When Did Google Add Block Breaker? Real History (2013-2025)

Google added the Block Breaker easter egg to its main Search results page in late January 2025, first spotted by Android Police and then reported by Android Central on January 30, 2025. But that wasn't Google's first brick-breaking hidden game. A similar trick lived inside Google Image Search more than a decade earlier, in 2013, and it stopped working years before Block Breaker arrived. Here's how the two connect.

Quick answer: Block Breaker is a playable easter egg (a hidden feature triggered by a search query, not a Google Doodle) that Google added to its main Search results page in late January 2025. A related but separate easter egg, built around Atari's Breakout, lived inside Google Image Search from May 2013 until it stopped working years later.

2013: the Atari Breakout easter egg in Google Images

On May 13, 2013, TechCrunch's Drew Olanoff reported that Google had built an interactive tribute to Breakout, Atari's 1976 arcade original, directly into Google Image Search. Searching "atari breakout" in Google Images didn't return a normal grid of photos — the result thumbnails themselves turned into breakable blocks, with a paddle and ball layered over them.

TechCrunch pinned the timing to Breakout's own anniversary, 37 years after its 1976 debut (the article notes some uncertainty over whether that release was in April or May). Notably, the piece points out that Google "chose to commemorate this milestone through the easter egg rather than a standard doodle" — the same easter-egg-not-doodle distinction that still applies to the 2025 game.

The gap: why the 2013 version disappeared

The Image Search version of the game is widely reported to have stopped working sometime after Google's 2019 redesign of Image Search, which removed the "View image" button the trick depended on. Sources differ on the exact mechanism and date the easter egg itself was pulled, so treat this as a reported cause rather than a confirmed removal date — by 2020, players trying the old "atari breakout" search trick were no longer met with a playable game.

2025: Block Breaker returns, this time in Search itself

Nearly six years later, a new version resurfaced — no longer tucked inside Image Search, but built into the main Google Search results page. Android Central's Nickolas Diaz covered it on January 30, 2025, describing it as a new easter egg that Google had "dropped... on Search" under the name "Block Breaker" — a retro throwback rather than a straight revival of the 2013 build. Android Police was first to spot and report it. Reporting from the following days converges on "late January 2025" for the launch; an exact release day isn't confirmed by any Tier 1-2 outlet, so this page doesn't state one.

Is Block Breaker a Google Doodle?

No. A Google Doodle is a temporary redesign of the Google logo on the homepage, usually tied to a specific date or event. Block Breaker is a playable easter egg triggered by a search query, with no logo redesign involved — the same distinction TechCrunch drew about the 2013 version back in 2013. For the full picture of what Block Breaker is (and the other, unrelated games that share part of its name), see the Block Breaker homepage.