Draw Something

Lore & Background

Draw Something was developed by OMGPop as a mobile adaptation of its browser game Draw My Thing. It launched on February 6, 2012, and rapidly gained traction, winning a Flurry App Spotlight Award in 2012. Within five weeks, it had been downloaded 20 million times. On March 21, 2012, both Draw Something and OMGPop were purchased by Zynga for $180 million, with the game reaching its peak of 15 million daily active users that same day. By early May, daily active users had dropped to 10 million.

The game was available in multiple versions, including a free version with interstitial advertisements and paid versions with additional features. On April 25, 2013, Draw Something 2 was released for iOS, but both games are no longer available. The exact date of the game's removal from the App Store is not officially documented.

In 2012, Zynga partnered with Hasbro to release a physical board game version of Draw Something under the Hasbro Gaming imprint, joining other Zynga games adapted to board games such as Words with Friends and a CityVille edition of Monopoly.

Reader's Guide

Draw Something's significance lies in its demonstration of the rapid rise and fall possible in the mobile gaming market. Its explosive growth—20 million downloads in five weeks—and peak of 15 million daily active users made it a landmark social game, leading to a $180 million acquisition by Zynga. However, its equally swift decline to 10 million daily users by early May 2012 highlighted the volatility of app-based fads. The game's core mechanic—turn-based drawing and guessing with word difficulty tiers and bombs—influenced later social drawing games. Its legacy also includes a physical board game adaptation, reflecting the cross-media ambitions of digital gaming companies in the early 2010s. The eventual removal of both Draw Something and its sequel from the App Store underscores the ephemeral nature of many mobile titles, even those that once dominated the charts.

Did You Know?

• Draw Something was based on OMGPop's browser game Draw My Thing.
• The game was downloaded 20 million times in its first five weeks.
• On March 21, 2012, Draw Something and OMGPop were bought by Zynga for $180 million.
• A physical board game version was released by Zynga and Hasbro in 2012.

Origins & Meteoric Launch

Draw Something emerged from the studio OMGPop, building directly on the foundation of their earlier browser-based title Draw My Thing. The mobile version hit the market on February 6, 2012, and the response was nothing short of explosive. Within just five weeks of its debut, the game had accumulated 20 million downloads, a figure that immediately placed it among the most downloaded Android applications of its era. The title's early success was formally recognized when it received a Flurry App Spotlight Award in 2012, cementing its status as one of the standout mobile releases of that year. What made the launch particularly remarkable was how swiftly a straightforward drawing-and-guessing concept captured the attention of millions of players, transforming a casual browser pastime into a full-fledged mobile phenomenon almost overnight and setting the stage for the rapid business events that would follow.

The Zynga Acquisition & Peak Popularity

On March 21, 2012, a mere six weeks after its initial release, the gaming giant Zynga made a bold strategic move by acquiring both Draw Something and its parent company OMGPop for $180 million. The timing was striking: that very day of the sale marked the absolute peak of the game's popularity, with 15 million daily active users logging in to play. The post-acquisition period, however, saw a noticeable decline in engagement. By early May 2012, daily active users had fallen to 10 million, a drop of five million in roughly six weeks. Despite this dip, the acquisition underscored how seriously the mobile gaming industry took the title. The $180 million price tag reflected the enormous cultural footprint the game had carved out in a remarkably short span, and it positioned Draw Something alongside Zynga's existing portfolio of social and mobile franchises.

Gameplay & The Art of Guessing

The core loop of Draw Something is deceptively simple yet endlessly engaging. Two players alternate between drawing and guessing: one receives a word and sketches it, while the other attempts to decipher the image. The drawer is presented with three word options valued at one, two, or three stars, with higher-value words typically being more abstract and challenging to depict in a quick sketch. Once the drawing is complete, the guesser watches a stroke-by-stroke replay of the artwork, minus any pauses the drawer may have taken. Armed with a set of scrambled letters—including all the letters in the answer plus decoys—and a number of blank spaces matching the word's length, the guesser has unlimited time and attempts to crack the puzzle. Each player also carries a supply of bombs: for the guesser, a bomb removes incorrect letters from the pool; for the drawer, it generates a fresh set of word choices. If the guesser ultimately fails, they can pass, which unfortunately breaks the pair's winning streak.

Monetization, Spin-offs & Fading

Draw Something offered three tiers of access to suit different budgets. The free edition inserted interstitial advertisements between rounds of play. A standard version removed those mid-game ads but still let players earn bombs by watching video advertisements. At the top was a Pro version exclusive to the iPad, which provided an unlimited supply of bombs at a higher price point. Beyond the digital realm, the franchise extended into the physical world: in 2012, Zynga partnered with Hasbro to release a board game under the Hasbro Gaming imprint, joining a growing family of Zynga titles adapted for tabletop play, including Words with Friends and a CityVille edition of Monopoly. A sequel, Draw Something 2, launched for iOS on April 25, 2013. Yet the era of both titles has now closed. As of December 15, 2022, Draw Something is no longer available in the App Store, and both games have been removed from distribution, leaving millions of shared memories locked in a format that can no longer be downloaded.

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