Gaming

● Aliven.✎ 2

Gulag (Warzone)

Warzone's one-on-one duel that a dead player fights for the right to return to the match, introduced with the game in March 2020 and immediately the word for any second chance. The record notes that a lockdown audience of tens of millions learned a Soviet prison term as a place you go to win a pistol fight.

▸ 2020peak 2020still up

● Aliven.✎ 3

Hades

A roguelike in which the son of the Greek underworld's king tries repeatedly to leave home and is told off by his father each time he dies, released in full in September 2020 and the first game to win a Hugo Award. The record notes that it made dying a narrative device, and that a fandom formed around a cast whose sole shared trait was being drawn as extremely attractive.

▸ 2020peak 2020still up

◐ Dyingn.✎ 4

Halo Infinite

343 Industries' Halo, shown in July 2020 in a gameplay demo whose flat-faced Brute was named Craig by the internet within the hour, delayed a year, and released in December 2021 to a warm reception that faded when the promised co-op and Forge took another year. The record's entry for a launch that began as a meme, recovered, and then ran out of content.

▸ 2020peak 2021still up

● Alivephr.✎ 3

Losing the 50/50

Reaching a gacha game's guaranteed top-rarity pull and receiving the wrong character — the coin flip between the featured unit and a permanent one, which Genshin Impact's players formalised as 'the 50/50' in 2020–21. The record notes the phrase is delivered like the result of a medical test, and that 'winning the 50/50' is never said with the same energy.

▸ 2020peak 2022still up

☠ Deadn.✎ 3

Moving Out

A co-operative game about carrying furniture out of houses with the physics turned up and the care turned off, released in April 2020 into the first month of lockdown and played by families who had nothing else to shout about together. The record notes it as the Overcooked of removals and files it under 'games that arrived on the right week'.

▸ 2020peak 2020†2021

● Aliven.✎ 2

MrBeast Thumbnail Face

The open-mouthed, wide-eyed expression on every thumbnail of the world's biggest YouTube channel, copied by every channel that wanted to be it, until a whole platform looked surprised. The face of the click, and the record's entry for an expression that became an industry standard.

▸ 2020peak 2023still up

● Aliven.✎ 3

OMORI

A role-playing game about a boy who has not left his room in years, told across a pastel dream world and a suburb, released on Christmas Day 2020 after six years of a Kickstarter its backers had stopped believing in, and the internet's favourite sad game of 2021. The record notes that its fandom is large, its spoilers guarded, and the phrase 'waiting for something to happen' used with feeling.

▸ 2020peak 2021still up

☠ Deadn.✎ 4

PS5 Launch

The November 2020 release of the PlayStation 5, during a pandemic, a chip shortage and the rise of purchase bots, which meant that for two years the console was bought mostly by resellers and sold to everyone else at a premium. The record's entry for the launch as a lottery, for the retailer queue pages, and for the Twitter accounts that announced restocks like weather.

▸ 2020peak 2021†2023

◐ Dyingn.✎ 3

Party Animals

A physics brawler in which floppy puppies, ducks and kittens throw each other off ledges, whose free demo during a Steam festival in October 2020 drew over 130,000 concurrent players and became the most-played demo the platform had seen, and whose full release did not come until September 2023. The record's entry for a game that trended three years before it existed.

▸ 2020peak 2023still up

● Aliven.✎ 4

Phasmophobia

A four-player ghost-hunting game from a single British developer in which the ghost listens to your microphone, released into early access in September 2020 and, within a month, the most-watched game on Twitch that Halloween. The record notes that the fear was mostly of your own friends saying the ghost's name into the headset.

▸ 2020peak 2020still up

◐ Dyingn.✎ 4

Piggy (Roblox)

A Roblox horror game in which a pig in a dress with a baseball bat chases players around a house while they hunt for keys. The premise is Peppa Pig crossed with the mobile horror game Granny, and the record's interest is the timing: it arrived in January 2020 and became the game of the first lockdown, a billion visits inside its first months and a plush toy line by summer.

▸ 2020peak 2020still up

● Aliven.✎ 2

Primogems

Genshin Impact's premium currency, earned slowly by playing and quickly by paying, and spent in units of 160 on wishes for characters; introduced with the game in September 2020 and hoarded since with the discipline of a pension fund. The record's entry for the pretend gem that has a real exchange rate in every player's head.

▸ 2020peak 2021still up

● Aliven.✎ 2

Ranked Anxiety

The dread of playing a competitive mode where the number goes down — so severe that players own the game for years and never press the button. Named by the people who have it, and the record's entry for a fear of a menu option.

▸ 2020peak 2024still up

☠ Deadphr.✎ 3

Red Sus

The Among Us reflex of accusing the red crewmate because red is the colour on the box art, typed 'red sus' in a thousand lobbies a minute in autumn 2020 and then, like the game's audience, gone by the following year. The record's entry for the shortest complete argument ever made.

▸ 2020peak 2020†2021

☠ Deadn.✎ 4

Rust (Streamer Server Boom)

The month around New Year 2021 when a private Rust server run by the group OfflineTV put most of Twitch's largest streamers on one island, and a seven-year-old survival game became the most-watched thing on the platform. The record notes that the game was the same as it had been since 2013; the difference was that the raids had audiences of a hundred thousand each.

▸ 2020peak 2021†2021

● Aliven.✎ 4

Sea of Thieves Resurgence

The second life of a pirate game that launched thin in 2018, was mocked as an empty ocean, and came back through a Steam release in June 2020, pandemic-era co-op and two years of free updates until it had passed thirty million players. The record's entry for the game that was declared dead and quietly became a crew-based comedy platform.

▸ 2020peak 2021still up

◐ Dyingn.✎ 4

Shindo Life

A Roblox Naruto game of bloodlines, spins and rolling for rare abilities, released as Shinobi Life 2 and renamed Shindo Life after a takedown over the name in late 2020. The record's entry for the platform's biggest anime game before Blox Fruits: its bloodline rolls were a generation's gacha, its code drops caused traffic spikes, and its takedown was a lesson in what a trademark can do to a children's game.

▸ 2020peak 2021still up

↺ Undeadn.✎ 4

The Last of Us Part II

Naughty Dog's 2020 sequel, whose plot leaked in April and was argued about for two months before anyone had played it. Review-bombed on Metacritic on day one, awarded more Game of the Year prizes than any game before, and revived in 2025 when the television adaptation reached the same scene and the same argument. The record's entry for a leak as a launch.

▸ 2020peak 2020†2020

◐ Dyingn.✎ 3

Townscaper

A toy rather than a game, in which clicking on water raises coloured houses that arrange themselves into arches, stairs and towers with no goals of any kind, released in June 2020 by a Swedish developer whose clips of the houses growing had gone viral on Twitter for months beforehand. The record notes it as the first cosy game to trend on the strength of an algorithm, in both senses.

▸ 2020peak 2020still up

● Aliven.✎ 3

Ultrakill

A first-person shooter about a robot in hell that refuels on blood, made by one Finnish developer with the speed of Quake and a style rating that rewards showing off, released into early access in September 2020 and growing through years of layers and a fandom that treats its bosses as characters. The record notes that 'mankind is dead, blood is fuel, hell is full' was the loading screen and the marketing.

▸ 2020peak 2023still up

● Aliven.✎ 4

Valorant

Riot's tactical shooter, released to a closed beta in April 2020 that could only be entered by watching Twitch streams with drops enabled, which produced a record 1.7 million concurrent viewers and a month in which every lockdown living room had Valorant on in the background. The record's entry for the beta key as a broadcast event.

▸ 2020peak 2020still up

● Aliven.✎ 4

Xbox Series S

Microsoft's small, disc-less console, leaked in September 2020 and confirmed the next morning, whose white box with a black circle was compared to a speaker within the hour and sold on price during the PS5 shortage. The record's entry for a console launch that trended on shape, and for the later argument about whether it was holding the generation back.

▸ 2020peak 2020still up

☠ Deadn.✎ 4

Anthem

BioWare's flying-suit shooter, released in February 2019 after a 2017 trailer that promised a different game, and remembered for its loading screens, its empty loot and a reported account of a development in which nobody knew what it was until the last year. EA cancelled the rebuilt version in 2021 and switched the servers off in January 2026.

▸ 2019peak 2019†2026

● Aliven.✎ 4

Apex Legends

Respawn's battle royale, revealed and released on the same morning in February 2019 with no marketing beforehand, which reached ten million players in three days and 25 million in a week. The record's entry for the surprise launch as a strategy, and for the two weeks in which Fortnite was briefly not the only battle royale anybody talked about.

▸ 2019peak 2019still up

● Aliven.✎ 2

Blox Fruits

A Roblox action game loosely modelled on the anime One Piece, released in January 2019 and by 2023–24 the most-played thing on the platform, with tens of billions of visits and a fruit economy that children discuss with the seriousness of commodities traders. The record's entry for the game that made 'what fruit do you have' a playground question.

▸ 2019peak 2024still up

● Aliven.✎ 3

Bot Lobby

A match filled with AI players, either by design for beginners — Fortnite added bots in October 2019 — or by accident of matchmaking, and the accusation levelled at anyone who posts a highlight with too many kills. The record's entry for the modern way to say 'that doesn't count'.

▸ 2019peak 2021still up

● Aliven.✎ 4

Da Hood

A Roblox open-world game of guns, gyms, robberies and a great deal of shouting, with a reputation as the platform's roughest neighbourhood. The record's entry for the game adults name when arguing Roblox is not for children: its aim-training and spawn-camping clips filled TikTok, its players invented their own slang and dress codes, and every moderation debate about the platform eventually mentions it.

▸ 2019peak 2022still up

● Aliven.✎ 4

Death Stranding

Hideo Kojima's post-Konami game, released in November 2019, in which Norman Reedus delivers parcels across an empty America with a baby in a jar and a Monster Energy in his room. Called a walking simulator before release, it became a pandemic parable in 2020, when a game about reconnecting an isolated country stopped being a joke. The record's entry for a launch that made sense a year late.

▸ 2019peak 2020still up

● Aliven.✎ 4

Disco Elysium

A role-playing game with no combat in which an amnesiac detective argues with the twenty-four parts of his own mind, made by Estonian novelists and released in October 2019 to awards, then an internet obsession as its lines became reaction images and its politics a debate. The record also files the 2022 collapse, in which the founders were removed and sued, leaving the game an orphan with a large family.

▸ 2019peak 2021still up

● Aliven.✎ 4

Doom Eternal

id Software's 2020 Doom, which trended for a year before it came out because it shared a release date, 20 March 2020, with Animal Crossing: New Horizons. The internet paired the Doom Slayer with Isabelle as best friends, drew them constantly, and then bought both games in the first week of lockdown. The record's entry for a launch defined by its neighbour.

▸ 2019peak 2020still up

☠ Deadn.✎ 2

Gamer Girl Bath Water

Jars of used bath water sold for thirty dollars each in July 2019 by the influencer Belle Delphine under the label 'Gamer Girl Bath Water', which sold out, generated a week of news coverage and several fake illnesses, and became the reference point for every joke about parasocial spending since. The record's entry for the product that was the discourse.

▸ 2019peak 2019†2020

◐ Dyingn.✎ 3

Griddy

A shuffling celebration dance — arms pumping, feet crossing — from a Louisiana teenager to the NFL to Fortnite, where it became the emote every child does at every goal, wedding and school photo. The record's entry for the dance that outlasted its sport.

▸ 2019peak 2022still up

☠ Deadn.✎ 4

Harry Potter: Wizards Unite

A location game from the makers of Pokémon Go in which players walked around real streets returning magical objects to the wizarding world. The record's entry for the sequel that could not repeat the trick: it launched in June 2019 to the biggest expectations in the genre, drew a fraction of the audience, lost the pandemic year to a game about staying indoors, and was shut down in January 2022.

▸ 2019peak 2019†2022

● Aliven.✎ 3

Hypnospace Outlaw

A game about moderating a fictional 1999 internet browsed while asleep, with GeoCities-style pages, animated GIFs, a pretend operating system and a story about the company behind it, released in March 2019 and the internet's favourite game about the internet for a year. The record files it as the only simulation of the old web in which the record itself would feel at home.

▸ 2019peak 2019still up

☠ Deadn.✎ 3

Jump King

A platformer in which the only move is a jump charged by holding a button, and a single misjudged one can fall through several screens of progress, released in May 2019 by a small Swedish team and picked up in 2020 by streamers who needed something to be furious at on camera. The record notes that the goal is a 'smoking hot babe' at the top, and that this was said aloud on stream a great many times.

▸ 2019peak 2020†2021

☠ Deadn.✎ 4

Minecraft Earth

An augmented-reality version of Minecraft in which builds appeared on tables and pavements and players collected blocks by walking around. The record's entry for the game the pandemic killed outright: it entered early access in November 2019 with a strong showing at its reveal, asked people to gather in physical space to build together, and was closed in June 2021 with an announcement that named the cause plainly.

▸ 2019peak 2019†2021

● Aliven.✎ 4

Outer Wilds

A space exploration game about a solar system that ends every twenty-two minutes, released in May 2019 and spread almost entirely by word of mouth through a rule of saying nothing about it, because everything about it is a spoiler. The record notes that the phrase 'I wish I could forget it and play it again' is used about this game more than any other, and that this is the game's whole marketing.

▸ 2019peak 2020still up

☠ Deadn.✎ 4

Pokémon Sword and Shield

The 2019 Switch Pokémon games, announced in June 2019 without the ability to transfer every existing Pokémon, which the internet named Dexit and treated as a betrayal for five months. A tree with poor textures became its symbol. The games then sold as well as any Pokémon in years, and the record files the scandal as one that was loud, sincere and commercially irrelevant.

▸ 2019peak 2019†2020

● Aliven.✎ 4

Resident Evil 2 (2019)

Capcom's 2019 remake of its 1998 game, whose trench-coated Mr X followed players through a police station with audible footsteps and became the internet's favourite stalker. A mod that replaced his theme with a DMX song appeared within the week. The record's entry for the launch that made remakes a serious business, and for the era of every horror game needing a man who will not stop.

▸ 2019peak 2019still up

◐ Dyingn.✎ 4

Ring Fit Adventure

Nintendo's exercise game with a plastic ring, released in October 2019 to mild interest and sold out worldwide in March 2020 when the gyms closed, with resale prices several times the retail one and a shortage that lasted months. The record's entry for the game that became a lockdown essential by accident, and for the Dragaux memes.

▸ 2019peak 2020still up

● Aliven.✎ 3

Risk of Rain 2

A co-op roguelike shooter in which items stack until the game breaks, released into early access in March 2019 with a buy-one-get-one offer that put a quarter of a million copies on Steam in a week, and finished in August 2020. The record also files the 2024 expansion, made by a new owner after the original developers left, whose bugs set a community defending a studio against its publisher.

▸ 2019peak 2020still up

● Aliven.✎ 3

Satisfactory

A first-person factory game on an alien planet, released into early access in March 2019 as an Epic exclusive, which caused the year's angriest launcher argument, and completed in September 2024 as version 1.0 after five years, when it sold in the millions again to people who had played it the whole time. The record notes that the factory is never done and neither was the game, until it was.

▸ 2019peak 2024still up

● Aliven.✎ 4

Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice

FromSoftware's samurai game, released in March 2019 without the stats, summons or co-op that let people cheat Dark Souls, and the origin of the easy-mode argument in its modern form. 'Hesitation is defeat', a Guardian Ape that has a second phase, and a Game of the Year that half the internet claimed had been won by a game they could not finish.

▸ 2019peak 2019still up

● Alivephr.✎ 3

Technoblade Never Dies

The catchphrase of the Minecraft YouTuber Technoblade, coined as a boast about surviving in-game and, after his death from cancer at 23 in June 2022, repeated by millions as something else. The record's entry for the joke that became an epitaph, and one of the few internet phrases it declines to be dry about.

▸ 2019peak 2022still up

☠ Deadn.✎ 2

The Black Hole (Fortnite)

The two days in October 2019 when Fortnite's map was sucked into a black hole and the game showed nothing but a dot on a black screen, watched by millions on Twitch, while children asked whether the game was over and Epic said nothing. The record's entry for the most-viewed absence of content in history.

▸ 2019peak 2019†2019

● Aliven.✎ 4

Tower Defense Simulator

A Roblox co-operative tower-defence game with towers to level, zombies to hold back and seasonal events with their own bosses. The record's entry for the game that made tower defence a Roblox genre with a community: it was among the most-played games of 2020, its towers were argued over with the passion of a card game, and its later imitators, including the toilet one, took its template wholesale.

▸ 2019peak 2020still up

☠ Deadn.✎ 4

Untitled Goose Game

A game in which you are a horrible goose in an English village with a to-do list of small crimes, released in September 2019 by four people in Melbourne and the internet's game of that autumn. The record notes that the honk button, a sock-stealing set piece and the phrase 'horrible goose' were memes for months, and that the goose was made a symbol of chaos in the last calm year before 2020.

▸ 2019peak 2019†2020

☠ Deadn.✎ 4

WWE 2K20

The 2019 wrestling game, made without its long-time developer for the first time, released with wrestlers whose faces melted, referees stuck in the ropes and a hashtag, #FixWWE2K20, that trended above the pay-per-view. On 1 January 2020 the game stopped working because of a date bug. The record's entry for a broken launch that broke a second time on schedule.

▸ 2019peak 2019†2020