The Untold Truth Of PewDiePie's Poopdie

Are you excited by the thought of endless poop jokes, references to farts, and other humor of the bowel-movement variety? If so, you might want to check out Poopdie, the dungeon-crawling adventure presented by the controversial internet personality PewDiePie. "Mold and manage your own Poops! Upgrade them with unique skills. Fart ancient spells. Defeat evil Samron and his army of Buttcreatures," reads the game's description.

This is a game that probably would never have existed without someone of Felix "PewDiePie" Kjellberg's influence backing it. He even called it his "origin story." It features a sad worm named Poopdie, who lives in the Kingdom of Grounds and has a farting problem that makes others laugh at him. He is visited one day by the great Poopduck, who tells Poopdie to stop holding in those farts — "he will give birth to great miracles" as he battles Samron on his Butthrone.

The game, in all its 50-shades-of-brown glory, was developed by indie studio Bulbware. In its short lifespan since being released in December 2019, it has already earned quite the reputation. Climb atop your porcelain throne — it's time for the untold truth of Poopdie.

Poopdie released for Android users via the Google Play store on December 12, 2019. However, it was initially banned on iOS devices according to PewDiePie and the developers. Based on a Bulbware blog post, Apple concluded "[Poopdie has] crude imagery and sound effect which may disgust users."

Bulbware appealed the decision and by December 23 Apple had reportedly reversed course. The developers announced the Apple Review Board had decided "that game is not too crude, nor 'oversaturated.'" Since then, both Android and iOS users have been able to download Poopdie for free. It's family-friendly — as long as that family doesn't mind a lot of poop and fart talk and has a high tolerance for bodily functions.

Once Poopdie released, some players noted aesthetic similarities to the game The Binding of Isaac. Nintendo Life's Stuart Gipp called it "an enormous rip-off," saying, "This game wants to bite Isaac's style so hard it's on the verge of drawing blood." Gipp was not the only one who saw the similarities. One Twitter user even dubbed the game "the binding of poopdie."

Like Poopdie, 2011's The Binding of Isaac from Edmund McMillen and Florian Himsl is dungeon crawler. It has roguelike characteristics and was inspired by The Legend of Zelda. That Poopdie resembles this earlier game isn't too much of a surprise, as PewDiePie has previously declared his love for The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth, the 2014 remake of the original title. In 2015, Pewds posted a video on The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth, saying, "It's just so much fun. This game really innovated procedurally-generated games, which basically means you can play this game an infinite amount of times and it will be different every time."

It's possible PewDiePie and Bulbware intended Poopdie as something of an homage to The Binding of Isaac, a not uncommon practice in the world of game development.