Popcat has taken the internet by storm seemingly out of nowhere, and within the week, it had everyone around the world competing with each other as they try to outdo one another.

So, what's Popcat? Why is everyone talking about it? And why are Malaysians so obsessed about winning the 'gold medal'?

Here's all you need to know about the Popcat phenomenon:

What exactly is Popcat?

Popcat.click is actually a very simple competitive clicker web game based on a meme.

Popcat features a picture of a cute cat opening its mouth in a wide 'O' shape with a 'popping' sound every time you click on it.

The game calculates the number of times you tap on the picture of the cat, and these clicks will be counted as 'points' for your country.

So, with that logic, the more people from one particular country playing Popcat = the more points they are going to score for their motherland.

And judging by the amount of tweets and people talking about the game on social media, you can say that Malaysians are very enthusiastic and very competitive:

?‍??‍??‍? pic.twitter.com/l378cHZSKc

— Syed Saddiq (@SyedSaddiq) August 14, 2021

For Malaysia. ? ??https://t.co/ucNOYE5ZyL#popcat pic.twitter.com/P6GcpAukhQ

— Mard. (@Ramadhan_Z) August 10, 2021

Me right now #popcatMalaysia pic.twitter.com/yYulVHqIek

— Azfar Heri (@Azfarheri) August 14, 2021

Now we can help Malaysia to get gold, even if its not in #olimpics2020 ? Currently we are ranked 26 in this POPCAT game, let's get gold everyone ?Just press the link, and click for the cat to open the mouth. Enjoy! ?https://t.co/Ht8nNejbdF pic.twitter.com/KKcZDR1loO

— 莹莹 ❄?? (@hwyy25) August 11, 2021

#popcat Taiwan and Malaysia be like: pic.twitter.com/mYikm0L8gH

— โฮกปิ้บ~♡‧₊˚ (@BetterBUTTER77) August 15, 2021

one of the things that i do for Malaysia. i did this popcat for 2 hours straight hehe ? pic.twitter.com/WaTcxDzPHI

— shasha. (@shashakhusaini) August 12, 2021

Congrats Malaysia! Here your medal ? #popcat pic.twitter.com/eClGecBEGH

— ??? (@wildeoss) August 14, 2021

Still on going #popcat Malaysia ? pic.twitter.com/0Awkl4iw2d

— adamazri06 (@adamazri06) August 12, 2021

Finally I reach 50k pops ? lol #popcat #popcatMalaysia pic.twitter.com/5pqZxBhvHw

— ArmySwiftie⁷ || Kobeh⁹⁸ ??? (@glowingmoonjin) August 15, 2021

atlet altet popcat malaysia wildin ?#popcat pic.twitter.com/QhbZU66PWV

— hanani (@haniieyyyyyy) August 14, 2021

Thailand..are you alright? Your fingers not tercabut mehh..??? #popcatMalaysia #popcat #popcatthailand pic.twitter.com/9bq8ZYcwBN

— Lynluvya (@Lynluvya1) August 15, 2021

meanwhile my mom : ???main popcat demi Malaysia?? pic.twitter.com/ogMzXHWTbp

— rosies ???? (@fzrose1) August 13, 2021

Who created Popcat?

The Popcat game was inspired by a real-life cat named Oatmeal, whose video of it chirping at a bug in an adorable manner went viral on Twitter last year.

Back in October 2020, Twitter user @XavierBFB shared two images of Oatmeal to an unknown Discord server: one of the cat and the other an edit in which the cat is given a widely opened, O-shaped mouth.

Here's the original video of Popcat:

So there's a video with some images of my cat Oatmeal out and here's the full clip of him chirping at a bug. pic.twitter.com/4MVTWiIknc

— Xavier (@XavierBFB) October 11, 2020

Oatmeal became an internet celebrity after that, and it wasn't until December 2020 that it cemented its place among the internet's greats.

According to the University of Sheffield, three friends by the name of Josh, Freddy and Ed, studying Computer Science at the university, created Popcat.click as a joke at 2am one day.

It quickly became an instant success - so much so that the website was reportedly banned by some schools in Finland!

What's the goal of Popcat actually?

Well, besides becoming a master clicker and training your fingers, the goal of Popcat is to...get as many clicks as you can, that's it.

And it's really, really simple to get the clicks.

If you're playing on your smartphone, you just need to tap on the picture using your finger. If you're on the PC, the website registers any clicks on your mouse and your keyboard.

Also, there's no ban on automated clickers or apps that help you generate clicks, so some clever, tech-savvy Malaysians have been using the loophole to rack up as many points as possible:

So, do we actually win a gold medal?

Well, no. You win nothing at all for all your hard work.

If we don't win anything, why are Malaysians so obsessed about winning the 'gold medal'? Well, two words: bragging rights.

At the time of writing, Thailand is leading the leaderboard with 90 billion clicks, with Taiwan in second place at 30 billion clicks.

Malaysia, meanwhile, is in the top three, with 18 billion clicks and a pretty impressive 89,800 clicks per second.

Although there's no physical prize for topping the leaderboard, that didn't stop local burger joint myBurgerLab from trying to rally and unite Malaysians to bring glory to the country.

On Saturday (16 August), myBurgerLab promised to 'belanja' Malaysians burger should we win the gold medal.

Well, judging by how many clicks Thailand has gotten so far, it may look like an impossible task.