History Main / KillerApp

* ''ComicBook/TheFantasticFour'' and ''ComicBook/SpiderMan'' were '''the''' reasons that kids and teens in the sixties bought Creator/MarvelComics, taking the company from perpetual number two to a legitimate rival for Creator/DCComics.[[note]] This is largely because both of them were actually considered fairly unconventional {{superhero}} works at the time, to the point that they're credited with [[GenreTurningPoint helping to breath new life into the genre]]: ''Fantastic Four'' was one of the first superhero series featuring an ensemble cast of heroes with believable character flaws and contrasting personalities, and one of the first featuring a main antagonist who had shades of nobility and humanity rather than just being [[ForTheEvulz evil for the sake of being evil]]; ''Spider-Man'' was one of the first featuring a teenage protagonist who got to be a hero in his own right instead of a mere sidekick, and was written to have relatable flaws and personal struggles rather than just being an upstanding role model for young people. Both of them also dealt with issues and subject matter that were highly contemporary for their day, which is often credited with helping superhero comics (which were originally heavily associated with the Depression era) remain culturally relevant in the 1960s and beyond: the Fantastic Four had an origin story explicitly tied to the Space Race, and a main antagonist who was fairly transparent TakeThat to the Soviet Union; meanwhile, Spider-Man had an origin story that was explicitly linked to the nascent Atomic Age, and his stories implicitly reflected the influence of the postwar counterculture via their sympathetic depiction of a flawed young man trying to find his place in the world.[[/note]]

* ComicBook/FantasticFour and ComicBook/SpiderMan were '''the''' reasons that kids and teens in the sixties bought Marvel Comics, taking the company from perpetual number two to a legitimate rival for DC Comics.

* Platform/{{Twitter}}, Platform/{{Facebook}} and other social media services are the killer apps for smartphones and tablets.

* The final straw that made Windows into a viable gaming platform, and the only place to play games on PC, was [=DirectX=]. Prior to [=DirectX=], developers often had to roll their own graphics code, and if they wanted to take advantage of graphics and sound cards, they usually had to make a different version of their game for each brand of card. [=DirectX=] remedied this by giving developers an UsefulNotes/ApplicationProgrammingInterface of pre-built graphics functions that could run on any supported third-party graphics hardware (which was most if not all of them). Given that it was exclusive to Windows, it also had the side effect of largely killing off the gaming scenes on other computer platforms, which were already quite small by this time thanks to the Platform/{{IBM Personal Computer}}'s overwhelming market share.

** The UsefulNotes/BluRay format had a similar Killer App: ''Film/{{Avatar}}'' sold 1.5 million copies on its ''first day'', 6.2 million after three weeks. It's also not surprising that the [=PlayStation=] 3 was the most popular Blu-ray player.

* [[TheRuleOfFirstAdopters Pornography has been a killer app for EVERY new form of communication]], from the printing press to the camera to the UsefulNotes/{{VCR}} to {{the internet|IsForPorn}}. An oft-repeated [[http://knowledgenuts.com/2014/03/05/betamax-didnt-lose-to-vhs-because-of-adult-films/ (and fairly shaky)]] urban legend claims that Creator/{{Sony}}'s refusal to license porn films on their proprietary Betamax format was the deciding factor in Betamax losing to VHS in the videocassette format wars of the '80s; it was actually VHS' longer recording time and substantially lower price that helped it beat Betamax despite inferior video and sound quality, and the porn studios likely went with VHS because that's what all their customers were using. Still, the legend was persistent enough that Sony decided not to make the same mistake again with Blu-Ray.

* The UsefulNotes/CompactDisc format had three albums that helped boost it to the forefront as the premier physical format for music over the course of the '80s:

* Anime was a killer app for UsefulNotes/LaserDisc on both sides of the Pacific. In Japan, [=LaserDisc=] became the main video format, and many [[OriginalVideoAnimation OVAs]] were released on the format. In the U.S., anime titles were often only released on [=LaserDisc=], and fans also appreciated the higher video and audio quality as well as the ability for clean freeze frames that low-end [=VCRs=] of the era didn't have. Even after the demise of [=LaserDisc=] in favor of DVD, American anime fans still like to collect [=LaserDiscs=] due to [[KeepCirculatingTheTapes the large number of titles that were never released on DVD]] or [[NoExportForYou never released in the U.S. at all]]. The lack of UsefulNotes/RegionCoding combined with the compatibility of U.S. and Japanese TV systems means that American fans can watch Japanese discs on American players, which can be found cheaply second-hand, as long as they don't mind not having an English track or subtitles on them. This is one reason that anime also became the killer app for Westerners learning the Japanese language.

* For the Website/GOGDotCom storefront, if it is not ''VideoGame/TheWitcher3WildHunt'', then it is ''VideoGame/HeroesOfMightAndMagic III'' that serves as the main reason to use the store. This is thanks to the store having the original complete collection whereas Steam has the more recent HD re-release which is often seen as inferior to the GOG version.

* For the Website/YouTube Red premium service, it was ''Series/CobraKai''. The idea of a SequelSeries to ''Film/TheKarateKid'' (with original actors reprising and all) of all things sounded like instant poison for a service that already had a difficult premise to sell (most people weren't eager to pay to view videos on a site whose main selling point is letting you watch videos for ''free''), but instead its nearly-impeccable care to be a love letter to the original film translated to many good reviews and an order for a second season ''before the first week was over'', as well as many people deciding to jump on the band wagon. Unfortunately for [=YouTube=], the series [[ChannelHop jumped]] to Creator/{{Netflix}} for the third season.

* Bittorrent is the killer app for consumer internet download speed, download caps, and hard drive capacity. Website/YouTube was also a killer app for broadband.

* Website/{{Twitter}}, Website/{{Facebook}} and other social media services are the killer apps for smartphones and tablets.

** Creator/{{Rare}}'s ''VideoGame/KillerInstinct'', created in response to the accusations that Nintendo was too "kid friendly" in comparison to Creator/{{Sega}} (namely because of Nintendo censoring the SNES release of ''VideoGame/MortalKombat1992'') and boasting graphics on par with ''Donkey Kong Country'', sold '''very''' well and was critically acclaimed, being praised for its [[PolishedPort faithfulness]] to the arcade release and lauded for its complexity. Decades later, and the despite the change in [[Creator/XboxGameStudios ownership]], the franchise still has a very dedicated following and is unanimously considered to be one of the greats in the UsefulNotes/FightingGameCommunity.

** ''VideoGame/SuperSmashBrosUltimate'' is not only the most successful installment in the ''Super Smash Bros.'' series, but also the fastest-selling Nintendo game yet for its time, moving over 12 million units in its first month (''Pokemon Sword and Shield'' dethroned it). For comparison, the ''lifetime'' sales of the previous best-selling ''Smash'' title (Brawl) is 13.29 million. By its first year in the market, it eventually became the best-selling fighting game in history, and dethroned ''Melee'' as the ''Smash'' game for tournament play in the UsefulNotes/FightingGameCommunity. By June 2023, it has sold 31.77 million copies.

Arguing over which killer app provides the most bang for its buck is a large part of the UsefulNotes/ConsoleWars. If an anticipated game shares the same genre as an existing Killer App, it may be called a [Insert Game Here] Killer, however this often puts [[ToughActToFollow unrealistic expectations]] on the upcoming title.

** Creator/{{Capcom}} remained a firm supporter of Nintendo going into the UsefulNotes/ConsoleWars with the port of ''VideoGame/StreetFighterII'', which was packaged with the console in some countries. Combining the sales of each version of ''Street Fighter II'' released on the SNES averages out to around 12 million copies, making it the bestselling third-party game for the system and the bestselling game for the platform behind ''Super Mario World''. Other Capcom classics for the SNES include the ''VideoGame/FinalFight'' trilogy (which directly took on Creator/{{Sega}}'s own ''VideoGame/StreetsOfRage'' games), ''VideoGame/MegaManX'', and ''[[VideoGame/GhostsNGoblins Super Ghouls 'n Ghosts]]''.

** ''VideoGame/HiFiRush'': After a long drought of new games throughout 2022, ''Hi-Fi RUSH'' became a SleeperHit (after its surprise reveal and simultaneous release, no less) for Microsoft as a desirable exclusive for not only Xbox Game Pass, but is also a console exclusive to the Platform/XboxSeriesXAndS - finally giving the platform a game that isn't on also on the Platform/XboxOne, thus averting a major complaint about the UsefulNotes/TheNinthGenerationOfConsoleVideoGames in general. The fact that it's also a Japanese-developed exclusive also did much to endear it to players, as Japanese developers in the years prior had gravitated towards the Platform/NintendoSwitch and the [[Platform/PlayStation4 PlayStation line]] [[Platform/PlayStation5 of consoles]], whereas ''Hi-Fi RUSH'' is guaranteed to remain exclusive to Xbox platforms by virtue of Microsoft owning it.

** ''Film/BonnieAndClyde'' deliberately filmed far away from Hollywood to avoid ExecutiveMeddling, and its success utilizing such violence is what broke UsefulNotes/TheHaysCode forever.

* In the United States, ''Series/AmericanIdol'' was this for [[https://blog.textmarks.com/how-american-idol-influenced-the-world-of-text-messaging/ SMS text messaging.]] When, starting in the second season, it became possible for viewers to text their votes in, millions of fans learned how to text in order to do so, driving not only the show's popularity but also the explosion of texting as a mainstream communication tool in the 2000s.

* Atari was counting on both ''VideoGame/PacMan'' and ''Film/ETTheExtraTerrestrial'' to be killer apps for the 2600, and had each produced in wildly optimistic numbers; in fact, more ''Pac-Man'' cartridges were produced than there were Atari consoles, on the assumption that the game would be so popular people would buy consoles just to play it. As it turned out, they were only half-right, as they did help to kill the Atari 2600, [[UsefulNotes/TheGreatVideoGameCrashOf1983 and very nearly the entire industry]]. Despite this, both the games did still sell millions. Ironically, the Atari 2600 had a fantastically faithful version of ''VideoGame/MsPacMan'', but by the time it was released, the 2600 was on its way out.

** The biggest and most famous NES game bar none is ''VideoGame/SuperMarioBros1'', which is often credited with saving the North American video game industry following the UsefulNotes/TheGreatVideoGameCrashOf1983. ''VideoGame/SuperMarioBros2'' and ''VideoGame/SuperMarioBros3'' followed suit a few years later, and this trilogy entered the Top 4 list of best-selling games for the system. For the Famicom Disk System, the best-selling software was ''VideoGame/SuperMarioBrosTheLostLevels''.

While most products that attain killer app status are extremely successful and popular, it should be noted here that "creating a true killer app" is akin to "writing the GreatAmericanNovel": everybody ''wants'' to, but nobody has yet created (or is likely to create) the definitive killer app.

While most products that attain killer app status are extremely successful and popular, it should be noted here that "creating a true killer app" is akin to "writing the Great American Novel": everybody ''wants'' to, but nobody has yet created (or is likely to create) the definitive killer app.

* Literature/TheBible was the killer app for the printing press, and with it mass literacy, compulsory education in the Western world, and the Protestant Reformation.

->''"It is the same thing with VideoGame/CrashBandicoot -- those original games made by Creator/NaughtyDog were the reason that I wanted a Platform/PlayStation in the 1990s."''
-->-- '''Company Man''', "Activision - Why They're Hated"