Club Penguin
This spread through many posts rather than one canonical upload.
2005·Early YouTube
A snow-covered island where a generation learned to talk to strangers safely.
At a glanceThe facts
- Spread in
- 2005
- Format
- Phenomenon
- Made by
- Lance Priebe, Lane Merrifield and Dave Krysko, at New Horizon Interactive
- Taken from
- It grew out of an earlier game, Penguin Chat
- Origin
- No single original
- Available
- Not held by ViralWorld
What this wasThe story
A children's virtual world of penguins, igloos and filtered chat, and one of the first mass online spaces designed to be safe by construction. Its 2017 closure produced a genuine collective mourning.
Why it matteredWhat changed
A children’s online world that Disney bought for 350 million dollars had two hundred million accounts by 2013 and closed four years later. A fan-run copy was shut down by the police.
TimelineIn order
- Made
The game is launched.1
- Later
Disney buys it.1
- Record
It has more than 200 million registered accounts.1
- Taken down
The servers are switched off.1
- Taken down
A fan-made copy is shut down by the City of London Police at Disney’s request, and three people are arrested.1
What it createdWhat came out of it
- Players raced to be banned as quickly as possible for swearing. The record is under forty seconds.1
Why it is here: something the internet still knows by name · it got out of its own corner of the internet fast · the upload that made its maker known
Where it came fromWhat we know
This spread through many posts rather than one identifiable original. No copy is held here — what it was, when it spread and what people called it is what this page can tell you.
Nothing here is claimed to be the first version of this. It spread through many posts rather than from one identifiable original.
Created by Horizon Interactive. Established by research, not by who posted the copy shown here.
More from 2005You were there
SourcesWhat was read
Sources last read on . That date is about the history on this page. Whether the media still plays is checked separately and can change any day. How ViralWorld documents things