"There has been an awakening. Have you felt it?" That quote from the iconic first trailer for Star Wars: Episode VII - The Force Awakens feels appropriate. There has indeed been an awakening, and I'm sure you've felt it -- or at least heard of it. A new loosely defined video game genre has come into shape in the last few years and it's causing serious waves in the industry. "Friendslop" games are generally regarded as being inexpensive, cooperative multiplayer games with a focus on mechanics that are simple, yet require coordinated teamwork in order to succeed. Most of these games go viral on streaming platforms, because they are designed to be funny and "clippable" for sharing. I should say, while "slop" is typically a phrase people use to demean something as worthless, I don't think it's necessarily meant that way in this context. I think it's been dubbed friendslop because the games are often developed in a very quick period of time and large swaths of the audience only play it for a brief period of time before moving on to the next game.
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| Image Credit: Polygon |
The rise of this friendslop genre has led to many otherwise unsuspecting sales successes. The game that I consider to be the granddaddy of the genre, Phasmophobia, has sold a baffling 25 million copies across PC, PS5 and Xbox Series consoles. Most of these games are strictly PC games though, which makes the sales even more impressive. PEAK, a relatively new game to the genre, sold over 14 million copies in a roughly six month span of time. R.E.P.O., a game that has proven to be immensely popular with younger audiences, has also sold 14 million copies since its release this February. Lethal Company has also sold, believe it or not, 14 million copies. Every single one of these games that I've listed are amongst the highest selling video games of all time, with Phasmophobia even beating out a juggernaut like Call of Duty: Black Ops II, and matching Grand Theft Auto IV in sales. Other than Phasmophobia, which is $20, each of these games are almost comically affordable, typically aiming for an $8 price tag, which seems to be a sweet spot for interested customers.
I'm not really a fan of watching streamers play video games, honestly I still find that entire phenomenon to be pretty confusing; don't even get me started on Vtubers. But, I appreciate the obviously positive effect that they're having on seemingly random games exploding in popularity. No doubt, the developers of these various friendslop games have had their lives changed practically overnight because of the massive success that their games have achieved through some streamer's decision to play their game. Unless a developer is using generative AI or stolen assets, I'll generally be happy for you that your game found success. Games like Fortnite have completely gripped the younger generation, and more and more data is coming out to support the fact that they just aren't buying video games anymore. They stick to these immensely popular free-to-play games, purchase microtransactions and play online with their friends. At least these popular friendslop titles are encouraging people to purchase video games and play something different.
I can't personally speak to the quality of most of these games, but I have played Phasmophobia and really enjoyed it. It's an excellent horror game, and genuinely some of the most fun I've ever had in co-op with friends. Lethal Company and Content Warning were fun for short periods of time, but didn't really keep me engaged. I've heard PEAK is a fantastic experience, and I like that's not a horror game, but instead a cooperative climbing-focused survival game. And if none of these sound interesting to you, I can almost guarantee you that ten more friendslop games have released by the time you finished reading this article.
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