Where did the Mobile Game Ad Meme come from?

The original artwork was commissioned by Plarium for their game Stormfall: Age of War. It became a meme on 4chan's /v/ board in June 2017 when users started mocking and remixing the ads[2].

What does the Mobile Game Ad Meme mean?

It mocks the aggressive, misleading clickbait advertising common in browser and mobile games. The tree and its captions represent the absurdity of age-targeted gaming ads that promise life-changing experiences[2].

How do you use the Mobile Game Ad Meme?

Either parody the "If you're over [age]" ad format with absurd substitutions, or use the Wise Mystical Tree image in video edits (often paired with the Skyrim track "Secunda") as a mystical or all-knowing figure[2].

Is the Mobile Game Ad Meme still popular?

The meme saw a major revival in September 2022 on Twitter, with viral posts earning hundreds of thousands of views. It is still recognized and used in video edits, though activity has slowed from its 2022 peak[2].

What is the Wise Mystical Tree?

The Wise Mystical Tree is the human-faced tree character from Plarium's browser game ads. It became the central icon of the Mobile Game Ad Meme and is now used independently as a reaction image and video format[2].

Who made the original tree artwork?

The artwork was commissioned by Plarium for advertising purposes. The most famous version, showing a knight kneeling before the tree, was traced from a real photograph of a tree[2].

Why did the meme come back in 2022?

Twitter user @marisagender posted a compilation video of multiple tree ads on September 18, 2022, which went viral with over 250,000 views and 36,400 likes in three days, reigniting interest[2].

What is the Secunda connection?

After the 2022 revival, users began pairing the Wise Mystical Tree with "Secunda," a composition from the Skyrim soundtrack, in video edits. The atmospheric music gave the tree an unexpectedly grand and spiritual quality[2].

What games were the ads for?

The ads promoted several Plarium titles: Stormfall: Age of War, Vikings: War of Clans, and Throne: Kingdom at War[2].

Mobile Game Ad Meme

Q: What is the Mobile Game Ad Meme?

It's a meme based on clickbait ads for browser games by Plarium, featuring a human-faced tree and captions like "If You're Over 25 and Own a Computer, This Game Is a Must-Have." People parody the ads' absurd targeting and generic fantasy imagery[2].

2017Image macro / remix format / ad parodysemi-active

Also known as: Wise Mystical Tree · Must-Play Tree · If You're Over 25 and Own a Computer This Game Is a Must-Have

Mobile Game Ad Meme refers to the widespread mockery of clickbait browser game advertisements, most notably the "Wise Mystical Tree" ads used by Plarium to promote Stormfall: Age of War and other titles. The ads, featuring a human-faced tree and captions like "If You're Over 25 and Own a Computer, This Game Is a Must-Have," first went viral on 4chan's /v/ board in mid-2017 before resurfacing on Twitter in September 2022 as a remix and caption format1.

mobile game memes clickbait memes spam ad memes skyrim memes remix culture memes

Overview

The Mobile Game Ad Meme centers on a specific set of fantasy artworks commissioned by mobile game company Plarium for their browser-based titles. The most recognizable image shows a knight kneeling before a large tree with a human face, paired with age-targeted captions promising an unmissable gaming experience2. The ads appeared across websites as clickbait banners, and their over-the-top targeting ("If you're over 25...") and generic fantasy imagery made them easy targets for parody.

The tree's uncanny human face and the absurdly specific age requirements in the ad copy struck a nerve with internet users who saw the ads constantly while browsing. People turned the format into jokes about literally anything being a "must-have" game, and later into a standalone visual icon used in video edits and memes unrelated to gaming entirely.

Plarium commissioned several fantasy artworks depicting a knight near a human-faced tree for advertising their browser game Stormfall: Age of War2. The most famous piece, showing a knight kneeling before the tree, was traced from a photograph of an actual tree in a forest2. Plarium ran these images as ads for multiple games including Vikings: War of Clans and Throne: Kingdom at War, typically with captions like "If You're Over 25 and Own a Computer, This Game Is a Must-Have"2.

The ads started getting noticed online in spring 2017. On May 3, 2017, the Twitter page @USgamernet posted about the artwork2. Eight days later, Tumblr user letshearitforthisclown made a post about it that picked up over 8,000 notes across five years2. On June 11, 2017, Twitter user @snakepixel posted about the ads, earning 20 retweets and 100 likes2.

The jump from "weird ad" to "meme" happened on June 23, 2017, when an anonymous user posted the artwork to 4chan's /v/ board with the caption "ITT games you need to play if you own a computer"2. That thread pulled in over 90 replies.

Origin & Background

Platform

Plarium ad campaigns (source material), 4chan /v/ board (meme format)

Key People

Plarium, @marisagender

Date

2017

Plarium commissioned several fantasy artworks depicting a knight near a human-faced tree for advertising their browser game Stormfall: Age of War. The most famous piece, showing a knight kneeling before the tree, was traced from a photograph of an actual tree in a forest. Plarium ran these images as ads for multiple games including Vikings: War of Clans and Throne: Kingdom at War, typically with captions like "If You're Over 25 and Own a Computer, This Game Is a Must-Have".

The ads started getting noticed online in spring 2017. On May 3, 2017, the Twitter page @USgamernet posted about the artwork. Eight days later, Tumblr user letshearitforthisclown made a post about it that picked up over 8,000 notes across five years. On June 11, 2017, Twitter user @snakepixel posted about the ads, earning 20 retweets and 100 likes.

How It Spread

By late June 2017, the meme was spreading across 4chan's /v/ board. Users referenced the ads in thread openers and replies, riffing on the absurd premise that owning a computer obligated you to play a specific free browser game. On July 14, a /v/ user posted a screenshot of a different clickbait ad featuring the tree, which kicked off a bigger wave of recognition on the board.

Starting July 18, 2017, dedicated threads appeared on /v/ featuring edits, parodies, and mashups of the tree artworks. Users photoshopped the tree into other game screenshots, swapped its face, and rewrote the ad copy for comedic effect.

Between 2017 and 2022, the meme mostly faded from mainstream attention, with occasional posts surfacing on Reddit and iFunny.

The second wave hit in September 2022. On September 17, Twitter user @JacobKluding posted a montage video compiling multiple "If You Own a Computer" tree ads, though it didn't gain much traction initially. The next day, @marisagender reposted the montage, and it exploded: over 250,000 views, 5,500 retweets, and 36,400 likes within three days. This revival turned the Wise Mystical Tree into a broader meme format, with users pairing the tree image with the Skyrim soundtrack composition "Secunda" in video edits and caption memes.

Platforms

TwitterTwitterReddit

Timeline

2023-01-15

First appears

2023-06-01

Goes viral

2024-01-01

Continues in use

2025-01-01

Mobile Game Ad Meme is still actively used and shared across platforms

View on Google Trends

How to Use This Meme

The Mobile Game Ad Meme typically works in a few ways:

Classic ad parody format: Take the tree image and write an absurd "If you're over [age] and own a [object], this [thing] is a must-have" caption. The humor comes from applying the clickbait ad logic to something ridiculous.

Video remix format (post-2022): Place the Wise Mystical Tree image over footage or another meme, often with "Secunda" from the Skyrim soundtrack playing. The tree usually appears as a source of wisdom, judgment, or mystical authority in these edits.

Reaction/caption format: Use the tree as a standalone image to represent something ancient, all-knowing, or ominously beckoning. People drop it into conversations as a visual punchline about being lured into something.

The format is loose enough that the tree works in almost any context where you want to evoke "sketchy internet ad energy" or "cryptic forest wisdom."

Create Your Own

Cultural Impact

The Wise Mystical Tree became one of the most recognized symbols of low-quality internet advertising. Its spread highlighted how aggressively mobile and browser game companies target users with misleading clickbait, and the meme gave people a shared vocabulary to mock these tactics. The specific "If you're over 25" framing became shorthand for any patronizing, algorithmically targeted ad.

The 2022 revival on Twitter brought the meme to a new generation of users who may never have seen the original Plarium ads. The pairing with Skyrim's "Secunda" gave the tree an unexpected atmosphere of reverence and grandeur, turning a mockery of cheap ads into something almost meditative in certain edits.

Browser game advertising itself became a broader meme category partly because of this meme's success. The Wise Mystical Tree set the template for how people discuss and parody the entire genre of overpromising mobile game ads.

Fun Facts

The most famous tree artwork was traced directly from a photograph of a real tree in a forest, not painted from scratch.

Plarium used the same tree artworks across at least three different game titles: Stormfall: Age of War, Vikings: War of Clans, and Throne: Kingdom at War.

The meme had a five-year dormancy period between its 2017 4chan peak and 2022 Twitter revival.

The viral September 2022 tweet by @marisagender was actually a repost of @JacobKluding's video from the day before, which had flopped.

Derivatives & Variations

Secunda edits:

Video remixes pairing the tree with the Skyrim composition "Secunda" by Jeremy Soule, giving the image an epic or spiritual tone[2].

Age-swap parodies:

Edits changing the age threshold in the caption to absurd numbers ("If you're over 3 and own a toaster") to mock the targeting logic[2].

Tree face swaps:

Photoshops replacing the tree's human face with celebrities, politicians, or other meme characters[2].

Non-gaming "must-have" edits:

Applying the ad template to non-game subjects like food, relationships, or existential dread[2].

Frequently Asked Questions

References (2)

1
List of Internet phenomenaencyclopedia
2
Mobile Game Ad Meme - Know Your Memeencyclopedia