Run Dino
Run Dino
Home > Chrome Dino Game > History
The Chrome Dino Game—also known as the *T-Rex Runner*—is one of the most recognizable mini-games on the internet. What started as a tiny offline Easter egg inside Google Chrome has grown into a cultural icon played by hundreds of millions of people worldwide.
Back in 2014, the Chrome UX team wanted to make the “No Internet” error page less frustrating. Instead of simply telling users they were offline, they added something playful—an endless runner with a jumping dinosaur.
The designers called the project internally the *“Project Bolan”*—a reference to Marc Bolan, lead singer of the band T. Rex. The idea was to give users a tiny moment of entertainment in the modern-day equivalent of the digital desert when the internet failed.
Even though the game looks simple, it has quietly evolved over the years:
At around 700 points, the screen switches from day to night. This doesn't affect gameplay, but it adds visual variety and forces players to adjust their eyes—especially during longer runs.
The game gets progressively faster until it reaches a hard speed cap. Birds begin appearing around the 500 mark, and their flight height varies to force more complex timing.
For Chrome’s 10th birthday, the Dino briefly received party hats, balloons and celebratory touches.
The mobile version received optimizations after it became one of the most played mobile offline games in the world.
The Chrome Dino Game went viral for several reasons:
Unlike many modern games, the Dino game survives because of its purity: no ads, no downloads, no cash grabs—just a single mechanic done extremely well.
The score counter ends at exactly 99,999. When players reach this cap, the game technically keeps running, but the score stops increasing.
Few players know the Dino has an idle blink animation, different crash frames, and multiple bird speeds that trigger based on score thresholds.
Early prototypes didn’t have the “No internet” banner at all—the Dino just stood quietly until the player tapped.
As the Dino game spread, countless clones emerged—some faithful recreations, others adding weapons, power-ups, collectible coins or multiplayer modes. Games like Run Dino Run polished the formula with better scaling, online leaderboards, achievements and cross-device compatibility.
Instead of hurting the original game, these clones helped cement it as a genre-defining endless runner.
More than a decade after its release, the Chrome Dino Game remains one of the most-played browser games in the world. It still appears automatically when your internet drops—but now millions also play it intentionally by typing:
What began as a tiny joke inside Chrome has become a cultural icon, a teaching tool, a meme generator and a perfect example of how simple design can create timeless fun.
The history of the Chrome Dino Game is a story of accidental brilliance: a tiny side-project built to make users smile grew into one of the biggest unofficial games on the internet. Its charm lies in its simplicity, its accessibility and its nostalgic nod to a world without Wi-Fi.