About

Catnap is the name of the third antagonist in the horror video game Poppy Playtime franchise, which was released on Steam on January 30th, 2024. Depicted as an anthropomorphic purple-furred cat with black eyes, Catnap initially looks like an adorable stuffed cat but transforms into an enormous monster with ridges and plates adorning his back. Throughout early 2024 and beyond, the character was popularized in memes with various references, fan art and other fan-made depictions like Huggy Wuggy and Mommy Long Legs from chapters one and two of the series.

Origin

Catnap was originally seen in the first gameplay trailer for the third installment of Poppy Playtime the game franchise, which was uploaded to YouTube^[1] by the channel MOB Games on July 26th, 2023. The video shows Catnap's silhouette from a distance, slowly walking towards the camera and releasing a gas from its mouth. The trailer earned 10 million views in six months (shown below).

Poppy Playtime: Chapter 3 was then fully released on January 30th, 2024, with Catnap's online presence significantly ramping up in the following weeks as the game trended on social media.

Spread

Catnap's use in fan animations happened even before the third installment of the game was released on Steam. For instance, on December 29th, 2023, the YouTube^[2] channel @HorrorSkunx uploaded a video (shown below, left) of a possible "origin story" for the character, which received more than 12 million views and 76,000 likes in two months.

On December 8th, YouTuber^[3] @shapedudes posted a parody video introducing the new villain in the Poppy Playtime franchise. The video (shown below, right) garnered over 1.2 million views and 39,000 likes in two months.

On November 12th, 2023, DeviantArt^[4] user @AlexychArt posted a fan art drawing of the character (shown below, left), amassing roughly 3,900 views and 59 favorites in three months. On November 26th, DeviantArt^[5] user @MYUI-MO shared a fanmade poster of the game's third installment (shown below, right), which received more than 10,000 views and 176 favorites in three months.

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References