HQ Trivia – Have Fun Playing a Live Game Show on Your Phone!

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Have you ever wanted to be a TV game show contestant, where you can show off your knowledge, answer questions, beat out others and win money?

Whether or not you actually become one on TV, you can now become a game show contestant on your phone with the HQ Trivia app. HQ Trivia is an app that is free to play yet pays out real money to the winning contestants.

That’s right, you don’t pay for the app, nor do you pay an entry fee to play. But you do have a chance to win prize money for answering questions correctly.

It’s not easy to win money, but it is easy to have fun!

How to Play HQ Trivia

At 3 pm and 9 pm Eastern Time Monday through Friday, and 9 pm on Saturday and Sunday, the HQ Trivia app starts a live game show where contestants answer 12 trivia questions to win money. Each show lasts about 15 minutes and contestants are called “HQuties”.

Players are given 12 multiple-choice questions on many topics, including history, science, pop culture, music and more. Each question has three answers and players have only 10 seconds to choose the correct one. That generally isn’t enough time to search Google for the answers, you need to know the answer and choose quickly.

The jackpot amount is posted at the beginning of the quiz and all of the winners share in the prize. Last night’s jackpot was $10,000.

$10K. SUNDAY. 9p EST. pic.twitter.com/AJag7gUCP8

— HQ Trivia (@hqtrivia) December 16, 2017

Winners will receive their proceeds paid into their PayPal accounts, after their winnings total $20 or more.

According to the current leaderboard in the app, people have won over $500 playing HQ Trivia. The top winner has won $1500 playing the game.

You could be the next winner.

So what’s the catch?

The Odds Are Never In Your Favor for Money

As with most things in life, if you’re only doing this for money, you shouldn’t be doing it. Winning is nearly impossible.

You must answer all 12 questions correctly to win.

This narrows down the field tremendously as getting 12 questions correct isn’t easy.

Recent games have started with hundreds of thousands of players who tried to earn cash. Each round, more people drop out, having answered the question incorrectly. By the end, over 99% had been eliminated.

SMASHED the record for players tonight with over 2/3 of a MILLION #HQties! From 680,000+ down to 107 in 12 questions. Congrats to all!

— HQ Trivia (@hqtrivia) December 18, 2017

In a recent round, over 300,000 players started and only 14 were winners. But each one won over $100.

See, Business Insider Here’s the screen you see when you win HQ Trivia.

Losing Is Still Fun

If you answer a question wrong, or enter the game after it has started, you lose. But stick around anyway, you can still watch the quiz show.

Even when you lose, you can still have fun. You can see the question and choose answers as if you were still in the game (though you won’t share in the prize money).

The hosts of the show are engaging and funny, offering their personal commentary and humor into the questions and answers. You can continue to view their delightful commentary as the game continues on without you.

A chat scrolls by at the bottom of the screen. Feel free to share your thoughts in the chat, but usually the comments scroll by so quickly they’re impossible to read.

Increasing Your Odds

You can use an Extra Life in the game if you get a question wrong. This could come in very handy should you get to question 11 and make a mistake.

Extra Lives are earned by inviting people to play HQ Trivia. If someone joins the game using your invite code, you get an Extra Life after they play their first game.

That Extra Life could mean the difference between winning and losing a game. Use yours wisely as you can only use one Extra Life per game.

When an Extra Life would be nice, but you’ve hit up all your friends twice. pic.twitter.com/ONDW5U4I1E

— HQ Trivia (@hqtrivia) December 18, 2017

Notifications

When you first sign up for the app, you’re asked to give permission for notifications. These notifications should be an easy way to get reminders to play the game.

But they may not be.

Notifications are sent out just as the game is beginning. Sometimes they come through too late for you to get in on the game.

Uh oh. 9:01 was too late to join that game. But other games don’t start on time so even if you’re a bit late, you still may be able to play.

If you want to be sure to get in the game, set a repeating alarm on your phone to be reminded when the game is beginning each day. Give yourself a few extra minutes to grab your phone and open the app.

That way you don’t miss out on a chance to play!

Availability

HQ Trivia is a free app that’s available now for iPhone and iPad: HQ Trivia on iTunes App Store.

The company announced on Twitter that the HQ Trivia app will be coming to Android on December 25.

Hey world, we hear you also have Android phones? HQ has a nice little stocking stuffer coming your way… pic.twitter.com/RwY6Qpkk9e

— HQ Trivia (@hqtrivia) December 5, 2017

If you download the app, please use an invite code from a commenter below to help support Wonder of Tech readers and help them get Extra Lives. Also, feel free to leave your invite code in the Comments section (with a meaningful comment). Your invite code can be found in the app.

Although anyone in the world can play HQ Trivia, the developer said in an interview with Variety that both the questions and timing of the quizzes were geared towards the US. HQ Trivia: How the Buzzy Live Quiz-Show App Plans to Make Money.

Privacy

The app requires that you enter your phone number to register as a contestant. According to the app, “We require phone numbers to verify and protect accounts. We need to keep accounts safe.”

You can learn more about sharing information in the HQ Trivia Privacy Policy, available in the app.

Your Thoughts

Have you always wanted to be a TV game show contestant? Have you played HQ Trivia? How far have you gotten in the game? What’s your invite code for HQ Trivia?

Share your thoughts in the Comments section below! Also share your invite code to HQ Trivia to get Extra Lives. (Note that only invite codes with meaningful comments will be published).