The game was created on December 15, 1979 in Montreal by Canadian Chris Haney, a photo editor for Montreal's The Gazette, and Scott Abbott, a sports editor for The Canadian Press.

With the help of John Haney and Ed Werner, they completed development of the game, which was released in 1981.

The rights to the game were initially licensed to Selchow and Righter in 1982, then to Parker Brothers (now part of Hasbro) in 1988, after initially being turned down by the Virgin Group; in 2008 Hasbro bought the full rights, for US$80 million.

In 1984, Bally Sente released a Trivial Pursuit arcade game. Like the board game, several variants were also released.

In October 1984, Fred L. Worth, author of The Trivia Encyclopedia, Super Trivia, and Super Trivia II, filed a $300 million lawsuit against the distributors of Trivial Pursuit. He claimed that more than a quarter of the questions in the game's Genus Edition had been taken from his books, even to the point of reproducing typographical errors and deliberately placed misinformation. One of the questions in Trivial Pursuit was "What was Columbo's first name?" with the answer "Philip". That information had been fabricated to catch anyone who might try to violate his copyright.

Northern Plastics of Elroy, Wisconsin produced 30,000,000 games between 1983 and 1985.

In 1988, a made-for-television movie entitled Breaking all the Rules: The Creation of Trivial Pursuit aired. Treated largely as a comedy, the movie featured the music of Jimmy Buffett and portrayed the creators of the game as three beer-loving Canadians.

The Soviet Union in 1989 bought the rights to produce its own version of the board game, and also started an official championship for family teams, finals of which were broadcast on Soviet Central Television as the game show «Lucky case». After the agreement ended in 1991, the show changed their rules, dropping «Trivial Pursuit» elements, and continued broadcasting until 2000.

A version of Trivial Pursuit, hosted by Wink Martindale, aired on The Family Channel in the United States from 1993 to 1995 (Jay Wolpert had attempted a pilot in 1987, but it was not picked up).

In December 1993, Trivial Pursuit was named to the "Games Hall of Fame" by Games magazine.

In 1994, David Wall of Cape Breton, Nova Scotia, launched a lawsuit against the game's creators. He claimed that in the fall of 1979, he and a friend were hitchhiking near Sydney, Nova Scotia, when they were picked up by Chris Haney. Wall claimed that he told Haney about his idea for the game in detail, including the shape of the markers. Wall's mother testified she found drawings of his that looked like plans for a Trivial Pursuit-like game, but the drawings had since been destroyed. Wall's friend, who was allegedly hitchhiking with him that day, never testified. Haney said he never met Wall.

In 1999, Sony Online Entertainment licensed Trivial Pursuit from Hasbro Interactive to release a downloadable online game on The Station@Sony (home to Everquest at the time), where up to three auto-matched players could chat with each other live while they played. A correct answer on any space earned a wedge on the category answered, the wedge spaces gave the player their choice of category, and the first person to earn four wedges was the winner. It was hosted on The Station until 2001.

In 2003, Bolenka Games released an online game of Trivial Pursuit on the now-defunct website Uproar.com where it features five editions such as: Genius, Silver Screen, Music, 1980s and TV.

An online version of Trivial Pursuit was launched in September 2003.

In September 2004, Roger Lodge hosted a sports trivia game show on ESPN entitled ESPN Trivial Pursuit, which aired five episodes.

In the United Kingdom, Trivial Pursuit players complained that the 2006 version of the game was dumbed down in comparison to previous editions, with easier questions and more focus on celebrities and show business.

A syndicated version entitled Trivial Pursuit: America Plays aired from 2008 to 2009 and hosted by Christopher Knight.

In Spain, a version of the show called Trivial Pursuit: Spain Plays premiered in September 2008 on Antena 3.

As of 2014, more than 100 million games had been sold in 26 countries and 17 languages.

Over the years, there was much legal wrangling, notably around whether the suit should be decided by a judge or jury. On June 25, 2007, the Nova Scotia Supreme Court ruled against Wall.