# Club Penguin

> A penguin world spread through referrals before Disney paid about $350 million upfront.

- Owner: New Horizon Interactive; The Walt Disney Company from August 2007
- Kind: Game
- Sector: Gaming
- Seed date: 2005-08-22
- Milestone date: By end of Dec 2007
- Date basis: Documented milestone; not a measured attention peak. Dates use the stated precision; chart positions are date anchors.
- Spread Score: 61 (Viral, provisional), v1.2
- Mechanics: Platform jump, Press loop, Dupe economy

## Summary

Club Penguin grew through friends and a Miniclip placement before Disney bought it. Nielsen's December 2007 audience is the milestone shown here. Ban videos reached YouTube; after the official shutdown, private servers drew returning students.

## Timeline

- 2005-08-22 — New Horizon Interactive (Open web) — The team opened Club Penguin's beta to testers and accepted further signups.
- 2005-10-24 — New Horizon Interactive (Open web) — New Horizon Interactive officially launched Club Penguin.
- Mar 2006 — Miniclip (Open web) — Club Penguin launched on Miniclip.

The full timeline, metrics and sources are on the case page, or via the Pro API (https://howitspread.com/developers).

Canonical URL: https://howitspread.com/cases/club-penguin

Cite as: How It Spread (2026). “Club Penguin.” Case HIS-01322. Spread Score v1.2: 61/100. Updated 2026-10-22. https://howitspread.com/id/HIS-01322