We are experiencing a situation of denial and despair and panic from the beginning of this month. The noble coronavirus outbreak has led to the shutting down of almost every business in the run. While we are spending this time locked up in our home, we are craving for entertainment. Though the situation is getting dangerous with every passing day, the human mind needs some peace as well. Trivia declared that it is back in business given that it announced its shut down a month ago. The shutdown of HQ Trivia took place all of a sudden in February. But, now the online quiz game is back again within a month. So, with an investor whose identity is not yet revealed, Trivia came back from the dead.
Trivia confirms the return
The return of the Trivia quiz was confirmed yesterday evening. After the struggle of one long month, Trivia announced its acquisition by a private investor. But, the name won’t be disclosed anytime soon. Trivia has also confirmed that it is not a one-off event. From now, Trivia will be hosting regular shows and new episodes will come along. But, since the company has just re-opened a day ago, it hasn’t released any schedule yet.
Rus Yusupov, co-founder and the CEO of HQ Trivia confirmed the company’s return with a tweet after the release of the big news. Trivia let their players know about this by releasing a push notification. It said about the online game that went live yesterday night at 9 PM. So, Trivia makes its comeback not only with a press release but it hosted an online day on the same day.
The rise before the fall
HQ Trivia became a big hit as soon as it was released in 2017 for the first time. Within two years it became one of the famous online quiz platforms. Rus Yusupov and Colin Kroll designed this game show and released it for the first time on 26th August 2017. This was available for both iOS and Android smartphones. Scott Rogowsky hosted the online quiz show of HQ Trivia. Matt Richards replaced him in 2019.
Within a couple of years, after this quiz app went viral, HQ Trivia witnessed participants ranging from 100,000 to 125,000. In March 2018, the app marked its highest record of concurrent players and it was 2.38 million. This year the company also saw more than 2 million monthly installs of the game. Eventually, it expanded around the globe with the exception of Russia and India. But, the company turned upside down due to many reasons and finally Rus was forced to shut it down.
Why Trivia was forced to shut down?
The technical crisis hit the companies very early, but the damages weren’t beyond repairable. After a year, HQ Trivia started facing major technical troubles and it was getting pretty hard to say on top. The co-founders tried its best to fight back and take its early position as one of the most popular apps. But, it, unfortunately, didn’t happen. Moreover, the company’s growth strategy backfired when Colin Kroll, former CEO of HQ Trivia, died of a drug overdose.
This had a very big negative impact on the status of the company. Running on loss or not able to stay in the competition is a different matter. But, this news led to losing the company’s reputation as well. Rus went through a pretty tough time and he took over the position of CEO in the company.
Rus tried his best to put Trivia back on track. He launched many new games, introduced a music-themed show, HQ tunes, and a live photo competition, changed some of the game formats, etc. He also brought the idea of a subscription plan to find a new source of revenue. But, all these efforts went in vain when Rus realized nothing brought back the craze for Trivia anymore.
From 2 million monthly downloads, the monthly installs dropped to 67,000 in 2020. This is when Rus let his employees know that the existing investors are not willing to invest anymore. And, they needed to shut down the company immediately.
The strategic return
HQ Trivia made its return just when the noble coronavirus is creating panic within us. So, the online game show hosted yesterday came with a message on the spread of coronavirus. And, the comeback also includes donating $100,000 to World Central Kitchen to feed those in need in this emergency.
Annasha Dey is an NIT student, who apart from studying engineering is also a content writer. She has a great interest in photography, writing, reading novels, and travelling as well. She is a foodie who loves socializing and hanging out with her friends. She is also a trained Kathak dancer and a big fashion enthusiast. Dey also loves watching TV series, which includes F.R.I.E.N.D.S. and Big Bang Theory. To be a better writer she prefers to read more