Game mode
Last one standing wins
Knockout Mode turns a quiz into an elimination round. Everyone starts with the same lives, every wrong answer costs one, and you're out when they run out. The pressure is the point.
Free on every plan. No sign-up for the host, no accounts for players — they join from any phone with an 8-digit code.
What changes
A quiz that can end early
Lives, not points
Every player starts with the same number of lives. A wrong answer costs one; so does running out of time. At zero you're knocked out and you watch the rest from the sidelines. The host sets the lives anywhere from 1 to 10 — the default is about one life per four questions, so a long quiz doesn't empty the room by question five.
Surviving beats scoring
The podium ranks by how far you got, not by how many points you banked: survived first, then questions survived, then correct answers, and fastest total time as the tiebreak. Someone who scraped through on their last life finishes above someone who was faster and sharper and went out at question nine.
Everyone can see the wall coming
The host gets a live standings rail — who's still in, how many lives each has, who went out and on which question. Players see their own hearts, and the screen changes when you're down to your last one. Nobody is knocked out by surprise.
A wrong answer key doesn't end someone's night
If a question's answer key turns out to be wrong, the host fixes it on the reveal screen and every life and score in the room re-derives from the corrected key on the spot — including handing a life back to a player the bad key knocked out. It works in both directions, so a correction is always the truth rather than a one-way favour.
How to run one
Four steps, nothing to install
Load a quiz with enough questions
Pick a public template, import your own file, or generate one with AI. Knockout needs at least 7 questions — below that there isn't room for anyone to lose a life and recover, so the mode stays switched off.
Switch the lobby to Knockout
In the host lobby, choose Knockout instead of the regular game. A lives control appears next to it — take the default or set your own.
Wait for the room to fill, then start
Players join with the 8-digit code or by scanning the QR. Knockout plays best with 5 or more; with fewer, Quizzy asks whether you want to start anyway or switch back. The player list locks the moment you start, so anyone arriving late watches instead of joining mid-run.
Play until the room thins out
Run the questions as normal. If everyone is knocked out with questions still to go, Quizzy offers to end there and show the results rather than making the room sit through a quiz it has already lost.
Running a good one
What makes a knockout land
- Front-load the easy questions. A knockout that eliminates half the room on question one is over before the tension builds.
- Match lives to length. The default (about one per four questions, floor of 2, ceiling of 10) is tuned so a typical player survives most of the way; drop it for a deliberately brutal round.
- Use a timer with real pressure. Timing out costs a life exactly like a wrong answer, which is what makes a countdown feel like a countdown.
- Knockout and a manual timer don't mix — the mode needs a finite clock on every question, so the lobby only offers timed options once it's on.
- Getting knocked out isn't getting kicked out. Eliminated players keep watching every question and every reveal, so the room stays together.
- Play it as a second round. A regular scored quiz followed by a short knockout gives an evening two different shapes of ending.
If something looks off
Common snags
FAQ
Common questions
Give the room something to lose.
Knockout is free on every plan. Load a quiz, flip the mode, and share the code — nobody signs up for anything.