Affiliate links on Android Authority may earn us a commission. Learn more.
It's game over for HQ Trivia: Live quiz app shuts down
HQ Trivia has streamed its last game. HQ, the company behind the once-popular streaming mobile quiz game, shut down on Friday. The company had about 25 employees at the time of its closing, according to CNN Business.
In an email sent to employees, HQ CEO Rus Yusupov stated that the company thought it had a buyer for the business. However, the unnamed buyer unexpectedly pulled their offer, and HQ’s current investors were unwilling to fund the company anymore.
It was a short run for HQ Trivia, which launched in August 2017 for iOS and expanded to Android in February 2018. That was the year HQ Trivia took off and became a mainstream mobile gaming hit. The company streamed live trivia games with a host as much as twice a day. It gave out cash prizes at the end of its matches for the online players who managed to correctly complete all of the questions. The main host of HQ Trivia was Scott Rogowsky, a witty gamemaster who became a star in his own right.
HQ Trivia had over 2 million concurrent players at one point in 2018. Cash prizes for the winners went as high as $400,00 for just one game. The service also generated millions in revenue due to in-game ad deals with companies like Nike, Warner Bros and more. Famous guests like Robert De Niro and Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson sometimes joined Rogowsky in live games. The app spawned lots of imitators as well. However, the popularity of the app and service would not last. HQ Trivia started losing lots of its live players later in 2018. To make matters worse, in December 2018, one of the company’s co-founders, Colin Kroll, passed away.
HQ would try to regain some of its popularity by launching new apps and games, including HQ Words and HQ Sports. It would also tinker with its overall quiz and prize giveaway format. However, Scott Rogowsky decided to leave the company in April 2019, and HQ laid off parts of its staff later that year.
Did you play HQ Trivia and are you sorry that the game and app has been shut down?