Spring Festival Fun Phenomenon: Post-2000s Don't Want Red Envelopes, They Only Want This "Horse Gun"

Who would have imagined that the "Horse Gun" turned into one of the coolest New Year presents in youth circles?

After morning New Year greetings, I asked my siblings still in college what gifts they wanted. Both took out their phones, launched "Valorant: Source" (Valorant for short), pointed at the striking red Horse Year New Year gun skin, and said, "I want this." Similarly, my cousin who came over in the afternoon also saw them playing and asked me, "Could you get one for me too?"

Young gamers wanting game skins for the New Year isn't unusual, but seeing everyone unanimously choosing the same skin surprised me. When I asked, it turned out this gun skin was insanely popular. My cousin told me many friends immediately bought it once they got their New Year budgets because "the Horse Gun is really cool," and "if you have the Horse Gun, people are more willing to team up with you, it’s a real status symbol."

Later, I noticed social media was also "taken over"—scrolling casually, you’d find tons of videos featuring the Valorant Horse Gun set. Highlight clips showing a Horse Gun pentakill easily rack up thousands or even tens of thousands of likes. Under videos related to the New Year Horse Gun skin, many players comment things like "True god among gods, playing with the Horse Gun is just pure joy," eager to invite the whole world to play with it.

What’s even more amazing is how suddenly this blew up. On February 14, Valorant first revealed the Horse Year New Year skin, and just one day later, the CG video on Bilibili surpassed one million views and even topped trending charts. In just four days, "Horse Gun" not only became a term exclusive to this skin in Valorant but quickly rose to cult status among players, starting a reverse redefinition of "Horse Gun" in the shooting game community.

Adding to this, Tao Zhe’s catchy BGM went viral, and the phrase "In the Year of the Horse, playing Valorant is no horse" instantly became the catchy New Year anthem, making the Horse Gun the most "brainwashing" and memorable presence of the season.

Curious, I looked into why the Horse Gun is so popular.

Who wouldn’t love this Horse Gun?

"Horse Gun" is Valorant’s original new Year of the Horse gun skin "Crimson Shadow Tianxiao," themed around traditional Chinese style, blending the festive atmosphere of the Horse Year and cultural heritage.

Starting with the look, the Horse Gun is undeniably cool. I’ve played many shooters and seen hundreds if not thousands of skins, yet this one immediately caught my eye. The skin centers on a galloping steed image, combining New Year symbols with modern trends to create a distinctive and bold style.

Take the popular Phantom, for example: the entire gun resembles a powerful stallion ready to charge. The body features horse heads, eyes, and manes as the main visuals; the grip and magazine resemble horseshoes. With shimmering dynamic lighting effects, it looks like a horse galloping across the battlefield, full of energy and visual impact.

The melee weapon design is also innovative. The blade mimics the traditional Chinese three-section staff, paired with a spear tip design, forming Valorant’s new melee model. Whether swinging it in inspection or slashing in combat, it’s smooth and fluid, blending traditional weapon charm with mobile gameplay feel.

Upon defeating an enemy, a red-gold stallion bursts out in a dramatic stop and pose, combined with auspicious paper-cut art and red envelope elements, evoking intense competitive excitement and standing out vividly.

Beyond traditional elements and festive vibes, the horse motif in the kill effect uses hollow-out details and dynamic symbols to create a youthful, trendy aesthetic.

This fashionable feel extends to the material quality of the set, showing a hard reflective shine like spray paint while moving. The classic lucky red primary color can switch to platinum, blue-black, and other stylish palettes. Such a blend of Chinese style and modern expression is rare in FPS games.

Of course, if it were just about looking good, it wouldn’t have gone viral so fast.

Its breakout lies in "magically linking the hope for good luck with a satisfying tactile response," creating a shared feeling that using the Horse Gun doesn’t mean "horse gun" in the old sense (which implied poor aim and handling).

This starts with storytelling. In Valorant’s early promotional CG, an elder recalls his youth: as the Year of the Horse approaches, the world suffers under dark calamities, and his horse had left him, but unexpectedly, a "special horse" returns.

"The divine steed" returns — this is the essence of the Horse Gun. When danger strikes, the hero wields a weapon transformed from the divine steed, possessing "swift" power to defeat the villain. The old saying "A blessing in disguise" ties the horse to good fortune, and with the Year of the Horse arriving, everyone naturally hopes for a divine steed companion to bring lasting luck.

After setting the emotional tone, it precisely meets competitive demands.

The Horse Gun set covers popular guns like Phantom, Spectre, Frenzy, and Ghost. Shooting feedback, aiming dynamics, and weapon characteristics are tightly integrated. For example, Spectre and Frenzy suit run-and-gun playstyles, with flowing light effects adding dynamism; Phantom’s quick stop and shoot offers strong confirmation, all partly credited by players to the "Horse Gun’s legendary feel."

Ultimately, the mystical effect of "using the Horse Gun means you won’t be a ‘horse gun’" strengthens the Horse Gun’s "good luck" image. This belief encourages players to fight boldly, enjoying the thrill of unlocking their full potential.

After this explanation, it’s clear why the Horse Gun’s popularity skyrocketed: beyond great feel and appearance, it successfully connects the emotions of "starting the New Year with good shots, good luck, and a strong start," delivering multiple layers of satisfaction. This makes commercial skins more than just function and looks upgrades; they become carriers of Chinese New Year ritual and hopeful wishes.

Moreover, the Horse Gun’s breakout isn’t unique. In early February’s new season, Valorant released the "Radiant Scale Dragon" set, praised for solid feedback and feel; the upcoming Fireblade on February 19 is also one of the best in both feel and aesthetics among fan-shaped weapons.

Valorant’s successive new sets and original skins continue to fuel this momentum. Now, its skin design keeps evolving and refining.

Each generation has its own "Horse Gun"

Honestly, veteran shooters are mostly surprised seeing the Horse Gun become so popular because for years in the shooter community, "Horse Gun" was slang for missing aim and was self-mocking. A term used to poke fun at poor performance suddenly became linked with youth, trendiness, and good luck overnight, even going viral beyond gaming circles — it’s somewhat surreal.

I studied this carefully, and while it’s not easy, what Valorant did isn’t surprising.

First, Valorant laid a solid foundation for semantic reversal. The Horse Gun CG story directly uses the "A blessing in disguise" proverb, guiding viewers to "see things from a different perspective": the "horse" isn’t a mistake or bad thing but a symbol of good fortune and protection in traditional Chinese culture.

This proverb is widely known among the public, has a low barrier to understanding, and its message is easily accepted.

Moreover, during the early New Year version promotion, Valorant launched the slogan "In the Year of the Horse, playing Valorant is no horse," deliberately removing the negative connotation of "horse" from shooter slang. Now, with the Horse Gun set officially out, numerous fan creations, pentakill highlights, feel reviews, skin showcases, and memes have flooded platforms. Players actively associate "Horse Gun" with "accurate gun, not a horse," naturally forming a new consensus.

Secondly, Valorant’s IP is targeting a new generation within the highly competitive FPS community, growing up in a meme culture explosion era, highly proactive and creative in deconstructing old concepts and giving them new meanings.

Just browse the community, and you’ll see that changes like the "Horse Gun" meaning are not isolated. For example, the phrase "good gun" after a kill in FPS games evolved in Valorant’s ecosystem into "KSM" (short for "critical shot"), praising extreme accuracy. This term is used not only by Valorant PC players but is becoming common jargon across the entire shooter community.

The "KSM" sound effect has even been made into a rhythmically satisfying BGM, popular for editing highlight videos and beauty clips alike, with even official accounts joining in on the memes.

Similarly, the ancient phrase "Mao Sui’s self-recommendation" evolved in early internet culture into "XX requests to battle," then "XX your troops have arrived," and among Valorant players, it’s humorously twisted into "The sage, I have talents," turning self-recommendation into a talent showcase, both funny and catchy.

It’s clear that Valorant’s player base "dare to play with memes and know how to play memes." They never limit themselves to a word’s original meaning but love to "make symbols their own." The Horse Gun is just that — why must it be synonymous with awkward moments? In Valorant, it’s a blessing, cool, and can become trendy New Year slang.

Each generation has its own "Horse Gun," which perhaps is the best explanation.

A younger Valorant that dares and knows how to play

Seeing the Horse Gun rise on mobile rather than PC highlights the uniqueness of this product. It not only gathers a huge, young user base but as Valorant’s IP frontier on mobile, it actively explores independently within a "younger" ecosystem.

The Horse Gun isn’t the only successful example.

Earlier, Valorant made a name for itself with exclusive original skin series like "Awakening Lions" and "Poseidon." For instance, the four-color "Awakening Lion" set features skins designed as lions with different personalities matching gun types. The melee weapon "Awakening Break" looks like a handbell, lucky and majestic, with its showcase video surpassing one million views on Bilibili.

The Poseidon series, themed around the ocean and tridents, features melee weapons evolving from knives to tridents, a unique design approach. Many players commented "great feedback" and "smooth feel" after trying them. These skins are original creations based on mobile features, not ports from PC games. The Horse Gun set is another peak of originality and localized storytelling.

Since launching in August 2025, Valorant has consistently ranked in the iOS top 10 bestsellers. As a "trailblazer," it keeps creating cultural hotspots like the Horse Gun, adhering to trendy innovation, engaging young users, and continuously breaking boundaries to attract new attention, boosting the overall IP vitality.

From niche slang to viral New Year blessing; from commercial skin to a youthful New Year ritual, the Horse Gun’s success reflects a generation’s shared resonance.

Valorant, together with young people, is redefining its own language and joy.