ESPN Trivia Night review: "Definitely for die-hard sports fans"

Sports fans rejoice, there's a new way to prove your sports knowledge superiority at the next family gathering, and it's ESPN Trivia Night. 

You won't just be proving you know everything about the NHL Stanley Cup winners or just how many teams LeBron James has played for, though - you'll be showing off a very special kind of athletic prowess: dexterity. That's right, ESPN Trivia Night isn't your average board game where you ask and answer questions in order to eventually best the other players. 

 *Hums the SportsCenter intro* 

There's a unique dexterity component in ESPN Trivia Night that tasks you with "flicking" to redeem yourself in challenges like scoring a hockey goal or "kicking" a field goal. It even comes with a little felt pad and plastic piece to help you get your flicks down pat. If you were a fan of desk football in grade school, you're going to love Trivia Night - it's one of those board games for adults that makes sure you aren't bored waiting for your next go. 

The dexterity component does add a healthy dose of chaos to this game, however, which can be a pro or a con depending upon what you're looking for. If you want a good laugh and a sure-fire hit for parties, it could be one of the best board games. But if you wanted something more chill, look elsewhere.

ESPN Trivia Night pits two teams against each other in a race to score four points in each of the five sports represented on the Team Score Tracker cards. You'll need to be a well-rounded sports fan in order to win this game, as ignoring one category means you'll never get that elusive dub.

You'll pull trivia questions based on the categories and difficulty levels on the cards in the opposing team's Draft Cards deck, which is drawn at the start of the game. You can work together as a group to answer questions (hello, best cooperative board games) so even if there are some confused 10-year-olds playing, you can still get answers right by pooling your mental resources. If a team answers a question correctly, they score points in that sport by moving a clip on their Team Score Tracker.

Getting an answer wrong, however, is when the dexterity challenges come into play. If you answer a question incorrectly, you'll have to place a Replay token on the category in question on the Instant Replay board. The Instant Replay is a chance to complete a dexterity challenge to gain a point in one of the rounds you drafted earlier - so if your brain fails, your fingers may save you. The Instant Replay Challenges are Baseball Strikeout, Basketball Jump Shot, Ice Hockey Slapshot and Football Field Goal, and they all require you to snap the respective ball or puck into a designated area. Yes, it's as fun as it sounds.

The family that plays together...

I played ESPN Trivia Night with my family in a rare in-person meeting after we all were lucky enough to get vaccinated, and it was the perfect game for us.

My father is a bottomless pit of sports knowledge and he's instilled those values into me and my sister, and my mother will randomly dredge up a bit of information that surprises us all. From the moment we started playing, it was clear that ESPN Trivia Night would be full of heated moments, as all four of us screamed answers and disagreed over the legality of each other's flicks. The playful chaos that took place for the hour we played was every bit as fun as you can imagine.

ESPN Trivia Night can be a bit complicated at first, especially for a group of jocks who don't play board games that often. But if you take your time and read the rules carefully, you'll be moving your tracker clips along your scorecard in no time, and holding the title of most knowledgeable sports fan over the heads of your friends and family (making it a contender for top board games for families if you can play nice). Plus, with a litany of cards that contain multiple questions each, you can easily play ESPN Trivia Night again and again without getting bored.

If you're after topping up your sports knowledge, then you'll want to take a look at our guides on the surprisingly cheap ESPN Plus costs and if you want an even larger selection, we'd advise checking out the Fubo TV costs and packages.