Newgrounds
The chaotic original, still hosting animation and games uploaded since 1999, and still the least sanitised corner of the web.
Opens in a new tab. We do not control this site and it may have changed since we catalogued it.
How to get the most from it
Newgrounds sits in Arcade Hubs under Play, filed as rabbit hole.
- Open it when the evening is free. It has no natural stopping point.
- Use a laptop or desktop computer — we file it as desktop only.
- Turn the sound up or put headphones on — it needs audio.
- No account needed — you can start without signing up.
- Not one for a shared screen — save it for somewhere private.
- Go in expecting something chaotic, nostalgic and weird.
About this category: The large portals. Less curated than everything else here, but when you want volume rather than a recommendation, this is where volume lives.
Good for
- A long evening with nothing planned
- Pure, noisy chaos
- A trip back to the older internet
- Seeing the internet at its least explicable
- Trying it with zero commitment
Newgrounds: quick answers
Is Newgrounds free?
Yes. Newgrounds is free to use and needs no account.
Do I need an account to use Newgrounds?
No. You can use Newgrounds without signing up for anything.
Does Newgrounds work on a phone?
Not well. We file Newgrounds as desktop only, so open it on a laptop or desktop computer.
Is Newgrounds safe for work?
We do not file Newgrounds as safe for work. Open it somewhere private.
How long does Newgrounds take?
We file it as "Rabbit hole": Clear your evening. We warned you.
More in Arcade Hubs
All 19 in Arcade HubsA British studio that made pixel-perfect browser games for fifteen years and then put the entire back catalogue up free.
- 10 min
- Desktop
Clean, fast and mobile-first, with a front page that reads more like a curated shelf than a dump of everything uploaded.
- <1 min
A no-frills portal unusually strong on two-player games you can play on one keyboard with somebody sitting next to you.
- <1 min
- Desktop
A vast, barely filtered pile of browser games including a great many Flash-era oddities kept alive by an emulator.
- <1 min
- Desktop
Same mood: chaotic
All chaotic sitesThe pop-tart cat, the rainbow and the song, with a counter for how many seconds of your life you have handed over.
- <1 min
- Sound on
The LiveJournal community that outlived LiveJournal, still posting celebrity news with the comment threads doing the work.
A million checkboxes shared by everyone at once. Ticking them was pointless right up until people started writing messages in binary.
The souped-up fork of the infinite text canvas, with colour, links and long-running territory disputes conducted entirely in ASCII.
- 10 min
- Desktop
Keep exploring
Category
Time and mood
Have a site of your own? Suggest it for Detour or browse the AltFTool backlinks hub.