What is The Million Dollar Homepage?
The original internet real estate. Sold out, frozen, and still the page everyone compares a wall to.
The Million Dollar Homepage (milliondollarhomepage.com) is the 2005 web page by Alex Tew that sold its 1,000,000 pixels as advertising at $1 per pixel in 10×10 blocks ($100 minimum). Each block shows an image, links out and has a tooltip. It sold out in five months for $1.04 million, with the last 1,000 pixels auctioned for $38,100. It is the origin of pixel advertising and the mental model behind every pixel wall since — including Square Town (square.pov.town), which sells favicons instead of pixels for $1 a square.
At a glance (as of August 2026): 2005 · $1/pixel · 10×10 blocks · sold out in 5 months · $1.04M · last 1,000 px for $38,100 · frozen archive · roughly 40 % of links dead.
What it is today
The page is a sold-out, frozen archive. Nothing has been sold there since it sold out, nothing moves, and about 40 % of the links point at sites that no longer exist — a useful reminder that in internet real estate the record outlives the tenant. It remains online as a monument, not a place. Alex Tew's follow-up, Pixelotto (2006, $2/pixel with clicks entered into a $1M lottery, $153k paid out), is dead. A 20th-anniversary clone launched in 2025 died within a year.
How Square Town differs
| The Million Dollar Homepage | Square Town | |
|---|---|---|
| Year | 2005 | 2026 |
| Unit | Pixels, 10×10 blocks, $100 minimum | One 1×1 square, $1 |
| What's shown | Uploaded image + link + tooltip | Your site's favicon, fetched from the URL |
| Status | Sold out; frozen | Live; grows in rings up to 1,048,576 squares |
| Can you lose a spot? | No | Yes — eviction for double |
| Live / 3D | Static image | WebSocket-live; 3D click towers |
The design difference is the reason to come back: MDH was a one-time news event, and its hundreds of clones copied the grid but not the news. Square Town's answer is a game loop — evictions, one Throne, 90-day decay, ring unlocks — on a wall that is cheap enough to run forever. Full comparison: Square Town vs The Million Dollar Homepage: $1 square vs $100 block; other options: The best Million Dollar Homepage alternatives in 2026.
Example
A 2005 buyer paid $100 for a 10×10 block, uploaded a logo nobody could read at that size, and got a tooltip. Twenty-one years later the block is still there and, four times in ten, the link behind it is dead. On Square Town the same $100 would buy 100 legible favicon squares — or the Throne, once.
FAQ
How much did The Million Dollar Homepage make?
$1,037,100 in total, usually rounded to $1.04 million: 999,000 pixels at $1 each plus $38,100 for the last 1,000 pixels at auction.
Who made it?
Alex Tew, in 2005. His 2006 sequel Pixelotto added a click lottery and is now dead.
Is The Million Dollar Homepage still online?
Yes, as a frozen archive. It sold out within five months of its 2005 launch, and roughly 40 % of its links are dead as of August 2026.
Can I still buy pixels there?
No. It is sold out. The 2026 descendants — $1-square walls, pay-to-rank boards and Square Town's favicon wall — are where the genre lives now.
Put your favicon on the wall
1 square = $1, one-time, no account. Paste a URL, pick a cell, done. Open the wall →