The 'Black Mirror' of Roblox Games Disappears After Hitting No. 1
Steal an Egg was the hottest game on Roblox, and also the center of an unusual controversy
Steal a Brainrot is so 2025. These days, the most popular game on Roblox is Steal an Egg — but the pet simulator is getting attention for all the wrong reasons. It's one of the most dystopian things ever released on Roblox and is being likened to one of the more depressing episodes of Netflix's sci-fi series Black Mirror.
What is Steal an Egg on Roblox?
As the name implies, Steal an Egg is an experience where players collect and raise eggs. Hatched eggs turn into pets that generate money every second of their existence, with rarer animals earning more cash than typical monsters. Most players start humbly, with a small chicken — but with enough progress, fans can raise fantastical creatures like dragons. All players have a base, and much like Steal a Brainrot, other people on the server can run away with your assets. Players can also gain eggs by stealing them from various biomes across the map. Each biome has a guardian; the better the egg, the harder it is to steal.
The primary thing that determines success here is speed. Speed can be purchased with real-world money, or it can be upgraded manually by running on a treadmill. Treadmills have a built-in feature called Reels that allows users to watch videos to help pass the time. Screenshots showing this mechanic in action are currently going viral on social media, where shocked onlookers are calling Steal an Egg's treadmill mechanic dystopian. Many of those screenshots stem from a YouTube video uploaded by a user called Foltyn that generated 1.3 million views on the video platform.
Most people are comparing the treadmills to an episode in Netflix series Black Mirror called "Fifteen Million Merits." The episode presents a world where people must pedal on stationary bikes in exchange for basic living costs and electricity. Steal an Egg's version isn't quite as dreadful as the Black Mirror episode, where users are punished for looking away from the advertisements. Steal an Egg's users are also willingly playing the game, not being forced into it to survive.
Or at least they were until Monday afternoon, when the game got pulled suddenly. The game was delisted shortly after reaching number one on the platform, and after generating millions of negative impressions on social media. Prior to being pulled, the game had more than 500,000 concurrent players. Those numbers don't rival that of Steal a Brainrot or Grow a Garden at their peak, but they were enough to make the game the most visible one on the platform.
Roblox did not immediately respond to a request for comment, so it's unclear why the game got pulled. It's possible the mechanic violated the terms of service on platforms like TikTok. Roblox only allows users to share links from an approved list, which does not include TikTok or Instagram Reels. The platform also prevents games from sharing unapproved websites. Steal an Egg's developers did not share a reason for the takedown on Discord, but they did promise that the game would be back in a few hours. "Everyone getting extra stuff as a sorry," a developer wrote.
While the treadmill mechanic has caused controversy, the game also accommodated a common gamer tendency. Who hasn't watched a video or listened to a podcast while doing something repetitive in a game? At the same time, Steal an Egg's grind encourages the purchase of microtransactions, so it's not quite like spending hours leveling your party in an RPG. Roblox also may not have been able to control what players watch in-game, which could potentially be a recipe for disaster.