Changes

! colspan="6"|Desktop / Plugin <ref group=N name=plugin>Plugin versions of these players require a browser that supports NPAPI/PPAPI.</ref>|-|Adobe Flash Player|align=left|{{Icon|Windows|Linux|macOS|Web}}<ref group=N name=plugin />

|Reference {{✗}} ||{{~}} <ref group=N>Adobe versions discontinued. Harman versions currently maintained for enterprise customers only.</ref> ||{{✓}}|-|[https://ruffle.rs/ Ruffle]|align=left|{{Icon|Windows|Linux|macOS}}|[https://ruffle.rs/#downloads Nightly builds]|{{✗✓}} ||{{✓}} ||{{~}}<small> (WIP)</small>|-|[https://lightspark.github.io/ Lightspark]|align=left|{{Icon|Windows|Linux|Web}} |[https://github.com/lightspark/lightspark/releases 0.8.6.1]|{{✗✓}} ||{{✓}}||{{~}}<small> (WIP)</small>

|[https://githubgnu.org/software/gnash GNU Gnash]|align=left|{{Icon|Windows|Linux}}|[https://www.gnu.org/software/gnash/download.html 0.8.10]|{{✓}} ||{{✗}} ||{{✗}}|-|[http://tulrich.com/vidkidztextweb.pl?path=geekstuff/waflash WAFlashgameswf.txt GameSWF]|align=left|{{Icon|WebWindows|macOS|Linux}}|[https://clubpenguinadvancedsourceforge.github.ionet/projects/tu-testbed/files/demos/waflashgameswf-demo2009-08-08/ Web2009-08-08]|High {{✓}} ||{{✗}} ||{{✗}} |-|[https://web.archive.org/web/20090116113151/http://swfdec.freedesktop.org/wiki swfdec]|align=left|{{Icon|Linux|Web}}|[https://web.archive.org/web/20090116113151/http://swfdec.freedesktop.org/download/swfdec/0.8/swfdec-0.8.4.tar.gz 0.8.4]|{{✓}} ||{{✓✗}} ||{{✗}}|-! colspan="6"|HTML5 / WebAssembly

|[https://ruffle.rs/ Ruffle]|alignrowspan=left|"7" {{Icon|Windows|Linux|macOS|Webna}}|[https://github.com/ruffle-rs/ruffle/releases Nightly buildsgit]|Mid ||{{✓}} ||{{✓}} ||{{~}}<small> (WIP)</small>

|Mid ||{{✓}} ||{{✓}} ||{{~}}<small> (WIP)</small>

|[https://lightspark.github.iocom/vidkidz/ Lightsparkwaflash WAFlash]|align=left|{{Icon|Windows|Linux|Webna}}<ref group=N name=plugin>Web version is only available as an NPAPI/PPAPI plugin, and is therefore not OS-agnostic.</ref>|[https://github.com/lightspark/lightspark/releases 0.8.5]|Mid ||{{✓✗}} ||{{✓✗}} ||{{~}}

|align=left|{{Icon|Web}}|[https://github.com/swf2js/swf2js JavaScript file download0.7.8]|{{?}} ||{{~}} ||{{✗}} ||{{~}}

|align=left|{{Icon|Web}}|[https://docs.leaningtech.com/cheerpx-for-flash/Changelog Version 3134]|? {{✗}} ||{{✓}} ||{{✗}} |-|[https://open-flash.github.io/ Open Flash / Doμ Player]|[https://github.com/open-flash/domu-player git]|{{✓}} ||{{✗}} ||{{✗}}

|Low ||{{✓}} ||{{✗}} ||{{✗}}|-|[https://gnu.org/software/gnash GNU Gnash]|align=left|{{Icon|Windows|Linux}}|[https://www.gnu.org/software/gnash/download.html 0.8.10]|Low ||{{✓}} ||{{✗}} ||{{✗}}|-|[https://open-flash.github.io/ Open Flash / Doμ Player]|align=left|{{Icon|Web}}|[https://github.com/open-flash/domu-player git]|{{?}} ||{{✓}} ||{{✓}} ||{{?}}

====Hybrid====;''Common aspects''Ruffle<small> ([https://ruffle.rs/demo/ web demo])</small>:''Pretty much all of the A Rust-based player that targets both HTML5 emulators listed here are specifically designed to be and desktop. Notably used as by a bunch of veteran Flash content sites including [https://www.newgrounds.com Newgrounds], [wikipediahttps:Polyfill (programming)|polyfills//homestarrunner.com Homestar Runner]and [https://www.coolmathgames.com CoolMathGames] , and also by webmasters who want to keep their Flash-based sites going despite the forced obsolescence of AdobeInternet Archive's in-browser [https://archive.org/details/softwarelibrary_flash Flash pluginlibrary]. Therefore most By 2021, it had progressed to the point where it can run many early Flash games, including the original Flash version of these emulators are really not intended [https://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/59593/format/flash?emulate=flash Alien Hominid]; support for personal usenewer AVM2-based files is now underway, although still far from complete. Unlike the other HTML5 options, however some of them (Ruffle, most notably) can actually be installed as a browser addons using addon, with the caveat that a website's hosted copy will usually override the WebExtension systemaddon even if the site is running an older build.''

;Adobe Flash Player====Desktop / NPAPI====:The official closed-source implementation by Adobe, who discontinued it in 2020. The web version relies on [[wikipedia:NPAPI|NPAPI/PPAPI]], is an obsolete browser plugin system for a bunch of different in-browser software platforms that tried to co-exist in the earlier days of the Internet, before basically only being used for many years only stuck around specifically because of this Flash plugin; when Player once Flash became properly dominant. By the mid-2010s, the plugin system was officially dropped by increasingly being seen as an ancient relic that modern browsers would be better off without; and so, while Adobewas phasing out Flash Player in late 2020, so too NPAPI was the plugin system gradually being dropped by all the major browser vendors. The desktop player version is It hasn't entirely disappeared (some smaller browser devs still available for download from the Adobe website's debug downloads section, and Harman International is also [https://airsdk.harman.com/flashplayer maintaining an extended support version specifically for enterprise users].:;CheerpX for Flash::A payware HTML5 emulation package which combines CheerpX, an x86 emulator maintain NPAPI in WebAssembly, with Harman International's extended support version their own forks of Adobe Flash Player. No-one on this wiki has formally evaluated it (yetstuff like Firefox and Chromium), but you shouldnit is 't expect amazing performance given the added complexity of such an approach'mostly'' dead nowadays.

;WAFlash:A closedYou may also notice that a lot of older Flash player projects specifically fizzled out around 2009-source C++-to-HTML5 implementation that technically hasn2010. That't been officially released yets in huge part because before then, and will probably be payware once it is. It seems many video hosting sites actually needed some type of SWF element to be able play videos in a browser, and the most accurate development of open-source alternatives was motivated by people not wanting an increasingly large part of the unofficial emulators Internet to hinge on a single proprietary software platform, along with Macromedia/Adobe not necessarily seeing Linux support as a top priority. It wasn't until the start of December 20212010 that YouTube in particular started pushing really hard for HTML5 media elements, which have since become a standard feature in modern browsers and single-handedly made Flash Player completely redundant for multimedia playback.

;RuffleFlash Player:An open-source Rust implementation sponsored by multiple veteran Flash game archivesThe proprietary reference player, most notably Newgroundswhich Adobe stopped directly supporting at the end of 2020. It mainly targets HTML5, but is The plugin version has been delisted from Adobe's website and also available as has a desktop player. The devs are planning to focus on ActionScript 1 and 2 support firstbuilt-in kill-switch that was flipped in January 2021, with AS3 so it's probably not much use even in browsers that still support coming laterNPAPI. It's progressed to the point where it can run many early Flash gamesHowever, including the original Flash discontinued desktop player version is still available for download from the debug downloads section of Adobe's website, and Harman International is also [https://wwwairsdk.newgroundsharman.com/portal/view/59593/format/flash?emulate=flash Alien Hominid], as well as playing the vast majority of [https://old.homestarrunner.com Homestar Runnerflashplayer maintaining an extended support version specifically for enterprise users] toons.

;AwayFLLightspark:An openA C++ player that's designed specifically to provide drop-source HTML5 implementation developed by in FLOSS replacements for both the desktop and NPAPI versions of Flash Player. It claims to have 83% of the Away Foundationoverall SWF spec covered, under sponsorship from Pokias of August 2022, but development has been fairly slow since 2015 when it became a mostly one-person effort.com. Sometimes works better than Ruffle in specific casesLightspark historically focused on more recent versions of the SWF spec that weren't supported by Gnash, hence why Lightspark could (and still can) use Gnash as an automatic fallback if both are installed simultaneously.

;LightsparkGNU Gnash:A desktop-only C++ implementation player thatwent inactive in 2017, with the most recent stable release dating back to 2012. Probably not much reason to use it over newer versions of Lightspark, which seem to have mostly (if not entirely) superseded Gnash for compatibility. ;GameSWF:An 's designed specifically 'extremely'' old C++ player, definitely one of the first serious efforts to provide a FLOSS alternative reverse-engineer Flash Player into an open-source package. Inactive since 2009, though it did lay the foundations for Gnash. ;swfdec:Another very early effort to Adobecreate an non-proprietary replacement for Flash Player. Actually pretty advanced for 2008-09, but it hasn's official playerst been active since. Lightspark says it has 78%  ====HTML5====Pretty much all of the APIs covered players listed here are specifically designed to be used as [[wikipedia:Polyfill (programming)|polyfills]] by webmasters who want to keep their Flash-based sites going despite the forced obsolescence of December 2021Adobe's in-browser Flash plugin. LightsparkThey are therefore largely not intended for personal use, although it's external dependencies would usually not impossible and some of them even have official demo pages that you can use to load whatever SWF file you want. ;CheerpX for Flash:A proprietary software package designed to make the Harman version of Flash Player usable in modern browsers by running it cumbersome inside CheerpX, a payware x86 emulator in WebAssembly. No-one on this wiki has had the chance to port properly evaluate it , but we'd expect reference-level accuracy at the cost of woeful performance. That being said, CheerpX apparently has an alternate mode of operation that offloads most of the emulation and processing work to HTML5a server app, at which point the in-browser part is effectively just a streaming client. ;AwayFL<small> ([https://exponenta.games/games/AFL/ web demo])</small>:Developed by the Away Foundation, this is arguably the most direct alternative to Ruffle, so which it's only available roughly even with in terms of compatibility although there are still a bunch of SWFs that'll work fine in browsers as an NPAPIone but not the other. ;WAFlash<small> ([https://clubpenguinadvanced.github.io/waflash-demo/ web demo])</PPAPI pluginsmall>:An inactive, similar closed-source C++-to -WebAssembly player that technically hasn't been made available to outside users, although there are a few sites where you can use it. It was considered the most accurate of the official one from Adobeunofficial Flash players as of late 2021, although other still-active projects have caught up significantly.

;swf2js<small> (web demos: [https://swf2js.com/free/index.html free], [https://swf2js.com/prod/index.html production])</small>:An open-core HTML5 implementation player that uses a dynamic recompiler. The source-available "Free" version supports limited features, such as AS1, AS2 and ZLIB compression, whereas the payware "Production" version is better suited to newer Flash files using such features as AS3 and LZMA compression. Uses normal Built on more traditional JavaScript rather code, so it pretty much always performs worse than the WebAssembly-based options, sometimes noticeably so performance is less than ideal.

:A relatively very early HTML5 implementation. Developed player, developed rather actively for a few years under Mozilla sponsorship, between 2012 and 2016 but ultimately abandoned in 2016 before it could reach a usable beta state. ;GNU Gnash:An open-source desktop player that has made very little progress since early 2012. It focuses on older versions of Flash that Lightspark was originally less focused on supporting properly, hence why Lightspark could use Gnash as an automatic fallback if both are installed simultaneously. However, newer versions of Lightspark have all but completely superseded Gnash and there's not much reason to use it anymore.