About

Gamers During WW3 are a series of memes which humorously imagine how the playerbases of various video games would behave if they were drafted into World War III or another armed conflict. The format assumes that gamers would try to utilize various game mechanics to gain an advantage over the enemy, such as Fortnite players rapidly building protective structures and Grand Theft Auto players carrying around an extensive arsenal of weaponry.

Origin

While separate instances of memes imagining gamers attempting to utilize various game mechanics during armed conflicts existed prior, the format did not see a pronounced spread until the popularity of World War III memes in early January 2020. On January 3rd, 2019, Redditor^[5][6] JPGameGuide posted the first meme which imagined a Fortnite player utilizing the in-game defensive mechanic of rapidly building structures during a World War III battle (shown below, left). The post received over 100 and 530 upvotes in /r/memes and /r/PewdiepieSubmissions subreddits in five days, respectively. Within one hour, Redditor^[7] Rthanos posted a similarly worded meme in /r/dankmemes, where it received over 94,400 upvotes in five days (shown below, right).

Precursors

On February 3rd, 2009, episode 22 of season three of sketch comedy show The Whitest Kids U' Know premiered.^[1] In the sketch "Call of Duty," the troupe portrays three soldiers during a military operation, which is then revealed to be occurring inside an online multiplayer match.

On October 23rd, 2018, an unknown 4chan^[2] /b/ user posted a greentext story imagining members of Generation Z partaking in a war against Vietnam in 2020 (shown below). On the same day, the story was repost one /b/,^[3] with the screenshot posted to /r/4chan board of Reddit^[4] on October 24th, where it gained over 20,700 upvotes in six months. In the following years, the greentext story was reposted multiple times.

Spread

Starting on January 3rd, 2020, memes imagining gamers utilizing various game mechanics to gain an advantage during the World War III gained significant popularity online, primarily in /r/dankmemes, /r/memes and other communities on Reddit. On January 3rd, Redditor^[8] dddbait posted the first known meme comparing the playerbases of different games during World War III which received over 400 upvotes in /r/dankmemes (shown below, left). On the same day, Redditor^[9] zulhilmeme made a post comparing Call of Duty, Fortnite and Team Fortress 2 players which gained over 7,500 upvotes (shown below, center). On January 4th, Redditor^[10] stalinisOURdaddy posted a meme comparing Call of Duty, Fortnite and medieval RPG players which gained over 42,000 upvotes in four days (shown below, right).

In the following days, memes comparing how the playerbases of different games would behave during armed conflict gained significant popularity on Reddit. Many examples, inspired by a January 5th meme by Redditor^[11] ThunderCobra72, are structured the following way:

WWIII: *starts*
CoD Players: 360 no-scope
Fortnite players: start building
X players:

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References