The offline dino game is one of the most-played games ever made, yet it began as a small in-joke. Here is where it came from and why a dinosaur guards Chrome's "No Internet" page.
Born from a joke about being offline
The game was built by members of the Chrome team in 2014. The dinosaur theme is a pun: being stuck without a connection is like living in the "prehistoric ages." So a prehistoric creature became the mascot of the disconnected internet.
The creators and "Project Bolan"
Three people are credited with the game: Sebastien Gabriel, Alan Bettes, and Edward Jung. Gabriel designed the runner, nicknamed the "Lonely T-Rex." During development it carried the codename "Project Bolan," a reference to Marc Bolan, frontman of the glam-rock band T. Rex.
A quiet launch, then a huge audience
The game shipped in September 2014. Early versions did not run on some older devices, so the code was updated and re-released later that year. Flying pterodactyl obstacles arrived with a 2015 update. By 2018 its creators estimated it was played hundreds of millions of times a month.
Special moments over the years
Chrome has celebrated milestones inside the game: a birthday cake and party hat for the browser's tenth anniversary in 2018, and an Olympic torch theme for Tokyo 2020. These limited-time touches turned a simple runner into a small cultural fixture — it has even been referenced in television.
Curious about the surprises hidden inside it? See our easter eggs page, or jump straight in and play the dino game.