The viral HQ live trivia app has students pulling their phones out in class. The game rewards winners from each round with a split cash prize.
Kelly Griffin, a junior at UCF, said “I mostly find time to play [HQ] in my statistics class.”
Though the app is free, it has an estimated 1.2 million players which results in the app making enough money to give back to its users. The game is hosted live everyday at 9 p.m. and at 3 p.m. on weekdays. To win the game you must answer 12 multi-choice trivia questions. The questions are timed so users have to think fast. The rounds have cash prizes varying from $1,000 to $10,000.
“It’s really cool how the game is live and it’s crazy seeing how fast it’s growing. When I started playing about 700k people played each game. Now it’s up to 1.2 million on average,” said Xander Harris, a sophomore at UCF.
Though several students spoke out about their thoughts on the game, an actual winner never spoke out. To win a round you’d have to be very knowledgeable or just very lucky.
“The reason I’ve started playing less is because it’s so hard. Unless I got help, there’s no way I’d know all 12 questions to win. But I still like the thought of winning free money from a game so I still play occasionally,” said Harris.
Though the game is played by millions, it still has its flaws. Because the game has so many users the app is prone to video lagging and glitches.
“I don’t like how it [HQ] lags. They need to fix the bandwidth of their app,” said Griffin.
Overall students still enjoy playing the game. Several students said the idea of possibly winning keeps them motivated to keep trying.
The app is available for download for both IPhones and Androids in the App Store.
