There are quite a few trivia apps out there that allow you to win real money, but most of them aren’t worth your time.
Either the earnings potential isn’t very high or there isn’t enough of an active user base to find constant games to join.
The apps I’ve outlined below have been extensively tested by me over many months and they all work really well. They also let you actually win some decent money playing trivia.
One even lets you play to win prizes as big as $22,0000 (more on that one later). Another has a community of over 3 million people and hundreds of games running at any given moment. And yet another pays out over $1 million per day.
If you like the idea of testing your knowledge while winning cash prizes, read on.
#1 – Trivia Star
Trivia Star is one of the most popular trivia apps that offers real money prizes and is available in both the Google Play store and Apple Store.
How It Works
You can either play for free or purchase in-app coins to enter tournaments.
The higher the buy-in, the bigger the prize pool and number of questions you’ll need to answer to reach the final round.
There are five rounds in each tournament and if you get all the answers right in the first four rounds, you’ll get to play a jackpot round where you can win up to 10 times your entry fee.
mobile casino siteSay you enter a $1 tournament. If you get through all five rounds you’ll have a shot at winning an additional $10. Trivia Star pays out 35% of its revenues in jackpots every day.
- Five question rounds
- Maximum three incorrect answers per round before elimination
- Enter tournaments for free or with coins
- Win extra coins for each correct answer and for beating players
- Cash out via PayPal or bank transfer
Trivia Star has a four star rating in the App Store from nearly 7,000 reviews. Most users seem to enjoy the wide range of topics covered during the various question rounds. Some complain about cheaters using third party software to hack the system.
In general though, it has good ratings across the board for being a fun, legit way to test your trivia skills. The app has been downloaded between 100,000 and 500,00 times, which means there’s almost always a steady stream of games to jump into.
Click Play Below to See What the Trivia Star App Looks Like
It takes about 48 hours to process withdrawals, which you can start at $20. You can accumulate funds in your account by earning bonus coins for answering questions correctly or defeating opponents.
#2 – Trivial Guru
This is a newer app than some of the others but it’s gaining popularity because it’s one of the only ones where you can win cash prizes without making any purchases.
Most similar apps require you to buy in but not Trivial Guru. It does offer “gems” you can acquire to boost your gameplay but it’s entirely optional. The more you use the app the more gems you’ll accumulate anyway.
Gems give you benefits such as the ability to veto questions, change categories and skip rounds. But again, they’re not necessary to play and win.
Trivial Guru offers 16 different categories to test your knowledge in, a few of which include movies, music, TV, sports, history, celebrities, science and fiction. Each game consists of 20 questions so you’ll have plenty of opportunities to display your trivia prowess.
Multiplayer games support up to four participants at a time and the faster you answer the better. That’s because there’s a timed component to each question in addition to the buzzer feature, meaning skill plays a big role here.
Click Play Below to See What the Trivial Guru App Looks Like
One unique element of this app is its social component. Not only can you challenge your Facebook friends to duels but you can join clubs and participate in weekly tournaments to win extra prizes.
Staken Best Slots to Play Online - Christmas Jackpot IncludedTrivial Guru pays out real cash prizes twice per month and transfers funds directly into your PayPal account.
It has great ratings in the App Store with a 4.5 score from nearly 4,000 reviewers. One user complained that the app has too many ads but most say it’s a lot of fun with a good community.
How to Win at Trivia
Whether you’re looking to make money playing trivia online or just hang with your friends, these tips will help improve your chances of success…
- Read a lot. The more information you consume the more likely you are to retain useful tidbits of information. This could be anything from news articles to Wikipedia pages to encyclopedias. Basically anything that presents new facts to your brain is beneficial.
- Watch TV shows that focus on trivia. Shows like Jeopardy!, Wheel of Fortune, Family Feud, Who Wants to Be a Millionaire and Match Game are good to watch for improving your trivia skills. Documentaries and educational programs are good too.
- Play a lot. The more you play word trivia games the more familiar the material will become. You’ll start to recognize common themes and patterns, giving you a leg up on the competition.
- Study. You can study for trivia like you would study for an exam. Look up random bits of information on the Internet and write them down. Make flashcards. Read books. Do whatever you did in school to prepare for tests.
- Pay attention to details. A big part of doing well at trivia is recognizing little known facts. For example you might know that Tom Hanks acted in the movie “Apollo 13” but did you know his wife Rita Wilson wrote the song “Endless Love”? That’s a trivia question waiting to happen.
- Think quickly. In most trivia games, including those online, there’s a timer. The faster you can ring in and answer the question, the better off you’ll be. Part of this comes with practice but part of it is just natural ability. If you consider yourself slow or methodical when thinking, work on training your mind to react more quickly.
- Consider having a team. Even if the eventual goal is to win money playing trivia online by yourself, it’s smart to compete on teams in person. For one, it’s more fun. And two, it’ll show you what types of people you meshed well with under pressure. Once you’ve got your dream team put together, come up with a name and enter as a unit in future competitions.
- Use context to your advantage. Even if you don’t know the answer to a question, sometimes you can make an educated guess based on other information you do know. For example, if the question is “What connects ______ and ___________?” and you know the two things it connects are a mountain range and a body of water, you can probably guess the answer even if you don’t know the specifics.
- Don’t be afraid to ask your table/audience. When playing live in front of an audience, it’s okay to ask for help on the harder questions. This can backfire, though, if you’re obviously struggling and your table feeds the opponent the answer. So pick your moments wisely.
- Know your strengths and weaknesses. It can be tempting to try and be well rounded in all subjects but it’s hard to retain a ton of information about everything under the sun. Instead, focus on the things you’re already good at and enjoy learning about. Chances are, if you’re passionate about a subject, there are dozens of related questions that could come up in a trivia game.
- Listen carefully. In many cases the host or question reader will give you valuable clues within the wording of the question or follow up prompts. Things like “the answer is a noun” or “this can also be found in the kitchen” should tip you off as to how to tackle finding the solution.
#3 – Fast Trivia
Fast Trivia is one of the top-rated apps for playing trivia games online to win real money because there’s a low buy-in cost and tons of games to choose from.
Rather than hosting extremely large tournaments with 100+ players, Fast Trivia keeps it around 12 per game. That creates a tight-knit community feel while also allowing you to earn more points since there are fewer competitors.
of the Craziest Proposed Casino Projects EverThere are multiple ways to play with prizes ranging from $9 to $60. The most involves answering unlimited questions over the course of 60 minutes. The more you get right, the more points you earn.
Fast Trivia offers six different tournament styles plus a couple special ones. The most popular is called “Classic” and requires players to answer eight questions in a private room setting. First place wins 55% of the prize pool while second and third get 30 and 15%, respectively.
All told there are over 500,000 people who have played Fast Trivia with 25,000-plus concurrent users at peak times. No wonder it has a 4.5 rating on the App Store with thousands of favorable reviews.
Click Play Below to See What the Fast Trivia App Looks Like
Fast Trivia offers dozens of categories like animals, movies, history, geography, science, sports and TV. New players receive 10,000 free coins to get started along with an easy interface for purchasing more. Every correct answer rewards you with additional coins.
You can exchange 4,000 coins for $1 or keep grinding to reach the 400,000-coin mark which is worth $100.
Withdrawals take 48-72 hours to process and can be deposited in PayPal or bank accounts.
#4 – Trivia Crack Kingdoms
Of all the apps on this list, Trivia Crack Kingdoms has the highest minimum payout at $25. But it’s still one of the better options for winning money playing trivia online because there are hundreds of thousands of users and several unique ways to collect coin.
First off, there are the traditional trivia matches where you go head to head with an opponent to answer questions and crown yourself the winner. The other way to collect coins is by expanding your kingdom and completing missions.
Like other apps of this nature, you can use coins to enter higher stakes tournaments with bigger prize pools. There are seven rounds in each match and if you win all of them you get to spin the jazz hands wheel for a chance to win up to 10x your entry fee.
Click Play Below to See What the Trivia Crack Kingdoms App Looks Like
On top of the traditional monarchs, there are five kingdoms you can expand your reign over – Robbing, Wales, Barrons, Scotland and Ireland. Expanding your territory awards you with bonus coins.
As for missions, there are about a dozen at a time to complete, tasks such as winning five matches in a row, spinning the wheel five times and stealing five crowns.
An interesting dynamic of Trivia Crack Kingdoms is the ability to attack other players to steal their crowns. Of course they can do the same to you so it’s important to build up your castle defense stats.
Some categories you can test your knowledge on include US States, Biology, Art, Literature, Mathematics, Geography, History Sports, Mixed, Hollywood Fiction, Anime & Manga, Mythology, Music, General Knowledge, Bible, Animals, Logic, Video Games Movies and Trains.
Safe, Licensed Real Money Gambling Sites That Accept PayPalThe app has been downloaded between 100k-500k times and maintains a strong 4.2 rating from 5,000-plus reviews in the App Store. Users like the variety of trivia games, opportunity to expand kingdoms and attack opponents.
One complaint is that you’ll often have to sit through 30-second videos to continue after making a bad answer or losing a match. Some have also reported glitches and bugs within the app.
#5 – QuizSwarm
QuizSwarm is the creation of poll and survey maker PollEverywhere and uses live trivia to get people engaged and interacting in real life settings like bars, parties and weddings.
Rather than one-on-one showdowns, QuizSwarm is designed for groups of 10 to 500+ people. One person serves as the moderator and sets up a few different question types.
These include picture trivia, multiple choice, true or false, word scramble, simple math questions and fill in the blank. Once everything is set up, players use their phones to connect to the game and compete against each other.
Live trivia is a great way to make some extra cash because you can split the entrance fee among friends and family to lower the individual risk. Plus, it’s just more fun to play with other people instead of strangers online.
Click Play Below to See What the QuizSwarm App Looks Like
Unlike other trivia apps where you’re pitted against one or more opponents, everyone in the Quizswarm room is working together to answer questions and advance. The top players are recognized, of course, but it’s definitely got more of a team feel to it.
Moderators have the option to enable a leaderboard to add a competitive edge. Prizes can be awarded to the winners if you want to turn this into a paid trivia game people can attend to win money.
Top-notch companies like Starbucks, Microsoft, NASA, TED, Google, Intel, Instagram, Oracle and Comedy Central use QuizSwarm to engage audiences in face-to-face question and answer sessions.
It’s a much better alternative to just talking at people, which was the norm for ages but thankfully falling by the wayside.
FanDuel Casino Alternatives to Try This YearQuizSwarm has some free question packs and then charges $9.99 for bundles like Pop Culture, Brainy, Sports, Foodie, Movie Buff, Picture This and Geek Out.
A cool feature of QuizSwarm is the ability to customize questions with your own logos and branding. This makes it perfect for corporate events, fundraisers and parties of any kind.
Reviewers on the App Store give QuizSwarm a 4.0 score. Many people use it for trivia nights at bars and venues while others appreciate the classroom element. Complaints are that it drains battery life and that some features are difficult to figure out.
#6 – Lucky Lit
Lucky Lit may be the best app for winning money playing trivia if only because it hosts a yearly tournament called the Literary Lucre that pays out $22,000 to the winner. Other events have paid out as much as $10,000 for second place and $5,000 for third.
Needless to say that’s a huge reward for answering literary trivia questions on your phone. The Literary Lucre usually takes place over the course of a week with dozens of the top players competing at once.
Outside of those major events, Lucky Lit functions similarly to other trivia apps in this niche. There’s nothing to download since it runs directly in browsers. Users can sign up with Facebook, Twitter, Yahoo or Google.
After logging in you’ll have access to dozens of trivia rooms featuring different difficulty levels and themes. Rooms are hosted by fans like you so there’s typically a new one popping up every hour or so.
Best Mobile Casino Sites for 2023 - Top Apps & Games to PlayIt’s completely free to play unless you enter one of the big tournaments. Even then you’re only paying a few dollars to participate. Payouts, however, escalate rapidly as the field sizes are substantial.
Lucky Lit has been featured in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Entertainment Weekly, USA Today, NPR, Wired, Time, Forbes, Huffington Post, Boston Globe, Chicago Tribune and other major media outlets.
Read some of the reviews on Facebook and you’ll see that Lucky Lit is beloved by book lovers everywhere. The only detractor seems to be the fact that it’s littered with popup ads asking you to like their page on Facebook or follow on Twitter.
Otherwise people love the literary trivia aspect and big-money tournament series.
#7 – Trivia Royale
Trivia Royale is unique in that you can win real cash prizes playing without spending a dime. It’s a battle royale style game where up to 250 players compete to answer questions and survive. Only one can win the 100,000 coin grand prize.
Everyone gets eight lives (answers) and the sooner you answer the faster your rogue will move, giving you an advantage. As you can probably guess, later rounds are tougher with nine questions rather than eight.
Coins can be exchanged for cash via Skrill or PayPal once you reach the minimum threshold of 35,000 coins. It may take a while to get there but remember you can earn coins for free by answering questions correctly and leading the pack.
Other ways to generate coins include opening treasure chests, signing in daily, watching rewarded ads, referring friends and participating in special events. Chests can be found throughout the game and contain anywhere from 500 to 30,000 coins plus special bonuses.
Great Promo Codes for Pennsylvania Online Casinos (Updated November 2023)Trivia Royale has been downloaded between 100k-500k times and has a solid 4.4 rating from nearly 25,000 reviews. Users like the social aspect of the game, quick rounds and opportunity to win real money.
Complaints are that it uses a lot of data/battery/storage space and that it has too many ads.
#8 – Trio Trivia
Rounding out the best apps that pay you to play trivia is Trio. This one differs slightly in that you form teams of three before entering tournaments.
That team dynamic adds a nice layer of strategy because you have to pick your partners wisely knowing what categories might come up. Otherwise you could be at a disadvantage if your teammates struggle with movies while you’re a film buff.
Fortunately Trio offers hundreds of categories to choose from so there’s a good chance you’ll find a few that match your skillset. A few examples include Disney, logos, food chain, countries, U.S. Presidents, planets, NBA teams, Beatles songs and ‘90s hip hop.
Up to 48 players can participate in each tournament with the winner getting 60% of the prize pool and the second and third place finishers claiming 30 and 10%, respectively. Everyone who reaches the fifth question gets a consolation prize of 2x their entry fee.
Click Play Below to See What the Trio App Looks Like
Trio allows you to chat with opponents and friends which adds another entertaining layer to the experience. It also has built-in support for Apple Watch, iMessage, and Siri so you can play whenever/wherever you want.
The developers behind Trio made Stella, which was named best game of the year by Apple in 2015. Clearly they know what they’re doing because Trio has a 4.6 rating on the App Store with rave reviews for its features, customer service and creativity.
To get started you’ll need to sign in with your Facebook account. From there you’ll receive 500 coins and have the option to purchase more. Ten dollars gets you 15,000 coins while a one-time purchase of 225,000 coins costs $99.
Coin totals are displayed publically next to your username so some people might choose to buy coins to appear more skilled or attractive to teammates.
Trio allows you to redeem coins for cash via PayPal or gift cards from retailers like Amazon, Walmart, Target, Starbucks, iTunes, Best Buy, Google Play and more. The minimum withdrawal amount is $2 with payments processing in 24-48 hours.
Winning Money Playing Trivia Online Tips
Trivia apps are a fun way to kill time and possibly win a few bucks. Here are some tried and true methods for maximizing your profits in this realm.
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Stay focused on your category strengths. It’s enticing to try and be a jack of all trades and master none, but that’s a surefire way to consistently place outside the top three. Rather than spreading yourself thin trying to learn random tidbits, hone your skills in areas where you already excel. That will give you confidence going into games and potentially allow you to dominate certain events. It also helps to have a team of varying experts so you can combine forces depending on the category.
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Use a buzzer. If you’re playing with friends you can find buzzers online that will alert you when to answer. This gives you a slight edge because the fastest player to press in gets the advantage. Some apps automatically track response time so that’s another good one to focus on if possible.
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Don’t get too cocky. It can be frustrating to answer question after question correctly only to lose in the end. However, you have to remember that luck plays a factor in trivia. Maybe you answered five in a row but the sixth question was your weakness while your opponent had answered every question correctly leading up to a category they knew like the back of their hand.
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Study old questions. Many trivia apps do not change their questions or at least rotate them very slowly. That means last month’s round may have the same queries as this month. Do some digging to find archived questions and study them accordingly. Then you’ll have an advantage in upcoming matches.
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Read the questions thoroughly. Sometimes there are hidden hints or tricks to answers within the text. Other times the answer is opposite of what you think. For instance, if the question asks about someone’s nationality, the answer will likely be the country, not the person in question.
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Play on teams if the option is available. As mentioned earlier, having a group of friends with diverse skillsets can lead to consistent success without relying on one person to carry the load. Plus it’s more fun to play with others.
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Join live trivia nights at local bars. This is a great way to test your mettle against real people instead of internet strangers. Often the questions are read aloud by a bartender or similar host, adding another intriguing dynamic to the mix. If you win, tip the bartender since they usually get a cut of the pot.
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Consider hiring an expert. Now we’re talking! Depending on the category, there are experts for hire on sites like Fivrr that can provide a relatively certain answer to a given question. Is it cheating? Yes. Will anyone care besides your ego? No. At some point money becomes more important than pride, and that’s when you hire an expert to give your trivia squad the edge it needs.
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Use your assets. Encourage team members to leverage their respective talents to aid in answering questions. For example, maybe your graphic designer friend can quickly identify a logo while your musician buddy knows every band and album ever created. Get creative.
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Play at work… Discretely. Keeping tabs open on your computer throughout the day is a fast track to termination. However, if your boss is cool with it and employee productivity isn’t suffering, why not fire up a trivia game or two and see if you can win money playing trivia online. Just be smart about it.
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Play for free. It’s tempting to sink $20 into a trivia game thinking you’re guaranteed to win money playing trivia apps online. However, this attitude ignores the Luck Factor. Even if you know all the answers, your category strengths may not line up with the opponents. So it’s wise to start by playing for free just to get your feet wet and gauge where you stand. Once you have a track record then you’ll know whether paying to play is a good investment.
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Have fun. Above all else, trivia games are meant to be enjoyable. Don’t let a loss get you down or cause you to lash out at your fellow players. Similarly, don’t get cocky and rub victory in people’s faces. Remember that there’s no prize for first place aside from bragging rights, which honestly aren’t worth much of anything.
Are There Apps That Pay Real Money for Answering Questions?
Yes there are legitimate apps that pay you to play trivia games online. The key is finding reputable ones that have sufficient traffic so games fill and tournaments are packed with opponents.
From there you’ll want to look for a variety of question categories and affordable entry fees. There’s no sense paying $10 to win $1, for example, since you’d have to win 10 times just to break even.
Remember that you can also win money playing trivia games online for free too. Start by assessing your strengths and weaknesses before seeking out apps that fit your style.
Hopefully this guide to the top apps that pay you to play trivia has been helpful and you’re able to generate some extra income while having fun.
You’ll definitely want to check out our list of the best sites like Swagbucks if you need even more ideas for ways to make money online. Good luck!
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