Blaseball, the “absurdist baseball simulation” that became a social media sensation during the COVID years, is now over. Developer The Game Band announced the closure earlier this month, stating that the game simply isn’t sustainable to run, and that it will lay off an undisclosed number of staff as a result of this move. In a blog post, The Game Band states that the studio has has struggled to balance the workload that Blaseball requires.

“Since Blaseball’s inception, we’ve been fighting against the amount of work it takes to keep Blaseball true to itself while financially supporting the team and keeping our staff healthy,” it reads in part. “We’ve tried countless solutions to make it work, and we’ve come to the conclusion that this fight isn’t one we can win in the long run. The cost, literally and metaphorically, is too high. So we are making the decision to end it here instead of changing Blaseball into something unrecognizable.”