My eyebrows furrowed, and my fingers anxiously tapped against my laptop keys. I squinted at the screen, my heart beating as I waited for the results to load. What was I doing, you may ask? I was waiting to find out what kind of melon I was… based on my choices at a breakfast buffet (apparently, I was cantaloupe).
If I could define my childhood, this moment would be it — taking a BuzzFeed quiz.
From around ages six to twelve, wherever I was, I was most likely taking a BuzzFeed quiz. During long car rides, at sleepovers, or under the covers past bedtime, you could always find me planning my dream wedding, going on hypothetical vacations, or spending a day as a Harry Potter character — just to find out which Disney prince was my soulmate. I probably spent more hours taking BuzzFeed quizzes than I did with my family (that’s an exaggeration, but you know what I mean). Every quiz result felt like a life-or-death moment that would define my identity. Was I more rigatoni or fusilli? Rachel or Monica? 10 years old or 50?
A few weeks ago, as I was deleting old photos off my camera roll, I came across a screenshot from 2018 of a result I had received from a BuzzFeed quiz, correctly guessing that my first initial was “S.” Instantly, I was flooded with nostalgia and memories of my hours spent quizzing away. It got me thinking: whatever happened to BuzzFeed? It felt like they fell off the face of the Earth, so I went digging.
In the mid-2010s, Buzzfeed was thriving, expanding globally and launching standalone sites outside the U.S., such as Buzzfeed U.K. In 2014, it was estimated that Buzzfeed was valued at around $850 million, bringing in 150 million monthly viewers on average. Buzzfeed was the “it girl” of digital media companies.Â
Slowly, while other online media platforms progressed with the times, BuzzFeed stagnated. Instead of diversifying their content, they kept the same structure of quizzes, news, and blogs. In the early 2010s, audiences wanted to consume that kind of content, but as times changed, consumers shifted their attention to video platforms such as YouTube and TikTok. In a world where influencers, not media companies, dominate, BuzzFeed struggled to adapt. Behind the scenes, the company was also struggling with scandals such as accusations of plagiarism. In 2023, BuzzFeed News shut down, and since then, its monthly viewership has consistently declined. In January 2024, the average monthly visitors was only 44.2 million compared to their 150 million just ten years earlier.Â
While it’s safe to say that BuzzFeed isn’t the buzzing (no pun intended) site it once was, it will always have a special place in so many people’s hearts. For myself and so many others, BuzzFeed quizzes made people feel seen, even if they were silly and lighthearted. The promise of revealing personal insight about oneself was exciting and felt deeply intimate. Sometimes it felt like I was learning things about myself I didn’t even know. “You know what? Now that I think about it, maybe I am a cantaloupe,” I would say to myself.Â
Going on the website in 2025, it looks exactly the same as I remember. From the iconic red logo to the flashy quiz titles, it feels like a time capsule of such a specific, one could even argue simpler, time in many people’s lives. It definitely feels millennial, like a shirt with a cat astronaut on it or a coffee cup with a mustache, but in the best possible way.Â
So let this be your reminder that BuzzFeed quizzes still exist and are the perfect escape from your uni-student responsibilities. Go build a charcuterie board, plan a spring picnic, or be super honest about which rom-coms you like! You never know which White Lotus character you could marry.