While the rest of the world spirals, millions of players are quietly growing virtual tomatoes.
Grow a Garden, a sweet and surprisingly addictive Roblox game made by a 16-year-old over a weekend, has just broken the all-time record for most concurrent players — clocking over 21 million.
Yes, that’s more than Fortnite. No, there are no guns. No races. No rage-quits.
Instead? You plant some seeds, trade with your mates, maybe steal a carrot or two, all while Mozart tinkles in the background. That’s it. It’s like Animal Crossing meets Minecraft, without the crushing debt or creepers.
And somehow, it’s become the hit of the summer.
“I think the word is chill,” says Becky Bozdech from Common Sense Media in an interview with AP. “There’s no pressure. You just… vibe.” Her 11-year-old’s obsessed. So are millions of others.
Maybe it’s coincidence, maybe it’s chaos fatigue — but this wholesome pixelated garden shot to fame right around the time GTA 6 got delayed. Go figure.
While analysts fawn over what this means for Roblox stock, there’s a bigger question lurking in the dirt: If Grow a Garden is smashing records, does that make cozy gamers real gamers?
As far as we’re concerned: if you’re planting pretend pumpkins instead of dodging bullets, you’re still playing the game.
