Split Second

About this board game

Split Second is a question-and-answer party game for 3–6 players that plays in about 30 minutes. Originally released in 1992, it challenges players to write brief answers and reveal them in a race for points.

A question is read aloud, and everyone writes an answer on a paddle. When released, the paddle flips up into the middle using a clever rubber-band mechanism, creating a lively moment as players compete to turn in the correct response first.

• Write answers of no more than four characters.
• Score a point by being the first player to submit the correct answer.
• For numerical questions with no correct answer submitted, the closest answer wins.
• Personal questions ask you to predict how the reader answered.

The questions range from very easy prompts, such as “I could have had a V-_!”, to surprisingly difficult challenges, such as asking how many teeth a sloth has. This broad range keeps each round amusing and unpredictable, whether the answer comes instantly or requires a guess.

Personal questions add another layer to Split Second. Instead of relying only on general knowledge, players must estimate what the question reader would say—for example, how many times that person has lost a job.

With its short-answer format, flipping paddles, and mix of factual, numerical, and personal prompts, Split Second turns quick thinking and prediction into a compact group contest. It is a straightforward game to explain, with every question leading directly to a race for the next point.