Rocket League became one of my favorite games from Day 1. The premise was simple enough: soccer with cars. But it also represented something I felt was missing in gaming, a straightforward and fun arcade sports experience. And here we are, at the tenth anniversary of the release of Rocket League, and I can’t be any happier that it’s still a thing after all these years.

‘rocket league’ was a special game, even in the early stages

It’s easy to look at what Rocket League has become and think that it was always that. But it wasn’t. It was a PS Plus free game when it launched. And I remember when it was a fairly basic offering. It didn’t matter, I sunk hours into that game. And I told anyone who hadn’t touched it yet that they needed to get on this as soon as possible. The game was simple enough to pick up, but soon, you started seeing some insane play from different people online.

It wasn’t hard to see that this had the potential to be an eSports mainstay, and it became just that. The skill of some of these players is outlandish. I’ve seen people boost upside down with the ball lying on the undercarriage of the car and take it from one end of the arena to the next, straight into the goal. Some of the boost-related tricks I saw were mind-blowing. On top of the gameplay, you started to see more and more customization options for the cars.

Eventually, Rocket League made it to other platforms, and I can tell you once it hit the Switch, my usage of it skyrocketed. I still have Samus’ ship as my main car on there, and I will never change it. We would also see partnerships with the NBA, the Fast and Furious series, and more. The game had become one of those cultural touchstones in that way. And then they partnered up with Fortnite, proving that this was a game and brand that was here to stay.

I hope to see it go for another 10 years

It’s wild to look back at a game like Rocket League and how far it’s come. In many ways, it’s an important game for me to track my life by. Ten years ago, I was still stuck managing a grocery store and had barely begun my games journalism journey. The coming years would see me leave retail for banking, leave banking for gaming, have a kid, and get engaged. The entire time, this game remained a constant. Even if I didn’t sink six to seven hours into it like I used to, I always made sure to come back to it. It’s been a great ten years for Rocket League, and I can’t wait to see what the next ten look like.