Neopets: From Boomtown to Ghostown

Neopets is peak early-2000s nostalgia. Founded in 1999, Neopets quickly grew into the hottest site on the internet for kids. At its height between 2002-2007, Neopets the virtual hangout spot for every ’90s kid. Wired reports that, in 2005, Neopets had 25 million members worldwide and over 2.2 billion page views per month. The site was a behemoth that was translated into 10 languages. If you were a preteen or a parent of one at the turn of the millennium, you could not escape Neopets.

For many American kids, it was our first introduction to British spelling and advent calendars. At first it was odd, until we found out that Neopet’s creators Adam Powell and Donna Powell (né Williams) were from the United Kingdom. In an odd way, Neopets introduced us to other Anglophone cultures. 

While Neopets is often broadly described as Tamagotchi meets Pokémon, it’s only an accurate description when analyzing the site at surface level. Diving deeper you’ll discover that the site was more than another virtual pet themed game. You had to keep your pets fed and healthy like Tamagotchi. And your pets fought and defended Neopia like Pokemon defend fictional cities. However, Neopia had a thriving community. In many ways, it was the perfect gamified microcosm of adult life for preteens. Neopians raised up to four Neopets, contributed to the newspaper The Neopian Times, earned the Neopia’s currency (Neopoints) through activities, invested in the NEODAQ, saved Neopoints at The National Neopian Bank, defended Neopia from intruders, shopped at various stories, and explored strange lands. If you can think of an aspect of real life, chances are it had a Neopets counterpart.

Neopia even had its own urban legends. Unlike real life, these were usually true. Jelly World officially didn’t exist and Neopians would deny its existence while giving you directions to this magical land of free jelly, which could literally save your Neopets life if you were poor and unable to afford food. Those of us with too much time on our hands cracked other secret areas like games available in other languages, which you needed the specific URL to access. One popular game was a Coca-Cola game written in Japanese because it was a basic online game that had many versions, so instructions on how to play weren’t necessary. There were other games that weren’t so easy to understand for monolingual English speakers and still remain a mystery.  

When not engaging directly in Neopia, the Neopets site enabled users to talk to fellow kids from around the world through NeoMail, Neobards, and Guilds. For those under 13 who wanted to partake in these discussions, you needed to print out a permission slip, have your parents sign it, and fax it to Neopets offices in California. Once you were in, discussions covered everything from pressing Neopian issues, such as the Battle for Meridell, to anything a 11-13 years old wanted to post. 

In hindsight, Neopets was moderately educational but little more than a way to sell merchandise. The entire website was a case study in interactive advertising. McDonald’s and other brands advertised real products in the virtual world, blending reality with fantasy in a way that has become increasingly common over the years. Hardcore Neopets fans could catch ‘em all at Limited Too in stuffed form, don Neopets themed clothing, and beg their parents to buy other Neopets merchandise. 

With all its success and merchandising potential, it’s not surprising that Viacom purchased Neopets in 2005 and used it to promote the Nickelodeon Kids’ Choice Awards, even going so far as to have a game where you could slime your Neopets. Eleven years later, Viacom sold the site to JumpStart Games, the people behind the edutainment games that brought us Frankie the dog, C.J. the frog, and Botley the robot. In 2017, NetDragon, a Chinese gaming company, bought JumpStart and all its properties. Currently, NetDragon does little more than maintain Neopets existence.  

Today, Neopets is a shadow of its former self with only a few thousand users sticking around to preserve it for posterity. Most original users have grown up and moved on. Instead of caring for Neopets, these ’90s kids are now adults taking care of human and fur babies. The kids who would’ve replaced them turned to Minecraft and have no interest in Neopets because, like Myspace, the site struggled to remain relevant as the internet grew. 

Note: If you try to get into your old account, you probably won’t be able to, a data breach in 2016 revealed everyone’s passwords and personal information.