Gorilla Tag: Reject Humanity, Return to Monke

Grow the audience. Cater to the diehards. Do both.

Released as a free-to-play game on Meta’s App Lab, Gorilla Tag became a cultural phenomenon before it ever became a business. The title had millions of active users and a community that ran its own hype machine, and generated its own memes, across TikTok, YouTube and Reddit.

The launch campaign had to validate that community while introducing newbies to the experience. The answer came in the form of parody, equal parts nature documentary and cultural observation. New audiences were introduced to the game’s unique mechanics, rituals, and modding culture. Longtime players engaged with the content and saw themselves reflected in its storytelling. Our launch trailer and social content followed a baby player’s journey from flailing to fluent. Both audiences got behind the rallying cry, “Reject Humanity, Return to Monke” (yes, monke).

The result was the most successful launch in the history of the Quest headset, and one of the standout original IP’s of the 2020s.