Miniclip Is Officially Dead - And So Is Our Childhood
Cheers 2022, my inner child is crying now. Although we knew it was coming eventually, was anyone really prepared for the death of Miniclip.com? There was nothing quite like being a British teenager in the '00s and spending your hour of IT class playing flash games behind the teacher's back.
If being the place we used to play Club Penguin and having RuneScape at the top of its charts wasn't enough, Miniclip was also remembered for everything from Raft Wars to Heli Attack 2. Flash games were all the rage back then, but in a post-9/11 world, there were some questionable titles (usually evolving Osama Bin Laden) allowed on the platform.
What Happened To Miniclip?
At its peak, Miniclip would battle it out with Newgrounds for how we would skive lessons, then head home to play them all evening between nudging people on MSN Messenger. Sadly, the death of Adobe Flash has taken Miniclip (or most of it) with it. It was a good run, and from 2001 to 2022, we'd like to say thanks for the memories.
Started on a budget of just £40,000, Miniclip was valued at a whopping £275 million in 2008. As the internet changed, Miniclip wasn't long for this world, and in October 2022, a simple post titled "Miniclip Has Changed" was the final nail in the coffin.
Of course, most of us have grown up and long left Miniclip behind, while legacy titles like Club Penguin have been killed off and had to find a new lease of life elsewhere. After the demise of Adobe Flash, Miniclip pivoted to its mobile games, which were a far cry from the site's glory days. If you head over to Miniclip.com now, you'll see just 8 Ball Pool and Agar.io. Sigh.
Fans React To The Death Of Miniclip
Miniclip lives on in our memories, but if you know where to look, you can still find it preserved. Web Archive has a collection of captures from over the years, so you can see what Miniclip used to look like in its heyday. Sadly, the last capture is from February 2020, showing the decline long before it sailed into the abyss.
One fan wrote, "You will always have a special place in my heart Miniclip," while another added, "Miniclip and games powered by Adobe Shockwave really held down a generation of kids. Sad to see it gone/going away." A third poignantly wrote, "You played your last game on Miniclip without knowing it was your last game on Miniclip." What's next, is someone going to kill Magical Trevor or cast Salad Fingers to the wind? They're coming for our childhoods, so beware.
