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Neopets Was Nearly Forgotten Until a Superfan Took Over
By Kelli Luu | 05 Jul, 2025
Before the world was deluged by social media, Neopets was dominating the early 2000s until a data breach exposed millions of users. Now, superfan Dominic Law is giving Neopets a serious rebirth.
Before TikTok, Fortnite, and even MySpace, users were spending hours playing Neopets, an online browser game that had millions in a digital chokehold.
Neopets was launched by two friends in September 1999 with a goal to make extra cash and keep college students entertained. The virtual pet browser game featured its own world called “Neopia” where players can transport around the map and play games to earn Neopoints, which can be used to obtain food to feed your Neopet or even clothing to dress them up.
Users could also train their Neopets to compete in the “Battledome” against other players. At the “Battledome” they are able to interact with one another and also trade and sell using the message boards.
Just a few months later in December 1999, Neopets was seeing over 600,000 views daily and by 2001 users were spending an average of 117 minutes a week online. By May 2005, Neopets calculated nearly 35 million users and 4 billion site views a month.
But behind the scenes of the site’s hype, Neopets was changing hands. Viacom, Nickelodeon’s parent company, purchased Neopets for $160 million with dreams of creating a Neopets empire.
Viacom expanded the brand to video games, stuffed animals, and even Happy Meal deals but because of the internet’s quick evolution, Neopets was struggling to keep up with the digital age.
The site changed hands again and was acquired in 2014 by a well known Chinese firm, JumpStart. From there, Neopets was completely neglected with minimal updates and bugs clogging the site. The site was full of outdated Flash games so users were unable to play even the most popular games like Meerca Chase, Hasee Bounce, and Faerie Cloud Racers.
And just when you thought there was a possibility of Neopets making a comeback, things got even worse as the years went by. In July 2022, the company confirmed a ginormous data breach where hackers were able to access over 69 million users, exposing names, birthdates, and emails.
This created a big scandal and made longtime players completely ditch the game. But the next year fans got their first glimmer of hope back as Dominic Law, current Neopets CEO announced new management and also $4 million in investment funds to bring the site back to life.
Law is set on restoring Neopia and reviving the Neopets community with modernized updates and rebuilding fan favorite games. And this seems to be working because by April 2024, the site’s monthly users went from 100,000 to 300,000.
Dominic Law is currently at the forefront of what could be one of the biggest comebacks of 2025 and he is fueling his fire with millennial nostalgia while also expanding to a new generation of digital pet owners
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