Three! Two! One! Colorful shapes and lines twist and turn on your phone screen while lively music pumps you up for the first question. You’re playing HQ Trivia: the live game show where you win real money, but only if you can make it through all 12 questions. This popular app has rocketed to popularity in the time since its release in August 2017. From prize money at its start ranging from $100-250, daily prizes have now soared to $2500 and as much as $18000 on New Years’ Eve. However, you do have to split the prize between anyone else who wins. In the past few months, numbers have consistently held up at 900 thousand to 1 million participants.

  It all begins with Scott Rogowsky, the show’s colorful host, cracking a few jokes and dangling the audience in anticipation for the first question. Once the game gets going, time moves pretty fast. You only have 10 seconds to answer the question, so if you’re not able to look up a few keywords on Google, you’ll have to use your knowledge and intuition to answer. The first few questions are usually pretty simple, with two out of the three answer choices being obviously wrong. However once you get to the fourth and fifth questions, it comes time to use your intellect and fast-thinking to win. The questions can be about anything from a certain chemical found in a household product to the past winner of a world series game. So far, I’ve been able to get to at most the sixth question from playing about 15 games in the past few weeks using mainly the help of the people around me, luck, and prior knowledge.

  The most important strategy is to be able to get past the “savage” questions, ones where the least likeliest answer is the correct one and around half of the participants end up getting eliminated. If you’re just guessing and can identify these questions, usually in the middle 5-8, try to choose the most counterintuitive answer. Pass these and with the help of extra lives (from friend referrals) and some practice, someday you may be looking at a nice handful of cash.

  The rush of the live game show and the engaging host add to the excitement of the money waiting for you at the end of the tunnel. Passing each question pumps your adrenaline more and more to  that you’ll finally be able to snatch the grand prize. Playing this game with friends is a great way to engage your competitive spirit and participate in something everyone can play. Download it on the app store today!