No Internet? Play Chrome Browser’s Offline Dinosaur Game

You probably surf the internet using Google Chrome browser every day. You probably have been on the “No Internet” page at least once since you started using the Chrome browser. You probably have seen an awkward-looking animal-like creature on the ‘No Internet’ page and wondered what it was. What you [probably] do not know is that the awkward-looking creature is a dinosaur (read: T-Rex) and the “No Internet” error page that appears on your device’s screen is a game.

The Google Chrome (Mobile and PC) browser comes with a built-in runner game embedded into the page that appears when your internet connection is weak, poor, or entirely offline. Dubbed “Chrome Dino”, the running game was debuted on the browser in 2014 by a team of software engineers (Edward, Sebastien Gabriel and Alan Bettes) under the Chrome Design team at Google.

Chrome Dino is currently being played monthly by over 270 million users across the world both on laptop and mobile, mostly from regions with expensive mobile data and unreliable internet connectivity — Brazil, Mexico, India, Indonesia etc. The game is interestingly engaging and addictive. In fact, Edward revealed that it got to a point where the team had to give schools and enterprises a “backdoor” to disable the game on their computer browsers as students and employees would play the game rather than work.

Chrome Dino GamePlay

The idea behind the Chrome Dino game is to navigate the dinosaur over cacti and other obstacles without getting hit for as long as you possibly can. Or perhaps, till your internet comes back up. There’s no ending to the game, really. Unless, according to Edward, you can play it continously for 17 million years.

When asked how long does it take to beat the game? Edward said,

We built it to max out at approximately 17 million years, the same amount of time that the T-rex was alive on Earth… but we feel like your spacebar may not be the same afterwards.

To play the game;

On PC

1. On the “No internet” error page, Simply press the Space bar on your keyboard and the Dinosaur begins to advance toward the cacti/obstacles
2. To jump over the cacti, tap the Space bar on your keyboard
3. To dodge/duck other obstacles, tap the Arrow Down key

If your internet connection is working perfectly and you want to play the Chrome Dino game, you can simply enter this address chrome://dino into your Chrome address bar and tap the Space bar to begin playing.

On Mobile

1. When on the ‘No Internet’ error page, tap the dinosaur to begin the game
2. To jump over the cacti, tap anywhere within the Chrome browser window

Alternatively, you can also type chrome://dino into your browser’s address bar and hit Enter.

At the top-left corner of the game, your current score and the highest score ever recorded are displayed.

Did you just discover this game through this article? Ever played the Chrome Dino game on your browser? What’s your high score?