KYM Review: The Top Gaming Memes Of 2024

What is up, gamers? We've gathered you all here to relive the most fun (or funniest) moments the gaming industry, video games and their amazing communities delivered us in 2024, and review something that is found in the very DNA of every true gamer — memes.

While 2024 may not have been as impressive as its predecessor in the sheer number of masterpieces per square foot, forcing The Game Awards to resort to having a DLC and an amazing indie game nominated for its "Game of the Year," what it lacked in quantity it made up in quality.

But enough about lesser gaming awards, we're here to find out who deserves the most coveted mark of industry recognition of them all: the honor of being selected as one of Know Your Meme's "Top Gaming Memes of 2024."

As usual, we have 10 winners and a few more shoutouts because the number of great memes we witnessed far surpasses the humanly readable length of this listicle. On this note, let's jump into it!

Miiverse Yeah!

Funnily enough, one of the most popular gaming memes of 2024 originated over a decade earlier. The unexpected comeback of the "Yeah!" button from Nintendo's discontinued social media platform Miiverse was prompted by X (formerly Twitter) tzar Elon Musk deciding that users could do well without seeing public likes and controversially added the ability to hide them to the platform. Disgruntled enjoyers of public likes (how else could we know what Ted Cruz has been into lately?) swiftly took the matter into their own hands, employing the "Yeah!" reaction as a way of letting the world know that they liked a certain post.

The practice, however fun it was, ultimately proved to be short-lived and largely died out in a few weeks, but not before inspired dozens of novelty reaction images that users happily used instead of the traditional like feature.

We Got X Before GTA 6

Let's list some of the things that happened since Grand Theft Auto V was released in 2013: We had a global pandemic, the United States changed its president three times, Cyberpunk 2077 was developed, released and patched into a playable state — these are just a few things that have happened, are happening and will continue happening before Grand Theft Auto VI finally comes out in 2025, if we're lucky.

The phrase "We Got X Before GTA 6" has introduced a brand-new concept of measuring the eras of human history by Grand Theft Auto game releases. "B.E." and "A.D." are things of the past, it's all about "BGTAVI" and "AGTAVI" now, gamers.

Helldivers 2

Ten-hut, Super Earth defenders! You wake up on a crisp February morning, your top priority: launching Helldivers 2 on your personal computer, dropping on an alien planet's surface with your brothers-in-arms and "the best defense is offense" mindset, and diligently defending your beloved homeland from insectoid and robotic invaders. Optional objective: logging in on social media and spending hours arguing whether the game is satire or not. Life is good.

February and March 2024 were peak Helldivers 2 months laden with banger memes such as the ⬆️➡️⬇️⬇️⬇️ code, cryptic for those unfamiliar with the game and discussions of glorious battles. Unfortunately, the initial success of HD2 was marred by controversy after Sony decided to force all players to make a PlayStation account and incidentally cut off dozens of countries from the ability to even purchase the game. Still, true soldiers will never forget Malevelon Creek and its many horrors. 🫡

Palworld

While one-half of the players were fighting alien bugs and violently disassembling hostile robots in foreign worlds, the other half was busy partaking in an adventure in a world much more magical where creatures were far cuter and, coincidentally, had about the same amount of weaponry as the defenders of democracy. We're talking, of course, about Palworld a Japanese survival game commonly described as "Pokemon with guns."

Filled to the brim with wild Pals™, the colorful world of Palworld offers players the chance to enter a world of joy, adventure and merciless industrialism where you put your newfound Pals to work. That ore isn't going to mine itself, and neither will that electricity appear out of thin air, so if you're not as cute as Chillet and Lovander, then off to the factory floor with you … pal.

But while shooting, exploiting and even eating Pals sounds horrible extremely fun, all of this still somehow managed to get overshadowed by hidden Pokemon lore uncovered by our next pick.

Game Freak Pokemon GigaLeaks

Oh boy, where do we even start? From unreleased lore stories about Typhlosion, Octillery and Slacking getting it on with humans and spawning human-Pokemon hybrids to Jennifer Lopez supposedly being the inspiration behind the attractive "pilot" design of Gym Leader Skyla, the massive leak, dubbed the "Game Freak GigaLeak," revealed just how much "freak" takes precedence over "game" in the company's name. The esoteric-looking Creation Myth diagram and a document found among the leaks brought lots of interesting insight into the origin and creation of the Pokémon world itself.

The massive leaks fueled a meme trend that not only entertained the entire Pokémon fanbase for the better part of October but will likely remain a source of jokes and references for years to come. Vaporeon copypasta spammers were onto something after all.

Concord Shutdown

In the midst of all the amazing video game success stories we witnessed in 2024, there was a failure so spectacular that spawned so many jokes and memes it would be a disservice not to include it on this list. The generational flop of Concord, Sony's hero shooter developed by Firewalk Studios (which reportedly cost $400 million to make) peaked at a whopping 607 concurrent players on Steam on its launch day.

Lack of proper marketing, diverse but uninspired character designs and gameplay seen in dozens of better games all led to a reception so disastrous that Sony pulled the plug on the game two weeks after the launch, offering refunds to those who bought it.

As Sony shut down the servers to "explore options," all that was left was a lesson to be learned for other publishers, lots of gloating and inspiration for some top-notch memes about how not to make and market your multi-million-dollar AAA video games.

Man the Game

Moving on from the realm of real games into the fever dream area, we've got Man the Game, an imaginary game following the adventures of the titular "Man." Following its conception by TikToker @axelussy, the game rapidly went viral, the amount of its fictional lore growing like a snowball, with users coming up with increasingly ridiculous sequels, prequels and spin-offs.

Ultimately, it could only end one way, and it did, with indie developer Kendal Watkins making an actual point-and-click visual novel inspired by the meme, which featured 10 manly endings. Netflix, this might be your next Arcane right here.

I Am My Perimeter, My Perimeter Is Me

Gamers turning into five-star voice actors has been a known phenomenon for years, and in 2024, we got a gem of an inspiration speech that will surely be remembered as one of the best examples of this.

In late March, streamer Snapiyy posted a R6: Siege clip in which he, cornered in an enclosed area, bravely took his last stand against the enemies. With bullets flying at the streamer from several directions and him accepting his inevitable fate, Snapiyy gave his viewers a rifleman's creed-inspired speech that could be included in an Oscar-nominated war film. Needless to say, it was definitely worthy of inspiring hundreds of TikToks and being spammed in voice chat during the most dramatic gaming moments.

https://www.tiktok.com/embed/v2/7352700197606018310

Thou shall show no fear. In the mighty eyes of the Lord, I shall hold my post. This is where I make my stand, thou shall not abandon your post! I am my perimeter, my perimeter is me!

Dress to Impress Pose 28

We've been slaying demons and monsters in video games for decades, but in 2024, the world learned about a new type of virtual slaying: The one done on the podium of the Dress to Impress modeling simulator. While the game spawned a number of memes, none have been as impressive as the infamous Pose 28 — awkward but imposing and powerful to a degree would make JoJo's Bizarre Adventures creator Hirohiko Araki proud.

The awkward pose became especially popular within stan circles on social media. While many began spotting it in the wild with the pattern recognition skill of a chess grandmaster, more artistic users soon realized its potential as a reference.

Curse You, Bayle!

If we were ranking top video game haters instead of memes, Igon from Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree and his passionate hatred for dragon Bayle the Dread and his now-iconic line, "Curse you Bayle!" would definitely be a top contender.

Igon's intense hostility for the beast singlehandedly brought back every imaginable meme format involving screaming and anger, with someone on 4chan's /v/ even remaking the classic "White Whale Holy Grail" meme just for the occasion.

CURSE YOU BAYLE! 🐲 I hereby vow! 💯 You will rue this day! ☀️ Behold, a true drake warrior! 🤺 And I, Igon! 👨‍🦱

Honorable Mentions

We couldn't fit every big gaming meme of the year into our top 10, and it would be doubly unfair to not even give them a shoutout. Here are our honorable mentions of some more great gaming memes of 2024 and games that inspired them:

The Fantastic Adventures of Sexdick, a forgotten gem of our childhood that, regrettably, never existed.

Lobotomy Dash, Geometry Dash's very own brainrot trend.

Dash Spider, also known as This Part Isn't Sightreadable," the (yet another) Loss of Geometry Dash.

Stadium Pulse from College Football 25, the real-life stressful situation indicator.

The tragic story of Mouthwashing and all the fan art it inspired. We stan Anya and hate Jimmy in this house.

Lastly, the way Regilock straight up served with its lipstick and a handbag.

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Looking for more of this year's best viral phenomena and memes? Be sure to check out our other 2024 meme roundups below:

• The Top 20 Memes Of 2024 — Coming soon…
• KYM Staff Picks Of 2024 — Coming soon…
• Top Slang Terms Of 2024
• Top Gaming Memes Of 2024
• Top Trolls, Rumors and Hoaxes Of 2024
• Wackiest Stories Of 2024 — Coming soon…
• Top Viral Videos Of 2024 — Coming soon…
• Top Anime Memes Of 2024 — Coming soon…