Club Penguin Rewritten was launched on February 12, 2017.
New York reported that
Rewritten saw an influx of users during the
COVID-19 pandemic, calling it a "thriving fandom". The game consisted of teens and young adults that had played the original game, who used the remake as a way of
escapism from the pandemic.
Rewritten leaned into its user growth by hosting virtual recreations of events such as
proms and
graduation ceremonies that had been cancelled as a result of the pandemic.
The Hollywood Reporter described the demographics of
Rewritten as primarily being high school and college students. The shutdown of other private servers contributed to
Rewritten growing popularity, such as the closure of
Club Penguin Online in 2020. On April 3, 2020, singer-songwriter
Soccer Mommy hosted a
virtual concert for her album
Color Theory through the site as part of an
internet trend of musical video game performances influenced by the pandemic. Allison stated that
Club Penguin was "a game that everyone remembers [as] a kid", and alluded to the nostalgic desire to play the game during the pandemic: "I feel like a lot of people were also doing the same thing I was doing: logging back on when we were all stuck inside, and playing [...] just for fun." At an interview with
The Hollywood Reporter, Lance Priebe, one of the developers of
Club Penguin, praised
Rewritten use of communication during the pandemic. In March 2020, a
Rewritten staff member said that the game was receiving 30,000 new users every day. == Shutdown ==