Gaming

● Alivephr.✎ 1

Git Gud

Get good, as the only advice on offer. The whole philosophy of a game and its fans, in five letters and a deliberate misspelling.

▸ 2011peak 2015still up

◐ Dyingphr.✎ 3

Half-Life 3 Confirmed

The meme of finding proof of Valve's unannounced sequel in anything containing the number three — a logo, a receipt, a delay — after Half-Life 2: Episode Two ended on a cliffhanger in 2007 and its successor never came. The record notes the phrase peaked around 2013 and that Half-Life: Alyx in 2020 was, for the meme's purposes, not a 3.

▸ 2011peak 2013still up

● Alivev.✎ 3

Instalock

To lock in your chosen character the instant the selection screen opens, before teammates can discuss anything, in League of Legends from about 2011 and Valorant from 2020, where 'instalock Jett' became a personality type. The record's entry for the pre-emptive strike against cooperation.

▸ 2011peak 2020still up

◐ Dyingn.✎ 4

Jetpack Joyride

A man called Barry Steakfries steals a machine-gun jetpack from a laboratory and flies right through it until he hits a laser. Released in September 2011 by the Fruit Ninja studio, it was the endless runner that added missions, coins and a vehicle shaped like a dragon, and the record files it as the moment the genre became a shop.

▸ 2011peak 2012still up

◐ Dyingn.✎ 4

Kerbal Space Program

Small green astronauts called Kerbals are strapped into rockets built from parts and launched with real orbital mechanics, and most of the early ones do not come back. Released as a free alpha in June 2011 by a Mexican marketing company's side project, it taught a generation the word 'delta-v' and the record files the moment NASA engineers admitted to playing it.

▸ 2011peak 2015still up

● Aliven.✎ 4

L.A. Noire

Rockstar's 1947 detective game, released in May 2011 with a facial-capture system that recorded actors' faces from every angle and produced the most lifelike heads and the stiffest bodies in games. The interrogation button prompts, especially the one that had the detective accuse people of lying, gave the internet a reaction image it still uses. The record's entry for the launch of a face.

▸ 2011peak 2011still up

☠ Deadn.✎ 4

Minecraft Pocket Edition

The phone version of Minecraft, released in 2011 with a tiny world, no survival mode and a name that told you what it was not. The record's entry for the version most of a generation actually played: for six years it was the Minecraft of school buses, tablets and shared servers, until the 2017 Better Together update dropped the words 'Pocket Edition' and merged it into the one game.

▸ 2011peak 2015†2017

☠ Deadn.

Planking

Lying face down somewhere unusual and posting the photo. Peaked in May 2011 and effectively ended the same month when a man died doing it on a balcony in Brisbane.

▸ 2011peak 2011†2011

● Aliven.✎ 4

Portal 2

Valve's 2011 sequel, released after an alternate reality game in which thirteen indie titles received potato-themed updates and players collectively earned an early release, which arrived several hours early. Co-op with a friend and two robots, Cave Johnson's lemons, and Wheatley voiced by Stephen Merchant. The record's entry for a launch marketed as a puzzle solved by the buyers.

▸ 2011peak 2011still up

◐ Dyingn.✎ 4

Temple Run

An explorer runs from demon monkeys along a temple wall, turning by swipe and jumping by swipe, until the path ends. Made by a married couple in North Carolina and released in August 2011 as a paid app that sold badly, it became one of the most downloaded games ever after going free that September. The record files it as the endless runner that became a verb in playgrounds.

▸ 2011peak 2012still up

● Aliven.✎ 4

Terraria

A two-dimensional dig-build-fight game released in May 2011 that was called a Minecraft clone for about a week, until people found the bosses. It has since had several updates announced as the last one. The record keeps it as the game that kept finishing and never did.

▸ 2011peak 2020still up

● Aliven.✎ 4

The Binding of Isaac

A crying child flees into a basement from a mother who has heard the voice of God, and shoots his tears at monsters made of things from a bathroom. Made in Flash in three months by the Super Meat Boy artist as a side project, it was released in September 2011 and became a permanent fixture, with a 2014 remake and expansions into the 2020s. The record files the tears.

▸ 2011peak 2014still up

● Aliven.✎ 4

The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim

Bethesda's open-world fantasy game, released on 11 November 2011 so that the date would look nice, and re-released on nearly every device manufactured since. The launch craze gave the internet the arrow-in-the-knee guard, Fus Ro Dah and the Dovahkiin Chicken; the re-release cycle gave it a running joke about Todd Howard that has outlasted several consoles.

▸ 2011peak 2011still up

☠ Deadn.✎ 4

Tiny Wings

A round bird with wings too small to fly slides down hills and up the other side, gaining speed if you press at the right moment, until the sun sets. Made alone by a German designer and released in February 2011, it knocked Angry Birds off the top of the App Store within days and the record files it as the one-man phone hit before the phrase was tired.

▸ 2011peak 2011†2014

◐ Dyingn.✎ 4

Amnesia: The Dark Descent

A Swedish horror game about a man with no memory in a castle, with no weapons, a sanity meter and a rule that looking at the monster makes things worse. It sold slowly, then became the foundation of a whole tier of YouTube careers in 2011, and the record files it as the game that made 'reaction' a business model.

▸ 2010peak 2011still up

● Aliven.✎ 4

Animal Jam

A virtual world of animal avatars in a nature-themed land, made with National Geographic and pitched to parents as educational. The record's entry for the worlds that Club Penguin's players moved to: it had tens of millions of accounts by the mid-2010s, its rare items were traded and scammed with the seriousness of a stock exchange, and a 2020 data breach put it in the news for the first time as a security story.

▸ 2010peak 2015still up

☠ Deadn.✎ 4

CityVille

A Facebook city-builder from the makers of FarmVille, in which players built shops, staffed them with friends and asked for help every few minutes. The record's entry for the fastest-growing game in Facebook's history: it reached a hundred million monthly players within about six weeks of its December 2010 launch, was briefly the biggest game on the platform, and was closed in April 2015 after most of them had gone.

▸ 2010peak 2011†2015

● Aliven.✎ 4

Coin Master

A slot-machine game in which spins produce coins, attacks and raids on friends' villages, dressed as a village-builder. The record's entry for the game that made celebrities do slot-machine adverts: from 2019 it filled feeds with Jennifer Lopez and the Kardashians spinning for coins, it sat in the top-grossing charts through 2020, and it became the standard example whenever regulators discussed gambling and children.

▸ 2010peak 2020still up

◐ Dyingn.✎ 4

Cut the Rope

A sweet on a rope has to be swung into the mouth of a small green monster called Om Nom, by cutting the rope at the right time. Made by two brothers in Moscow and released in October 2010, it was the phone game that sold a million copies in its first ten days and the record files it as the one that made a physics puzzle a mascot.

▸ 2010peak 2011still up

◐ Dyingn.✎ 2

Elo Hell

The rank a player believes they are trapped in by bad teammates rather than by their own play; named for the Elo rating system League of Legends used until 2013 and argued about on its forums from 2010. The record notes Elo Hell is statistically doubtful and personally undeniable, and that every player has been there and none has caused it.

▸ 2010peak 2012still up

↺ Undeadn.✎ 4

Final Fantasy XIV

Square Enix's MMO, released in 2010 in a state that led the company to apologise, replace the director and switch it off in November 2012 with a cutscene in which a moon fell on the world. A Realm Reborn in 2013 rebuilt it, and by 2021 it was so popular that sales were paused. The record's entry for the biggest do-over in games, and for the free trial copypasta.

▸ 2010peak 2011†2012

● Aliveadj.✎ 3

Frame Perfect

Timed to a single frame of video — one sixtieth of a second — and, since the 2020s, the compliment for any well-timed thing: a joke, a text, a door held open. The record's entry for gaming's precision escaping into praise.

▸ 2010peak 2024still up

● Alivephr.✎ 3

Free Robux

The two words behind roughly every scam ever aimed at a child on the internet: a link, a survey, a 'generator', a password box, and no Robux. The record's entry for the phrase Roblox has spent a decade telling players does not exist, and which still fills YouTube comment sections in 2026.

▸ 2010peak 2019still up

◐ Dyingn.✎ 4

Fruit Ninja

Fruit is thrown into the air and you slice it with a finger, and a bomb ends it. Made by an Australian studio in a few weeks and released in April 2010, it was the touchscreen's first big demonstration game, and a Kinect version in 2011 made it the thing people flailed at in shop displays. The record files the sensei and his facts.

▸ 2010peak 2011still up

◐ Dyingn.✎ 4

Happy Wheels

A browser physics game in which a man on a Segway, a father on a bicycle with a child seat, and a pensioner in a wheelchair ride user-made obstacle courses and lose limbs. It ran on Flash and on YouTube in equal measure from 2011, and the record notes the level editor kept it alive long after the gore stopped being funny.

▸ 2010peak 2013still up

◐ Dyingn.✎ 2

Herobrine

Minecraft's ghost: a white-eyed version of the player character said to haunt single-player worlds, invented in an August 2010 creepypasta and a staged livestream, and never in the game. The record notes Mojang's patch notes listed 'Removed Herobrine' for years as a running joke, which was the only official confirmation he ever received.

▸ 2010peak 2012still up

☠ Deadn.✎ 4

Kinect

Microsoft's camera controller, announced as Project Natal with a demo of a boy called Milo, released in November 2010 and, for a moment, the fastest-selling consumer electronics device in history at eight million units in sixty days. The record's entry for the 'you are the controller' era, for the living rooms that were not big enough, and for the bundle that helped sink the Xbox One.

▸ 2010peak 2011†2017

◐ Dyingn.✎ 4

Limbo

A boy with glowing eyes walks right through a black-and-white forest and dies in a great many specific ways. Released in July 2010 as the headline of that summer's Xbox Live Arcade promotion, it was the game that made 'atmospheric' a selling point, and a giant spider that most people still remember exactly where they met.

▸ 2010peak 2010still up

◐ Dyingn.

Loot Box

Paying for a random reward inside a game. Regulated as gambling in several countries; fading in name only, since the mechanic was renamed.

▸ 2010peak 2017still up

● Aliven.✎ 3

Nuzlocke

A self-imposed Pokémon rule set — catch only the first Pokémon in each area, and any that faints is dead and released — named after a 2010 webcomic in which a Nuzleaf resembled John Locke from Lost. The record notes it turned a children's game into a bereavement simulator and a YouTube genre.

▸ 2010peak 2021still up

▲ Fossiln.✎ 4

Robot Unicorn Attack

A robot unicorn runs right across a purple sky, dashes through stars, and dies against a rock while Erasure's 'Always' plays on a loop. Released on the Adult Swim site in February 2010, it was the year's office distraction, and the record files it as the endless runner that made the genre's music its whole personality.

▸ 2010peak 2010†2015

↺ Undeadn.✎ 4

Skate 3 Revival

A 2010 skateboarding game whose physics glitches and ragdoll falls became a YouTube format four years later, when large channels made 'funny moments' videos and the disc returned to the sales charts. The record's entry for a game revived by its bugs: EA reprinted copies in 2014, its Hall of Meat mode became a comedy genre, and every later request for a new Skate cited the revival as proof of an audience.

▸ 2010peak 2010†2011

◐ Dyingn.✎ 4

StarCraft II

The sequel Korea waited twelve years for, released in three parts across 2010 to 2015. Its trend moment was the early 2010s, when it was the biggest esport in the world, the first to fill Twitch, and the training ground for the casters, teams and tournament formats that League of Legends inherited. Blizzard stopped making content for it in 2020; tournaments continue.

▸ 2010peak 2012still up

◐ Dyingn.✎ 4

Super Meat Boy

A cube of meat runs through saw blades to rescue his girlfriend Bandage Girl from a foetus in a jar, replaying each level until the death replays fill the screen. Grown from a 2008 Flash game, it was the 2010 indie hit whose making was filmed for Indie Game: The Movie, and the record files it as the moment 'hard' became a genre.

▸ 2010peak 2011still up

● Aliven.✎ 4

Talking Tom

A grey cat that repeats what the player says in a high voice and can be poked, fed and dressed, later expanded into a family of apps and a cartoon. The record's entry for the app that every phone owned by 2011: it began as a novelty in a Slovenian studio, became a virtual-pet franchise with billions of downloads, and taught small children that a phone would talk back before any assistant did.

▸ 2010peak 2014still up

◐ Dyingn.✎ 4

VVVVVV

Captain Viridian cannot jump, only flip gravity, and looks for a crew of five in a Commodore 64-coloured space station. Made by an Irish developer and released in January 2010, it was the small hard game that sold on the strength of its chiptune soundtrack and a spike-lined room called Veni Vidi Vici. The record files the title as a joke that is also an instruction.

▸ 2010peak 2010still up

◐ Dyingphr.✎ 3

1v1 Me

The challenge to a duel, issued over Xbox Live in the late 2000s by anyone who had just lost, and by 2013–14 a meme ('1v1 me bro, Rust, quickscopes only') about the twelve-year-old who issued it. The record's entry for the honour code of a generation that settled everything in a private match and nothing at all.

▸ 2009peak 2014still up

↺ Undeadn.✎ 5

Angry Birds

A slingshot game in which birds are fired at structures built by egg-stealing pigs. The record's entry for the first mobile game to become a brand: it was the most-downloaded paid app for most of 2011, produced plush toys, a theme park area and two films, then saw its original version removed from stores in 2019 and reissued as a classic in 2022, which is the record's definition of undead.

▸ 2009peak 2011†2019

▲ Fossiln.✎ 4

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 (2009)

Infinity Ward's 2009 sequel, the biggest entertainment launch in history at the time, with an airport level the news covered for a week, a PC boycott over dedicated servers whose members were photographed playing it on launch day, and lobbies that a generation now remembers as its playground. The record's entry for the peak of Call of Duty as a cultural object.

▸ 2009peak 2010†2011

☠ Deadn.✎ 4

Canabalt

A man in a suit runs across rooftops in a grey city while something large destroys it behind him, and the only button is jump. Made in five days for a 2009 game-jam project, it was the browser and iPhone game that gave the endless runner its name and its one-button rule. The record files it as the source of a genre it did not profit from.

▸ 2009peak 2010†2013

◐ Dyingn.✎ 4

Doodle Jump

A small creature with a nose bounces up platforms on graph paper, tilting the phone to steer, and the score is how high it got. Made by two brothers, one in New York and one in Croatia, and released in April 2009, it was the iPhone's first game everybody had, and the record files the graph paper as the look of early mobile.

▸ 2009peak 2010still up

● Aliven.✎ 4

Evony

A strategy game known for two eras of advertising: the 2009 browser banners of women in low-cut medieval dresses inviting the player to 'come play, my lord', and the 2020s mobile adverts of pin-pulling puzzles that were not in the game. The record's entry for the advert as the actual product, twice, a decade apart, with the same name attached and a Super Bowl slot between them.

▸ 2009peak 2021still up

◐ Dyingn.✎ 4

Fireboy and Watergirl

Two characters share one keyboard: one is fire and cannot touch water, the other is water and cannot touch lava, and they have to reach two doors in a temple. A Flash game from 2009 by an Israeli developer, it was the schoolroom co-op game of the 2010s, and the record files it as the reason a generation learned to share a keyboard without hitting each other.

▸ 2009peak 2012still up

☠ Deadn.✎ 4

Free Realms

A free online world for children from the makers of EverQuest, with jobs, kart racing, a card game and pets, all in a bright fantasy county. The record's entry for the big publisher's attempt at the tween MMO: it reached a million players in its first month, twenty million accounts within a few years, added a PlayStation 3 version, and was closed in March 2014 when its publisher's attention moved on.

▸ 2009peak 2010†2014

● Aliven.✎ 4

League of Legends

The free five-a-side game built from the DotA map by one of its former maintainers, which became the most-played PC game on earth and the largest esport by audience. Its World Championship finals fill stadiums, the 2018 one in Beijing opened with an augmented-reality dragon, and the 2021 series Arcane won an Emmy. The record notes its players are, by reputation, unhappy.

▸ 2009peak 2018still up

▲ Fossiln.✎ 4

Learn to Fly

A penguin who has read that penguins cannot fly builds a ramp, buys a glider, and launches himself further each day to prove otherwise. A Flash game from 2009, it was the school computer-room hit of its era and the record files it as the upgrade loop before mobile games made upgrade loops a business.

▸ 2009peak 2011†2020

● Aliven.✎ 4

Minecraft

A block-building sandbox first posted by one Swedish developer in 2009, fully released in 2011, sold to Microsoft for around $2.5 billion in 2014 and, by any count, the best-selling video game ever made. The record's interest is its second life: the 2019 YouTube revival, when a decade-old game became the most watched thing on the platform again.

▸ 2009peak 2019still up

◐ Dyingn.✎ 4

MovieStarPlanet

A Danish browser world in which children play film stars, make short animations, buy clothes with StarCoins and climb a fame ladder with a paid VIP tier. The record's entry for the tween social game of Europe: by the mid-2010s it had tens of millions of accounts, its pay-to-be-famous mechanic was studied by regulators, and its scammers, beggars and dating dramas were a generation's first online social life.

▸ 2009peak 2014still up