Viral fandom map Wplace takes Utah by storm
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A map of downtown Salt Lake City decorated with pixel art. Screenshot: Wplace.live
Welcome to Salt Lake City, where Hilbert charges through Glendale, Raymond the Cat watches over Liberty Park, and a potential sapphic romance blooms in Emigration Canyon between Stardew Valley's Haley and Melina from Elden Ring.
State of play: Utah's gamers and other fandoms are frantically staking out territory on Wplace, a viral new community drawing site where users can make their mark on a world map, one pixel at a time.
- As of Wednesday, Salt Lake had acquired the nation's ninth-most pixels since Wplace launched, per the site's regional rankings.
How it works: You can paint anywhere on Earth — and SLC, like most places, is heavily colonized by video game characters.
The big picture: The site has become a virtual graffiti wall, with users constantly modifying or replacing existing art.
The intrigue: Artists start with a bank of pixels, which replenishes one every 30 seconds.
- That means time is of the essence. Fandoms often rendezvous to overwhelm a place with their chosen images — or complete one so impressive that other fans will guard it from vandals.
Case in point: West Valley City has been consumed by a sprawling, now-viral scene from the game Deltarune.
- Plop a zombified piglin on top of it, and expect to be swiftly erased by Dreemurr defenders.
Zoom in: Other elaborate images have appeared at the Salt Lake City Temple, the Delta Center and the Ninth & Ninth Whale.
- A tiny Julia Reagan billboard stands on 300 West.
- Antelope Island is now "Clown Island," populated by a nightmarish assortment of harlequins, jesters and mimes (including a bison).
Zoom out: Fans of the adult furry visual novel "Echo" have decorated the eponymous Summit County hamlet, while Elmo, in Emery County, is home to the "Sesame Street" character.
- Hurricane and New Harmony have attracted hundreds of digital demonic animatronics from "Five Nights at Freddy's" — purportedly set in southern Utah.
What they're saying: "Looking at the Wplace map is so weird because it reminds me that cool people that I share interests with actually exist near me??" one user posted on X. "Like ... theres Ultrakill and Deltarune fans in Utah."
Friction point: Some users have drawn battle lines over identity and ideology.
- Faithful Latter-day Saints and skeptics have reportedly overlapped links to the church website and the Mormon-critical "CES Letter."
- Politics on Utah's map leaned decisively to the left as of Wednesday — but that could change as new users arrive.
The latest: Wplace is "growing very quickly," and error messages remain common.
Yes, but: It was operational when I added my own painting to mark the Witch House!