What is Cookie Clicker?

Last Updated on: 12th May 2021, 11:05 pm

I think it’d be hard to be a denizen of the Internet in the year 2021 without having at least heard the name… Cookie Clicker. Perhaps you’ve even heard of one of the many off brand versions such as Goomy Clicker or, well, really anything with Clicker in the title. The question remains though, just what is Cookie Clicker?

Okay but answer my question, what is Cookie Clicker?

Well, there’s a possibility I’m going to blow your mind, but Cookie Clicker is a game where you click cookies. Yep.

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Really though, there is more to it than that. The game was released in 2013 as a little browser game made in one night and made over 50,000 views in the first day after posting it to 4 Chan. Made by Julien Thiennot, or more commonly, Orteil, the browser game has thrived for nearly eight years now with mobile versions as well.

Okay but why tho?

As someone looking in from the outside, one may ask, “why?” That’s… a pretty good question, but Cookie Clicker manages to be a cut above many idle browser games and is seriously addicting. I dropped the game for a while and started anew a few months ago with a totally clean save and already have nearly 500/518 achievements and have owned octodecillions of cookies. My stepfather saw this one day, asked to click, and lo and behold he now has it on his phone. Older brother visits from out of state? App installed by him too, much to my mother’s chagrin.

Really though, the game isn’t like this for no reason. While Cookie Clicker may be similar to many idle browser games where you just see numbers rise, it has so much personality and, pun intended, flavor that keeps the game kinda… fun.

For one, the visual design of the game is super unique and very fresh to look at. Beyond that, there’s a lot more than just clicking the cookie. Buying buildings and upgrades to increase your Cookies Per Second, a few minigames worked in over the years, and other time specific events keep the game pretty engrossing, especially if you’re running two monitors.

The sense of progression is one that’s easy to see, and adding achievements, upgrades, ascensions (restarting from the beginning with permanent CPS modifiers), and minigames keeps the idle game fresh for at LEAST a few months.

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Interestingly enough, the endgame is one where you actually have to work pretty damn hard for those cookie increases. Eventually you just get so far that cookie costs skyrocket, and the only way to make these ludicrous amounts in a reasonable amount of time is to chain together golden cookie effects and manipulating the game to give outcomes you want. Getting, say, a 7x multiplier, a 7000% multiplier, and rigging another 8000% multiplier and 777x click multiplier and using those 30 or so seconds to the fullest can make 30 seconds become thousands of years of your unaugmented Cookies Per Second… I know this.

Really, the answer to the question, “What is Cookie Clicker,” is that the game is a charming and addictive little browser game filled with personality and humor that I’d recommend anyone at least try out for an hour or so. I’m sorry when all you can think about is MORE COOKIES.