Flash Player Version History
| Flash Player Version | Release Date | Notable New Features |
| Flash 2 | 1997 | Buttons, libraries, stereo audio, improved bitmap integration, tweening. Note: This was the first player released under the Macromedia brand. |
| Flash 3 | 1998 | Alpha transparency, MP3 support. |
| Flash 4 | May 1999 | Streaming MP3 support, motion tweening. Note: This was the first player included by default with MS Internet Explorer (v5). |
| Flash 5 | August 2000 | ActionScript. |
| Flash 6 | March 2002 | Video support (Sorenson Sparc codec), application components, shared libraries, accessibility. |
| Flash 7 | September 2003 | Charts & graphs, text effects, 3rd-party extensions, high-quality PDF & Adobe Illustrator import. ActionScript 2.0. |
| Flash 8 | August 2005 | Filter effects, blending modes, GIF & PNG support, bitmap caching, FlashType type rendering, mobile device emulator, and a significant new video codec (On2 VP6). Note: In December 2005 Macromedia (and the Flash platform) was acquired by Adobe Systems. |
| Flash 9 | June 2006 | ActionScript Virtual Machine AVM2, ActionScript 3. Note: This is the first version of the player to be released before the equivalent authoring program. This means version 9 is the first player to be widely installed before much authoring activity. |
| Flash 9 Update 3 (codenamed "Moviestar") | December 2007 | Technically a minor release but worthy of note because this version supports H.264 video and AAC audio. The exact version number is 9.0.115.0. |