Nyan Cat is a looping pixel-art animation of a gray cat with a cherry Pop-Tart body flying through space and leaving a rainbow trail, paired with the Japanese song "Nyanyanyanyanyanyanya!" by daniwellP[8]. It became one of the most recognizable internet memes of the early 2010s[2].

Where did Nyan Cat come from?

Christopher Torres created the original animation on April 2, 2011 during a Red Cross charity drawing livestream, combining viewer requests for "cat" and "Pop Tart"[5]. YouTuber saraj00n (Sara June) paired it with the Vocaloid song and uploaded the combined video on April 5, 2011[8].

What does Nyan Cat mean?

"Nyan" is the Japanese onomatopoeia for a cat's meow, similar to "meow" in English[5]. The name stuck after saraj00n titled the YouTube upload "Nyan Cat," replacing Torres' original name of "Pop Tart Cat"[8].

How do you use Nyan Cat?

Nyan Cat is typically shared as a GIF or video loop for nostalgic or absurdist humor. Common uses include embedding the animation in conversations about early internet culture, creating rainbow trail edits, and making audio mashups with other songs[4].

Is Nyan Cat still popular?

Nyan Cat's viral peak ran from 2011 to 2013, and it saw a resurgence in 2021 with the NFT sale for approximately $590,000[12]. As of late 2023, the original video had reached over 210 million views before being moved to a new channel[8].

Who created Nyan Cat?

Christopher Torres, a Dallas-based artist known online as prguitarman, created the original animation[5]. The YouTube video version was created by Sara June (saraj00n), who combined Torres' GIF with daniwellP's Vocaloid song[8].

What is the Nyan Cat song?

The song is "Nyanyanyanyanyanyanya!" composed by Japanese artist daniwellP, originally featuring the Vocaloid virtual singer Hatsune Miku[8]. The version in the viral video uses a cover by the UTAU voice Momone Momo, uploaded to Niconico on January 30, 2011[8].

How much did Nyan Cat sell for as an NFT?

Torres sold a remastered version of the Nyan Cat GIF as an NFT on the Foundation platform in February 2021 for 300 ETH, worth approximately $587,000-$590,000 at the time[12].

What happened to the original Nyan Cat video?

In November 2023, the saraj00n YouTube channel took down the original video and posted a call to free Palestine, changing the channel bio to "the meme you seek has been forcibly displaced"[2]. Torres moved the video to his own channel.

Did Nyan Cat win any awards?

Nyan Cat won the Webby Award for "Meme of the Year" in 2012[8]. It also ranked fifth among the most-viewed YouTube videos of 2011[8].

What was the Nyan Cat lawsuit about?

In May 2013, Torres and Keyboard Cat creator Charles Schmidt sued Warner Bros. and 5th Cell for using their meme characters in the Scribblenauts video games without permission or payment[10]. The case settled in September 2013 with both creators being compensated[10].

What was the cat behind Nyan Cat?

Nyan Cat was based on Torres' pet Russian Blue cat named Marty, who died in November 2012 from feline infectious peritonitis[8].

Tac Nayn is a dark-colored parody of Nyan Cat that flies in the opposite direction, created by a YouTube user in 2011. It's framed as Nyan Cat's evil counterpart[13].

Nyan.cat is the official website where visitors can watch the Nyan Cat animation loop while accumulating a "nyan time" score[2]. It was originally launched by someone who tried to profit from the meme without Torres' permission, but Torres gained control of it by 2012[8].

Nyancoin is an officially licensed cryptocurrency that launched in January 2014 based on the Nyan Cat meme[8]. A separate, unrelated ERC-20 token also called NYAN launched on Ethereum in 2021[6].

Nyan Cat

2011video/animationclassic

Published March 10, 2026 · Updated March 12, 2026

Also known as: Nyan Cat Meme

Nyan Cat is an 8-bit animated GIF of a cat with a cherry Pop-Tart body flying through space, trailing a rainbow, set to the endlessly looping Japanese Vocaloid song "Nyanyanyanyanyanyanya!" by daniwellP. Artist Christopher Torres created the animation during a Red Cross charity livestream on April 2, 2011; three days later YouTuber saraj00n paired it with the song, and the combination quickly became one of the biggest viral memes of the early 2010s. The original video pulled in over 205 million YouTube views and sparked games, merchandise, a Webby Award, and a landmark NFT sale worth nearly $600,000.

cats early 2010s memes gif memes earworm memes nft sold memes

Overview

Nyan Cat, a pixel-art animation of a gray cat with a cherry Pop-Tart for a body, zooming through a star-filled sky while leaving a bright rainbow trail behind it. The animation loops endlessly, paired with the high-energy Japanese Vocaloid track "Nyanyanyanyanyanyanya!" by daniwellP3. "Nyan" is the Japanese onomatopoeia for a cat's meow, the equivalent of "meow" in English5.

The character's design is deliberately simple: big eyes, a cheerful expression, stubby legs that appear to run mid-flight, and a rectangular pastry torso in pink with sprinkles. That simplicity made Nyan Cat instantly recognizable and easy to remix. The whole package, cute cat plus catchy music plus hypnotic loop, created something weirdly addictive. People would leave the video running just to see how long they could stand it2.

Originally, the character was also called "Pop Tart Cat" before the internet collectively decided on Nyan Cat after saraj00n's YouTube upload5.

Origin & Background

Platform

4chan/YouTube

Key People

Christopher Torres, Sara June, daniwellP

Date

2011-04

On April 2, 2011, 25-year-old illustrator Christopher Torres of Dallas, Texas was running a charity drawing livestream for the Red Cross when two viewers made separate requests: one said "cat" and the other said "Pop Tart"5. Torres combined the two ideas into a quick doodle of a cat with a pastry body and rainbow trail, based on his own Russian Blue cat named Marty2. That same evening, he turned the sketch into his first-ever 8-bit animation and posted the GIF to his Twitter, Tumblr, and his webcomic site LOL-Comics7.

Three days later, on April 5, 2011, YouTube user saraj00n (real name Sara June) took Torres' animation and set it to "Nyanyanyanyanyanyanya!," a Vocaloid song by Japanese producer daniwellP5. The track had originally been composed for Hatsune Miku, but the version used in the video was a cover by the UTAU voice Momone Momo, uploaded to Niconico on January 30, 2011 by a user called "Momomomo"5. Saraj00n titled the upload "Nyan Cat," and it hit one million views within two weeks4.

Torres had no grand plans for the GIF. He'd used it as his Twitter avatar and moved on. Then overnight his inbox filled with hundreds of emails and the view counter kept climbing. As he told Trend & Chaos in 2021: "It was born out of pure randomness and love for everything cats, space, and the Internet"7.

How It Spread

By April 10, 2011, Nyan Cat had been picked up by Memebase, BuzzFeed, Tumblr, and Facebook4. Two days later, the Tosh.0 blog, CollegeHumor, and G4TV all posted about it9. Business Insider ranked the video ninth in its top ten viral videos for April 2011, with 7.2 million total views that month5.

One early driver of spread was a comment on the original video by YouTuber xDaZJMx, who told viewers to play Slipknot's "Psychosocial" music video (muted) alongside the Nyan Cat audio. The stunt worked. Tens of thousands of users flooded Slipknot's video with "NYANNYANYANYANYANYANYANYANYANYANYANYANYA" comments, confusing the metal band's fanbase and dragging Nyan Cat into a completely different corner of YouTube4.

On April 13, the site nyan.cat launched, originally as an unauthorized knockoff called "Toast Cat" that swapped the Pop-Tart for toast2. Torres criticized it as plagiarized, but by 2012 he'd gained control of the domain5. The site turned into a landing page where visitors watch the loop and rack up a "nyan time" score, with high-scorers displayed on an arcade-style leaderboard2.

Sprint featured Nyan Cat in its Nexus 4G "Cats" commercial4. Remixes flooded YouTube in every genre imaginable. Fan-made games started appearing, including "Nyan Cat: Lost in Space" for iOS and Android, "Snake Nyan Cat," and a Robot Unicorn Attack variant called "Nyanicorn"4. Someone even built a working NES tech demo of Nyan Cat that ran on original hardware emulators4.

By the end of 2011, the video was the fifth most-viewed YouTube video of the year5. It kept climbing, eventually passing 205 million views by May 20235.

Platforms

YouTubeTumblrTwitterForums

View on Google Trends

Frequently Asked Questions

References (23)

1
Nyan Cat Meme — Origin, Meaning, History | MemesGuyarticle
2
Meme History: Nyan Catarticle
3
The Origins of the Nyan Cat Meme: Uncovering the Creator Behind the Viral Sensation - JustCatCafearticle
4
Nyan Cat - Know Your Memeencyclopedia
5
Nyan Cat - Wikipediaencyclopedia
6
Nyan Cat (NYAN) Price, Market Cap, Chart & Info | Coinpaprikaarticle
7
Interview: “Nyan Cat” 10 Year Anniversary with Artist/Creator, Chris Torres - Trend & Chaosarticle
8
NyanSliders - TheBigBoss.org - iPhone software, apps, games, accesories, ringtones, themes, reviewsarticle
9
â â¡ âarticle
10
Keyboard Cat and Nyan Cat Come Out Ahead in Lawsuit Against Warner Bros.article
11
Nyan Cat Party! | Tosh.0 Blogarticle
12
Nyan Cat Was Originally Called Pop-Tart Catarticle
13
'Nyan Cat' flying Pop-Tart meme sells for nearly $600,000 as one-of-a-kind crypto artarticle
14
Nyan Cat Meme cursor – Custom Cursorarticle
15
Nyan Cat and the Rise of Internet Memes in Pop Culturearticle
16
Exploring Nyan Cat and Tac Nayn: The Viral Memes That Changed Internet Culture - WellBehavedCat.comarticle
17
What Is a Nyan Cat? The Internet Meme Explainedarticle
18
Nyan Catarticle
19
Flying Rainbow Pop-Tart Cat - CollegeHumor Videoarticle
20
NYAN.CAT!article
21
? ? ?article
22
Juicy Beast Studioarticle
23
Sh**ty Viddy Saturday: Nyan Cat - Cheezburger - Funny Memes | Funny Picturesarticle