The Rise and Fall of Choose Your Own Adventure

[bloodbeasthandler]

A short history of CYOA recently uploaded to Youtube. 

[a moderator]

You can skip straight to the 2:06 mark without missing anything important - up to then it's just a hyperbole-laden intro and a plug for the sponsor.

[CharlesX]

Not much of a spoiler to say most of this vid is about the rise of CYOA, not the fall. The later CYOA were sometimes creative, but there were a glut of slightly dull sports CYOA, and CYOA which had fewer endings, and finally, which were shorter. This was partly because the series was becoming less popular (and therefore less ambitious) with the rise of point and click graphic adventure games, and the increasing popularity of computer games, and partly because with a run of close to 200 titles, they were starting to run out of steam. Ironically the very success of the series could well have been what caused its downfall, with competitor series such as Fighting Fantasy and Lone Wolf selling 10,000,000+ copies.
   CYOA may never be as big as it was in its heyday but it is a phenomenal concept, and I think it deserves to become big in pop culture again.