HQ gets into the branded game making an argument that the trivia app is here to stay

Wonder how HQ keeps the lights on? Well, wonder no more — the company recently landed its first pair of big boy (or girl) sponsorships with Warner Bros. and Nike. Nike and HQ banded together to ...

Wonder how HQ keeps the lights on? Well, wonder no more — the company recently landed its first pair of big boy (or girl) sponsorships with Warner Bros. and Nike.

HQ gets into the branded game making an argument that the trivia app is here to stay

Nike and HQ banded together to create a surprise third game on Monday (they usually only do 2), with a $100k cash prize and 100-sneaker giveaway. The WB sponsorship, reportedly worth $3m, included a Ready Player One tie-in with a $250k jackpot yesterday.

Is it time we stop looking at HQ as a fluke?

When it started last August, the business model appeared shaky — HQ put millions of VC money into their player’s pockets, hoping to lure an audience and pay the money back later — and now, it looks like it’s starting to work.

After crossing the 1m participant mark in January, they now hit that number on the reg — and saw a record-high 2.2m users in last Sunday’s session, thanks to a special game that rewarded a single player with the entire prize pool.

Sponsorships mean they can up the ante

With the success of these recent promotions, we expect more advertisers will line up to work with the company on creating custom trivia questions, ad spots, and other marketing tie-ins.

But, now that the audience has a taste for some of these bigger prize pools, the pressure’s on for HQ to continue to top themselves. After all, the players aren’t exactly in it for Scott Rogowsky’s charisma. 

It’s all about the tickle cash babayyy.

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