The year was 2014. Prime Minister Tony Abbott was being shredded left, right and centre for knighting Prince Phillip, Pharrell Williams‘ bop “Happy” was dominating on every radio station known to man, and in Calabasas, a newly married Kim Kardashian West was launching her new mobile game, Kim Kardashian: Hollywood. Well, all good things must come to an end, and almost a decade later, Kim Kardashian: Hollywood is shutting up shop.
Regular players of the game will have noticed a little pop up message, advising that in-app purchases are no longer available and the app has been removed from the app store. “Players can use any existing in-game virtual currency until April 8, 2024, after which the game will become inaccessible. Thank you for supporting Kim Kardashian: Hollywood!”
For those who never experienced the soaring highs and crushing lows of Hollywood, allow me to elaborate. Playing as a virtual wannabe A-Lister, it allowed Kim Kardashian fans to amass clothes, money and notoriety to rise up the ranks of celebrity stardom. It was weirdly addictive, and added new features based on whatever Kim was doing in her actual, rising star life. If she travels to Iceland, then game developer Glu added features to the game. In the lead up to North West‘s third birthday party, Hollywood players were given the opportunity to help plan the event — in return for stars, of course.
The game earned Kim her first ever Forbes cover in 2016, which revealed that it had been downloaded more than 45 million times and raked in US $160 million (approx. $238 million) in revenue. (Forbes estimated she’d personally pocketed around US $45 million of that — not too shabby.) And while celebrity games were something of a trend at the time (remember Ellen DeGeneres‘ Heads Up?), it wasn’t a guaranteed success; a Britney Spears game from Glu based on the Hollywood success quickly sank into obscurity.
And yet, more than a decade on, the time has come to say goodbye.
“I’m so grateful from the bottom of my heart to everyone who has loved and played Kim Kardashian: Hollywood in the past 10 years,” Kim Kardashian said in a statement, announcing its end.
“This journey has meant so much to me but I’ve realised that it’s time to focus that energy into other passions. I want to thank the Glu team and the many people behind the scenes who have worked diligently on making it a success. I will be forever inspired by this community that we built together.”
The end of an era. I guess Kim Kardashian fans will have to make do with The Kardashians, and rewatches of Keeping Up With The Kardashians, and magazine covers, and Instagram, and TikTok, and YouTube, and—
