> ls /var/games --closed
The graveyard âš°
Multiplayer browser games, and the platforms they ran on, that shut down. Each entry gives the closing date and the reason as reported by the cited source, newest first. Some found a second life: see revived games.
- Shut down2005 – Mar 14, 2025
Urban Dead
Kevan Davis's text-based zombie MMO closed; the shutdown notice cites the UK Online Safety Act.
- Shut down2017 – Mar 2, 2023
Surviv.io
Kongregate, which acquired the 2D battle royale in December 2019, sunset it and named Bit Heroes Arena as its successor.
↺ After: Open-source fan recreations (Survev.io, Suroi) followed, and Kongregate relaunched Surviv.io on its own site on March 20, 2026.
- Platform / portal2001 – Jul 2022
Miniclip (browser game portal)
Miniclip shut down its browser game portal; the site kept only two of its most popular games, Agar.io and 8 Ball Pool.
- Shut down2017 – Apr 13, 2022
Club Penguin Rewritten
The fan-run private server was shut down by the City of London Police following a copyright request by Disney.
- Platform / portal1996 – Dec 31, 2020
Adobe Flash Player
Adobe ended support after announcing the end of life in July 2017. From January 12, 2021, newer builds refused to play Flash content, and major browsers removed Flash entirely.
↺ After: Emulators such as Ruffle and archives such as Flashpoint keep much of the content playable.
- Shut down2009 – Dec 31, 2020
FarmVille (original, on Facebook)
Zynga closed the Flash-based original because Facebook stopped supporting Flash games that day. At its March 2010 peak it had 83.76 million monthly active users.
↺ After: FarmVille 2 (2012) and FarmVille 3 (2021) continued the series.
- Left the browser2010 – Sep 23, 2020
Realm of the Mad God (Flash client)
With Flash ending, the browser client was retired after a Unity remaster ("Exalt") became the default client on July 22, 2020.
- Left the browserMar 2020
Pogo.com Flash games
Pogo discontinued all of its Flash games ahead of the end of Flash support; several were later revived in HTML5.
- Shut downJan 22, 2020
Windows Internet Games (MSN Games / Zone)
Microsoft shut down the online games built into Windows: the Windows XP and ME versions on July 31, 2019 and the Windows 7 versions on January 22, 2020.
- Shut down2008 – Dec 13, 2019
Moshi Monsters
Mind Candy closed the browser MMO's servers because it depended on Adobe Flash Player.
↺ After: In June 2025 Mind Candy announced a PC and mobile relaunch funded on Kickstarter, scheduled for 2027.
- Platform / portal1995 – Apr 9, 2019
Adobe Shockwave Player
Adobe discontinued Shockwave, including the Shockwave Player, which some web games relied on.
- Shut down2017 – Dec 20, 2018
Club Penguin Island
Disney's app-based successor to Club Penguin shut its servers less than two years after launch; a final update added an offline mode.
- Shut down2001 – Aug 6, 2018
RuneScape Classic
Jagex closed the original Java-based version, citing accumulated bugs and incompatibility with its modern support tools.
- Shut down2008 – Jun 30, 2018
Fantage
The kids’ virtual world, which had over 30 million registered users by December 2014, announced its closure in May 2018 and shut its servers in the early hours of July 1.
- Shut down2005 – Mar 30, 2017
Club Penguin
Disney shut down the original Flash virtual world (launched October 24, 2005) and replaced it with the app Club Penguin Island.
↺ After: Fan-run private servers appeared; many were closed after DMCA filings in May 2020.
- Shut downJun 6, 2016
Mafia Wars
Zynga announced on April 5, 2016 that the Facebook game would close; it went offline shortly after midnight PDT on June 7.
- Platform / portal1998 – May 13, 2016
Yahoo! Games
Yahoo dissolved its games section, which had grown out of its 1997 acquisition of ClassicGames.com, a host of Java-based multiplayer classics like chess and checkers.
- Shut down2010 – May 12, 2014
Lord of Ultima
EA's browser strategy game shut down at 07:00 UTC; players reported most servers had already been turned off by early March.
↺ After: A fan remake, Crown of the Gods, emulates the gameplay with different art and lore.
- Shut down2009 – Mar 31, 2014
Free Realms
Sony Online Entertainment closed it alongside other MMOs to devote resources elsewhere. On PC it ran through a browser plug-in.
- Shut down2003 – Sep 19, 2013
Toontown Online
Disney shut down the cartoon MMO permanently after ten years of operation.
↺ After: Toontown Rewritten, a fan recreation, opened for alpha testing in October 2013.
- Shut down2011 – Dec 9, 2012
Glitch
Tiny Speck closed its whimsical browser MMO due to limited audience appeal. The team's internal chat tool became Slack.
↺ After: Fans attempted a revival as "Children of Ur".
Why do browser games die?
Reading the entries above, the stated reasons cluster into a few groups: the end of a plug-in (Flash, Shockwave, Java applets), owners redirecting resources to other games (Free Realms, Lord of Ultima), audiences that never grew (Glitch), legal pressure on fan-run servers (Club Penguin Rewritten), and regulation (Urban Dead). Read the Flash shutdown guide for the biggest of these events.