HQ Trivia's Scott Rogowsky Has America Tuning In Twice Daily On His Time

HQ trivia started a game-show-app phenomenon, spawning a host of imitators. Is it also a new model for brands?

- Lauren Johnson

Since December, twice a day, like clockworkI, Terry Berger, a 17-year-old high school junior from Atlanta, has been playing HQ Trivia, the mobile app game-show sensation. At 3 p.m. Berger, her fellow students and teachers huddle together over their smartphones, answering often silly, mostly vanilla questions about pop culture, science and history for the chance to win cash prizes. At 9 p.m. she’s at it again, this time with her family. In fact, HQ’s daily-double playing schedule is so drilled into Berger’s internal timetable that she doesn’t even need the app’s triggered push notifications to remind her it’s game time.

Nearly two weeks ago, Berger won $9.50, and while not exactly Powerball spoils, she calls it “the most exciting moment of my life,” saying, “I just [like] the thrill of playing, knowing that it’s a real money prize and seeing how many people are playing—you want to be a part of that.”

Like Berger, scores of players in offices, schools, factories and cafés across America— known as “HQties”—have made the gameshow app their twice-daily habit. According to the app-research firm Sensor Tower, since launching in August, HQ has been downloaded more than 5 million times.