HQ Trivia: Recounting Its Most Disastrous Moments
Created by two of the founders behind the video service Vine – Rus Yusupov and Colin Kroll — "HQ Trivia" was a new type of trivia game that launched in 2017. Played from smartphones or other mobile devices, the app allowed millions of users to compete against each other in live broadcasts to win real cash prizes.
The format proved to be a huge success and it soon became one of the most popular apps in the world. Competitors soon appeared, including high-profile games such as Facebook's "Confetti," as other companies rushed to get a slice of the pie. Then, almost as quickly as it had risen, "HQ Trivia" faced high-profile issues and controversies that scared away investors, isolated players, and pushed away some of its own employees. Just a few years after it had first become available, "HQ Trivia" was no more.
We've taken some time to run through the reasons why the app failed and the most important factors that contributed to its demise — here are the exciting highs and disastrous lows of "HQ Trivia."
At its peak the game had more than 2 million players
"HQ Trivia" arrived on Apple's App Store in August 2017 before coming to Android a few months later. The mobile trivia game quickly grew in popularity, amassing hundreds of thousands of downloads. Games often had more than 100,000 players, with host Scott Rogowsky becoming a familiar face to U.S. households. Available worldwide, "HQ Trivia" also had local quiz games, with the likes of Sharon Carpenter hosting the U.K. edition.
The app's popularity led to it to other platforms, including a release on Apple TV that brought the experience to big screens and mobile devices. In turn, the expansion of "HQ Trivia" spurred further growth, with the game reaching a record number of concurrent players in 2018 at more than two million.
Throughout the lifetime of the app, it also paid out some $6 million of prize winnings. In early 2018, it was not unusual for games to have around 500,000 players on average, with hundreds or thousands able to win a share of the prize money by getting all of the answers correct.
Trivia HQ faced numerous technical issues
Although "HQ Trivia" was incredibly popular, the app was well known for its technical issues. This may well have had something to do with the fact that the game was played by so many people, becoming a victim of its own success. After all, there's a significant challenge in broadcasting a live feed to millions of players that also has interactive elements that need to be tracked to determine who has answered questions correctly within the time limit.
During the early rounds, when most players were still connected and all trying to answer questions simultaneously, the feed would often buffer and lag, causing participants to miss vital information or the banter from the host. Other technical issues were also common, forcing players to be booted from the game or leave as the screen froze. Games were also regularly canceled or postponed due to rarely explained problems.
Even worse was that many people could not withdraw their winnings. For most of its life, "HQ Trivia" didn't allow players to make a withdrawal unless they had more than $20 in their account. Meanwhile, others voiced concerns about delays in payments and the fact that the app often wouldn't process any withdrawals.
Famous guest hosts were a regular occurrence
The nature of "HQ Trivia" meant that the game required a host for each show, who would read out questions and also provide commentary between rounds. The main host in the trivia app was Scott Rogowsky, who was often in charge of the biggest events. However, there was also a rotating cast of presenters who appeared at other times, with eventual U.K. host Sharon Carpenter being one of the most prominent, along with actor Sarah Pribis and Casey Jost, a comedy writer and brother of "Saturday Night Live" star Colin Jost.
For certain events, viewers would also be treated to special guest hosts. Usually appearing to promote an upcoming movie or television series, these hosts have included some big names. Kevin Hart took charge of a $100,000 show as part of a Winner-Takes-All round to promote "The Night School." Dwayne Johnson was the host of a $300,000 game as part of his press tour for "Rampage." Other prominent figures to also host "HQ Trivia" include former NFL star and Hall of Fame member Curtis Martin, actor and director Danny DeVito, as well as television star Neil Patrick Harris.
CEO Rus Yusupov publicly threatened to fire host Scott Rogowsky
As the main host of "HQ Trivia," Scott Rogowsky quickly became a familiar face across the US and the rest of the world. Other people also hosted rounds on the trivia app but it was Rogowsky who was most closely associated with the game, becoming something of a cult figure due to his appearances. However, none of that stopped CEO Rus Yusupov from threatening to fire the host when he gave an interview to The Daily Beast.
Rogowsky's rise to celebrity status led to a demand for interviews and the outlet approached him with the aim of learning more about how "HQ Trivia " had changed his life. After informing Yusupov of the interview, The Daily Beast received a call from the CEO demanding that the story not be published. The site alleged that Yusupov went on to threaten Rogowsky's job, threatening that he would be fired if the piece was published.
When the reporter demonstrated that the host had revealed no sensitive or confidential information, Yusupov continued to demand entire quotes be removed and called The Daily Beast unprofessional for the way it had contacted Rogowsky without his permission. "This is ridiculous," Yusupov said. "If you reached out to an Apple engineer and they gave you information about the new iPhone, would you run it? No, because you'd have to go through proper press channels."
The founders caused plenty of other controversies
Rus Yusupov and Colin Kroll were the two men at the helm of "HQ Trivia" and often ran into issues. One of the most troubling was Kroll's past behavior while he worked at Twitter. The social media company had acquired Vine and employed Rus Yusupov and Colin Kroll as they had helped to found the video-sharing platform. However, when Yusupov and Kroll's company, Intermedia Labs, was looking to raise investment funds, several firms pulled out after uncovering information about the way Kroll had acted around women.
According to various sources, Kroll had a history of acting inappropriately toward women and was frequently abusive to staff members. Others alleged that he appeared uninterested in leading the Vine team and regularly turned up to work hungover and late. Kroll was eventually fired by Twitter for poor management, with Yusupov also being laid off several months later.
"HQ Trivia" employees also told TechCrunch that Yusupov had mismanaged the company, making slow and ponderous decisions while failing to properly use investment funds to grow the app in a sustainable way. This led to a majority of staff working at "HQ Trivia" signing a petition to the board to have Yusupov removed as CEO, a motion that ultimately failed and led to the departure of several key employees.
HQ Trivia faced financial difficulties in 2020
Beginning in 2019, "HQ Trivia" began to face financial problems. Figures within the company reported that the company had little money in the bank and was spending upwards of $1 million every single month. Issues surrounding Yusupov's management of the company and Kroll's behavior also meant that the company failed to attract new investments. This put the future of "HQ Trivia" in serious doubt as it wasn't clear how it could continue to operate when making a loss. After investors decided to pull the plug, CEO Yusupov confirmed that this would mean that "HQ Trivia" would cease operations.
"We received an offer from an established business to acquire HQ and continue building our vision, had definitive agreements and legal docs, and a projected closing date of tomorrow, and for reasons we are still investigating, they suddenly changed their position and despite our best efforts, we were unable to reach an agreement," Yusupov said in a statement seen on Twitter. "Unfortunately, our lead investors are no longer willing to fund the company, and so effective today, HQ will cease operations and move to dissolution. All employees and contractors will be terminated as of today."
The final show involved lots of alcohol and presenters speaking their minds
The final show — which went live after Rus Yusupov's announcement that "HQ Trivia" was shutting down — happened on February 14, 2020. The Guardian notes that the hosts described the episode as a "final drunken hurrah," with Matt Richards and Anna Roisman openly drinking during the broadcast. At one point, Richards even poured champagne over himself and his co-host while he also put forward the $5 of prize money offered to players.
During the game, which lasted far longer than normal, the two hosts became emotional as they revealed that they and the rest of the "HQ Trivia" staff were being laid off. Pleading with anyone watching to hire them, the episode was unlike any that had previously aired on the app. "Give these people jobs," Roisman said of the app's remaining staff. "And us. Hire me. I'll host anything you want."
The pair also spoke openly about their feelings towards the game's closure. "Why are we shutting down? I don't know. Ask our investors. What am I going to do with my fish tank? I think our investors ran out of money," said Matt — comments that were recorded for the public record by BBC.
The game came back just a month later
That wasn't the end of "HQ Trivia," though, even though it had seemed like the app would disappear after the final show in February. Just over a month after the announcement that "HQ Trivia" was to shut down, Rus Yusupov sent out a Tweet to his followers alongside a notification sent out to players to say that a game was scheduled to take place that evening.
Reports from the time suggested that a new investor had acquired "HQ Trivia" and provided funding for it to continue. However, the name of this new investor was never revealed and the game never had a regular schedule, as it had before. In fact, there were generally only weekly shows rather than daily broadcasts, as had been standard before the app was first discontinued.
The return of "HQ Trivia" saw the company make a $100,000 donation to the World Central Kitchen, and the prize for the first game was $1,000.
Colin Kroll died of a drug overdose in 2018
Although Rus Yusupov was the CEO for much of the trivia game's history, several controversies eventually led to him being ousted as leader of the company. Colin Kroll and other board members led the change, with Kroll taking over as CEO in 2018. For the few months Kroll was in charge, employees at the company suggested that improvements were being made not only to how things were being run but also to the way new ideas or features were being rolled out.
Sadly, on December 16, 2018, Kroll was discovered dead in his Manhattan apartment at the age of 34. Concerns were first raised when his girlfriend had been unable to contact him for almost 24 hours. Reports from the time indicated that the death was a suspected drug overdose, which a medical examiner later confirmed.
His official cause of death revealed that Kroll had died due to an overdose of various substances, including heroin and fentanyl, as reported by The Wall Street Journal. Following the news of Kroll's passing, Yusupov once again assumed the role of CEO at "HQ Trivia."
The game never officially shut down
Before "HQ Trivia" was revived in March 2020, the app had expanded to include a variety of new games. The most popular addition was a mode called HQ Words, a "Wheel of Fortune" style game hosted by Anna Roisman. Other games included HQ Tunes, hosted by Melody Alanna, and HQ Sports, hosted by Lauren Gambino. Almost all of these were discontinued before the game returned.
Although Rus Yusupov brought "HQ Trivia" back, it had an irregular schedule for shows. For the most part, players could only expect to see a single show each week. That last show occurred on November 17, 2022, without fanfare as no official announcement confirmed that "HQ Trivia" was shutting down for good.
The app became unresponsive shortly after this, disabling all features for all players. Today, "HQ Trivia" is no longer available on Apple's App Store or Google's Play Store to download.
A hacker took control of the game in 2023
"HQ Trivia" had not been updated in months when it was seemingly taken over by a hacker in January 2023. Although the identity of the person in question was not revealed, they described themselves as a "security vulnerability finder." Having assumed control of the app, this individual posted a message on its main page to inform users that unofficial games would be hosted for the main quiz and HQ Words every Monday, although it is unclear if any of these shows were actually broadcast.
The message, which was posted on Twitter by Colin Jones, read: "Dear HQ Community: The app has been taken over by me, a security vulnerability finder. We all are tired of HQ's lack of communication, and as such the app has been taken over." It also detailed exactly how the person had been able to assume control over "HQ Trivia," as the previous owners had stopped paying their hosting fee.
Former hosts have spoken out about why the game failed
The former hosts of "HQ Trivia" have not been quiet since the app shut down. The main host, Scott Rogowsky let his feelings be known on Twitter in 2020. "HQ didn't die of natural causes. It was poisoned with a lethal cocktail of incompetence, arrogance, short-sightedness & sociopathic delusion," said Rogowsky. "Saddened to see it finally succumb; sadder still for the good & talented staff abruptly left in the lurch after being gaslit and lied to."
Rogowsky returns to the live game show arena in 2023. The online lottery app Jackpocket revealed in June that it had secured the host to front a brand new live game alongside a number of other celebrities. Like "HQ Trivia," this new experience will allow players to win real money in daily shows.
However, Rogowsy wasn't the only host who felt that the "HQ Trivia" had systemic problems. Sarah Pribis said that she felt that hosts were forced to compete with each other and this caused a constant sense of panic and anxiety in what became a toxic work environment. Still, Sharon Carpenter is certain that something similar to "HQ Trivia" will make a comeback at some point. "I still think it's the future of TV, 'HQ' was ahead of its time," Sharon told the BBC. "This doesn't mean it's the end of this kind of format, I'm sure something is going to be next."
A documentary based on the company was released in 2023
The sudden success of "HQ Trivia" and its demise just a few years later has made it a popular subject for stories. There have been numerous in-depth articles discussing the history of the app. In 2020, The Ringer even released a podcast series called "Boom/Bust: The Rise and Fall of HQ Trivia" to cover exactly what happened behind the scenes. Over the course of seven episodes, the podcast delves into every aspect of "HQ Trivia" and the people running it.
CNN also produced a documentary film about the trivia mobile game. Premiering on March 5, 2023, "Glitch: The Rise & Fall of HQ Trivia" featured interviews with the likes of Scott Rogowsky and Sharon Carpenter, as well as prominent journalists and other members of staff who worked at the company.
However, "Glitch: The Rise & Fall of HQ Trivia" has also been subject to controversy itself. Some have questioned the motives of the filmmakers and criticized the way it only tells one side of the story rather than being an objective documentary. Former host Sarah Pribis has also spoken out to say she felt excluded from the documentary and couldn't give her thoughts on what had happened, while others were critical of the documentary copying aspects of The Ringer's podcast.