These are press reports, not a study.
The figures and the causes come from reporting at the time. We have not seen HQ's own data, and a list of causes does not say how much each one weighed.
Research · published 18 September 2026 · from press reports
2.38 million players at once.
Two years later, gone.
HQ Trivia was a live quiz show on the phone: a host, about a dozen questions, ten seconds each, a shared cash prize, twice a day at fixed times. TechCrunch, 17 October 2017. The way it ended is a warning for anyone building a quiz, including us.
Peak concurrent players
2.38M
2.38 million in one game at the same time, late March 2018.
US App Store rank, Aug 2018
585
Down from No. 151 among all apps.
Games per day
2
At fixed times, noon and 6pm Pacific.
Ceased operations
2020
14 February, after a planned sale fell through.
The numbers, as reported
Every date below comes from TechCrunch's reporting at the time. We have not seen HQ's own data, and where the reporting gives a figure we quote it rather than recompute it.
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17 October 2017
A live quiz show on the phone
A host, about a dozen questions, ten seconds each, a shared cash prize, twice a day at fixed times. TechCrunch, 17 October 2017.
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Late March 2018
The peak: 2.38 million concurrent players
The highest number of players in one game at the same time, reported later the same year.
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14 August 2018
Concurrent players down, No. 151 to No. 585
TechCrunch reported that concurrent players had fallen from that peak and that HQ had dropped on the US App Store from No. 151 to No. 585 among all apps. HQ's CEO told TechCrunch that “games are a hits business”. The same piece noted that fixed game times can feel like an interruption: players are not always free at noon and 6pm Pacific. TechCrunch, 14 August 2018.
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14 February 2020
The end: funding stopped, operations ceased
A planned sale fell through, the lead investors stopped funding the company, and HQ ceased operations. TechCrunch, 14 February 2020.
Why it faded
The shutdown report lists several causes at once, and does not weigh them against each other. A co-founder died in 2018, and the company fought internally; around it, the game itself was getting easier to skip.
Running out of questions is not among the reported causes. Each game was a live show, from late August 2017 to February 2020.
The causes the reporting names
- the novelty wore off
- cheaters split prize pools down to cents
- competitors appeared around the world
- engineering problems frustrated players
- a co-founder died in 2018
- the company fought internally
- fixed game times can feel like an interruption (reported in 2018)
What this does not show
One case is not a rule.
HQ was a scheduled show for strangers with cash prizes. A quiz played in one room among people who know each other is a different thing, and may wear out differently.
What it means for klapp, in our reading.
klapp generates the questions, so it does not run out of them. HQ shows that fresh questions alone did not keep people coming back. We have not measured whether klapp's players return; until we have, that is an open risk, not a solved one.
The peak is a reported number, not a measured one.
2.38 million concurrent players is what TechCrunch reported. We have no way to check how it was counted or over what span of a game.
Also on this site: how many Kahoot users pay, and why klapp gives no points for speed.