A few months ago, Family Feud celebrated its 30th anniversary. For three decades, this show has entertained and engaged audiences all over the world. In honor of this auspicious event, we wanted to offer some simple strategies to help ordinary contestants play a more competitive, successful feud. What we discovered was very surprising.

According to our research and analysis, it appears that there are virtually no strategies, other than simply doing the best you can, that will help you win at Family Feud. It seems that the writers and producers have been at this long enough that they’ve actually leveled the playing field on every aspect of the game. Just to prove that we’ve done our homework, and that this lofty claim is valid, we’ve included some of our data.

Strategies that Will NOT Give you an Edge

• Ring First: Many people may argue that buzzing in first during the face-off will give you an advantage. Wishful thinking. Of those who buzz in first on the first round face-off, exactly 50% of them actually go on to win the entire game. At the same time, winning the face-off by ringing in first only increases your chance of winning that specific round by about 2%--not much to base a strategy on.

  End of Game Results for the Team that Rings in First

  50% won

  50% lost

  End of Round Results for the Team that Won the face-off by Ringing in First

  51% won

  49% lost

  
  
  

• Win the face-off: This is different than ringing first, because sometimes the first answer given is the dumbest, but it can buy you some time to think of a better answer. Will this strategy help you win? Not really, no.

  End of Round Results for the Team that Won the face-off by Ringing in Second

  50% won

  50% lost

  
  
  

• Steal: One of the most exciting elements of Family Feud is the opportunity to steal. Essentially, you wait for the other team to do all the work, then watch as they fail. After brief team collaboration, you get one chance to guess an answer. Stealing is an exciting and easy way to earn your family some points, right? Well...sort of. 86% of all survey rounds end with a steal attempt. Don't get too excited, though, because in the end, the numbers favor the family that is guessing. But not too much.

  Outcome of Steal Attempts

  44% successful steals

  56% unsuccessful steals

  
  
  

• Choose the Right Side: Or the left. It turns out that according to our in-depth statistical analysis, the side of the stage that your family is on has exactly ZERO correlation to your chances of winning. Simply astounding.

Strategies that Might give you a Slight Edge

• Get the #1 Answer: Whether you buzz first because you know you know, or wait for the other guy to blow it with a fast but uninspired guess, getting the big money answer at some point can actually help your chances. A little bit.

  End of Round Results for the Team that Guessed the #1 Survey Answer

  60% won

  40% lost

  
  
  

• Win the Fourth Round: It goes like this: first two rounds are straight one-point-per-survey-answer scores, so the total available is 100 points. The third round is doubled, and the fourth round is tripled. Since the goal to get to play Fast Money is 300 points, any team that wins the fourth round is assured their shot at $20,000. Incredibly, this works every time because NO ONE doesn’t win at least one round prior to the fourth round. No kidding. In all the shows we watched, NOT ONE had a Fast Money winner BEFORE the fourth round, and EVERY TIME the fourth round winner got to play Fast Money. Go figure.

  End of Game Results for the Team that Won the Fourth Round

  100% won

  
  
  

• Think Like an Average American: It turns out that correct or intelligent answers are not going to help you on the Feud. The survey is uncensored, excepting that an answer needs to be given at least twice in order to make it on the board. Because of this, answers that represent common mistakes or misunderstandings often make it into the game. Remember, they probably didn’t take much time to rethink their answers, so investing neurons coming up with something smart won’t actually win you points. That advice extends beyond the average American, too. Pay attention to the demographic information, if it’s given. “100 single women were surveyed...” or “We surveyed 100 teenagers...” will give two very different survey results. Pay attention.

We've all heard that it's not whether you win or lose that matters, right? Well, it turns out, if you're trying to win at Family Feud, all that you can do is play the game. Best of Luck!