Mortal Kombat 11

2019viral videoclassic

Published September 6, 2026

Mortal Kombat 11 is the eleventh main entry in NetherRealm Studios' fighting series, revealed at The Game Awards 2018 and released April 23, 2019. The launch drew as much online chatter about its trailer music, its female character redesigns, and a Shao Kahn line about making Outworld great again as it did about the game itself, spawning trailer remixes and a Trump-referencing meme clip.

Overview

Mortal Kombat 11 is the eleventh mainline game in NetherRealm Studios' long-running fighting franchise, directed by Ed Boon and published by Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment1. The game arrived with the series' usual gore, plus a time-travel story mode and a Custom Character Variations system that let players tweak their fighter's look and moves2. Reviewers landed at an 83/100 Metacritic average, singling out the fluid combat and the story mode3.

Online, the game turned into meme material almost immediately. The reveal trailer's 21 Savage track "Immortal" set off a wave of fan-made remixes swapping in everything from ELO's "Mr. Blue Sky" to no music at all2. A separate clip of Shao Kahn shouting "Make Outworld Great Again" got clipped, screenshotted and shared as a Donald Trump reference in the days around launch4.

Origin & Background

Platform
The Game Awards / YouTube (viral spread)
Key People
NetherRealm Studios
Date
2019

NetherRealm founder Ed Boon walked onstage at The Game Awards 2018 on December 6, 2018, ostensibly to present the Best Sports/Racing Game award, and instead dropped the Mortal Kombat 11 reveal trailer, five years after Mortal Kombat X1. The trailer confirmed an April 23, 2019 release on PlayStation 4, Xbox One and Windows PC1.

The origin video posted to YouTube quickly became the anchor for the meme reaction[a1]. Within days, fans re-uploaded the same trailer with different soundtracks after complaints about 21 Savage's "Immortal," and outlets like ComicBook.com covered the swap trend directly2.

How It Spread

The Nintendo Switch port followed on May 10, 2019, widening the meme's reach to a second wave of players4. On the same launch weekend, Twitter user @KSIK_ posted the "Make Outworld Great Again" Shao Kahn clip on April 22, 2019, framing it with a laughing emoji, which pushed the Trump-reference reading into wider circulation5.

The game's gore drew formal pushback too: the fatalities system got Mortal Kombat 11 banned in Indonesia, Ukraine and Japan6. Fans separately started a Change.org petition asking NetherRealm to restore the more revealing MK9-era looks for Sonya Blade, Jade and other female fighters after the MK11 redesigns covered them up7. Jax's story arc, which involves rewriting history around the Trans-Atlantic slave trade, drew its own round of debate online4.

How to Use This Meme

The trailer-remix format is straightforward: take the official Mortal Kombat 11 reveal video and cut its audio to a wildly mismatched song, usually something as un-metal as possible, then post it as a joke response to fan complaints about the original 21 Savage track2. The "Make Outworld Great Again" clip is typically shared as a standalone reaction, often paired with U.S. political posts as a punchline about Shao Kahn's delivery5.

Frequently Asked Questions