Picture Credit: Netflix
Netflix’s grand experiment with live, real-money mobile trivia has officially come to an end. Best Guess Live, the daily game show hosted by Howie Mandel, Hunter March, and Corinne Foxx, has aired its final episode and will be shutting down its app at the end of September.
If you opened the Best Guess Live app this weekend expecting to prepare for Monday night’s trivia, you were likely greeted by a goodbye message. The in-app notification officially confirmed the game’s closure, stating: “That’s a wrap on Best Guess Live! Our final episode aired Friday, August 28th. Thank you for playing, guessing, and celebrating with us every night — it’s been a blast.”
The app will remain open through Wednesday, September 30th exclusively for users to claim their outstanding payouts (though the Netflix app itself notes September 29th as the official “Last day to play” before it’s likely delisted). If you have a balance, you’ll want to hit that “Claim Your Winnings” button and contact support if you have any questions before the portal closes for good.
Developed by Apploff Entertainment and Ex Machina, Best Guess Live first burst onto the Netflix Games scene in late 2025. It was an incredibly ambitious swing for the streamer’s gaming division. Harkening back to the viral days of HQ Trivia, the mobile-only game required US-based players to tune in synchronously at 8:00 p.m. ET / 5:00 p.m. PT every weekday.
Hosted alternately by Deal or No Deal legend Howie Mandel and Sugar Rush host Hunter March, the game challenged players to guess a secret item hidden inside a virtual crystal ball based on five increasingly obvious clues. Typos weren’t allowed, and you had to be exactly right to win a slice of the daily $15,000 prize pool. We’ve covered the game since its launch, diving deep into the player base and prize distributions in our Best Guess Live stats breakdown, where the total payout for the game had hit $2.5M. We published that in April 2026, with prizes paid out reportedly rising to close to $4M across 190 games with over 430,000 winners.
In the series finale, co-hosts Hunter March and Howie Mandel reflected on the emotional end of Best Guest Live, calling it a “historic night” as they presented their “very last puzzle ever ever.” Looking back on the show’s run, they described the production as a “completely unique experience” where they “tried some things that had never been done before,” jokingly adding that they also “tried some things that shouldn’t be done,” but ultimately “had a lot of fun.” The hosts repeatedly expressed their deep gratitude for the fans, sharing that “watching you win and seeing the community you have created has been very, very, very fulfilling.” Before inviting the entire crew on camera for a final goodbye, they left their dedicated audience with a heartfelt parting message: “[N]o matter where you guys go from here don’t forget to bring your best guess… we appreciate everything that you guys gave to this beautiful show, this beautiful community.”
While it didn’t last a full year, Best Guess Live clearly struck a chord with the players who did tune in. Over on the r/BestGuessLive subreddit, fans poured out their appreciation for the crew over the weekend, noting how much they’ll miss their nightly trivia routine.
“After tonight, I will disable the daily alarm on my phone that told me I had a few minutes to log into the app and that saddens me,” wrote the thread’s original poster, adding a classic inside joke to cap it off: “And just know… the answer will always be… My Wife Betsy.”
For some, the game was much more than just a passing distraction. One user noted that their family had racked up $737 over the course of the show’s run (along with Netflix and meal vouchers). “Those tiny amounts really added up though, and they actually helped our family scrape by during some very lean times,” they shared.
Others praised the show for recreating a feeling that the streaming era has largely left behind. As one player put it, tuning in at a set time with thousands of other people watching felt “just like how TV was 25 years ago.”
So, why is it ending? While Netflix hasn’t given an official reason, the community was quick to point fingers at a lack of promotion. Several users mentioned that the game saw a steep decline from an early peak of over 100,000 concurrent players down to roughly 20,000, largely because “marketing was terrible” and it was rarely promoted within the main Netflix app.
An archive of the final episode can be found here:
Whether Netflix plans to iterate on this format with a new live game show in the future remains to be seen. But for now, it’s game over for Best Guess Live.
Did you manage to win any money during Best Guess Live‘s eight-month run? Will you miss tuning in with Howie and Hunter every weeknight? Let us know in the comments below!
