Help Accessing The Site
To play the games simply visit our homepage at friv ...you can
use just about any device with an up-to-date browser.
Users experiencing trouble
accessing the friv domain (perhaps because access is restricted by an internet service
provider or proxy) might try visiting friv4school instead.
Should you experience any
issues accessing the games, first check that you are using an up-to-date browser such
as Google Chrome or Mozilla Firefox.
Friv will run best on newer computers and mobile
devices, especially those with widescreen, high resolution displays. Because there is
such a variety of computers and devices out there, users may notice significant
differences in content and experience on Friv depending on how they access the site.
You can at any time access our full games list of all of our games, but please be aware
that some may not function properly on your machine.
About Friv
Since 2006 the Friv
website has offered lots of great online games for users to play for free. Friv is
different from many other games sites. We only provide family friendly games that are
fun and of a high quality. We show VERY few ads. In fact, we’ll NEVER interrupt your
game with an advert - that would be rude. :) We’ll never nag you to pay for anything.
Users who never want to see even a single advert may visit our dedicated schools
website at friv4school.
We’re delighted that over the years the Friv brand has become
trusted by children, parents, teachers and schools worldwide. Users of any age and in
any country can be sure that they will only ever find wholesome content on the site,
and that’s a big reason why we’ve grown and become popular. We’re eternally grateful
for the support we’ve been given, and we endeavour never to break the trust our valued
users have shown in us. In short, we love you all!
Frequently Asked Questions
(FAQs)
Why has my favourite game disappeared?
Sometimes a game will have to be removed
because it stops working. This can happen when the technology used to run a game
changes, but the game itself stays the same. We try really hard to keep as many of the
games working as we can. Other times, to make room for new games, we have to remove
older ones if we find that they are less popular. It's often possible to find these
games on other sites, so just search a bit and you'll likely succeed.
What age is Friv
appropriate for?
Friv is a general audience website, which means it's not directed at
any particular group or age range. While there are no games that are strongly violent
or whose themes are suitable only for adults, some games may not be suitable for
younger children, and we suggest that these users are observed by a responsible adult
while using the site. We do operate a games website which is directed specifically at
minors, and that is friv4school.
What happened to the old Friv?
Most of the early web
games ran on a technology called Adobe Flash. Mobile devices could not run Flash, and
so sadly for this and other reasons, Flash was more or less fully disabled worldwide in
2024. As both the original Friv menu and all the games ran on Flash, these no longer
ran in most browsers. We worked hard to make a new menu that would work well on all
devices, and to source new games made with the up to date HTML5 technology. Happily, it
has been possible to emulate some of the older Flash games, and if you look carefully,
you will find some on the new Friv menu. You can also have look at our reborn Flash
menu at frivclassic. By no means do all the old games run, but rest assured we are
always working on it!
How did Friv start?
We identified a need! While volunteering in
schools, we saw that the kids were having real trouble on the computers finding games
to play without being constantly tricked by bogus links to non-existent games, or
bothered by endless and sometimes unsafe ads. We knew we could do better. In November
2006 we launched the first version of Friv and saw it grow really well by word of mouth
- among both kids and adults. The rest, as they say, is history.
Why are there so many
fake Friv sites out there?
Like many others in the games industry, we have developed a
reputation for providing quality, safe games under a name users can trust. As so often
happens in commerce, bad actors have exploited this trust and have established fake
sites which they monetize via adverts. The fake sites and the ad networks can make
large profits from tricking users this way, hence the number of bogus sites.
Can I make
videos of Friv games?
Yes! We love to see fans recording their gameplay on Friv. If you
upload a video to social media, please make sure that your channel's name and identity
is your own, and that you provide a link to the game so that others can easily play it
too. For free open-source software to record your gameplay, search for Open Broadcaster
Software 'OBS'.
Friv Fakes & Forgeries
We made up the word ‘Friv’ all the way back in
2004 and registered the friv domain name. We were hopeful and excited that Friv would
be an easy word for users to remember and type whenever they wanted to play great
online games. When we first got some games up and running in late 2006 we were
delighted because we could see that users seemed to like what we were doing and the
site grew well. We imagined that users would simply type ‘friv’ into their browser
address bar and visit our site that way. Instead, we found that a lot of users went
through a gatekeeper / middle man, and typed ‘friv’ or ‘friv games’ into a search
engine and visited us from there. This has been a problem (for us, any many other
businesses) as the genuine site doesn’t always appear at the top of the search listing,
with many bogus sites appearing within the list. This can be very confusing for
users.
There are many good and trusted brands in the world. Unfortunately, some brands
like Nike, Gucci and Chanel are very widely ripped off by those who wish to profit from
the trust those firms have worked hard to build. Like ourselves, nearly all the big
brands have registered their names as trademarks in many different countries around the
world - that's why you often see the Registered Trademark ® symbol which shows that a
brand is legally recognised as special and unique. However, with so many fakes out
there it can be confusing. A customer who buys shoes from a Nike store, or a can of
Coke from a supermarket can be pretty sure they’re getting the real thing. It’s not so
easy online.
In online commerce, the practical legal protection for a mark is limited,
and sadly there are a lot of bad actors who have set up counterfeit Friv games websites
and apps. These offer poor quality and sometimes unsafe games featuring countless dodgy
ads in an attempt to profit from our hard work and investment. These sites achieve
success by appearing in search listings and by tricking genuine users into visiting
them. The number of trademark-infringing ‘friv’ domain names registered now runs into
many hundreds or more likely thousands, and in practical terms it is simply impossible
to keep track of them all. If other webmasters wish to set up games sites, we support
them 100%, but they should come up with their own names, not deliberately confuse
gamers by using ours. So, while we and our lawyers work to catch, stop, and prosecute
the bad guys (over the years we have closed down or stopped ads from running on dozens
of fake sites and apps) you can educate and amuse yourself by looking at some of the
more blatant rip-offs in our rogues gallery...
FRIV FAKES
All of the above sites were
quickly found by typing "Friv" and "Old Friv" into Google Search. Come on Google!
Please - let's all work hard to keep users safe with genuine sites.
Ye Olde Friv
Below
is a screenshot of our original, some might even say ‘iconic’ Flash menu. We know that
a lot of people remain very nostalgic about the old Friv design (2006 - 2024) and
cherish their youthful memories of spending time on the site. Back at the start, so, so
long ago, by far the most popular web browser the players used to access Friv was
actually Internet Explorer (see a screen grab here) and although it was a pain to work
with, most of the games ran well most of the time!
Back then, all the games and even
the menu system itself were coded in Flash. The powers that be (very much against our
wishes) decided to disable Flash at the end of 2024, and so all those wonderful games
and even our beloved menu system were effectively lost. The good news is that efforts
are being made to emulate Flash, so that the many little gems we still love can once
again run in the browser. We're doing all we can to get as many working as soon as
possible. As for our old menu design; even if we did rework it to run in modern
browsers there would be problems. These days, having all the game icons on the screen
at once would simply make them too small to be selected by fat fingers on phones and
tablets. We hope you can find it in your hearts to forgive us for making such drastic
changes, and will in time come round to loving - or at least liking - our new menu
system. However, we're passionate about history and nostalgia and so a revival of sorts
is underway. We maintain a passion for and copyright in our classic design work, and if
you take a quick look at frivclassic ...you might just find a few old gaming memories
coming back!
❮ ❯
FRIV FLASH MENU 2006-2024 ~ HAPPY MEMORIES
Copyright © 2006-onwards.
All rights reserved. Friv is a Registered Trademark.
