Ripping off successful works or products has to work once in a while, or else why do so many bother? There wouldn't be a point to being unoriginal if it was guaranteed to end in failure. Often, even mediocre clones still make money.

Yet once in a while, the clone is really successful. Not necessarily as successful as the leader, but still enough to hold its own. Sometimes there are enough [[GenreLaunch successful clones to make an entire genre]]. There are several reasons for this.
# It's a commercial product offered with a value about as good as the original product. This is the easiest way to pull this off.
# It has a unique element that makes it stand out despite all the borrowed elements.
# There is almost nothing original about it except elements that are patented and/or intellectual property (in other words, it's ''just'' original enough to avoid a lawsuit). But it's somehow about as good as what it's ripping off. This is naturally the hardest, and rarest way to pull this off.

Now this isn't really a subjective trope, as the examples here must have critical and/or commercial success.

Can be a SubTrope of FollowTheLeader, if the clone is of a recent hit, but some can be derivative of older, more obscure works. If the clone greatly overtakes the origin in popularity, it becomes OlderThanTheyThink.

Compare GenreLaunch.

Contrast with TheyCopiedItSoItSucks.

Not to be mistaken for SendInTheClones, which is the non-meta version.
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Method 1:
* Unless it's a unique or niche idea, you can expect copying among most commercial products. This is usually seen as fostering competition, hence better quality and/or value in products.

Method 2:
* In video game genres with tightly established conventions (as in you need the elements for the game to fit in the genre) and mechanics, this is almost a necessity.
** Puzzle games. If it has FallingBlocks, it's likely following ''{{Tetris}}''. Yet ''Dr. Mario'' and ''Lumines'' are successful games in their own right. Also, all those games [=PopCap=] publishes have their own spin on established puzzle games (some actually involving spinning).
** Strategy [=RPGs=] even more than regular [=RPGs=]. Some games have broken out of the grid system, but still follow other conventions.
** RealTimeStrategy
* ''{{Okami}}'' hasn't torn up the sales charts, but it's still acclaimed as one of the best Zelda clones ever (the game's developers did admit to taking after that series), due to its highly stylized look and gameplay.
* ''{{Charmed}}'' is pretty much a "family friendly" (and "less clever") ''{{Buffy}}'', but that helped it last about as long as ''Buffy''.
** Also, it didn't hurt that it had about three times as many witches in it and a lot more {{Fanservice}}.
** Not to mention being about adults, who deal with adult problems on the side rather than teenage ones.
* While some of the many FollowTheLeader clones of ''HorribleHistories'' series deservedly sank without a trace, others, such as ''Horrible Science'', ''Coping With'' and ''Murderous Maths'' have managed to become very successful by transplanting the dark wit and surreal cartoon work to other fields.
* ''GuitarHero'', at its core, is basically a certain Japanese guitar game with two more buttons.
** Harmonix next game, ''RockBand'' is basically ''GuitarHero'' with drums, vocals, and some timing changes.
*** The vocal part is exactly like ''Karaoke Revolution'', also developed by Harmonix.
** And ''GuitarHero: World Tour'' is ''RockBand'' with ... erm ... um ... cymbals?
*** And slightly different frets?
* By the same vein, the ''{{beatmania}}''-like ''DJ MAX'' series--more specifically, the ''DJ MAX Portable'' subseries. Though ''DJ MAX Portable'' was not the first Bemani-like RhythmGame to grace a handheld system (''beatmania'' has appeared on the Game Boy Color, though [[PortingDisaster without much success]], and as a keychain LCD game), it was the first game to do it right. It's since spawned three Korean-release sequels, an official American installment (''DJ Max Fever''), the GaidenGame ''DJ MAX Technika'', and the revival of ''DJ MAX'' on the PC...and a lawsuit from {{Konami}}.
* Supaplex is a clone of Boulderdash, but brings A LOT of new features and more responsive controls. To the point that it's even more famous than the original Boulderdash and has "supaplex clones".
* In the early nineties, ''JazzJackrabbit'' was as close to a ''SonicTheHedgehog'' clone as you could get on a PC at the time, with level designs taking inspiration from the levels in ''Sonic 2'' (compare Hill Top Zone and Chemical Plant Zone to Diamondus and Tubelectric, respectively)...only Jazz had a gun!

Method 3:
* ''Marathon'' was basically ''{{Doom}}'' for the Mac, but would even Mac owners have cared if the games weren't at least half as good?
** Same goes for ''{{Halo}}'': though some of its big selling points had been done before (and, arguably, better), the game still compiled all these assets together to create the definitive Xbox KillerApp.
* Even when a Strategy [=RPG=] doesn't differ much, it can still be a hit. ''FinalFantasyTactics'' didn't really add much to the genre, but it certainly is considered one of the best of them. (It helped that Squaresoft hired the team that made one of the best ones -- Quest with ''TacticsOgre'' -- to make ''FinalFantasyTactics''.) This, combined with NoExportForYou for many other games in the genre, can even bring SequelDisplacement where some players believe Tactics was the first.
* There are two kart racing games that are just as acclaimed as ''MarioKart'', ''{{Konami}} Krazy Racers'', and ''[[CrashBandicoot Crash Team Racing]]'', the former serving mostly to tithe GBA owners over until the release of ''Mario Kart'', and the latter being one of the bestselling games on the Playstation. ''DiddyKongRacing'' actually had the merit of having an adventure mode.
* The ''DukesOfHazzard'' TV series was openly and honestly [[strike: ripped off]] inspired from ''Smokey and the Bandit'', but became a hit on its own and is probably more famous than its inspiration today.
** The Dukes inspired a large number of cloned series, all of which featured an improbable amount of car chases. As they said in those days, "The cars are the stars". The only one that was particularly successful was the very different ''KnightRider''.
*** ''Knight Rider'', in turn, inspired a similar crop of super-vehicle shows, the only one of which that was at all successful was ''{{Airwolf}}'', which, while also clearly inspired by the film ''BlueThunder'', nonetheless managed to be unique unto itself.
* {{Bratz}} dolls may have odd faces, but ther were pretty much more hip versions of {{Barbie}}. They even outsold Barbie until Mattel successfully sued the maker of Bratz to have the dolls taken off the market (as he was still on Mattel's payroll when he came up with the ideas for them)
* Few ''GrandTheftAuto'' clones stand out, but there are some that work, notably ''TrueCrimeStreetsOfLA'', ''TheSimpsonsHitAndRun'', ''SaintsRow'' (especially the sequel).
** Jak II, the popular sequel to Jak and Daxter, also took a sizeable amount of influence from GTA.
* ''In The Groove'' is the same thing as ''DanceDanceRevolution'' with longer songs (2 minutes as opposed to about 1'20"-1'40" for DDR songs), more modifiers, a different songlist, and more competition-based gameplay. Subverted in that Konami sued the developers and won, thereby cutting the series' life short, and that the series [[BrokenBase became a matter of controversy among fans of DDR clones]].
*''{{R-Type}}'' spawned dozen and dozen of other Horizontal-scrolling ShootEmUp featuring some sort of gadget. Two of these clones (''Last Resort'' and ''Pulstar'') managed to be quite successful in their own right.
* ''[[{{Film/Nosferatu}} Nosferatu]]'' is probably the best vampire movie ever. They actually ''did'' get sued by Bram Stoker's widow, though.
* ''{{The Simpsons Road Rage}}'' was a clear ripoff of Sega's Crazy Taxi. So much so that Sega sued for infringement. And won.
* TimeWarp is basically Mythbusters sans everything but the highspeed camera. It still manages to be surprisingly good.
* A long, long time ago, an author wrote a book featuring a group of adventurers which included an elf, a man, a dwarf, and a halfling. Over the course of the story, the group descended into a long-abandoned dwarven mine known for it's wealth of mithril, which they discover has long since been invaded and destroyed by hordes of orcs and goblins, aided by a powerful monster uncovered when the previous dwarven owners DugTooDeep. As the heroes try to escape, one of them manages to fend off the monster, but in so doing plunges with it into a bottomless abyss and is assumed dead by his companions. Luckily, he lives and the monster is slain, leading the way toward [[ForgottenRealms Mithril Hall]] eventually being taken back by Bruenor and his clan. Wait, you didn't think I was talking about the [[TheLordOfTheRings Mines of Moria]], did you?
* ''{{Unskippable}}'' is identical to ''RiffTrax'' but holds its own mainly thanks to a lack of other clones and slightly different subject matter.
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