#22: RealPlayer 5
This image of RealPlayer 5 might trigger some Gen Xers and elder millennials. If you know, you know. RealPlayer was the worst audio player ever, and there was a time when we had no other choice but to use it. Don’t let the modern-looking logo fool you. If you wanted to listen to a song or watch a grainy video clip, you often had to wait for literal ages for it to load on RealPlayer.
Despite its flaws, RealPlayer was a pioneer in streaming technology. We take our instant media for granted these days, but anyone old enough knows that we had to endure and suffer through RealPlayer’s clunky and sketchy interface to get where we are today. In a surprising twist of digital fate, RealPlayer still exists. We’re not sure who still uses it, but someone does if they’re still in business!