Friday Night Funkin' is the DDR beatboxing game driving players back to Newgrounds

Friday Night Funkin'
(Image credit: Ninjamuffin99, PhantomArcade, EvilSk8er, Kawaisprite)

Browsing Itch.io's popular games page is the perfect place to find small, interesting indies. I always have a quick scour when I have a lunch break to fill or want to play something a little different. The turnover of games is pretty quick, with each week bringing new, creative indies to the forefront and it's been like that since the website launched eight years ago.

But one particular game has held the top spot week after week for a string of months now, and that's Friday Night Funkin'. It's a beatboxing DDR game where you use WASD to match the onscreen arrows at the right time to some killer music, and it's a riot. Not only that but FNF's consecutive top placement has been backed by a ravenous fanbase. The community's love for this game has, in short, exploded online.

Thanks to the FNF being open-source, fans have modded their own creations with brilliant results, the top list on Itch.io featuring plenty of inspired fan spin-offs. Individual songs in the OST have been downloaded and listened to millions of times on Spotify, and YouTube videos featuring modded creations reach millions of views.

Friday Night Funkin'

(Image credit: Ninjamuffin99, PhantomArcade, EvilSk8er, Kawaisprite)

It's pretty incredible to see and it's well deserved for what is a fun and dynamic rhythm game. But, the one thing that stuck out for me when I first played it, was how Friday Night Funkin' feels so distinctly like Newgrounds. It was a throwback so hard I got whiplash.

Newgrounds was such a distinct time in gaming history, a place where many animators and developers cut their teeth and gained a following long before social media was even a thing.

It's strange how a game released last year has the ability to feel like it was from one of the old gaming titans of the early 2000s. Newgrounds was such a distinct time in gaming history, a place where many animators and developers cut their teeth and gained a following long before social media was even a thing. It's no surprise then, that FNF's creators actually met through the site, with the goal of creating the "Newgrounds game they've always wanted."

Friday Night Funkin' was first made as an entry for the Ludum Dare 47 back in October 2020, and then got uploaded to Newgrounds. Soon after, the team released a chunky update exclusive to Newgrounds, which brought in so much traffic it crashed the site, forcing it to undergo offline maintenance for several days.

Friday Night Funkin'

(Image credit: Ninjamuffin99, PhantomArcade, EvilSk8er, Kawaisprite)

It's a testament to how wildly popular Friday Night Funkin' is, and all despite it not even being finished yet. A Kickstarter for the full release, Friday Night Funkin': The Full Ass Game, launched in April 2021 and reached its goal of $60,00 in a couple of hours and soon went on to raise over $2 million—no surprise there.

It's quite amazing to see another small indie reach incredible heights, and it's a trend we've seen again and again, like with Among Us, Phasmophobia, and Valheim. Part of the appeal and success for Friday Night Funkin' is that it feels distinctly like a 'Newgrounds game'. It's bold character designs, a hint of cheekiness, simple inputs, the addictive vibe of a difficult Flash game—it's a hyper-specific feeling of a moment in internet history, and trying to describe it is like explaining Can I Has Cheezburger to someone.

Friday Night Funkin' doesn't inherently feel like a Newgrounds game because of these features alone, but the outpouring of work the community has generated. The team's decision to make it open-source and to have modding be as easy as possible is reminiscent of the tools and accessibility of early creators using Flash. FNF inspires the same creativity Newgrounds inspired at its peak popularity, where people come together to share their creations.

Friday Night Funkin'

(Image credit: Ninjamuffin99, PhantomArcade, EvilSk8er, Kawaisprite)

I haven't been on Newgrounds in over a decade and seeing Friday Night Funkin' sitting at number one on the top of site's' most popular games, scrolling through McMillen’s The End is Nigh, Cavanagh’s VVVVVV, Metanet’s N++, and Ubisoft’s Trials, Alien Hominid, The Impossible Quiz, Happy Wheels, and many more, is a nostalgic feeling.

Friday Night Funkin' reminds us of a special piece of internet history and how it paved the way for artists and developers alike. Adobe pulled the plug on Flash in 2019, and Newgrounds has never reached the heights it did in the 2000s, but it's great to see the same community spirit lives on through games like Friday Night Funkin'.

Rachel Watts

Rachel had been bouncing around different gaming websites as a freelancer and staff writer for three years before settling at PC Gamer back in 2019. She mainly writes reviews, previews, and features, but on rare occasions will switch it up with news and guides. When she's not taking hundreds of screenshots of the latest indie darling, you can find her nurturing her parsnip empire in Stardew Valley and planning an axolotl uprising in Minecraft. She loves 'stop and smell the roses' games—her proudest gaming moment being the one time she kept her virtual potted plants alive for over a year.

Read more
Cards swirl in an interdimensional vortex in Balatro's trippy intro sequence.
LocalThunk gave up making Balatro for 3 months but resumed because 'I was bored but the internet was out so I couldn't play Rocket League'
Infinity Nikki in front of a stream on a bridge
Infinity Nikki has been the catalyst for healing my inner child who spent way too long suppressing their love for these games
Fragpunk characters with weapon drawn
The latest big game on Steam is Fragpunk, or as I like to call it, 'kitchen-sink Counter-Strike'
Shovel Knight key art showing the titular knight brandishing his titular shovel in front of a gaggle of the supporting cast.
Shovel Knight artist says throwback games need 'retro authenticity' but can't coast on nostalgia alone: 'Part of the appeal of the NES era of game making was that everything was a new idea'
Wormhole
Wormhole is an impeccable arcade revival of Snake that plays like it fell off the back of Derek Yu's van
Thank Goodness You're Here! key art
If 2024 proves anything, it's that mainstream success hasn't made PC gaming any less weird—and thank God for that
Latest in Rhythm
Fortnite Festival Neko hatsune miku outfit
Hatsune Miku is the icon for Fortnite Festival Season 7, and it might be the collab that finally convinces me to become a rockstar
Rocksmith 2014 Edition - Remastered promo image
Rocksmith 2014, the one people actually like, is back on Steam due to popular demand
A screenshot from upcoming rhythmic roguelike action game Ratatan.
The Patapon designer's new rhythm-action roguelike is coming to PC
Hi-Fi Rush screenshot
'We don't think Hi-Fi Rush 2 is going to make us money,' Krafton chief says, but they bought Tango Gameworks anyway 'to maintain their legacy'
Trombone Champ: Unleashed
Deliriously funny rhythm tooter Trombone Champ is getting a VR version
Unbetable - Beat and a band mate block incoming beats with their instrumnets on a rhythm mini game
Unbeatable is an exceedingly cool rhythm RPG 'where music is illegal' coming in 2025
Latest in Features
Geralt, two swords on his back, in the wilderness
2011 was an amazing comeback year for PC gaming
Alligator skull with glowing eyes on human body and cords coming out sitting at piano with "The Norwood Etudes" ready to play
My new most anticipated RPG let me be a kleptomaniac gourmand set loose in a noir city on a quest to make 'the perfect sandwich'
Monster Hunter Wilds' stockpile master studying a manifest
Monster Hunter Wilds' new gyro controls are a fantastic option for disabled and able-bodied players alike
Manhunt 2
I played the notoriously ratings-board-ravaged Manhunt 2 and was quite glad for the censorship actually
A busy marketplace in The Bazaar.
The Bazaar could be the future of autobattlers, if it stops strangling itself to death with its own microtransactions
Marvel Rivals characters - Hulk with his hands out as if he's grabbing the camera.
Marvel Rivals' growing roster of heroes scares me, but the game's director seems sure that all is under control: 'Everything is progressing smoothly'