Every once in a while, a new mobile app becomes popular seemingly overnight, akin to the rise of Flappy Bird or Trivia Crack. HQ Trivia quickly rose to prominence after it was released on iOS in 2017, and only became more popular after its Android debut in late 2017. Sadly, the app is no more, as the company behind it is shutting its doors.

CNN is reporting that HQ, the company behind the popular trivia game, is unable to raise additional funds from investors to keep operations going. "Lead investors are no longer willing to fund the company, and so effective today, HQ will cease operations and move to dissolution," CEO Rus Yusupov said in a company-wide email.

The message also explains that HQ hired a banker to help "help find additional investors and partners to support the expansion of the company," and while a buyer was found, the deal fell apart at the last minute. HQ's financial woes likely stems from the Trivia app losing much of its popularity over the past year — public interest has been on a slow decline since mid-2018, according to Google Trends. There was a spike in searches for the app in late 2018, but that was due to the co-founder's death in December.

Google searches for 'HQ Trivia' since 2017

The last trivia show was held earlier today, with a prize pool of $5. The hosts treated the event as a going away party, and were pretty drunk by the end of it. "Who likes healthy snacks! That’s why the investors stopped giving us money, because there wasn’t any f*cking snacks in this b*tch," host Matt Richards said. "We were snackless. Who the fuck can work in a place without snacks!"

HQ still had 25 full-time employees at the time of its closure. I wish HQ's employees the best of luck in their future endeavors, and on the bright side, having one of the most popular mobile apps in recent history on a resume isn't too shabby.

HQ Trivia Developer: Intermedia Labs
Price: Free
3.3
Download

Source: CNN