8 Video Games That Blew Up Thanks To YOU
7. Rocket League
It's easy to picture an alternate reality where car-football game Rocket League got lost in the shuffle, joining the slew of flash-in-the-pan novelty multiplayer games that simply failed to maintain a player-base. And developer Psyonix could've surely never anticipated just how warmly embraced their sequel to 2008's little-known Supersonic Acrobatic Rocket-Powered Battle-Cars would ultimately be.
They certainly did themselves a solid, though, by cutting a deal with Sony to release Rocket League for "free" to PlayStation Plus subscribers, ensuring that millions had access to it day one without any extra expense.
Yet the genius of Rocket League isn't merely how mechanically tight and compulsively addictive it is, but how it so perfectly appealed to people who love football games, people who love racing games, and even people who don't much care for either.
Incredibly easy to pick up but fiendishly difficult to master, Rocket League's low barrier of entry and brilliantly peculiar mish-mash of game genres ensured that players en masse couldn't put it down. Let's be honest - if you haven't sarcastically spammed "What a save!" after your team's goalie let an easy save in, you're probably lying.
Almost a decade later, Rocket League remains hugely popular both as a game and an eSport. It's the result of a perfect confluence of so many factors - an easily understood hook, smart release strategy, and gameplay loop ripe for bite-sized clip-outs on social media.