Top 10 biggest victims of Gartner Hype Cycle

25 Feb, 2026

Sorted by which ones flopped the hardest, not an opinion piece.

1. AI/LLM 💀🫧
2. The Internet of things in 2000 (Known as the dot-com bubble)
3. NFTs (I'm glad this stupid shit is dead 😇)
4. The metaverse (Well, except for VRChat)
5. Java programming language (Overshadowed by HTML5 and Kotlin in the mobile market i.e. older games are in Java, but not newer ones)
6. Web 3.0/Decentralized web (Web 3.0 is often associated with cryptobros for some reason while things like the fediverse would also qualify as web 3.0)
7. Rust programming language
8. Webp (Still gets mogged by avif in file size to this day)
9. Cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin
10. Serverless architecture (I still have no idea how this stuff works 🤔)

Dishonorable mentions

• Stock market trading
• Motion sensors like the Kinect
• QR Codes

Bored, if you think this is an interesting topic, I made an image expressly to mock this bullshit. I hope you find the post and the pictre interesting, please credit me if you repost anything.

I will say though that the Gartner Hype Cycle doesn't apply to all technologies. Some technologies have modest hype/interest, more humble beginnings and made a name for themselves later.

#list