Cookie Clicker
Cookie Clicker is an idle incremental video game developed by French programmer Julien Thiennot, known by the pseudonym Orteil.[1][2] Originally released as a free browser game on August 8, 2013, it tasks players with clicking a large chocolate chip cookie to generate cookies as in-game currency, which can be invested in automated producers like cursors, grandmas, farms, and mines that yield cookies passively, fostering exponential production growth.[1][3] Created in a single evening and initially shared via online forums, the game rapidly gained viral popularity, attracting tens of thousands of players within hours and establishing the core mechanics of the idle game genre.[1] Over the years, Cookie Clicker has evolved through extensive updates adding hundreds of upgrades, mini-games, achievements, and whimsical elements like a pet dragon, while expanding to platforms including Steam in 2021, mobile apps, and consoles in 2025.[3][4] Its enduring appeal lies in the satisfying progression of numbers ascending without constant input, influencing a proliferation of similar titles and demonstrating the viability of minimalist, browser-based entertainment.[5]Gameplay Mechanics
Core Loop and Progression
The core gameplay loop of Cookie Clicker centers on manually clicking a prominent central cookie to generate cookies, the game's primary currency. Each click initially produces one cookie, enabling rapid accumulation for early purchases. This manual action forms the entry point, with players typically reaching the threshold for the first building—requiring 15 cookies—after a brief period of clicking, often within seconds to a minute depending on click speed.[3][6] Once sufficient cookies are obtained, players purchase buildings that provide automatic cookie production per second (CpS), transitioning the loop toward passive income generation. These buildings enable exponential scaling, as subsequent purchases increase both costs and output multiplicatively, compelling players to reinvest earnings strategically to compound production rates. The mechanics emphasize iterative growth, where initial manual efforts seed a self-sustaining cycle of acquisition and expansion.[3][6] Progression advances through the prestige system, accessed via ascension, which allows players to reset buildings and upgrades in exchange for heavenly chips. These chips serve as a permanent currency, offering multipliers to CpS and other bonuses in new runs, thereby accelerating future iterations of the core loop. Ascension introduces long-term meta-progression, rewarding extensive play with diminished returns on unascended runs and incentivizing periodic resets once diminishing marginal gains from further building accumulation become inefficient.[3][6] Early-game pacing is characterized by swift onset of automation; the low entry cost for initial buildings ensures players experience the shift from active clicking to passive production almost immediately, fostering engagement through observable exponential growth within the first few minutes.[3]Buildings, Upgrades, and Resources
Buildings serve as the primary passive generators of cookies, enabling exponential production growth through investment rather than direct clicking. Each of the 20 building types has a fixed base cost in cookies and a base cookies-per-second (CpS) output, with subsequent purchases of the same type increasing in cost geometrically by a factor of 1.15 per unit owned prior to purchase, calculated as base cost × 1.15^(n-1) where n is the number being purchased (rounded up to the nearest integer). This scaling encourages strategic allocation of resources across types to balance short-term costs against long-term output compounding. Base CpS values remain constant per unit but can be enhanced via upgrades, while synergies like grandma-linked boosts for certain buildings add cross-type efficiencies. The following table enumerates all buildings with their base costs and CpS, drawn from the game's core mechanics as implemented by developer Orteil:| Building | Base Cost (cookies) | Base CpS |
|---|---|---|
| Cursor | 15 | 0.1 |
| Grandma | 100 | 1 |
| Farm | 1,100 | 8 |
| Mine | 12,000 | 47 |
| Factory | 130,000 | 260 |
| Bank | 1,400,000 | 1,400 |
| Temple | 20,000,000 | 7,800 |
| Wizard Tower | 330,000,000 | 44,000 |
| Shipment | 5,100,000,000 | 260,000 |
| Alchemy Lab | 75,000,000,000 | 1,600,000 |
| Portal | 1,000,000,000,000 | 10,000,000 |
| Time Machine | 14,000,000,000,000 | 65,000,000 |
| Antimatter Condenser | 130,000,000,000,000 | 430,000,000 |
| Prism | 1,900,000,000,000,000 | 2,900,000,000 |
| Chancemaker | 27,000,000,000,000,000 | 21,000,000,000 |
| Fractal Engine | 310,000,000,000,000,000 | 130,000,000,000 |
| Javascript Console | 71,000,000,000,000,000,000 | 710,000,000,000 |
| Idleverse | 1,300,000,000,000,000,000,000 | 4,500,000,000,000 |
| Cortex Baker | 21,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 | 23,000,000,000,000 |
| You | 540,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 | 510,000,000,000,000 |