The sound comes from Dark Souls, the dark fantasy action role-playing game developed by FromSoftware and released in 2011. It plays whenever the player acquires an item, a frequent moment in a game built around exploration, careful combat and scarce rewards. As playthroughs, clips and memes from the game circulated online, the short chime became shorthand for finding something worthwhile. It remains popular because it is immediately recognisable to players, carries a sense of hard-won reward, and works just as well over real-life finds as it does over gameplay.