Why did Adobe kill Flash?

Adobe killed Flash on 31/12/2020.

But what led them to their decision, and why did they eventually pull the plug?

Part 1: What is Flash?

Flash was a web plugin that let people easily create animations, games and so on that could be run directly in your browser. At the time, it was extremely popular. Everyone used Flash to code their sites. Club Penguin [RIP] was a Flash game. YouTube's video player was once Flash-based [but it's HTML5 based now], and websites like Miniclip.com and newgrounds.com were dedicated to hosting Flash games and animations.

But then, in July of 1027, the bomb hit [Flash & the Future of Interactive Content (adobe.com)]. Adobe announced that they would end support for Flash on 31/01/2020. Now, what caused them to drop Flash? It had given birth to the post-90s Internet, and this was its fate?

I have 3 theories.

Theory 1: Lack of Usage

This one is plausible. If less than 1% of people logged onto a Flash site daily in 2020, then why support it? Newer standards like HTML5 and CSS were already king, and Flash was just a reminder of what had passed.

The reason this theory is plausible is because it applies to other products as well. Google launched Inbox by Google, and it was great. But too few people used it, so they deleted it and ended support for its protocol.

Theory 2: Hate

People hated Flash for a long time. It was slow, it was buggy, and the code was bloated. Around the Flash era, the first thing a lot of people installed was a Flash blocker. Nowadays Flash Player is a Flash blocker.

Theory 3: Vulnerabilities

Flash has many vulnerabilities that Adobe just couldn't patch. Coupled with theory 1, this is the perfect cover story. Hardly anyone used it, and there were so many security issues with it, that Adobe thought it was best to kill it off.

And they gave developers 3 years' notice so that they could move to HTML5.

Newgrounds and Miniclip have aces up their sleeves. They both made programs that allowed users to play Flash content, and Flashpoint allows you to play thousands of games offline.

And that, my friends, is why Flash died.

Note: see this link for my article on how to use Flashpoint.