & DrinkFood & DrinkA free food trivia game where rare answers win. Name a cheese, pasta shape, cocktail or dish few people think of to fly higher.AnimalsAnimalsA free animal trivia game where the rarest answer wins. Name a dog breed, owl, shark or snake few people know and watch your balloon climb.

How the category editions work

  • Their own daily round. Every edition deals seven prompts a day from its own 40, the same for everyone that day, with its own day streak.
  • Their own leaderboard. Each edition keeps a separate Today and This week board on this site, so a geography specialist is ranked against other geography players.
  • Unlimited when you want more. Switch to Unlimited for fresh prompts from the same category, as many rounds as you like.
  • The same scoring everywhere. Six tiers from Flicker (5 points) to Inferno (100 points), and one Thermal ×2 per round to double the prompt you know best.

Which category to start with

The categories play very differently, because their answer lists are very different sizes.

CategoryPromptsAccepted answersWhat it rewards
Geography403,917Closed lists you mostly know: countries, capitals, states. The skill is picking the one everyone else forgets.
History403,883Presidents, monarchs, emperors and popes: names you have heard of, ranked by how rarely people say them.
Sports404,710League tables and champions lists, from the NBA and NFL to Formula One and snooker.
Music407,253Album tracks over singles, plus operas, instruments, bands and genres.
Movies & TV408,025Filmographies, Oscar winners and long-running shows full of side characters.
Science408,926Elements, moons, minerals, dinosaurs and anatomy, where specialist words score high.
Animals409,055Breeds and species lists that run into the hundreds.
Food & Drink409,473The deepest lists in the game: cheeses, pasta shapes, dishes from ten national cuisines.

Small lists make every rare answer a calculated risk: you probably know most of Africa's 54 countries, so the question is which ones other players leave out. Big lists reward what you know that others don't: there are over 600 dog breeds on the list, and only a handful are common answers.

Not sure which one you know best?

Play today's mixed daily first. The flight log shows the tier of every answer, so the subjects where you reached Roar or Inferno are the editions to try next. To see what a top-tier answer looks like in every category, browse the rarest answers to all 320 prompts.