Music trivia games seem to be undergoing a resurgence as of late, with browser titles such as Heardle 90s seeing an explosion in popularity over the last couple of years. How come?

Music trivia in game form for mobile devices may well have started with the text-based Music Quiz on the original iPod. Users were prompted with a short snippet of a song in their library, along with multi-choice options in the form of song titles. Points were awarded for guessing the correct answer in time. Simple, but very effective.

The legacy of Music Quiz continued on to smartphones, with Apple even bringing back a version of the original title as a hidden Siri shortcut in 2020. Meanwhile, freemium apps such as SongPop, Guess the Song and Heard-It regularly dominate the top charts on both Android and iOS.

In 2021, Josh Wardle released Wordle to the public, a fiercely popular daily word-based puzzle game that combined simple guesswork with Mastermind colour-coded clues. The browser game was eventually purchased by the New York Times and receiving over 4.3 billion plays in 2023 alone.

With the popularity of Wordle came a string of clones and alternatives in different subjects including maths, geography and movies. As you’d expect, the Heardle series of games have proved amongst the most popular – combining the limited guesses of Wordle with the simple gameplay of the original Music Quiz.

It’s been a winning formula for browser game developers, with many daily music trivia titles receiving millions of hits per month – and a player base that returns at least every 24 hours for one more attempt. Add the competitive element of being able to share your ‘streak’ with friends, and you can see why these games have become just so popular.