HQ Trivia for Android: Everything you need to know

What you need to get started with the hottest trivia game for Android!

We love trivia games. Whether they be on the television or at the table-top, quiz and trivia games have been a long-time favorite for a lot of people. HQ Trivia is the evolution of everything from those old black and white shows from yesteryear through to today's newest tech, all mashed together into one heck of a fun app.

HQ can be a lot of fun, and with a chance to win real money — a lot of it — everyone is playing! There are 800,000 to 1,000,000 players regularly tuned in to the twice-daily show and the app nearly hit the 2,000,000 player mark during the game played during this year's Super Bowl halftime. Needless to say the game has grown massively since its debut in beta-form for Android.

1M! congrats @hqtrivia pic.twitter.com/jS2gewo5ee

— Sam Sheffer (@samsheffer) January 8, 2018

Here's what you need to get started having fun and winning some cash.

What is HQ Trivia?

Think of HQ Trivia as a live game-show app. It's very much like Jeopardy! except you don't have to fly to a TV studio to get in on the action and play.

Twice on weekdays at 3 pm and 9 pm Eastern, a host hands out multiple choice questions on a wide range of topics and you answer as best you can. Get all 12 correct and you win a share of the pot. Get a question wrong, and you're out for the session and will need to wait until the next round to try again.

You watch and play right from your phone, as it happens in real time, against hundreds of thousands of other players. Prizes range from a few dollars to a whopping $20,000 we saw given away in that Super Bowl game and it goes straight into your PayPal account. It's a lot of fun and a chance to win real money — two things we all love. Prizes for Sunday night games now regularly top out around $25,000

How to download HQ Trivia

That's the easiest part! HQ Trivia for Android is officially out of beta so all you need to do is fire up the Google Play Store app!

Downloading and installing HQ Trivia is completely free.

Download HQ Trivia from Google Play (free)

How to sign up

You'll need a unique username and a phone number to get started with HQ Trivia.

You sign up right inside the app and it is the first thing you'll be asked to do when you open it. When a game isn't in session, opening the app tells you when the next one starts and lets you see your total winnings or look through the leaderboards.

Be sure to read the terms and conditions before you go any further, and after you're properly signed in you are asked f you'd like to receive push notifications letting you know when games are about to begin so you can get in on the action.

How to play

Right now HQ Trivia is free to play and free of any ads. Make sure you're signed in on your phone and every day at 9 pm and weekdays at 3 pm all you need to do is open the app to get started.

You'll be asked a question and given three possible answers. Questions cover just about every topic imaginable and just like the game shows you'll see on TV they can be hard or they can be easy, but get progressively more trivial as the game goes on. Answer correctly before the 10-second timer runs out and you move to the next question. Get it wrong or take too much time and you're out until the next game.

There's a live chat during each game if you want to be a little social, but you can also swipe it off the screen if it gets too distracting.

If you're booted, you still get to stay and watch the others play. This is almost as much fun as playing yourself!

Extra lives

Like any good game worth its salt, HQ Trivia gives you extra lives.

If you have an extra life while you're playing a game, you get a chance to answer a question wrong or take too much time and not be ejected from the game. If that happens and you have an extra life on your account, you'll get the option of spending your extra life to stay in the game. You can only spend one extra life per game so make them count!

You earn extra lives by referring your friends to HQ Trivia.

How much can I win?

A lot! While HQ Trivia is free to download and play, you can win real money if you make it to the end of a game.

Total prizes start around $2,000 and are split evenly between everyone who survived the 12-questions. If everyone is eliminated the prize rolls over to the next game. It keeps going until someone wins.

HQ used to have you wait until you hit the $20 mark you can cash out via PayPal, but they've changed the rules so you can cash out your winnings no matter the prize amount. You won't need to enter a credit card or pay anything to play.

Update February 2018: HQ Trivia is out of beta! Updated our info here to reflect the latest news and info surrounding the game.