[7][8] In the 2040s,[9] the world has been gripped by an energy crisis from the depletion of fossil fuels and the consequences of pollution, global warming, and overpopulation, causing widespread social problems, poverty, and economic stagnation.

To escape the decline their world is facing, people turn to the OASIS,[a] a virtual universe accessible by players using visors and haptic technology such as gloves.

Eighteen-year-old Wade Watts lives with his Aunt Alice in Oklahoma City[10] in the "stacks", a poverty-stricken district constructed of trailer homes piled on top of each other.

After deciphering a riddle hidden in the Almanac, he realizes that the first key is located on the planet Ludus, the same virtual world as his own online high school, in a recreation of the Dungeons & Dragons module Tomb of Horrors.

While leaving the tomb, he meets Art3mis, a famous female gunter and blogger (and his crush), who had independently discovered the location of the key, but had not yet beaten Acererak.

He plays through the Dungeons of Daggorath video game in a recreation of Halliday's parents' house and then role-plays Matthew Broderick's character in the film WarGames.

Wade, who hadn't been in his trailer at the time of the explosion, escapes and moves to Columbus, Ohio (hometown of both GSS and IOI), where he assumes the pseudonym Bryce Lynch and lives in an anonymous apartment designed for hardcore OASIS users.

Unsure as to whether or not it is relevant to the egg hunt, he decides to play a perfect game of Pac-Man and receives a quarter that cannot leave his inventory as a prize.

Parzival finds the Second Gate hidden in a Voight-Kampff machine from Blade Runner, and completes a remake of the 1987 arcade game Black Tiger.

He acquires the Crystal Key on planet Syrinx, and after playing the "Discovery" section of the song "2112", finds a hidden secondary clue regarding the conditions to unlock the final gate.

He then uses black market passwords and security exploits to hack into IOI's intranet and deploy a timed booby trap to bring down the force field.

He also acquires a wealth of incriminating information: footage of Daito's murder, records of the attempt on his own life, as well as plans to abduct Shoto and Art3mis and force them to find the Easter egg for IOI, then kill them afterwards.

After escaping the corporation, he shares this information with his friends and news outlets, and sends out a message inviting all OASIS avatars to help them storm the castle.

Parzival and his friends are interrupted by Ogden "Og" Morrow (the co-creator of the OASIS), who offers them a safe haven at his home in Oregon.

When it becomes clear they will lose the battle, IOI detonates a doomsday device, which destroys castle Anorak and kills every avatar present in the sector.

Cline "takes a far-out premise and engages the reader instantly" with a "deeply felt narrative [that] makes it almost impossible to stop turning the pages.

[23] Rebecca Serle of HuffPost described the book as "the grown-up's Harry Potter" and that it "has it all – nostalgia, trivia, adventure, romance, heart and, dare I say it, some very fascinating social commentary.

[26][27] Nick Shager, writing for The Daily Beast shortly before the release of the film adaptation, offered a scathing review that criticized the book's narrative style by stating "It’s... a terribly written piece of adolescent fantasy that, at heart, exemplifies everything wrong and repellent about modern nerd culture" and challenged its coming-of-age premise by calling it "a stunted-adolescent story".

Shager also lamented the book's "Peter Pan-ish infatuation with childishness, which comes coated in a stench of stale Doritos, Jolt Cola and lowbrow smugness".

Isaac writes "I don't think the lesson from Twilight should be that Ready Player One needs to be blasted in the same fashion, but rather that you can acknowledge the flaws of something without joining a hate mob or attacking anyone else for enjoying it.

[38] Ten months after the first edition's release, Cline revealed on his blog that Ready Player One itself contained an elaborately hidden Easter egg.

[44] The film rights were purchased by Warner Bros. on the same day Cline finalized his publishing deal with Random House, one year prior to the novel's publication.

The film stars Tye Sheridan, Olivia Cooke, Ben Mendelsohn, Lena Waithe, T. J. Miller, Simon Pegg, and Mark Rylance with Philip Zao, Win Morisaki, and Hannah John-Kamen in supporting roles.

It received generally positive reviews from critics who praised its visuals and brisk pacing, the performances of Sheridan and Rylance, and noted it as an improvement on the book.