Remember the days when live trivia apps were all the rage, and you could actually win a few bucks in daily quizzes? Back in HQ Trivia’s heyday, the app had millions of active users. The reason live trivia apps were so successful was because of the live element. When it was first introduced, it was unique and unheard of. People felt as though they were on a television game show.
As time went by, live trivia apps lost popularity. HQ Trivia was one of the first ones to go. The app simply couldn’t handle its own success. As people began to crack the game, the prizes got smaller and smaller. It got to the point where each winner would only walk away with a few cents. The game lost its novelty element and was no longer interesting to the players.
Others followed. Many apps stopped doing payouts and communicating with their players. Some stopped streaming live games with no warning or explanation. Because of that, it’s become quite hard to find active live trivia apps today. It seems that the demand is still there, but the supply is dwindling. Are there any live trivia apps left? Let’s find out!
Swagbucks LIVE
Available on iOS and Google Play.
Swagbucks LIVE is one of the original live trivia apps on the market. It is one of the few that has stood the test of time. The way the game works is very similar to HQ Trivia. Players compete in daily challenges that consist of 10 rounds of questions. The winners all split a pool of Swagbucks cash. That’s not the same as actual cash; you can redeem your winnings for gift cards or PayPal cash.
Unlike in HQ Trivia, you still get rewarded for playing even if you don’t win. You can win some Swagbucks just for playing. You can then use those to buy your way back into the game if you were eliminated early on. The app is still active, though it’s been getting lots of negative reviews lately. The main problem is that there are more and more players (and winners), but the amount of money the winners get is the same. Because so many people are playing, you can hardly win over a dollar.
Lucktastic Trivia Live
Available on iOS and Google Play.
Lucktastic Trivia Live is an app with live hosts that is only available to players living in the US. The app offers live trivia games that will challenge you and provide lots of entertainment. You can win real cash prizes during the live games and compete against random players from all over the world in real time.
The game is not that different from all the regular trivia games you’re familiar with. There are the same general knowledge categories with the same gameplay. You can win points for answering questions correctly and use them to enter sweepstakes for a chance to win money or exchange them for gift cards.
While the game doesn’t have terrible reviews, it’s also not five-star rated. Reviews from this month share that playing the game can be fun, but winning money is nearly impossible. This just in: don’t rely on Lucktastic Trivia Live (or any other live trivia app for that matter) to win money!
Givling
Available on iOS.
At first glance, the app looks dead. If you ever used it in the past, you will notice that Givling is no longer available on Android devices. The latest reviews in the App Store are from the year 2019. However, that’s deceiving. Givling is very much alive. In fact, the latest blog post from the company dates only a few days ago.
The premise of the app is quite unique and unusual. It starts off like any other trivia game; there are two daily live games that you can participate in. Where things get weird is that you get to play in teams. When you join the game, you’re assigned to a team with two other players. You then get to answer true or false questions until you run out of time or get a question wrong. At the end of the game, the team with the most points is determined and gets to split the cash prize.
But that’s not all! As you play trivia games, you can accumulate queue points. These points can push you to the top of the queue. What is everyone queuing for, you ask? To get their student loans and mortgages paid off! If you can manage to get to the top of the queue, Givling will contribute up to $50,000 to your student loan or mortgage alleviation.
Are you going to get your loans paid off by Givling after playing a few games of trivia? Probably not. However, it’s still an awesome initiative that deserves more recognition.
Dabbl
Available on iOS and Google Play.
Dabbl isn’t like the other apps on this list. With Dabbl, you cannot exactly win money in exchange for answering trivia questions. You can, however, win gift cards! Some of the partners you can win gift cards from include Amazon, Walmart, Disney, Starbucks, and Target. This app is only available to residents of the US with a US phone number.
The premise of the app is doing small tasks in exchange for gift cards. Those tasks include watching videos, taking surveys, playing trivia games, and more. There is no magic here and you will need to spend quite a lot of time on the app to get rewarded. However, you can cash out as soon as you’ve earned $5, which makes it quite easy to use your earnings.
HOFr
Available on iOS and Google Play.
HOFr is trivia for sports lovers. The app combines elements of trivia and betting. As a result, players must make bets and predictions about major sporting events. The game is not limited to any one sport; all sports are welcome. HOFr is only available to US residents.
At the end of last year, many of the great reviews were replaced by poor reviews from dissatisfied players. People complained about having to pay to play. HOFr replied and said that “the free to play (model) was not economically viable,” which is why they had to make the transition. While it makes sense in economic terms, we can understand some players’ disappointment. Hopefully the game will introduce a free model again in the future.
Final Words
If this list looks rather short to you, it’s because it is. Many live trivia apps that allowed you to win money in the past have bankrupted. Others simply went too commercial and no longer have the approval of the public. Many apps like Societi and Ready Games are still available for download, but the apps don’t work. You can’t open the app without crashing, and if you manage to get in, you won’t get past the registration tab.
One of the reasons live trivia apps are going out of business is because they simply cannot afford to keep up with the bots. HQ Trivia started to fail because of AI bots that made winning way too easy and losing nearly impossible. With so many people playing and cheating, the pool of winners got bigger and bigger while the amount of money the winners got to split stayed the same. Eventually, the payouts got so small that people lost interest.
The apps that we have here are some of the few that survived to this day and continue to offer their players honest payouts and frequent games. Is it possible to win money playing trivia games? Yes, it is, but you will hardly win more than a few bucks. In this day and age, and considering how easy it is to cheat, bagging large amounts is just not realistic anymore. Check out these apps and see for yourself!
Are there any live trivia apps that we overlooked? What’s your experience with these (and other) apps? Please let us know in the comments!
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