Let’s get down to the nitty-gritty. Let’s get this show, on the road!
Hi, my name is Tiann, and I’m a trivia-holic. Like millions of other trivia hopefuls around the world, I am obsessed with HQ, “the live trivia gameshow on your phone.”
In case you have no idea what I’m talking about — which is basically impossible — let me break it down for you. HQ is an app (available for iPhone and Android) that lets you win money just for answering questions. Every day at 3 p.m. and 9 p.m. on weekdays, and 9 p.m. on weekends, you get a phone notification letting you know it’s time to play. At that point, a couple million people hop on to the HQ app and wait for the game to start. Your host will appear on your screen to explain the rules and crack a few lame jokes. Then, the game begins! The game consists of 12 questions in total. You are given three options for each question and only 10 seconds to answer. The questions start out easy — and I mean easy. But as you move forward, the difficulty level increases (kind of like life!). If you get a question wrong, you’re eliminated. But, if you get all 12 questions right, you split the prize with the other winners. It’s literally free money! The guaranteed prize each game is currently $5,000, however, on special occasions it has been as much as $250,000! When I started playing HQ back in November, having a $1,000 prize was a big deal. At that time though the number of players in any given game was only in the tens of thousands, meaning you split your loot with far fewer people.
Quemero número uno when I started playing HQ was, “Where do they get all this money from?” There are no ads on the app and there is no cost to play. According to my research, a spokesperson for the app told Time that the trivia show is backed by venture capital. This basically means that silicon valley big shots with deep pockets are funding the game, in hopes that eventually, companies will pay to be associated with it, and it will become profitable. As it turns out, they were right. Major companies Nike and Warner Bros. have both recently signed on as sponsors.The app is only growing in popularity, so the real question is, what makes HQ Trivia so damn addictive? Is it the fact that you can submit your own trivia questions to be used on the show? Or that logging into the app provides 15 minutes of distraction from your boring day? Or is it that everyone’s favourite host, Scott Rogowsky (“the Trap Trebek”), is just so dang charismatic?
At the risk of getting hate mail from die-hard Scott fans, I have to say, Rogowsky needs to shut the eff up. I don’t care about your puns, Scott, GET TO THE GAME!
In my opinion, there are three main reasons that HQ has exploded seemingly overnight. I think it partly has to do with a pathological need for disappointment. Almost every night, I tune in to the game. I know I won’t win, and even if I do, chances are I would only win about $10. Still, I continue to put myself through the torture of making it to about the eighth question and then getting eliminated.
My second theory is that people continue to tune in to HQ to be a part of something bigger — a community of HQ-ties, if you will. When you login to the app, you know there will be about one million other suckers putting their self-confidence on the line for a chance at a measly couple bucks.
My final theory is simply that people like to win. There is something so satisfying about being able to say you won a trivia game show that had over one million other contestants. It doesn’t matter if your prize was only $0.51 — you still won. I have yet to win a game of HQ trivia, but the more I lose, the more determined I am to make it to that final question. I have friends who were hardcore players for a couple months, but then lost interest when they kept losing. Another group of friends think the game is fun, but only play every once in a while. All I have to say to both of those groups is, “You lack commitment.”Now that HQ has become a worldwide phenomenon, I’ve noticed a few different copycat apps trying to get in on some of the action. As a self-proclaimed trivia connoisseur, I had to give them a shot. One such app goes by the name, “The Q” — as if we don’t know you’re copying. While this app’s prize money is normally only $250 per game, I have never seen more than 15,000 players in the game at any given time, meaning you get more of the prize money to yourself.
Whatever the explanation, it is clear the HQ phenomenon is only going to continue to grow. If you’ve been living under a rock, and haven’t downloaded the app yet, I advise you to stick with your guns. I don’t need any more competitors trying to steal my prize money.