Google Stadia

Google Stadia promised to kill consoles with cloud gaming, but its library at launch in 2019 was smaller than a GameStop clearance bin. Input lag made competitive play impossible, and Google shut down its own first-party studio just 14 months after launch. The service was fully killed in January 2023, barely three years in, with Google refunding all hardware and game purchases—essentially admitting the product was a mistake. It outperforms #2 in brevity of lifecycle: only 37 months from launch to death. Stadia joined the Google Graveyard alongside 293 other killed products, making it one of 294 failures, a data point that underscores how quickly Google abandons bold bets.