What Is a Quarter Quell? Why Haymitch’s Hunger Games Had 48 Tributes

A Quarter Quell is a special edition of the Hunger Games held every 25 years, when the Capitol changes a rule. Haymitch Abernathy competed in the Second Quarter Quell, the 50th Hunger Games. That year, the Capitol doubled the number of tributes from each district. All 12 districts sent four tributes instead of two, bringing the total from 24 to 48.

Suzanne Collins’s Sunrise on the Reaping follows 16-year-old Haymitch through those Games, 24 years before Katniss Everdeen’s first trip to the arena. The rules and setup below reveal who goes to the Capitol while leaving the prequel’s ending for readers to discover.

Why did Haymitch’s Hunger Games have 48 tributes?

In a typical Hunger Games, each district sends one boy and one girl. For the 50th Games, each district had to send two boys and two girls. District 12’s four tributes were Haymitch Abernathy, Wyatt Callow, Maysilee Donner, and Louella McCoy.

In Catching Fire, the Capitol explains the doubled field by claiming that twice as many rebels as Capitol citizens died during the uprising. The regime uses that claim to turn a statistic about a past war into a punishment for children born long after it. And even with twice as many competitors, the arena still allows for only one winner.

What were the rules for all three Quarter Quells?

Each Quarter Quell changes a different part of the Games. Catching Fire lays out the three rules when President Snow announces the terms of the 75th Games.

The first Quell made neighbors choose who went. The second put twice as many families through the reaping. The third took people who had already survived the arena and made them eligible again. For District 12, that last change meant Katniss was the only eligible woman.

What 48 tributes changes for Haymitch

The difference starts before anyone enters the arena. Haymitch goes to the Capitol with three other kids from home, including Maysilee, whom he initially dismisses. The expanded field gives Collins room to let that relationship change. Maysilee’s sharpness, which gets on Haymitch’s nerves in District 12, helps her push back against the people trying to control them.

Four tributes from the same district also make the bargain behind an alliance harder to ignore. Sticking together can keep more of them alive today, but the single-victor rule means their shared plan can only take them so far. The Capitol can announce “48” in a sentence. Collins spends the novel showing what that number means when the other tributes have names, histories, and people waiting for them back home.

Which Hunger Games book tells Haymitch’s story?

Read Sunrise on the Reaping for Haymitch’s firsthand account of the 50th Games. Catching Fire offers a different view of the same event when Katniss and Peeta watch footage of his Quell. Reading the two together raises a question that runs through the series. How much can you learn about what happened from a recording controlled by the people who staged it?

If you’ve finished the novel, our Sunrise on the Reaping ending explained follows Haymitch beyond the arena. For the screen version, see our guide to the adaptation’s biggest challenges.

As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

• Shop Sunrise on the Reaping by Suzanne Collins on Amazon to read Haymitch’s account of the 50th Games.
• Shop Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins on Amazon to see how the Third Quarter Quell sends Katniss back into the arena.

Follow us on Instagram and Facebook

SEO package