Chonk Finder
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Writing about Chonk Finder

Everything on this page may be quoted. For anything else, or for a person to talk to, hello@chonkfinder.app, answered by the founder, usually the same day.

The story in one paragraph

Chonk Finder is a free collectible card game made of real cats, and a reason to go outside. In a time of indoor doom scrolling, it is the childhood feeling of exploring with your friends: going for a walk, meeting friendly cats, and meeting the other Chonk Finders out doing the same. Every cat you meet can become a card: your own, a friend’s, the neighbour’s, foster kittens, the one on the corner. You photograph it, and the app works out whether somebody nearby has already found that cat or it is a new one, gives it a card with a name, a Chonk Level, its own moves and one ridiculous weakness, and puts it on a shared map. A chonk is what the internet calls a big, round cat, and in the game it is also a cat that has become a big deal: once four different people have found the same cat, it is famous, it becomes a Chonk, and its first four finders are sealed onto its card for good. Cards can be printed and posted, cut and packed by hand in Victoria, British Columbia, where the app is made. It launched on the App Store and Google Play in August 2026.

Numbers you can quote

Live, from the app, refreshed every few minutes. Say when you looked.

  • 76researched guides to places people travel to for cats
  • 4people it takes to turn a cat into a Chonk
  • 6languages: English, French, Spanish, Japanese, Korean and Chinese

A line from the founder

“Everybody already stops for cats. Everybody already takes the photo. I just wanted the photo to go somewhere, and for the six people on a street who all know the same cat under six different names to find each other.”

The founder of Chonk Finder, Victoria, British Columbia

What people said

From the Reddit thread where players first saw it. Quoted as written.

  • “I regret to inform you that I need this on the app store right now”

    u/lily_kota on Reddit

  • “Dear god man what have you created... I love it”

    u/grae23 on Reddit

  • “I’ve never downloaded an app faster”

    u/H0meslice9 on Reddit

  • “This! The Chonk Finder we all didn’t know we needed.”

    u/Unlucky_Image_3609 on Reddit

  • “Shout out to Victoria seems like it’s cats will be well documented thanks to you.”

    u/confidentlydumb on Reddit

  • “Didn’t know I needed this in my life”

    u/Tyrannical_Pie on Reddit

See it work

A minute and a half, filmed on a phone: a cat in a garden becomes a card, then the collection, the leaderboard and the map.

https://www.chonkfinder.app/press/demo.mp4

What to call things

  • Chonk Finder, two words, capital C and F. Not ChonkFinder, not Chonkfinder.
  • A chonk is internet slang for a big, round cat, said fondly. In the game a cat becomes a Chonk when it gets famous: four different people have found it, so it is a big deal now. Before that it is a wild cat.
  • First Finders are the first four people to find a cat, listed on its card permanently. Chonk’s Favorite is whoever has found it most often.
  • It is about every cat: people’s own cats, friends’ cats, fosters, strays, the one on the corner. Please don’t call it a street cat or stray cat app, and it is not a lost-pet service.
  • The cats’ exact locations are never public. The map shows the area a cat lives in. This is the rule the whole product is built on, and it is worth a sentence.

Facts

  • Free to play, no sign-up, no ads. Optional extras: the Chonk Pass, which reveals every card, and real printed cards, posted anywhere in the world.
  • iPhone and Android. Launched on both stores in August 2026.
  • Works with no signal: the app opens from its cache, and a photo taken offline is queued and sent later.
  • Every guide on the site is researched by hand, with a walk, a map, real photographs, every photograph credited, and every claim sourced.
  • Made by a family in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada.

Logo and screenshots

Right-click and save, or link straight to the file. They may be cropped but not recoloured, and the icon should not be redrawn.

Good places to start

Where to find cats, the guides, are the part people write about first. The cats by city pages show what players have actually found. The questions people ask cover how the matching works and what the rules for the cats are.