yearbook – 🏝 Poptropica Help Blog 🗺

If we thought 2023 was a quiet year for Poptropica, well, 2024 might just give it a run for its money. And a run out of money, too, as the game now hangs on life support. Still, the community won’t let it go so easily.

(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!) 📖

So let’s hit Rewind and see what 2024 had in store for Pop! ⏪

Fresh off a shutdown scare, January brought on more signs of trouble with the deletion of the entire Poptropica Creators’ Blog — years of content down the drain. Not long after, Poptropica announced that they would be moving in with Coolmath Games, keeping membership free.

The move was made official in March, with the Poptropica.com website disappearing altogether and redirecting to its page on Coolmath Games, where the game can still be played. However, there were no new game updates all year, nor will there be for the foreseeable future.

Meanwhile, we heard from a couple of OG Creators: art director Jonathan Pitcher shared with PHB readers about Poptropica seeking new avenues to continue its storytelling amid bumps along the way, and Poptropica founder Jeff Kinney spoke fondly of Poptropica’s legacy, despite older content no longer being playable due to old Flash technology.

In September, the writing was on the wall for Poptropica, with various staff departures announced on LinkedIn. There was even a post from an ex-staffer announcing the closure of the Poptropica company, which was further confirmed in another interview with Jon Pitcher. As Jon shared with us, “The decline in Poptropica’s traffic made the company not able to secure clients for advertising to bring in enough revenue” — but “the plan is for Poptropica to keep going on Cool Math Games.”

Despite the downer of Poptropica’s current state, here on the PHB we’ve tried to keep spirits up with lots of fun content throughout the year. 🎉

We celebrated the magic Poptropica brought us with a Favorite Poptropica Island Tournament where Astro-Knights was crowned victorious. Zeus from runner-up Mythology Island wasn’t too fond of this, but it made for an epic April Fools event!

We also hosted our annual Poppies Awards in July, celebrating 10 Years of Poppies with a look back at highlights from the decade past. And we had a blast engaging with the community in a succession of events: our Tribal Tournament 2024 in August, Poptropica 17th Birthday Collage art collab in September, and 15th Halloween Costume Contest in October.

Beyond the festivities, we’ve also shared some interesting posts this year. Here’s a selection, with more in our Greatest PHB Posts:

While things may continue to be quiet on Poptropica’s end, the Poptropica fandom will still be around to make some noise for our favorite game. Join us on our PHC Discord server to find fellow Poptropicans, keep playing Poptropica on Flashpoint for more content, and of course, stay tuned to the PHB for the latest. 🫶