Tomato Way

Submission 691

Part of a series on Steam. [View Related Entries]

About

Tomato Way refers to an indie video game centered on a tomato who eliminates other vegetable foes. The game was developed by Ukrainian developer Vladislav Castillo Gonzalez and released on Steam in 2016. The game earned Let's Play gameplay videos on YouTube in the late 2010s but didn't receive significant meme attention and fandom until 2024 on TikTok.

History

Tomato Way is a PC game that was released on Steam^[1] on December 7th, 2016. The game was developed and published by Ukrainian indie game developer Vladislav Castillo Gonzalez.^[2]

On July 10th, 2018, Tomato Way 2 was released on Steam.^[3] On September 15th, 2020, Tomato Way 3 was released on Steam.^[4]

Online Presence

On December 9th, 2016, YouTuber^[5] Cr1TiKaL shared a video of Tomato Way in which he added commentary over the game's intro. The video amassed over 1.4 million views and 38,000 likes in eight years (shown below).

In the following years, a small fandom formed around the game, inspiring more Let's Plays and gameplay footage. For instance, on December 12th, 2016, YouTuber^[6] dlive22891 shared a Let's Play video for Tomato Way, gaining over 830,000 views and 16,000 likes in eight years (shown below).

Years later, on July 30th, 2024, TikToker^[7] @guavatd posted a photo slideshow that began with a meme reading, "when the fandom so dead it's not even in those dead fandom videos," leading into images of Tomato Way. Over two months, the slideshow received roughly 996,600 plays and 179,300 likes (recording shown below).

Viewers found the slideshow funny because people had never heard of Tomato Way and the idea that it had a fandom was absurd. For instance, TikToker^[8] @xiaofulbehavior posted a video on August 9th, 2024, that was a screen-recording of the slideshow in which she was heard laughing at it, gaining over 184,500 plays and 29,600 likes in a month (shown below).

The resurfaced discourse about the game inspired fan edits and memes on the app going into August 2024. For instance, on August 10th, TikToker^[9] @gnorp01 posted a Tomato Way edit, gaining over 1.2 million plays and 162,700 likes in a month (shown below).