TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Following the internet frenzy to "take gold" in the Pop Cat clicker game, Taiwan Meme has created a ‘Pop Xi’ game that accumulated 60 million clicks within 10 hours.
The game places Chinese leader Xi Jinping (習近平) in Tiananmen Square. When clicked, he transforms into Winnie the Pooh and says, “We reminisce about them.”
Currently, Taiwan tops the leaderboard, with Hong Kong in second. However, Hong Kong took the lead first when the game was launched.
(Taiwan Meme screenshot)
“I wasn’t originally planning on launching the game today,” said the admin of Taiwan Meme, who created the game in collaboration with a well-known app maker from Taiwan known as "Matt." The two individuals said they could not give their real names for fear of denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks.
The admin said people in Hong Kong somehow discovered the domain last night, so he had to rush to launch it. “They started clicking like crazy as soon as they found it, and used up my free server quota.”
However, Taiwan quickly overtook Hong Kong, and for a while, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Macau occupied the top three places on the leaderboard, before Malaysia surpassed Macau. Other major click contributors include the U.S., Thailand, Japan, and Germany.
Images, videos, and memes of the game have spread quickly across social media in Taiwan. Players also noted on Facebook that there have even been clicks from China, and joked that numbers such as 890604 or 19890604 (in reference to the infamous Tiananmen Square Massacre) should be set as major milestones for the game.
Taiwan Meme also shared on its page a video of Pop Xi being played on a Tesla screen.
When players complained about the game lagging because of heavy traffic, the pair paid money out of their own pockets for upgrades. By around noon on Saturday (Aug. 21), the global click count had zoomed past 70 million, with approximately 35,000 clicks flooding in every second.
"Taiwan Meme" is a meme creator active on social media, including Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and Clubhouse. It is known for making satirical memes as a critique of current events.
