The Splatoon 3 Community Is Currently Losing It Over a Mysterious Mode Called 'Big Run'

For those who aren't Extremely Online, seeing all the art and messages in Splatoon 3's Splatsville square can be confusing if you're not up on the current meme flavor of the week. Last week, the meme template was a fill-in-the-blank sentence beginning with "Full of…" Sure.

This week, every message is about something called "Big Run."

For the unitiated, Big Run is a real, announced game mode within Splatoon 3. It's been mentioned briefly in a Nintendo Direct, which confirmed it to be an event that happens "once every few months" where Salmonids, the enemies of PvE mode Salmon Run, invade the game's PvP maps.

Brace yourselves for Big Run, a once-in-a-while Salmon Run phenomenon in which Salmonids invade
Splatsville! #Splatoon3 pic.twitter.com/Ey14KsWlpn

— Nintendo UK (@NintendoUK) August 10, 2022

We haven't experienced one live yet, though, which is probably why the Splatoon 3 community both in-game and on social media is currently working itself into a tizzy over the theory that one might spontaneously be announced for Halloween weekend.

Is a Splatoon 3 Big Run happening soon?

To be clear, there's no actual evidence this is going to happen then. But some community members have extrapolated that there might be one based on the fact that there was no Halloween-themed Splatfest like there have been in previous Splatoon games. In fact, there was no Splatfest at all during the month of October — the last one was the launch Splatfest in late September, and a Pokémon-themed Splatfest is currently planned for mid-November. One prevailing theory for the lack of an October Splatfest is that Nintendo is taking extra time to adjust the game behind the scenes after many players had connection issues in the last Splatfest, as well as a low appearance rate for the new Tricolor Turf War mode due to various team imbalances.