1998
0Loading crowd target
0Loading crowd target
7correct to beat the crowd
50 free 1998 trivia questions with answers — history quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
1998 was the year a home-run chase gripped American baseball, a presidential scandal filled the news and a blockbuster about a doomed ocean liner swept the Oscars. Teenagers were tuning in to new dramas and sitcoms, and a handful of start-ups that would reshape daily life were just opening for business. This quiz covers the whole year: the films and TV premieres, the singles and albums on the charts, the big finals and record-breakers in sport, the world headlines, and the toys, consoles and websites that first appeared. Most questions are pitched for anyone who lived through it, with a few tougher ones for news and sports buffs. It is written for class-of-1998 reunions, 1990s nights and anyone who was born or graduated that year. Every answer comes with a short explanation, so you can play it straight through or print it for a group.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Which company did Larry Page and Sergey Brin set up in 1998, working from a friend's garage in Menlo Park?
Google took its name from a misspelling of googol, the number written as a 1 followed by 100 zeros. The garage belonged to Susan Wojcicki.
Q 02Which film won 11 Oscars in March 1998, matching a record that Ben-Hur had held alone for nearly four decades?
Titanic
Titanic turned 14 nominations into 11 wins, including Best Picture. More than 57 million Americans watched the ceremony, a record audience for an Oscars telecast.
Q 03Which owl-like robotic toy from Tiger Electronics became the must-have gift of the 1998 holiday season?
Furby
Furby starts out speaking only its own language, Furbish, and swaps in English words over time. About 1.8 million were sold in 1998 and 14 million the year after.
Q 04Which NBC sitcom ended in May 1998 with a finale that sent its four main characters to prison?
Seinfeld
Seinfeld drew an average of 76 million viewers for its last episode, written by co-creator Larry David. A 30-second advert cost about $1 million, a first for a regular primetime series.
Q 05Which former Mickey Mouse Club member's debut single, released in September 1998, topped charts in over 20 countries?
Britney Spears
Britney Spears pushed for the song's video to be set in a school so that it reflected her fans' lives. Max Martin wrote the track, ...Baby One More Time.
Q 06Which Pfizer pill, first developed as an angina treatment, won US approval in March 1998 for erectile dysfunction?
Viagra
Viagra was the first pill approved in the United States for the condition. Early trials found it did little for chest pain but had a side effect that changed its purpose.
Q 07Which slugger finished the 1998 baseball season with 70 home runs, breaking a record Roger Maris had held since 1961?
Mark McGwire
Mark McGwire hit his record-breaking 62nd against the Cubs, so rival Sammy Sosa was on the field to congratulate him. Barry Bonds passed the mark with 73 three years later.
Q 08Which host nation won its first football World Cup in July 1998 by beating defending champions Brazil 3–0?
France
France scored twice before half-time through Zinedine Zidane, both headers from corners. Emmanuel Petit added the third goal in injury time.
Q 09Which company opened for business in April 1998 as a website renting out DVDs by mail?
Netflix
Netflix charged for each rental at first and only added a monthly subscription in 1999. Its streaming service did not arrive until 2007.
Q 10Which book hero reached US readers in September 1998 under a title his American publisher had changed?
Harry Potter
Harry Potter's US editor thought "philosopher" sounded too archaic for readers, so Philosopher's Stone became Sorcerer's Stone. Scholastic had paid $105,000 for the rights, an unusually high sum for a children's book.
Q 11Which 1998 Michael Bay film sends oil drillers into space to blow up an asteroid the size of Texas?
Armageddon
Armageddon was the highest-grossing film of 1998, taking $553.7 million worldwide despite mixed reviews from critics.
Q 12Which 1998 Steven Spielberg war film opens with a long, brutal recreation of the D-Day landing at Omaha Beach?
Saving Private Ryan
Saving Private Ryan's opening battle took four weeks and $12 million to film, with 1,500 background actors. It was the second-highest-grossing film of 1998 worldwide.
Q 13Which 1998 romantic comedy starring Gwyneth Paltrow won seven Oscars, including the award for Best Picture?
Shakespeare in Love
Q 21Which HBO series based on Candace Bushnell's newspaper column premiered in June 1998 starring Sarah Jessica Parker?
Sex and the City
Sex and the City ran for 94 episodes over six seasons and is credited with helping to raise HBO's popularity. Darren Star created the series.
Q 22Which teen drama set in the fictional town of Capeside, Massachusetts, premiered on The WB in January 1998?
Dawson's Creek
Dawson's Creek was created by Kevin Williamson and filmed in Wilmington, North Carolina. Its young cast included Katie Holmes, Joshua Jackson and Michelle Williams.
Q 23Which Fox sitcom about six teenage friends in Point Place, Wisconsin, first aired in August 1998?
That '70s Show
Shakespeare in Love won seven Oscars from 13 nominations. Prince Edward reportedly asked to be made Earl of Wessex after seeing Colin Firth play a lord of that title in it.
Q 14Which 1998 film stars Jim Carrey as a man unaware that his whole life is being broadcast as entertainment?
The Truman Show
The Truman Show was directed by Peter Weir, who took over after Brian De Palma had been lined up for the job. Its hero lives on a colossal soundstage without knowing it.
Q 15Which 1998 Coen brothers comedy follows a bowling-loving slacker called the Dude after a case of mistaken identity?
The Big Lebowski
The Big Lebowski stars Jeff Bridges as the Dude and gathered a cult following after its release. It joined the US National Film Registry in 2014.
Q 16Which comedian voiced Mushu, the small red dragon who helps the heroine of Disney's 1998 animated film Mulan?
Eddie Murphy
Eddie Murphy's dragon is a disgraced family guardian sent to wake a mighty stone dragon. He breaks the statue by accident and goes to help Mulan himself.
Q 17Which studio made A Bug's Life, released in 1998 a month after rival DreamWorks put out the ant comedy Antz?
Pixar
Pixar drew the story from Aesop's fable The Ant and the Grasshopper. The clash with Antz set off a public feud between Steve Jobs and DreamWorks co-founder Jeffrey Katzenberg.
Q 18Which Alfred Hitchcock thriller did director Gus Van Sant remake almost shot for shot in 1998, starring Vince Vaughn?
Psycho
Psycho was refilmed in colour but copied Hitchcock's camera moves, his editing and most of the 1960 script. Van Sant later called it an experiment showing that a film cannot be copied.
Q 19Which Legend of Zelda game, released in November 1998, was the first in the series with 3D graphics?
Ocarina of Time
Ocarina of Time introduced a lock-on targeting system that later 3D adventure games copied. Many publications have ranked it among the greatest video games ever made.
Q 20Which console, launched in Japan in November 1998, turned out to be the last home system Sega ever made?
Dreamcast
Dreamcast was the first console with a built-in modem for online play. Sega stopped making it in March 2001 and turned to producing games for other companies' machines.
That '70s Show opens in May 1976. Many of its scenes take place in or around Eric Forman's hand-me-down 1969 Oldsmobile Vista Cruiser.
Q 24Which company did the Justice Department and 20 states sue in May 1998 for tying a browser to its operating system?
Microsoft
Microsoft argued that Internet Explorer was a feature of Windows, not a separate product. The government said it had stopped PC makers and users from removing the browser to use rivals.
Q 25Which former pro wrestler won the 1998 election for governor of Minnesota as the Reform Party candidate?
Jesse Ventura
Jesse Ventura ran a low-budget campaign built on grassroots events and unusual advertising. He remains the only Reform Party candidate to have won a major government office.
Q 26Which presenter was the original host of MTV's countdown show Total Request Live when it premiered in September 1998?
Carson Daly
Carson Daly had fronted both programmes that MTV merged to make TRL: MTV Live and the viewer request show Total Request. He later got a late-night talk show on NBC.
Q 27Which singer's October 1998 single Believe distorted her voice with Auto-Tune, an effect later nicknamed after her?
Cher
Cher's producers pushed the pitch-correction software to extreme settings it was never designed for. The much-imitated sound even appears in the Auto-Tune manual under her name.
Q 28Which singer released a solo debut album in August 1998 that later won her five Grammys in one night?
Lauryn Hill
Lauryn Hill recorded The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill after her band Fugees went on hiatus. Its first-week sales of 422,000 were the most for a woman at the time.
Q 29Which rock band scored its first US number-one single in 1998 with a power ballad written by Diane Warren?
Aerosmith
Aerosmith debuted at the top of the Hot 100 with I Don't Want to Miss a Thing and stayed there for four weeks. Warren had imagined someone like Celine Dion singing it.
Q 30Which member of the Spice Girls announced through her solicitor in May 1998 that she had left the group?
Geri Halliwell
Geri Halliwell, the group's Ginger Spice, cited depression and differences with the others. Her first solo album followed in 1999.