# Trombone Champ

> Trombone Champ, a rhythm game played on a comic trombone, sold 20,000+ copies at launch.

- Owner: Holy Wow Studios
- Kind: Game
- Sector: Gaming
- Seed date: 2022-09-15
- Milestone date: 2022-09-23
- Date basis: Documented milestone; not a measured attention peak.
- Spread Score: 44 (Notable, provisional), v1.2
- Mechanics: Creator relay, Press loop, Platform jump

## Summary

Holy Wow Studios released Trombone Champ on Steam on Sept. 15, 2022. A PC Gamer clip on Sept. 20 and recordings by reviewers, trombonists and streamers spread it on Twitter, YouTube and Twitch, and the press called it viral within a week.

## Timeline

- Aug 2022 — Holy Wow Studios (Open web) — Holy Wow ran a playtest of the game in August, open to the public via Steam.
- 2022-09-15 — Holy Wow Studios (Open web) — Holy Wow Studios released Trombone Champ on Steam.
- 2022-09-20 — PC Gamer (Christopher Livingston) (Press) — PC Gamer recommended the game; Livingston said his 90-second clip sold copies to colleagues instantly.

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/trombone-champ

Cite as: How It Spread (2026). “Trombone Champ.” Case HIS-00992. Spread Score v1.2: 44/100. Updated 2026-10-15. https://howitspread.com/id/HIS-00992