Google Stadia is shutting down today, and its fans are starting to say goodbye

(Image credit: Google)

Google Stadia is shutting down today, and its fans are giving it an appropriate send-off.

The day has finally come, Google Stadia is shutting down today, January 18, 2023. Depending on your timezone, you've got just a few hours left to play your favorite games on Stadia before the cloud gaming service is gone for good on at 11:59PM PT / 02:59AM ET (Jan 19) / 07:59AM GMT (Jan 19).

As demonstrated in the Stadia subreddit, fans of the cloud streaming service have mixed feelings about the whole thing. Some fans are genuinely sentimental about it, using the streaming service's final hours to get one last playthrough in. The other half of the Stadia fanbase has been anxiously waiting for things to come to an end and sharing various memes to get through the heartbreak, some of which can be seen below.

closing_off_stadia_with_the_game_i_put_most_of_my from r/Stadia

thanks_for_the_ride_stadia from r/Stadia

1_day_left_its_been_an_honor_fellow_stadians from r/Stadia

dawn_of_the_final_stadia_day_january_18th_1159pm from r/Stadia

Tributes for Google Stadia actually began as early as last week when several fans took to Twitter to mourn the service's final week. Destiny 2 players were hit hard, in particular, when their favorite game's servers were shut down at the end of last week. The server shutdown itself became a momentous occasion too when Destiny 2 players captured its final moments on Google Stadia.

One person who's got to be emotional today is the Red Dead Online player with 6,000 hours on Google Stadia. Thankfully, this player's countless hours did not go to waste as - after pleading with Rockstar for a character transfer - they were told it was possible to move their progress to a new Red Dead Online save. The fan has become a bit of a legend in the Red Dead Redemption community, so much so that Rockstar sent them a gift bag to commemorate their final Red Dead Online Stadia stream.

Take a look at our new games 2023 list to help you get over the end of Google Stadia.

After studying Film Studies and Creative Writing at university, I was lucky enough to land a job as an intern at Player Two PR where I helped to release a number of indie titles. I then got even luckier when I became a Trainee News Writer at GamesRadar+ before being promoted to a fully-fledged News Writer after a year and a half of training. My expertise lies in Animal Crossing: New Horizons, cozy indies, and The Last of Us, but especially in the Kingdom Hearts series. I'm also known to write about the odd Korean drama for the Entertainment team every now and then.