Niche report · September 2026 · Horror & survival

Survival Horror games on Steam, measured

Scarce resources, a vulnerable protagonist and threats the player mostly has to avoid.

1,106 games tagged Survival Horror came out on Steam in 2025 (882 in 2024), and 861 have come out so far in 2026, +17% on the same weeks of 2025.

Of the 1,369 released between Jan 1, 2024 and Jun 30, 2025, 5.1% reached 1,000 reviews, against 4.2% across all of Steam (1.2× the Steam rate).

Most of the niche prices itself under $5 (0.3% reached 1,000 reviews there); $20 and up did best at 52.2%.

3,255 more Survival Horror pages are on Steam but not released yet, 162 of them dated within 90 days.

Counted game by game from Steam's store on Sep 27, 2026. How we counted, and what the numbers can't tell you.

Released in 2025
1,106
882 in 2024
2026 so far
861
+17% on the same weeks of 2025
Reached 1,000 reviews
5.1%
1.2× the Steam rate (4.2%)
Unreleased pages
3,255
162 dated within 90 days

How fast the niche is filling

Games tagged Survival Horror released each year. 2026 is counted to Sep 27, 2026; the same weeks of 2025 saw 736.

Survival Horror releases per year
2020342
2021398
2022488
2023604
2024882
20251,106
2026 so farto Sep 27, 2026861

Source: Steam store search, 8,625 games tagged Survival Horror, captured Sep 27, 2026

How its games did

Games released Jan 1, 2024 to Jun 30, 2025, so every one has been on sale at least 14 months, against every Steam game released in the same window. Reaching 1,000 reviews is the usual rule of thumb for roughly $150,000 in gross revenue; 100 reviews is real traction.

Survival HorrorAll of Steam
Games released1,36924,918
Reached 10 reviews57.1%53.2%
Reached 100 reviews20.5%17.3%
Reached 1,000 reviews5.1%95% range 4.1% to 6.4%4.2%
Median reviews1411
Median list price (paid games)$4.99$4.99
Free to play12%17.7%

Price and outcome

The same cohort by undiscounted US list price on the day we counted. Higher prices go with bigger teams and more content, and a game that cut its price after a weak launch now sits in a cheaper band, so read this as what games priced like yours did, not as proof that raising a price lifts sales.

PriceGames100+ reviews1,000+ reviewsMedian reviews
Under $56427.5%0.3%0.1% to 1.1%under 10
$5 to $9.9936424.7%6.6%4.5% to 9.6%17
$10 to $14.998932.6%1.1%0.2% to 6.1%32
$15 to $19.996448.4%14.1%7.6% to 24.6%73
$20 and up4678.3%52.2%38.1% to 65.9%1,178

— fewer than 20 games, too few to compare.

Sub-niches: where the odds and the crowding differ

Other tags that appear in the top seven tags of Survival Horror games. Tags that describe a look or a platform (Pixel Graphics, Singleplayer) are left out. Players add tags to games that are already popular, so narrow tags flatter their hit rates: compare sub-niches with each other, not with Steam.

Best odds

  • Online Co-Op: 14.6% reached 1,000 reviews (103 games)
  • Open World: 11.6% reached 1,000 reviews (43 games)
  • Dungeon Crawler: 11.1% reached 1,000 reviews (36 games)

Filling fastest in 2026

  • Psychological: 30 so far vs 12 (+150%)
  • Third-Person Shooter: 36 so far vs 21 (+71%)
  • Supernatural: 30 so far vs 19 (+58%)
TagGames (2024–2025 cohort)1,000+ reviews100+ reviews2026 so far vs 2025Unreleased
Horror8265.8%4.4% to 7.6%23%495 vs 421+18%1,887
Psychological Horror4316%4.1% to 8.7%22.5%283 vs 208+36%1,092
Action-Adventure2801.8%0.8% to 4.1%16.4%153 vs 139+10%621
Puzzle2442.5%1.1% to 5.3%18%124 vs 139−11%491
FPS1683.6%1.6% to 7.6%14.3%105 vs 104+1%356
Shooter1382.9%1.1% to 7.2%10.9%70 vs 77−9%272
Walking Simulator1332.3%0.8% to 6.4%15.8%67 vs 83−19%169
Survival1104.5%2% to 10.2%20.9%88 vs 71+24%327
Online Co-Op10314.6%9% to 22.6%49.5%90 vs 61+48%388
Hidden Object901.1%0.2% to 6%11.1%39 vs 43−9%85
Mystery752.7%0.7% to 9.2%18.7%45 vs 33+36%171
Zombies844.8%1.9% to 11.6%16.7%35 vs 47−25%217
Thriller762.6%0.7% to 9.1%15.8%42 vs 35+20%125
PvE694.3%1.5% to 12%15.9%36 vs 43−16%161
Stealth5710.5%4.9% to 21.1%28.1%34 vs 40−15%230
Immersive Sim545.6%1.9% to 15.1%24.1%29 vs 290%124
Multiple Endings541.9%0.3% to 9.8%24.1%27 vs 26+4%86
Supernatural512%0.3% to 10.3%17.6%30 vs 19+58%110
Point & Click450%0% to 7.9%15.6%32 vs 21+52%71
Third-Person Shooter397.7%2.7% to 20.3%23.1%36 vs 21+71%123
Psychological355.7%1.6% to 18.6%14.3%30 vs 12+150%60
Open World4311.6%5.1% to 24.5%34.9%20 vs 19+5%146
Dungeon Crawler3611.1%4.4% to 25.3%27.8%24 vs 22+9%98
Interactive Fiction360%0% to 9.6%5.6%22 vs 17+29%61

— fewer than 20 games in the cohort. Ranges are 95% intervals.

What broke through in the last 12 months

The most-reviewed Survival Horror games released since Sep 27, 2025. Still young, so these counts are still climbing.

  1. Subnautica 272,198 reviews, 93% positive · $29.99 · May 14, 2026
  2. Resident Evil Requiem53,807 reviews, 96% positive · $69.99 · Feb 26, 2026
  3. Escape the Backrooms46,389 reviews, 88% positive · $9.99 · Oct 23, 2025
  4. Escape from Tarkov13,361 reviews, 62% positive · $49.99 · Nov 15, 2025
  5. No More Room in Hell 29,617 reviews, 72% positive · $29.99 · Aug 11, 2026
  6. Halloween: The Game9,501 reviews, 68% positive · $39.99 · Sep 8, 2026
  7. VEIN8,410 reviews, 89% positive · $19.99 · Oct 24, 2025
  8. MISERY8,001 reviews, 83% positive · $12.99 · Oct 23, 2025

What's coming

3,255 Survival Horror pages are live on Steam but not released: 162 with a date in the next 90 days, 620 with a later date, month or quarter, and 2,473 saying "Coming soon" or "To be announced". For comparison, 1,106 came out in all of 2025.

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How we counted, and what the numbers can't tell you

  • Every game carrying Steam's Survival Horror tag (tag id 3978), read page by page from Steam's public store search on Sep 27, 2026: 8,625 games, 5,370 of them released (Steam's own released count: 5,374). Games only: no DLC, soundtracks or software.
  • Success rates use one fixed cohort, games released Jan 1, 2024 to Jun 30, 2025, because review counts grow with age: a game from last month has not had time to reach 1,000 reviews, and comparing it with a 2024 game would measure age, not success.
  • Review counts are the totals Steam's search shows a US visitor, which may count English-language reviews only. Steam prints no count under 10 reviews, so "under 10" is as precise as the data gets. Prices are the undiscounted US list price on the day we counted, not the launch price: a game that cut its price after launch counts at the new price.
  • Tags are community tags. Players add them to games that are already popular, which flatters the hit rates of narrow tags. Delisted games and age-restricted games are not in Steam's default search, so they are not here either.
  • "Reached 1,000 reviews" is a proxy for commercial success (roughly $150,000 gross by the common rule of thumb), not a revenue figure. We publish no revenue estimates.
  • The full aggregate is public: /api/niches/data. Cite it as "Steam Niche Index, Steam Page Analyzer, September 2026".