Skip to main content
  1. Home
  2. Gaming
  3. News

Cookie Clicker deploys major update, putting global productivity at risk

By
Add as a preferred source on Google

Indie developer Julien “Orteil” Thiennot has released a long-awaited update for his hit browser game Cookie Clicker, adding several new features and improvements in a bid to reignite a global addiction to virtual confectioneries.

Version 2.0 of Cookie Clicker is the culmination of a nearly two-year-long beta period, which gradually rolled out a series of significant balance changes for the deceptively simple baking sim.

Recommended Videos

Playable in a browser window, Cookie Clicker challenges players to bake as many virtual cookies as possible by clicking icons and buying property in order to boost automatic production. Players continue to accrue cookies while idling, making the game a low-impact hit among casual players.

Cookie Clicker unveils a dark side once players hit a specific progression point, however, and late-game events take the game’s storyline into unexpected territory. Cookie Clicker‘s addictive gameplay and bizarre sense of humor earned it a dedicated fanbase, and its vast collection of in-game goals and achievements provide ample incentive for players to expand their cookie production empires for months on end.

The release of Cookie Clicker spawned many similar games in recent years, including mobile hits like AdVenture Capitalist and Bitcoin Billionaire. The game has remained freely playable since its launch in 2013.

Cookie Clicker‘s latest update introduces banks, temples, and wizard towers, which automatically increase cookie production when purchased. Other new features include offline production, challenge runs, and a cookie dragon.

The update also revamps Cookie Clicker‘s Prestige system, which rewards dedicated players with persistent bonuses for giving up their cookie empires and starting over from scratch. Players can now purchase a variety of “permanent transcendental upgrades” when ascending, making subsequent playthroughs more profitable as a result.

Creator Orteil notes that Cookie Clicker Version 2.0 additionally features “heaps of rebalancing and bug fixes,” along with new upgrades, unlockable achievements, customization options, and various quality-of-life improvements.

Danny Cowan
Danny Cowan
Former Contributor
Danny’s passion for video games was ignited upon his first encounter with Nintendo’s Duck Hunt, and years later, he still…
Topics
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4’s Stranded mission had me hooked for hours, yet left me wanting more
I spent hours sneaking through North Korea, scavenging supplies, and clearing outposts, and I’d happily do it all again.
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 Stranded mission gameplay

For years, Call of Duty’s campaign mode has used big, scripted set pieces to tell the overarching story amid all the adrenaline-pumping action. The 2023 Modern Warfare 3 tried to shake up the established formula by introducing a handful of short open combat missions, and I genuinely liked the idea, but the game's overall negative reception seeped into how those missions were received.

I feared the next iteration might abandon the idea because of the backlash, but I am glad it didn't. MW4’s “Stranded” mission uses the same approach, but instead of fragmenting it across the campaign, it puts it all in a single large-scale open-world mission.

Read more
The $1300 Acer Predator Atlas 8 handheld is finally US-bound, and its pre-orders are already sold out
Acer’s first gaming handheld to launch in the US arrives November 1 with Intel Arc G3 Extreme hardware.
Intel Arc G3 Extreme Hands On with Acer Predator Atlas 8

Acer’s Predator Atlas 8 finally has a US release date and price, several months after the company first showed off the handheld in May. The highlight is the Intel Arc G3 Extreme chip inside, which has been adopted by only a couple of other consoles besides the Atlas 8. This version will go on sale exclusively at Best Buy on November 1 for $1,299.99.

Acer originally said the Atlas 8 would arrive in North America in October, but left pricing open at the time. The launch came amid the ongoing DRAM crunch, which has made memory more expensive across the PC industry and complicated pricing for hardware makers.

Read more
ASUS ROG Zephyrus G14 (2026) Review: Almost everything I want from a gaming laptop, except the price
Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 gaming laptop

Quick Take

Gaming laptops and I have a complicated relationship. One of my first gaming rigs was an Acer Predator that was already outdated when I bought it. I was a broke college kid, and that was the best I could afford. So trying out high-end gaming laptops is always fun. But ASUS' ROG Zephyrus G14 is a lot more than a laptop that can run AAA games. It is portable, so you're not lugging around a 2.5kg machine everywhere you go. It is built well, none of that plastic chassis, and can even function as a normal laptop outside of just gaming.

Read more