2023 Poptropica Rewind: Radio Silence 🔇

As we approach the end of 2023, here’s a look back on Poptropica’s quietest year yet. Without a Pop drop, you could hear a pin drop.

(You might be interested in taking a look back on Poptropica’s previous years, too. We’ve got just the thing over on our Yearbook page!) 📖

2023 kicked off with the monthly costume contest in January, a tradition going back to May 2021. But something was different about this one: we never heard back about the winners, and no further costume contests have been announced since. And not just that…

Without the new costumes meant to be offered on the Red Baron’s airship, the Baron’s ship never made another appearance on Home Island. After all the drama that unfolded the previous year, we’ve been left hanging as to what’s going on with the ship and its constituents.

The silence continues throughout the year — the first year we’ve had no new islands nor mini-quests. Poptropica is quiet with their comms too, with no blog updates since February, and no updates to their most active social media platform, Instagram, since September, after months of memes. They also closed off commenting on their blog in August. 🤐

Still, the game hasn’t been totally dead. Though updates have been sparse, Poptropica did experiment with daily questions, bring back the Candy Crazed Mini Quest for a limited time, re-released Mission Atlantis Ep. 2 for members, launched a few ads including an “island” for Pixar’s Elemental, and celebrated their 16th birthday with sweet gifts. But all that pales in comparison to what they’ve been able to achieve before.

Here on the PHB, we’ve tried to keep the spirit of Poptropica alive with fun content including an April Fools joke on a TV show starring Amelia, Favorite Poptropica Character Tournament, the Poppies 2023 Awards, a Sweet 16 birthday art collab, and lots of fanfiction, including The Villain Saga by Smart Bubbles, Zombies, Zombies, ALWAYS ZOMBIES! by Magic Kid, and PoptropiCon Saga comics by Invisible Ring. 💥

We’ve also shared some nostalgic blog posts as players reckon with the fact that Poptropica’s better days are now behind us. Here’s a selection, with more good reads available in our Greatest PHB Posts collection:

• 🗺️ The Poptropica Island Eras Tour
• 🏝️ Every Poptropica Island Ranked
• 👀 A longtime player’s look at Poptropica
• 🎓 College Students Reflect on Poptropica Childhoods
• 🌀 Pop 5: Ranking the Islands of 2008 (and 2013)
• 👕 Pop Petition: Bring the Costumizer Back

Throughout the year, Poptropica continued trudging along with its routine shop rotations and monthly member gifts — until, in December, even membership was removed with no explanation. 😬 On the bright side, previously paywalled content became free for all and Poptropicans showed their support for the game amidst worries about its future, including a shutdown scare ignited by a false rumor.

The strange turn of events puts an end to the PHB’s membership giveaways that started in 2021. We also said goodbye to another one of our series — Community Creations — in July, after six inspiring years. 🥺

With the lack of communications and updates to the game, the future of Poptropica seems thrown into a free-fall. But whatever happens, we at the Poptropica Help Blog will be here for the ride.

Hold on for 2024 — who knows what we’re in for!

~🩵☃️ the PHB