# Universal Paperclips

Hacker Approved page: https://hackerapproved.com/p/universal-paperclips/

11 people recommended Universal Paperclips in Hacker News comments, 1 had mixed feelings and 1 criticized it, November 2025 to October 2026. It was recommended in 7 of 12 months, in 10 threads. It meets the Hacker Approved badge rule.

**Verdict:** Free browser game where you make paperclips, praised for pushing incremental game mechanics to a logical extreme and for being very addictive.

Summary written by Claude from 11 comments.

## Why people recommend it

- Very addictive, eats hours of time (3 comments in the sample): "don't click this if you value the next 72 hours or so of your life" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46079247)) "reminds me of the hours i've spent on the paperclip game" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49850270)) "That game is entirely too addictive especially at 3am." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46735815))
- Game mechanics taken to extreme (2 comments in the sample): "the absolute pinnacle of taking game mechanics to a logical extreme" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48194199)) "Incremental games do an amazing job at this" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48030227))
- Praised as best in its genre (2 comments in the sample): "Universal Paperclips is much better" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49265320)) "The best game ever written" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47776899))

## What people recommend instead

- [Evolve (incremental game)](https://hackerapproved.com/p/evolve/): 10 recommend, 1 mixed, 4 criticize

## The badge

A product earns the Hacker Approved badge when at least 10 people recommend it, recommenders outnumber critics at least 2 to 1 (mixed feelings count toward neither side), it was recommended in at least 4 of the 12 months and in at least 5 different threads, and no single thread supplies more than half of the people who recommend it. Health and money products are never badged.

## Cite as

Hacker Approved, "Universal Paperclips", https://hackerapproved.com/p/universal-paperclips/ (11 recommend, 1 mixed, 1 criticize; Hacker News comments, November 2025 to October 2026).

Counts updated 2 Nov 2026, with data through October 31, 2026.