It was actually by accident. I discovered Newgrounds when I was just a lil boy back when flash games were in their prime.

Loved Mario as a kid so there was plenty of shit online that I found just by clicking. Didn't even know how to use the keyboard. One game I found was Mario Combat, made by the talented D-Sun. I clicked the Newgrounds logo as it was loading and there it was before my very young eyes.

This was the very first Flash animation I discovered, ever.

So funny watching it almost 16 years later.

I vaguely remember somewhere in the early 2010s, I saw my older brother watching the Madness Combat series on Newgrounds. Outside of that, I would watch a bunch of NG flash animations that were uploaded onto Youtube. The first time I had stepped foot onto Newgrounds by myself was in 2016, I was just there to play Riddle School games because some big Youtubers played those games. In 2021, I was introduced to Newgrounds for the first time in years via Friday Night Funkin' which led me into watching and playing a lot of flash animations and games. Eventually, in May of that year, I decided to create a Newgrounds account and the rest is history.

I remember it relatively well for how young I was, which was probably 9 or 10. I saw a video on YouTube which was watermarked with a website called "ThatVideoSite," which led me to a place called "ThatVideoGameSite," which led me to here.

A few years ago, I remember playing some flash games like minecraft skin maker or whatever on newgrounds. It was also back when there was a little tankman loading screen, although my memory on this is foggy so take it with a grain of salt

it wasnt until after you know what got popular that I actually started using the site (and seeing how cool it actually was)

Didn't know NG had animation until I discovered Mario flash animations around 2006. But I always figured that Newgrounds wasn't a place for me because it was the "boys" website.

But later on I realized a lot of the shit I like was on Newgrounds. I just didn't wanna accept it cuz I was a silly child

Still my favorite website to play games on in college, passes the time quicker :)

I discovered it from a troll on a different forum who spammed our website with fake bots spamming binary

When I was 12 I played super meat boy and in the intro cinematic it said "newgrounds" with the logo, the same in castle crashers. Once I had free access to the internet, I started to discover newgrounds at 14, I played games, I watched animations etc... But I didn't go there very often, it's when I was 16 when I needed a place to post art I went back and really started spending a lot of time on the site. Newgrounds is for me THE best website and best social network. Games, animations, art, audio, forum, awesome people to chat with. No this site is really amazing.

I had a different username those many moons ago... But I recall the year was 2007, Joe Zombie had reached popularity and the Castle series was reigning supreme. I may have made this account in 2012, but that was when I discovered newgrounds.

Hi! Basically in a video about all this Ai madness I heard they mentioned about this site being actually AI free, so I thought it would be nice to come here, support other people and share what I do too in a community like this one... and the nostalgia!! I remembered how I used to play in this site ages ago but forgot about it, glad to find it again, has a very fun layout I think, it felt welcoming.

Not going to lie, I didn't know a lot of stuff from Newgrounds was from Newgrounds. I respect the culture and the history, I think it's really cool, but the fact is I didn't know this was a site until FNF :')

i have apparently never been to the website directly in the past but my earliest run in with it was either interactive buddy, super mario 63 or final fantasy sonic cuz of generic flash portals or flash animations (esp kirby ones) reuploaded on youtube

In the golden years of Flash games, Newgrounds was one of those websites I play Flash games with but didn’t know the name of because I didn’t know how to read.

I'm super new. Like, joined a few days ago. I'm a little upset I didn't find out about this site earlier (I'm only just a teenager). I found out about the site the way most people my age did - through Friday Night Funkin'... So glad I found this place though, I feel like I belong :) Also led to my burning hyperfixation on Madness Combat and I'm very grateful for that

I wanna say early aughts, but I also remember congressional hearings post-Columbine doing the whole 'vid'jagames are teaching kids to shoot up schools' bullshit and using non-retail edgelord flash games from here as proof.

I was researching video game music composers and their routes into the industry. I read about @Waterflame and how they started on Newgrounds, so thought I would give it a spin!

Rainy days at school. Turn on a computer and see what everyone else was playing. It's how I discovered NG, RuneScape, Dungeons of Sherwood and every other game/site popular at the time.

Pico school it think

Apologies if this response is off-topic but does anyone know what happened to general?

Was told my art looked like newgrounds so i made a newgrounds

One day in the 2000s: I was reading a Game Informer magazine, when I saw Alien Hominid. It spoke to me as no other games (as far as I could see) had a hand drawn style to it, and as soon as I could; I got it! Then I found out a little more about New grounds than simply what Game informer said...

Glad I bought the game, it made me think, Newgrounds itself makes me question humanity, but in a funny kind of way😂

I was an obsessive sonic fan, i've been going around the internet looking for more sonic stuff, sonic cartoons, sonic games, sonic clips, sonic fan art, i hungered for more, i found out that newgrounds got it all, and i went nuts, which it how i met pico too. i kept watching sonic shorts and laughing at them, good times man.

it got closed the discussion is here

I'm really suprised that I havn't see this answer yet, so i'll be the first:

Geometry Dash

For those who don't know this game, it's a game based on music and there is level creator menu that let you use some music from newground.

I've heard that there was some drama about that but I can't but thanks geometry Dash for making me discover this place full of insane creator!

Found it on AltaVista while looking for wazzup parodies.

toms dial up bbs it was called like krystal something

Had a former connection from my home town show me this and Mario Twins (Who look the same) on an affiliate site and then the rest is history there.

Lurked mainly, didn't make an account until I was going to college but... didn't really become active until 4 years ago now that I think about it.

The Sonic Paradox Sonic Mania Setting the Scene collab video

I had to be around 8 years old when I first discovered NG. I came across Telebubby Fun Land and played it, even though I shouldn't have in the first place, then I played the Windows parody Flash games, I recognized Pico long before Friday Night Funkin', and I got to experience the old layouts. I deserve a veteran's discount.

I was 14 when I joined NG in 2017. I didn't really submit anything when I started, I played games, watched movies, and viewed art. I uploaded my first Flash animation the year after on my 16th birthday. Then I started making more content as the years went by. I was a former YouTuber; I deleted my channel in 2020 as the website got progressively worse. Newgrounds is my new home. I am now 20, and developing an animated Flash series to premiere in the future.

I remember watching the Nin10doh! animations when I was a kid, adult jokes be damned! I'd heard of the site but back then it was the very edgy, blood-and-guns flash game extravaganza. Now, though, as I'm trying to put myself out there more in the art world I settled on this niche, cool place!

I found it in the late 2000s when I discovered the Phoenix Wrong animations. However, I didn't actually sign up until just two years ago.