Was there EVER a point in history where 4chan was actually a popular site?

I only joined this shithole back in 2016 (I know, I was a fucking idiot lmao), as I saw a lot of posts and videos and stuff about it on Facebook and instagram and then I saw how *no* other social media platform was like this, and that a lot of others were similar to 4chan.<br><br>Now, as of 2023, 4chan just isn't that popular, it has been here for almost 20 years at this point, and lots of other sites and social media platforms were built on the idea of 4chan, so was there EVER a point when 4chan was actually popular?