90s Trivia Questions and Answers: 40 Questions for a Quiz Night
These 90s trivia questions and answers cover movies, TV, music, toys, tech and news from 1990 to 1999, with the answer directly under each question. A good opener for any group: which 1997 film was the first to earn more than $1 billion worldwide? The answer is Titanic.
The questions are grouped into six rounds, so you can run them as a full quiz game or pull one category for a quick warm-up. There is a compact answer key at the end for hosts.
90s movie trivia
1. Which 1997 film became the first to earn more than $1 billion worldwide?
Answer: Titanic.
2. What 1993 movie brought dinosaurs back to life in a theme park?
Answer: Jurassic Park.
3. Which 1994 film is famous for comparing life to a box of chocolates?
Answer: Forrest Gump.
4. What was the first feature film made entirely with computer animation?
Answer: Toy Story, released in 1995.
5. In Home Alone (1990), what is Kevin’s family’s last name?
Answer: McCallister.
6. Which 1999 film asks its hero to choose between a red pill and a blue pill?
Answer: The Matrix.
7. What 1994 Disney film follows a lion cub named Simba?
Answer: The Lion King.
8. Which actor won back-to-back Best Actor Oscars for Philadelphia and Forrest Gump?
Answer: Tom Hanks.
90s TV trivia
9. What is the name of the coffee shop in Friends?
Answer: Central Perk.
10. In what year did Friends premiere?
Answer: 1994.
11. What was the name of the high school in Saved by the Bell?
Answer: Bayside High.
12. Who played a West Philadelphia teenager sent to live with relatives in The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air?
Answer: Will Smith.
13. What is Kramer’s first name in Seinfeld?
Answer: Cosmo.
14. Name all four Teletubbies.
Answer: Tinky Winky, Dipsy, Laa-Laa and Po.
15. Which Nickelodeon cartoon, launched in 1991, followed Tommy, Chuckie and their baby friends?
Answer: Rugrats.
16. Who hosted the US version of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire when it debuted in 1999?
Answer: Regis Philbin.
90s music trivia
17. Which band released the album Nevermind in 1991?
Answer: Nirvana.
18. What was the Spice Girls’ first single?
Answer: “Wannabe,” released in 1996.
19. Name the five Spice Girls by their nicknames.
Answer: Scary, Sporty, Baby, Ginger and Posh.
20. Which boy band had a 1999 hit with “I Want It That Way”?
Answer: Backstreet Boys.
21. Who sang “My Heart Will Go On” from Titanic?
Answer: Céline Dion.
22. Which Spanish duo recorded “Macarena”?
Answer: Los del Río.
90s toys and games trivia
23. Which giggling, shaking toy caused shopping frenzies during the 1996 holiday season?
Answer: Tickle Me Elmo.
24. What was the name of Bandai’s handheld digital pet?
Answer: Tamagotchi.
25. Which company made Beanie Babies?
Answer: Ty Inc.
26. Which two Pokémon games launched in North America in 1998?
Answer: Pokémon Red and Pokémon Blue.
27. Which home console did Nintendo release in 1996?
Answer: The Nintendo 64.
28. What furry talking toy did Tiger Electronics release in 1998?
Answer: Furby.
90s tech and internet trivia
29. In what year was Google founded?
Answer: 1998.
30. Which Microsoft operating system launched on August 24, 1995?
Answer: Windows 95.
31. What did “Y2K” refer to?
Answer: The year 2000, and the fear that computers storing years as two digits would fail when the date rolled over.
32. What did Amazon sell when it opened for business in 1995?
Answer: Books.
90s news, science and sports trivia
33. Which city hosted the 1996 Summer Olympics?
Answer: Atlanta.
34. How many NBA championships did the Chicago Bulls win in the 1990s?
Answer: Six.
35. What was the name of the first mammal cloned from an adult cell, born in 1996?
Answer: Dolly the sheep.
36. Which country hosted the 1994 FIFA World Cup?
Answer: The United States.
37. In what year did Nelson Mandela become president of South Africa?
Answer: 1994.
38. Which bright comet was visible to the naked eye for months in 1997?
Answer: Hale-Bopp.
39. Which space telescope was launched in 1990?
Answer: The Hubble Space Telescope.
40. Which currency was introduced across much of Europe in 1999?
Answer: The euro. It started as an electronic currency, and notes and coins followed in 2002.
How to run a 90s quiz game
Split players into teams of three to five. Mixed-age teams work well for this decade, because people who were kids in the 90s remember the toys and cartoons, and older players remember the news and music.
Read one round at a time and give teams about 30 seconds per question. Award one point per correct answer. For the Spice Girls and Teletubbies questions, you can give a point for each name.
Keep a tiebreaker ready. Ask teams to write down the year the Mall of America opened, and the closest guess wins. The answer is 1992.
If you’re running this as an end-of-year class activity, our last day of school quotes work well on the slides between rounds. For a decades-themed party, our 50s quotes post covers an earlier era.
90s quiz game answers at a glance
Movies: 1. Titanic. 2. Jurassic Park. 3. Forrest Gump. 4. Toy Story. 5. McCallister. 6. The Matrix. 7. The Lion King. 8. Tom Hanks.
TV: 9. Central Perk. 10. 1994. 11. Bayside High. 12. Will Smith. 13. Cosmo. 14. Tinky Winky, Dipsy, Laa-Laa, Po. 15. Rugrats. 16. Regis Philbin.
Music: 17. Nirvana. 18. “Wannabe.” 19. Scary, Sporty, Baby, Ginger, Posh. 20. Backstreet Boys. 21. Céline Dion. 22. Los del Río.
Toys and games: 23. Tickle Me Elmo. 24. Tamagotchi. 25. Ty Inc. 26. Pokémon Red and Blue. 27. Nintendo 64. 28. Furby.
Tech: 29. 1998. 30. Windows 95. 31. The year 2000. 32. Books.
News, science and sports: 33. Atlanta. 34. Six. 35. Dolly the sheep. 36. The United States. 37. 1994. 38. Hale-Bopp. 39. Hubble. 40. The euro.
FAQ
How many questions should a 90s trivia night have?
Around 30 to 40 questions fills an hour, including scoring. Four to six rounds of six to eight questions keeps the pace steady.
Are these questions good for kids?
Most are. The toys, cartoons and Disney questions suit younger players, while the news and music rounds suit teens and adults.
What counts as a 90s question?
Anything released or that happened from 1990 through 1999. Friends and Pokémon ran well past the decade, but both started in the 90s.