The style soon grew in popularity on the internet as a whole as a meme, having dedicated communities on platforms such as Reddit and Facebook.

After this, creating countryballs cartoons became popular among other users on the board, particularly Russians. The beginning of the countryballs format proper is credited to Falco, a British user on the German imageboard who used Microsoft Paint to create a meme of Wojak – a Polish Internet troll on the same board who contributed in broken English. The circular canvas constrained the flag in such a way that it became a literal 'Poland ball.'

Countryballs has its roots on, a website that allowed Internet users to draw whatever they want on a circular canvas called a 'drawball.' At one point in August 2008, thousands of Polish netizens managed to take over the entire drawball with an illustration of the Polish flag.