HQ Trivia prize pots are about to get a lot bigger as the live trivia show brings on its first corporate sponsors and advertisers.

HQ Trivia Nike
To celebrate Nike's Air Max Day today, for example, HQ will be hosting a surprise 15-question game with a shared $100,000 prize. It appears this will be a bonus round in addition to the regular games at 3 p.m. and 9 p.m. Eastern Time, so players will need to keep an eye on their iPhones for a notification at any time.

A spokesperson for HQ told MacRumors that the game will also feature "a prize that money can't buy" for 100 winners. Based on promotional tweets from HQ and Nike, the prize could be limited edition pairs of Air Max shoes.


Then, on Wednesday at 9 p.m. Eastern Time, HQ will be hosting its biggest game yet -- a $250,000 prize pot -- sponsored by the upcoming Steven Spielberg film Ready Player One. Over the weekend, Ad Age reported that HQ inked a $3 million deal with studio Warner Bros. to promote three films in total.


HQ's largest jackpot to date has been $50,000, won by a single player on Sunday night. The game's record high for players is nearly 2.2 million, set on the evening of Sunday, March 4, during the 90th Academy Awards.

HQ's standard prize amount was recently raised to $5,000, which is often split by tens if not hundreds of players, in which cases each winner ends up with a small prize like $5 or $10. It's unclear if every round of HQ will eventually be sponsored, or if the larger jackpots will only take place periodically.

For those unaware, HQ is a live trivia show that launched on iPhone in August, and on Android around New Year's Day. In a standard game, players attempt to answer a series of 12 questions correctly to win a cash prize. To reduce cheating, players have less than 10 seconds to choose one of three answers.

The show is hosted every day at 9:00 p.m. Eastern Time, and at 3:00 p.m. every weekday, most often by comedian Scott Rogowsky. A valuable tip: you can swipe right on the chat to hide the endless flow of comments.

If you haven't played HQ yet, you can download the game from the App Store and sign up for free. The app is also available on Google Play.

Top Rated Comments

SigurTom Avatar
94 months ago
Better get rid of SCOTT first. All potential new players who might hear about this and sit through one round on SCOTT'S non-stop chitter chatter talk fests will leave FAST. He tries too hard to be super cool, super hip, and super funny and fails at all three... consistently. Get a new host who talks 95% less and they'll be on the right track.
You're insane, Scott is the best. None of the guest hosts even come close.
Score: 12 Votes (Like | Disagree)
ckelley Avatar
94 months ago
Better get rid of SCOTT first. All potential new players who might hear about this and sit through one round on SCOTT'S non-stop chitter chatter talk fests will leave FAST. He tries too hard to be super cool, super hip, and super funny and fails at all three... consistently. Get a new host who talks 95% less and they'll be on the right track.
Scott is the best, I keep watching just for Scott even after I've been eliminated. Quiz Khalifa all day.
Score: 10 Votes (Like | Disagree)
CIA Avatar
94 months ago
Don't lose heart, I'm sure someone will come up with a "grandpa edition" with Wilford Brimley or something.
With Werther's Original as prizes instead of cash.
Score: 4 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Swampthing Avatar
94 months ago
Better get rid of SCOTT first. All potential new players who might hear about this and sit through one round on SCOTT'S non-stop chitter chatter talk fests will leave FAST. He tries too hard to be super cool, super hip, and super funny and fails at all three... consistently. Get a new host who talks 95% less and they'll be on the right track.
Score: 4 Votes (Like | Disagree)
ignatius345 Avatar
94 months ago
Completely agree, I put the thing on mute in the beginning because I know for 5-10 minutes before the game is supposed to start he will be droning on and on about stupid ****, with some "super kewl" Millennial references peppered in nonsensically. I find him really annoying.
Don't lose heart, I'm sure someone will come up with a "grandpa edition" with Wilford Brimley or something.
Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)
ArtOfWarfare Avatar
94 months ago
Better get rid of SCOTT first. All potential new players who might hear about this and sit through one round on SCOTT'S non-stop chitter chatter talk fests will leave FAST. He tries too hard to be super cool, super hip, and super funny and fails at all three... consistently. Get a new host who talks 95% less and they'll be on the right track.
Any other host would be #NotMyQuizDaddy.

Anyways, I don't like the winner-take-all that they've started doing Sundays. I never win anyways, but I've made it to round 10 or so before... that was close and felt close. Making it winner take all dramatically reduces my odds of actually winning anything, so I don't like playing those games. Will this special $100K game be winner take all? I'll give it a shot if not. Otherwise, eh, won't bother.
Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)

Popular Stories

iPhone 17 Pro Blue Feature Tighter Crop

iPhone 17 Pro Launching in Three Months With These 12 New Features

Saturday June 14, 2025 5:45 pm PDT by
The iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone 17 Pro Max are three months away, and there are plenty of rumors about the devices. Below, we recap key changes rumored for the iPhone 17 Pro models as of June 2025:Aluminum frame: iPhone 17 Pro models are rumored to have an aluminum frame, whereas the iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 16 Pro models have a titanium frame, and the iPhone X through iPhone 14 Pro have a...
apple watch ultra 2 new black

Apple Watch Ultra 3 Finally Coming After Two-Year Hiatus

Monday June 16, 2025 8:45 am PDT by
Apple will finally deliver the Apple Watch Ultra 3 sometime this year, according to analyst Jeff Pu of GF Securities Hong Kong (via @jukanlosreve). The analyst expects both the Apple Watch Series 11 and Apple Watch Ultra 3 to arrive this year (likely alongside the new iPhone 17 lineup, if previous launches are anything to go by), according to his latest product roadmap shared with...
apple watch ultra snow

6 Features Coming to the Apple Watch Ultra 3

Tuesday February 25, 2025 9:00 am PST by
The Apple Watch Ultra 3 is expected to launch later this year, arriving two years after the previous model with a series of improvements. While no noticeable design changes are expected for the third generation since the company tends to stick with the same Apple Watch design through three generations before changing it, there are a series of internal upgrades on the way. By the time the ...
terminal macos tahoe

Apple's Terminal App Gets Colorful Redesign in macOS Tahoe

Monday June 16, 2025 4:12 am PDT by
Apple's Terminal app is getting a visual refresh in macOS Tahoe, and it's the first notable design update since the command-line tool debuted. The updated Terminal will support 24-bit color and Powerline fonts, according to Apple's State of the Platforms presentation at WWDC25. The app will also adopt the new Liquid Glass aesthetic with redesigned themes that align with macOS 26's broader...
iOS 26 on Three iPhones

Apple Says iOS 26 Won't Be Available on These iPhone Models

Tuesday June 10, 2025 6:58 am PDT by
Apple this week revealed that iOS 26 is compatible with the iPhone 11 series and newer. That means that iOS 18 is the end of the road for the iPhone XS, iPhone XS Max, and iPhone XR, which were all released in 2018. However, those devices will continue to receive security updates for at least a few more years. iOS 26 is compatible with the following iPhone models: iPhone 16e iPhone...
new iphone lockscreen ios 26

iOS 26: Five Changes Coming to Your iPhone Lock Screen

Tuesday June 17, 2025 8:46 am PDT by
With iOS 26, Apple has made some additions to the iPhone Lock Screen that aim to make it more customizable than ever. Of course, things can always change before the software makes its way to the general iPhone-owning public, but here are five new things iOS 26 can do on the Lock Screen as of the current developer beta. Widgets Top or Bottom In iOS 18, the row of widgets on your Lock...
iOS 18

Apple Releases iOS 18.6 Public Beta

Wednesday June 18, 2025 10:24 am PDT by
Apple today seeded the first betas of upcoming iOS 18.6 and iPadOS 18.6 updates to public beta testers, with the betas coming just a few days after Apple provided the betas to developers. Testers who have signed up for beta updates through Apple's beta site can download iOS 18.6 and iPadOS 18.6 from the Settings app on a compatible device by going to General > Software Update. When the...