Subway Surfers

Submission 11,694

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About

Subway Surfers is a mobile endless runner video game available on Android and iOS devices. In the game, players take on the role of a graffiti artist on the run from a railway inspector and his dog. The gameplay consists of running down an endless hallway while dodging objects, jumping on passing trains and collecting coins and power-ups. Subway Surfers was released in May 2012 and garnered a large fanbase in the following years, passing 2 billion downloads on the Google Play Store in May 2018. It has inspired memes and fan content including fanfiction and fan art over the years.

History

Subway Surfers was released on May 23rd, 2012. In March 2018, Subway Surfers became the first game to pass a billion downloads on the Google Play Store.^[1] That May, it passed two billion downloads.^[2]

Animated Series

In June 2018, the SYBO YouTube^[3]^[4] channel posted the first episode of Subway Surfers The Animated Series, uploading the eleventh and last episode on January 11th, 2019 (shown below, left and right). The series follows the playable characters from the game, depicting them as skateboarders and misfits. Each episode runs around 3-5 minutes long.

Online Presence

TikTok

Subway Surfers has a large presence on TikTok, including an official TikTok^[5] account @subwaysurfersofficial with over 4 million followers. Videos under the #subwaysurfers hashtag have been viewed over 16 billion times. Some of the TikTok page's most popular posts are memes about the game (examples shown below).

Memes

Subway Surfers is regularly referenced in memes and has inspired several notable memes. On September 7th, 2021, Redditor HXSHED posted a meme to /r/okbuddyretard^[9] showing the game's protagonist, Jake, next to a kid in Jake cosplay, writing, "This will be subway surf in 2014," gaining over 3,100 upvotes in a year (shown below).

On May 23rd, 2022, TikToker^[10] @monke.man.69 posted a parody "hardest Subway Surfers trick video where he uses a fake version of the game to roam outside the endless hallway, gaining over 3 million views in a month (shown below).

Subway Surfers IRL

In September 2021, the acapella group MayTree posted a video to TikTok^[6] and YouTube^[7] performing an acapella version of the Subway Surfers theme song, gaining over 42 million views on the latter. In March 2022, TikTokers began using a sound in videos where they reenact the game in real life. The original sound was used over 100,000 times in three months (examples shown below).

They Trunna Be Subway Surf

"They Trunna Be Subway Surf" refers to a trend on TikTok set to a mashup of "Pissy Pamper (Kid Cudi)" by Young Nudy featuring Playboi Carti and Subway Surfers sound effects where TikTokers strike a variety of poses as the sound effects from the video game come up. The sound was uploaded to TikTok on March 1st, 2022. By March 30th, the sound was used in over a million videos on the platform.

Subway Surfers Hardest Tricks

On TikTok, a popular trend involves showing users the "hardest tricks" to pull off in the game. For example, on May 18th, 2022, TikToker^[8] @magma_ss posted a video showing off a trick known as "the unknown," gaining over 29 million views in a month (shown below).