HQ Trivia, the livestreaming quiz show app that shuttered last month, has made its grand return — when quarantined citizens the globe over are holed up at home seeking entertainment, no less.
Co-founder and CEO Rus Yusupov tweeted about the app’s resurrection yesterday, when a notification was also sent out to players that a game was taking place yesterday evening at its usual time: 9 pm ET. The Wall Street Journal reports that the app’s return was funded by an anonymous investor, as noted by host Matt Richards during the live broadcast yesterday.
The return game offered a $1,000 prize pool, and saw more than 100,000 players log in at the start of the game, according to the Journal. The company also announced that it is donating $100,000 to chef Jose Andres’ World Central Kitchen, a nonprofit devoted to providing meals in the wake of natural disasters that is also helping people in need amid the coronavirus pandemic.
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Congrats to all of tonight’s winners! We are happy to be back and also proud to donate $100,000 to @chefjoseandres’s @WCKitchen which is helping so many in need during this pandemic.
— HQ Trivia (@hqtrivia) March 30, 2020
HQ Trivia launched in 2017 and at its peak was garnering millions of players daily to its twice-a-day multiple choice quiz show games, which also offered generous cash prizes. But as viewership declined, investors pulled the plug on funding last month, and the company laid off its remaining 25 staffers as it moved toward a process of dissolution. Yusupov said that the company had received an offer to be acquired that ultimately fell through.
Shortly thereafter, however, Yusupov tweeted that he’d managed to find “a new home for HQ, with a company that wants to keep it running.” Money from the sale would initially pay for severance for employees and contractors, as well as to cash out winners, he said. “In its new home, we should expect HQ to go through some changes, especially to cover expenses, and be less buggy.”
