HQ Trivia has had a rough 2019. The live-game-show startup has struggled to recover from the loss of cofounder and CEO Colin Kroll, who died unexpectedly in December.
In April, about half of HQ Trivia's 35 employees signed a letter asking the company's board to remove cofounder Rus Yusupov as CEO, the second time the request was made. The longtime host Scott "Quiz Daddy" Rogowsky also left HQ Trivia in April.
Now, Tech Crunch has reported that HQ Trivia laid off about 20% of its staff, leaving the company with less than 30 employees. Business Insider has reached out to HQ Trivia in an attempt to confirm the layoffs.
Meanwhile, monthly downloads of the HQ Trivia app dropped by nearly 92% in June compared with 2018, based on data from the analyst group Sensor Tower.
HQ Trivia is now gearing up to test a new subscription-based business model. A tweet from the HQ Words spinoff app said the company would introduce a new monthly subscription for HQ Words in July, which will let subscribers compete for cash prizes each day.
All of HQ Trivia's games have been available for free since the app launched in August 2017. The app offers three different games, HQ Trivia, HQ Sports, and HQ Words. HQ Trivia has a minimum prize of $2,500, but prize pools have reached up to $300,000 for a single game. Winnings are typically shared between multiple users, which significantly decreases the amount of money each winner receives.
Season four of HQ Trivia launched in May, promising users more prize money and more ways to win. The new season also introduced a new lineup of hosts, with Matt Richards replacing Rogowsky as the main HQ Trivia host, Anna Roisman taking over as host of HQ Words, and Lauren Gambino as host of HQ Sports. Sharon Carpenter is also on the team as a fill-in host.