The hidden reason most people never saw a penny from HQ Trivia — until now

Update: On January 26, HQ Trivia announced on Twitter and during the game that it would be removing the $20 threshold and allowing users to cash out at any level. The original article about the $20 cash-out minimum is below.

If you’re one of the few and the lucky, you may have made it all the way to the end of HQ Trivia’s twice-daily roundup of 12 trivia questions. The app-based game show, which has taken the land by storm ever since its debut in late October 2017, is famously difficult to win — and not just because the questions get harder as you go along. Increasingly, as the app continues to explode in popularity, glitches and lags often jolt people out of the ability to answer correctly before the scant 10-second window to answer is up.

Those glitches can actually end up benefitting the lucky few who manage to stay connected and win the game. But even if you do win a piece of that day’s jackpot, there’s a catch, and it’s a big one: Most people who win HQ Trivia will never get to collect their cash. Yes, that includes the woman whose $11 win went viral because of her overjoyed reaction. Sorry, Lauren.

Because of some fine print in HQ Trivia’s Terms of Service, most players who win HQ Trivia will likely get caught in a tricky catch-22 that prevents them from being able to cash out their prize money.

This trap has two parts. The first is a requirement that you can’t cash out unless you win at least $20. Although the jackpot for HQ Trivia has been climbing higher and higher, with some recent prizes ranging from $10,000 to $20,000, its pool of participants has also been climbing, which means the amount split by the number of winners is usually less than $20. That means that if you want to actually take home your $1.86 in earnings, you have to play again and win again — until you’ve won enough times to bump your overall winnings up to the $20 mark.

That would be difficult enough, if not insurmountable, but there’s another obstacle to overcome that makes it even less likely. Not only are contestants required to play until they win the full $20, they only have 90 days to do it. After that, the Terms of Service declares, HQ Trivia can decline to award you your money:

A Contest winner’s failure to cash-out the Prize within the specified 90 days will be considered such Contest winner’s forfeiture of the Prize and Sponsor may, at its option and sole discretion, choose not to award the Prize at all.

Given how hard it is to win to begin with, the odds seem stacked against you winning the full $20 in three months, even if you play every day, twice a day. That means HQ Trivia is probably keeping far more money than it’s giving away.

So far, it seems like few people have cottoned on to this tactic. Then again, it also seems clear that plenty of people are happy to play through the glitches, lags, and shady business model in order to have a chance at winning for the sake of winning.

After all, game shows, pub quiz nights, and trivia contests have always been popular, whether or not contestants were able to walk away with a prize. For most of us, a huge part of the appeal is flexing your own memories and intellect and seeing how far you can go.

And to those gamers, we say: Good luck! Especially since bragging rights for your unlikely win will most likely be your only takeaway from the HQ experience.