When Ben Goldthwaite isn’t in class, the 16-year-old sophomore usually bounces between YouTube, Instagram, Twitch, Netflix and other on-demand distractions. A new pastime, though, has him on a strict schedule.

On a recent night, Ben cut short a meeting with a teacher to join a dozen boys, all armed with iPhones, to play HQ Trivia, a twice-daily online quiz show with cash prizes.

In a throwback to the days when popular network shows bound viewers to their televisions, HQ Trivia has hooked hundreds of thousands of fans to click on the iPhone app at 3 p.m. and 9 p.m. On Sunday night, the game show drew 680,000 players, up from 440,000 a week earlier, its previous record.

Some offices fall silent as employees huddle to play during the afternoon session. At night, families pool their knowledge. Quinne Myers, 29, of Brooklyn said her boyfriend once halted a romantic moment at 8:59 p.m. for HQ Trivia.

A world where everything is on demand is under attack from an oxymoron: the event-based internet.