The World Quizzing Championships is an individual quiz contest organised by the International Quizzing Association (the umbrella organisation of various quizzing activities from more than 25 countries around the world). The competition has been staged annually since 2003 (since 2004 in more than one country simultaneously) with an increasing number of contestants from an increasing number of nations. Since 2006, the competition has been staged on the first Saturday of every June.
Contestants answer questions from eight broad categories and can earn up to 30 points in each, for a potential score of 240. Prior to 2022, they were allowed to drop their lowest-scoring category, leaving a maximum of 210. Under these rules, Pat Gibson and Jesse Honey jointly hold the high score record with 186 points, achieving that mark in 2011 and 2012 respectively. Since the rules were changed to count all eight categories, Victoria Groce holds the record with 191 points, achieved in 2026.
Format The World Quizzing Championships are in the form of a written test taken by individuals that is administered at various locations around the world. All contestants receive the same questions, typically translated into their first language, at approximately the same time. The test consists of 240 questions, with 30 in each of eight broad genres, and is distributed as two packs of four papers each. Contestants have 60 minutes to complete each pack.
Once time expires, the papers are marked and contestants score one point for each correct answer. From 2003 to 2021, each contestant's lowest-scoring genre was dropped and their scores from the other seven were added to determine the final standings. Starting with the 2022 competition, all eight genres are included.
The genres and general content areas are a combination of academic and popular culture topics including:
Genre Subjects Culture Architecture, Fine art, Museums, Mythology, Philosophy, Religion, World cultures Entertainment Ballet, Classical music, Film Music, Jazz & World Music, Opera, Pop music, Radio, Television History Civilizations, Current Affairs, Exploration, Famous People, History Lifestyle Costume, Design, Fashion, Food & Drink, Handicrafts, Health & Fitness, Human Body, New Age beliefs, Products & Brands, Tourism Media Comic strips, Comic books, Graphic novels, Film, Language, Literature Sciences Exact sciences (Chemistry, Physics, etc.), Fauna, Flora, Social sciences Sport & Games Games, Sports, Hobbies & Pastimes, Records & achievements (in context of genre) World Cities, Human Geography, Physical Geography, Inventions, Space, Technology, Transport
Some questions may appear to fit within more than one genre.
List of WQC winners
By number of wins The table below shows the medalists from each year, along with the years that a player won the championship. Name Total Years won Kevin Ashman 6 4 2 12 2004, 2005, 2006, 2009, 2016, 2017 Pat Gibson 4 5 4 13 2007, 2010, 2011, 2013 Olav Bjortomt 4 1 0 5 2003, 2015, 2018, 2019 Ronny Swiggers 2 2 3 7 2021, 2023 Victoria Groce 2 2 1 5 2024, 2026 Didier Bruyere 1 2 0 3 2022 Daoud Jackson 1 1 0 22025 Mark Bytheway 1 0 2 3 2008 Jesse Honey 1 0 0 1 2012 Vikram Joshi 1 0 0 1 2014 Ravikant Avva 1 0 0 1 2020 Steve Perry 0 3 1 4 rowspan="10" Tero Kalliolevo 0 1 4 5 Tom Trogh 0 1 1 2 Troy Meyer 0 1 0 1 Lander Frederickx 0 1 0 1 Nico Pattyn 0 0 2 2 Alan Gibbs 0 0 1 1 Evan Lynch 0 0 1 1 Ashish 0 0 1 1 Krešimir Štimac 0 0 1 1
By year The table below shows the top-three placings from each year.
Year Winner Runner-up Third place 2026 Victoria Groce Lander Frederickx Tom Trogh 2025 Daoud Jackson Victoria Groce Ronny Swiggers 2024 Victoria Groce Daoud Jackson Ronny Swiggers 2023 Ronny Swiggers Victoria Groce Evan Lynch 2022 Didier Bruyere Tom Trogh Krešimir Štimac 2021International Quizzing Association: World Quizzing Championships 2021 Results Ronny Swiggers Didier Bruyere Tero Kalliolevo 2020International Quizzing Association: World Quizzing Championships 2020 Results Ravikant Avva Troy Meyer Victoria Groce 2019 Olav Bjortomt Steve Perry Tero Kalliolevo 2018 Olav Bjortomt Steve Perry Pat Gibson 2017 Kevin Ashman Didier Bruyere Pat Gibson 2016 Kevin Ashman Olav Bjortomt Pat Gibson 2015 Olav Bjortomt Kevin Ashman Pat Gibson 2014International Quizzing Association: World Quizzing Championships 2014 Results Vikram Joshi Steve Perry Kevin Ashman 2013International Quizzing Association: World Quizzing Championships 2013 Results Pat Gibson Tero Kalliolevo Kevin Ashman 2012International Quizzing Association: World Quizzing Championships 2012 Results Jesse Honey Pat Gibson Steve Perry 2011 Pat Gibson Kevin Ashman Tero Kalliolevo 2010 Pat Gibson Kevin Ashman Ronny Swiggers 2009 Kevin Ashman Ronny Swiggers Mark Bytheway 2008 Mark Bytheway Ronny Swiggers Tero Kalliolevo 2007 Pat Gibson Kevin Ashman Mark Bytheway 2006 Kevin Ashman Pat Gibson Nico Pattyn 2005 Kevin Ashman Pat Gibson Nico Pattyn 2004 Kevin Ashman Pat Gibson Ashish 2003 Olav Bjortomt Pat Gibson Alan Gibbs
Competition history
2003 A fledgling event was first staged by Quizzing.co.uk in 2003 at Villa Park football stadium, Birmingham, England. This saw 50 quizzers representing a handful of nations compete in a written test of quiz knowledge. The inaugural event was won by Olav Bjortomt. The event has full official status but only took place in one country and is sometimes erroneously omitted in statistics.results
2004 In 2004, following the foundation of the International Quizzing Association (IQA), the event was held simultaneously in five countries: the United Kingdom (joined by quizzers from elsewhere, including Ireland), Belgium (joined by quizzers from the Netherlands), Estonia, India, and Malaysia. Over 300 quizzers took part. The UK leg was staged at Manchester United's Old Trafford football stadium. The 2004 winner was Kevin Ashman.
Kevin Ashman – 154Website of the Belgian branch of the International Quizzing Association: IQA World Quizzing Championships 2004 (WQC) Pat Gibson – 135 Ashish – 128 Nico Pattyn – 126 Frank Van Nieuwenhove – 124 Ian Bayley – 118 David Stainer – 117 Arul Mani – 116 Stephen Pearson – 115 Lauri Naber – 115
2005 The 2005 championship on July 2, saw further significant growth with the event benefiting from the sponsorship of MSN Search (later Microsoft Bing). Countries joining the original five competing nations included Australia, Finland, Indonesia, Norway and Singapore. Quizzers sat eight papers of 30 questions each, covering: 'Culture', 'Entertainment', 'History', 'Lifestyle', 'Media', 'Sciences', 'Sport and Games', and 'World', with the lowest score from the eight genres being dropped – although these did come into play to settle tie-break situations. The eight genres were won outright or shared by quizzers from seven countries (Belgium, England, Estonia, Finland, India, Ireland, and Norway).
Efforts to encourage the participation of women in the contest (competitive quizzing has hitherto been something of a male-dominated pastime) were rewarded in 2005 with a win for Trine Aalborg of Norway in the 'Lifestyle' category and a sixth place overall for Dorjana Širola of Croatia (who also finished 3rd among those competitors who had gathered at Silverstone motor racing circuit for the UK leg of the competition). In India, another woman, Debashree Mitra of Bangalore took 3rd place overall.
Kevin Ashman – 161Web site of the Belgian branch of the International Quizzing Association: IQA World Quizzing Championships 2005 (WQC) Pat Gibson – 154 Nico Pattyn – 151 Marc Van Springel – 144 Arul Mani – 144 Dorjana Širola – 139 (first woman) Ove Põder – 138 Lauri Naber – 138 Erik Derycke – 138 Ian Bayley – 138
2006 On June 3, 2006, the World Quizzing Championships were held at more than 15 locations. First time organisers were Lithuania, Germany, Switzerland, Liberia and Sri Lanka. People of a multitude of nationalities took part, including representatives from the United States, Australia, Russia, Singapore, Hungary, and France. The title was, for the 3rd year running, won by Kevin Ashman.
Kevin Ashman – 166Web site of the Belgian branch of the International Quizzing Association: IQA Wereldkampioenschap Quizzen 2006 Pat Gibson – 163 Nico Pattyn – 155 Marc Van Springel – 146 Olav Bjortomt – 142 Ronny Swiggers – 140 Dorjana Širola – 140 (highest placed woman) Mark Bytheway – 136 Erik Derycke – 136 Ian Bayley – 133
2007 On June 2, 2007, the World Quizzing Championships was held at locations including the Netherlands, the US and Hungary for the first time. Pat Gibson took the crown from three-time winner Kevin Ashman.International Quizzing Association: WQC 2007 - World Quizzing Championships
Pat Gibson – 179 Kevin Ashman – 176 Mark Bytheway – 171 Olav Bjortomt – 164 Jesse Honey – 159 Ronny Swiggers – 158 Ian Bayley – 151 Mark Grant – 151 Nico Pattyn – 150 Arul Mani – 150 Dorjana Širola of Croatia was the highest placed woman in 12th position. Paul Paquet from Canada placed highest in the New York City leg, the first time the WQC was held in North America.
2008 The 2008 World Quizzing Championships were held on June 7, 2008 at more than 30 locations, including for the first time Australia, the Philippines, Canada, China, Bangladesh, and Latvia. Mark Bytheway took the world title in a close race with Belgium's Ronny Swiggers and Finland's Tero Kalliolevo.International Quizzing Association: WQC 2008 - World Quizzing Championships
Mark Bytheway – 173 Ronny Swiggers – 172 Tero Kalliolevo – 170 Kevin Ashman – 167 Pat Gibson – 165 Nico Pattyn – 163 Olav Bjortomt – 155 Ian Bayley – 154 Jesse Honey – 152 Dorjana Širola – 150 (best performing woman)
2009 The 2009 World Quizzing Championships were held on June 6, 2009 at more than 45 locations, including 10 venues in the US, 9 in India and 4 in Russia. Kevin Ashman regained his title and became the first ever to win 4 World Quizzing Championships. Second again was Ronny Swiggers from Belgium. Third was last year's champion Mark Bytheway. Jeopardy! legend Jerome Vered, whose all-time single-day winnings record lasted 10 or 12 years (depending on whether adjustment for the doubling of the clue values is used), placed eighth.International Quizzing Association: WQC 2009 - World Quizzing Championships
Kevin Ashman – 177 Ronny Swiggers – 174 Mark Bytheway – 166 Olav Bjortomt – 165 Nico Pattyn – 165 Pat Gibson – 164 Tero Kalliolevo – 156 Jerome Vered – 155 Jesse Honey – 152 Thomas Kolåsæter – 148
Dorjana Širola of Croatia was the highest placed woman in 22nd position with 135 points.
2010 The 2010 World Quizzing Championships were held on June 5, 2010 at almost seventy locations, adding Armenia, Bulgaria, Morocco, and the Republic of Ireland for the first time. Over 1200 people participated. Five nations were represented among the competitors placed in the top 10 overall. The overall winner was Pat Gibson.
Individual (Top 10)International Quizzing Association: WQC 2010 - World Quizzing Championships PosNameCountryScore1Pat Gibson1802Kevin Ashman1693Ronny Swiggers1694Tero Kalliolevo1665Olav Bjortomt1656Nico Pattyn1517Mark Grant1498Thomas Kolåsæter1479Erik Derycke14710David Beck146 Nation (Ranked by highest placed team member, Top 10)PosCountryHighest placed team memberScore11 – Pat Gibson18023 – Ronny Swiggers16934 – Tero Kalliolevo16647 – Mark Grant14958 – Thomas Kolåsæter147612 – Ove Põder144717 – Dorjana Širola140819 – Steve Perry139923 – Barry Simmons1351024 – Holger Waldenberger135
Dorjana Širola of Croatia was the highest placed woman in 17th position with 140 points.
2011