HQ Trivia names new CEO and teases upcoming Wheel of Fortune-style game
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HQ Trivia is gearing up to debut a follow-up to its wildly popular live mobile game show.
Called HQ Words, the company announced this morning they’ll release the Wheel of Fortune-style game in October. In addition to the new game, the company is shaking up its management team. Co-founder Colin Kroll, formerly the company’s CTO, will take over as CEO. He’s replacing Rus Yusupov, who will now serve as HQ’s chief creative officer. According to Digiday, who first reported the news, Kroll will manage the business while Yusupov “conceives of and designs the new shows.”
HQ Trivia, which airs twice per day and awards winners as much as $100,000 for successfully answering 12 questions, debuted on the app store last August and was a viral success. The game, usually hosted by comedian Scott Rogowsky (pictured above), spawned a whole cohort of copycats as a result
Its app store ranking, however, has been steadily decreasing in recent months, as pointed out by TechCrunch’s Josh Constine in a recent article on HQ Trivia’s Apple TV app launch. In a response to that article, Yusupov hinted at new games in development: “Games are a hits business and don’t grow exponentially forever. HQ has massive early traction and still millions playing daily. Also developing new game formats, one of which we think is really special and complements Trivia nicely. More soon! Until then thanks for playing.”
As of January, HQ Trivia was attracting more than 1 million gamers to its live broadcasts. According to Sensor Tower, its app has been downloaded nearly 13 million times.
The company, founded by the entrepreneurs behind Vine, has raised some $24 million to date, garnering a $100 million valuation earlier this year. It’s backed by Founders Fund, Shrug Capital and Lightspeed Ventures.
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