That browser game website you secretly played at school is all but dead

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The end of an era: Browser game website Miniclip has been gutted

Old MiniClip homepage
(Image credit: Reddit (via Party_System))

Miniclip, the website you might've used to secretly play browser games during class in the early 2000s, has shut down most of its games.

The company, which has been "evolving" toward the mobile space and away from desktop-based games, announced back in April (via DelistedGames) that it would be gutting its web portal this Summer. Although it missed that deadline by a few weeks, Miniclip has fulfilled its promise and shuttered the servers for all but two of its browser-based games.

As of now, the only games you can play on Miniclip are 8 Ball Pool and Agar.io, the latter being an MMO where you control cells on a petri dish and eat other, smaller cells to get bigger and grow stronger. To be completely transparent, 8 Ball Pool is the game I played the most on Miniclip, so I'm hanging in there, but a nostalgic community of browser game fans are paying sorrowful tributes to a variety of games which are now lost to time.

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 While I'm selfishly thankful that my favorite Miniclip game was one of the lucky two to escape the purge, I'll also mourn the loss of what once was a portal into a near-endless selection of weird and very early-2000s games. Fun fact: Miniclip was also my gateway into Runescape, although that's long-since outgrown the platform.

If you're missing your favorite browser game from yesteryear, maybe you can find something shiny and new to fill the void in our lists of the best iPhone games and the best Android games available now.

Jordan Gerblick
Jordan Gerblick
Staff Writer

After earning an English degree from ASU, I worked as a corporate copy editor while freelancing for places like SFX Magazine, Screen Rant, Game Revolution, and MMORPG on the side. I got my big break here in 2019 with a freelance news gig, and I was hired on as GamesRadar's west coast Staff Writer in 2021. That means I'm responsible for managing the site's western regional executive branch, AKA my home office, and writing about whatever horror game I'm too afraid to finish.

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