What Horror Games Indie Developers Should Create: A Visual Benchmark of the Niche in Numbers and Charts

Horror games represent a market with steady demand, a relatively low entry barrier for developers, and established rules. In our new report, we aim to examine how attractive this niche remains from a commercial perspective. As always, we include plenty of tables, data, and interesting observations.

To begin, here are some insights into the overall state of the niche:

Over the past 10 years, the number of games tagged as Horror has increased nearly 7.5 times, reaching 3,016 in 2025 (in 2026, nearly 2,600 titles were released, but the year isn't over yet);
Two other related categories have shown even more impressive growth rates: Survival Horror (x8.9) and Psychological Horror (x8.7);
On average, the number of games with these tags grows by 25–30% annually, while the average annual growth rate of all Steam games over the past 10 years is around 21%;
The most significant surge occurred in 2024 when the number of new horror games increased by 61% year-over-year, while the entire Steam catalog grew by about 32%;
Games tagged as Horror constitute more than 12% of all releases on Steam in 2026, yet their share among titles with over $1 million in revenue is nearly 15%.

Number of releases with Horror, Psychological Horror, and Survival Horror tags by year

Before moving on to a more detailed analysis of the data and the main conclusions regarding the state of the horror game market, let's recap our previous reports examining other genres and game categories.

Horror Games Benchmark: Median Revenue, Most Interesting Subgenres, and Other Observations

As with all existing niches, it is important to note that a tag alone does not define a genre. Since the set of tags is largely user-defined, even titles like Halo: The Master Chief Collection or Cookie Clicker can be considered horror games on Steam. However, before segmenting the market more precisely, it's worth examining the metrics of the basic category.

Below is a brief benchmark of projects tagged as Horror on Steam: