9 best April Fool’s gaming jokes of all-time

Andrew Highton
wrecking ball googly eyes in overwatch

Gaming and April Fool’s Day go hand-in-hand, as there have been countless examples of developers and publishers pulling off elaborate jokes to fool fans. Here are some of the best April Fool’s pranks in gaming from down the years.

Like Christmas, Halloween, or even Valentine’s Day, April Fool’s Day is a one-day-only affair that distances itself from all the other regular days in the calendar. When it crosses paths with gaming, it can be absolute magic for even just 24 hours.

Everyone loves a well-thought-out April Fool’s gag, and some of the world’s leading brands from Overwatch to LEGO have all been involved in one way or another.

So let’s run through some of the best examples of April Fool’s Day clashing with gaming and pick out the most memorable pranks.

Best gaming April Fool’s Day pranks

From goats appearing on the big screen to unbelievably retro football, the best April Fool’s gaming jokes really do range from the wacky to the wonderful.

Check out each entry below along with a short description of what each stunt entailed.

1. PlayStation Flow

You know those annoying swimming levels in gaming? Well, wouldn’t they be cooler if you actually had to mimic them yourself? That’s what PlayStation Flow promised, but despite the very convincing advert and promotion, it was nothing more than an April Fool’s day hoax.

2. Football Manager 1888

Football Manager is a success year-on-year as fans all around the world get to assume the reins of a football club and enforce the advice they shower the TV with every week. Football Manager 1888 was announced on April 1, 2020, but as you can guess, ye olde football was just a brilliant joke.

3. Overwatch googly eyes

Overwatch 2 carries on the cartoony, somewhat serious nature of Blizzard’s incredible Hero shooter, but back in April 2021, the devs went a bit kooky with the original. See, they made it so that every hero could be equipped with a pair of googly eyes, and it made matches both hectic and hilarious.

4. Touch Grass keys

At one point or another, you might have heard the expression to go outside and “touch grass.” Well on April 1, 2022, HyperX took this one step further and jokingly advertised a keyboard with all-new “Grass keycaps,” and we can’t imagine how impractical they would’ve been if they were real.

5. New Twitch categories

The meteoric rise of Twitch has been helped in part thanks to games such as Just Chatting. Twitch decided to go all in on 2022’s April Fools by including ‘new’ categories for users to enjoy: Pizza Time, Silent Reading, Character Creation, Chores, Odd Jobs & Errands, and Literally Just Chatting.

6. Diablo makeover

It didn’t change too much, but Diablo underwent a bizarre makeover in 2022, and it was quite a drastic swerve compared to its traditional heaven and hell theme. With Diablo 4 set to lead the franchise’s future, we can’t imagine it’ll be incorporating this kind of permanent theme anytime soon.

7. LEGO Halo

There seems to have been a LEGO version of almost everything at this point, especially where games are concerned. Halo fans thought they were getting something special at one point after it was announced that LEGO Halo was on the way, but you already know how that ends.

8. Dark Ciders

darksiders dark cider april fools

The award for the best-named April Fool’s joke has to go to Dark Ciders – a play on the Darksiders series. Described as “artisanal beverages,” the made-up drinks were a great tie-in to the action-adventure games.

9. Goat Simulator: The Musical Motion Picture

We have saved the best till last – Goat Simulator on the big screen. The original game was bigger and better than it had any right to be and its creators teased everyone with a full-scale movie with Jackass’ Steve-O at the helm. We so wish this was true, but for the time being, it’s just another cruel April Fool’s joke.

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About The Author

Andrew Highton is a former Games Writer for Dexerto. He has a Creative Writing degree from Liverpool John Moores University and has previously written for games websites such as Twinfinite and Keengamer. With 13,000+ PlayStation Trophies to his name, Andrew is a fan of a huge variety of video games, his favourites being God of War and Metal Gear Solid. Contact him at andrew.highton@dexerto.com, on Twitter @AndyHighton8 or at www.linkedin.com/in/andrew-highton.