The Rise of Co-op Horror Games in the 2020's

Over the past six years or so, we have seen a boom, especially within the indie scene, in regards to co-op horror games. Although this subgenre of horror places its roots much further back, we can see an uptick in interest right around the time of Phasmaphobia’s early access release in 2020. Phasmaphobia’s new take on the horror genre, with an emphasis on teamwork, seemed to spark something within the player base – and other development teams wanted in. But before we dive into what the 2020’s have been like so far, let’s take a look back at where this all really began. 

It is difficult to pinpoint the first instance of a true horror co-op experience, but if you disregard any titles that were strictly for arcades, you would probably land on the cult classic “Zombies Ate My Neighbors”, released in 1993 on the SNES and Sega Genesis. Although this game didn’t land commercial success, it became popular amongst consumers and is still cited often by retrogamers when discussing classic horror gaming experiences. Zombies Ate My Neighbors could be played as a singleplayer or two player experience. 

Then, in 2000, “Nanatsu no Hikan: Senritsu no Bishō” (or translated to Seven Mansions) was released on the Dreamcast. Although an international release was planned, it got cancelled, so this title was only released in Japan. This game may be the earliest example we have of a true survival horror experience with real-time co-op play. 

Jump forward 14 years, and we get our first instance of the now very recognizable “4vs1” horror formula. “Damned” came out with minimal fanfare and a rollercoaster of player counts, ultimately falling into the “OK” category for its reviews on Steam. It beat “Dead by Daylight” to the finish line by several years, but didn’t have the pull necessary to bring the subgenre into the limelight like DBD. 

Despite the differences in subgenres, it would be remiss to not talk at all about 2008’s Left 4 Dead, often considered a pioneer for zombie shooters. Whether or not zombie shooters belong under the category of “horror” is can be deeply debated, but this category of games has also had considerable influence on the rise of co-op horror experiences as well. 

There are plenty of examples of co-op horror experiences prior to the 2020’s, but the real “lift-off” for co-op horror starts with Phasmaphobia’s release. Since its entry into Steam’s early access program, we have seen a slew of games – primarily from indie developers - looking to try their hand at the general formula. Some of the attempts have been successful, but many have fallen flat. 

Several titles that were released shortly after Phasmaphobia are “Sign of Silence”, “Siren’s Head: The Siren’s Forest”, and “Last Year: The Nightmare”. All of these titles were released in October 2020. If you don’t recognize any of those titles, that’s understandable, as none of them had success close to Phasmaphobia. Sign of Silence released to middling reviews, hit a player peak of just over 1.2k players in 2021, and then saw a sharp decline from 2022 onwards. Siren’s Head released to even worse results, with an all-time player peak of only 22. Last Year did almost as poorly as Siren’s Head, with a peak count of 198 in 2021. 

The trend of “hopping on the Phasmaphobia train” continued into 2021 with many more flops like “Horror Squad” and “Somewhere in the Shadow”, but also had a few mildly successful releases that still hold small player bases, like “Devour” and “Lunch Lady”. Like the earliest titles mentioned, these are not 1:1’s with Phasmaphobia, as they are not ghost-hunting games, but they follow the overall formula of a co-op horror experience, with 1-4 players trying to accomplish objectives while avoiding the murderous enemy (or enemies). 

The closest game we see to Phasmaphobia is “Demonologist”, which was released in 2023. Demonologist follows the formula very closely, with a 1-4 player demon-hunting experience, using tools to accumulate clues about the demon’s behaviors before making a guess as to what type it is, and then having optional objectives to complete for additional in-game money. Demonologist has not seen nearly as much success as Phasmaphobia, but it has managed to stay relevant in the genre, retaining a small player base, and continuing to push out updates. 

2023 was also the year that the largely successful “Lethal Company” was released. It took the co-op horror subgenre in a new direction, with silly physics, many ways to prank your teammates, and overall a more casual and fun approach to horror. Lethal Company peaked at nearly 241k players in 2023, and although it has not held that kind of attention over the years, there are still regularly thousands of players at a time. Lethal Company was proof that there were still fun, original ways to approach this type of gaming. 

Then in 2025, it happened again with “REPO”. REPO took things a step farther, allowing up to 6 players, capitalizing on the silly cartoonish style that consumers were showing a draw towards, and turning the shenanigans up to 10. The psychics-based gameplay makes for some hilarious mishaps, the choppy movements of the characters’ mouths when you speak into your microphone add to the ridiculousness of the situation, and the whole game is really just mayhem. 

REPO has been wildly popular since its release, even more so than Lethal Company, and the co-op horror scene has been a great place for many indie development teams to get their start. It’s no surprise then that the newest foray into this subgenre - “Shift at Midnight” - is getting a lot of attention before its release. Due to a recent delay, there’s no way of knowing yet how successful it will be, but it is clear that games like Phasmaphobia, Lethal Company and REPO have paved the way for more titles like them. 

As mentioned earlier, Damned appears to be the first game to fit this particular co-op horror experience, predating Dead by Daylight by just a few years. Despite its failure to take off, Dead by Daylight – which released in 2016 – has seen monumental success, still regularly holding over 100k player peaks, having many dedicated streamers, and releasing many DLCs with collaborations with other games and teams. Just like with Phasmaphobia, there have been many attempts to capitalize on DBD’s success, such as “Friday the 13th” and “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre”, but none have captured the scene quite the same. DBD is still the king in this subgenre, but based on what we’ve seen with Phasmaphobia and the evolution over the past 6 years in co-op horror, that could change. 

Zombie shooters certainly feel like a much different gaming experience than games like Phasmaphobia, Dead by Daylight, and REPO, but they have been influential in the overall popularity of co-op horror experiences. Left 4 Dead was so popular in 2008 that its sequel released only a year later, and still has thousands of players. It also led to 2021’s spiritual successor, Back 4 Blood. There have been many takes on this subgenre over the years, like numerous Zombie Army games (a spin-off series from Sniper Elite), Killing Floor 1 (2009) and 2 (2014), and 2021’s World War Z. 

It’s clear that the gaming industry has seen an explosion, especially from the indie dev scene, of co-op horror, since Phasmaphobia, with many unsuccessful iterations, but also a few stand out titles that have really paved the way for other indie teams hoping to break into the scene. With how much competition there is in this subgenre of horror, will we continue to see big successes like Phasmaphobia and REPO? Will Shift at Midnight be another testament to how well indie teams can produce these types of games, or will it fall short of the fun and mayhem brought by recent titles? Perhaps we’ll have our answer later this summer. 

1. TV Tropes, https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/VideoGame/Damned2014

2. Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zombies_Ate_My_Neighbors

3. Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nanatsu_no_Hikan:_Senritsu_no_Bish%C5%8D

4. Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zombie_Army_Trilogy

5. Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Killing_Floor_(video_game)

6. Steam DB, steam.db