Official line
Adobe ended Flash Player support on December 31, 2020, as announced in 2017.
Adobe · Developer Tools · Product
Adobe Flash
Discontinued
1996–2020 · 24 years in market
Launched
Dec 1, 1996
Discontinued
Dec 31, 2020
Cause of death
Replaced by successor
Evidence
High
What was it?
The plugin that was the interactive web: banners, games, video. Security, mobile, and HTML5 ended it on a published date.
Why it died
Supported by a primary source
Jobs banned it on iPhone. Then every browser vendor treated it as a liability. The open web outgrew a binary plugin.
Founder takeaway
A runtime you do not control is a countdown. When the OS vendors want you gone, the date is not yours.
Sources
High — primary source on file
What replaced it
W3C / browsers
HTML5 / WebGL
The open stack that replaced the plugin.
Related graves
Same company, category, or cause of death.
Adobe
RIP
Adobe Shockwave
1995–2019 · 24 yrs
Director’s web plugin for CD-ROM-class multimedia. Quietly EOLed before Flash’s louder funeral.
Developer Tools/Replaced by successor+13
Adobe
RIP
Adobe Director
1987–2017 · 30 yrs
The authoring tool behind Shockwave and a generation of CD-ROM titles. Development ended in 2017.
Developer Tools/Too early / too late+29
Adobe
RIP
Adobe Muse
2012–2020 · 8 yrs
A no-code website builder in Creative Cloud. Killed as Adobe bet on Adobe XD, then webflow-class tools elsewhere.
Productivity/Strategic refocus+28
Adobe
RIP
Adobe Fireworks
1998–2013 · 15 yrs
Web-first bitmap/vector design Macromedia built. Adobe bought it, then starved it next to Photoshop.
Productivity/Strategic refocus+26