Darlings, the Steam darling that made two devs very rich is getting outplayed by its own free-to-play knockoffs on Roblox — and the numbers don't lie. Meccha Chameleon, the paint-to-hide Prop Hunt twist that moved 15 million copies and peaked at 340k concurrent players, is now watching clones like BACKROOMS Chameleon and Paint Or Seek pull 37k to 50k concurrent each while the original sits around 25k-52k.

These aren't subtle tributes. They're straight-up copy-paste jobs with Robux shops selling eyedroppers and tools, riding the exact same hide-and-seek itch but free on phones where kids already live. Data from RoWatcher and Roblox charts shows the clone machine isn't just keeping up — it's surpassing the $6 original that started the whole friendslop wave. Roblox calls it 'inspiration'; everyone else calls it the pipeline working exactly as designed.

The original two-person team hit lightning in a bottle, but the platform built for iteration profits while the creators watch their viral moment get milked by a dozen variants. Paint and Seek variants alone are racking up millions of visits and consistent 20k+ peaks. If the devs are salty, they aren't alone — Steam already has its own AI-assisted ripoffs popping up too.