The hit marker began as visual and audio feedback in modern first person shooters, most famously in Call of Duty, where a brief tick confirmed that a bullet had landed without needing a kill notification. As montage editing grew on YouTube and TikTok, creators isolated that tick and began layering it with heavier impacts for comic emphasis. The boom version is often paired with a reload gun cue or a kill confirmation in short edits, turning a routine hit into a joke or highlight that viewers recognise instantly even without gameplay on screen.