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When it comes to horror games, there is always a debate about what makes them good. Is it the idea of providing plenty of jump scares to keep you on the edge of your seat? Or is it the dread-filled atmosphere that has you struggling to breathe as you turn each corner? Depending on who you ask, you will never get the same answer, so we are here to provide you with plenty of horror games to play in 2026 that are a mix of jump scares and horrifying atmospheres.
Due to our experience with horror games, we have decided to put this list together to help you find some of the best horror games from both the past and the present that will have you keeping the lights on while you sleep tonight.
Resident Evil: Requiem
The Resident Evil franchise has been going on for over 30 years now with numerous mainline games, spin-offs, films, and more, but now we have made it to Resident Evil: Requiem, the ninth mainline game in the franchise, which answers numerous questions and creates more questions to answer.
Throughout Resident Evil: Requiem, there are two versions of gameplay, one being a full-on first-person horror experience filled with monsters and dread, and the other being a third-person action horror experience. Although the action sequence is less scary, the entire game still features both an incredibly fearful atmosphere and jump scares from monsters and horrifying scenarios, so it meets both criteria of our list.
Although we do recommend Resident Evil: Requiem, we do suggest you look at the other games in the franchise if you haven’t already, so you have the full context of the story. We even gave it a perfect rating when we reviewed it.
- Release Date: February 27, 2026
- Platform: PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, Nintendo Switch 2
- Developer: Capcom
- You Should Play: When you want to shoot zombies, delve into conspiracy theories, and revisit moments from the Resident Evil franchise.
- Copies Sold: 8.5 million copies sold
Until Dawn
Have you ever wanted to interact with the horror films you watch and tell the characters what to do since they make such stupid decisions? Well, we have good news, as Until Dawn is an Interactive Drama Survival Horror Game that allows you to witness a unique story about teenagers who venture to a cabin in the frozen woods after a year of being apart until the trip begins to take a horrifying turn.
While playing Until Dawn, you will be forced to make decisions that will reverberate throughout the story and will eventually choose what characters will live and die as you investigate your surroundings and perform quick time events to try and make the choices you would make and see their outcome. Will you be the smart one, or will you make stupid decisions too?
- Release Date: August 2015
- Platform: PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, PC
- Developer: Supermassive Games
- You Should Play: If you want to experience a story told like a movie with meaningful player interactions and choices that affect the story.
- Copies Sold: 3.9 million copies sold
Layers of Fear
Although it might be one of the oldest games on this list, Layers of Fear is still one of the most famous horror games to date, as it doesn’t just rely on jump scares to keep your heart pumping but also showcases what a horrifying atmosphere should be.
During Layers of Fear, you take control of a painter who is psychologically disturbed as he attempts to finish his Magnum Opus while venturing through his mansion that doesn’t seem to be just an ordinary mansion, as the halls begin to shift and change, forcing the player into haunting situations.
- Release Date: February 16, 2016
- Platform: PC, Xbox One and Xbox Series X/S, PlayStation 4 and 5, Nintendo Switch
- Developer: Bloober Team
- You Should Play: When you are looking for a calm walking simulator filled with psychological horror and intrigue.
- Copies Sold: 1.2 million copies sold
Outlast
Now we look towards the oldest game on this list, and that is Outlast. In this game, you are a reporter who has been invited to an insane asylum where you will get trapped as the inmates begin to take control of the asylum, keeping you inside as you experience numerous body horrors and psychological horrors.
What makes Outlast such a unique game is the found footage part of this horror game, as your whole view is through a video camera that can be used in standard or night vision to help you navigate the dangerous halls of the asylum as you stealth your way past the numerous enemies.
- Release Date: PC 2013 PlayStation 4 and Xbox One 2014
- Platform: PC, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4 and 5, Xbox One and Xbox Series X/S
- Developer: Red Barrels
- You Should Play: To get a really good scare from a new perspective, as the horror just keeps coming.
- Copies Sold: 15 million copies sold
Silent Hill F
One of the biggest psychological horror franchises in the world is Silent Hill, as it has numerous games that touch on various psychological topics, and Silent Hill F is no different.
In Silent Hill F, you take control of a student named Hinaku Shimizu as she explores a small Japanese village in the 1960s that has become filled with a mysterious fog and horrifying puppet-like enemies, which Hinaku has to fight and run from as she deals with coming to terms with a horrifying truth. We also reviewed this game and its haunting atmosphere.
- Release Date: September 25, 2025
- Platform: PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S
- Developer: NoeBards Entertainment
- You Should Play: If you want to see some rather gruesome body horror along with creepy doll-like enemies.
- Copies Sold: 2 million copies sold
At Dead of Night
At Dead of Night is probably one of the weirder and scarier games on this list, as it does rely heavily on jump scares, but the atmosphere is next level combined with the unique game mechanics. If you haven’t heard of At Dead of Night, it is an FMV game, also known as a Full Motion Video Game, that uses real actors to portray the story but places it into a fictional location.
The story for At Dead of Night is based around a young girl and her friends who are travelling to a music festival but rest in a hotel for the night. Sadly, this hotel is run by a man who hears voices that convince him to do evil deeds, such as knocking out the various teens staying at his hotel to murder them.
To play the game, you don’t walk around naturally, but instead you choose directions for the camera to move and have to hide throughout the various hotel rooms to discover ghosts and their stories of how they died while avoiding Jimmy, the hotel owner, as he skulks around the halls hunting for you, hiding around corners and in rooms, and can even scare you as you look through peepholes.
- Release Date: November 19, 2020
- Platform: PC
- Developer: Baggy Cat Ltd.
- You Should Play: To enjoy the classic FMV style and to experience the horrifying dread of the chase.
- Copies Sold: 177K copies sold
Resident Evil: Biohazard
As we mentioned above, Resident Evil has had numerous iterations throughout the past 30 years, and one of these iterations was Resident Evil: Biohazard, which was the seventh mainline game in the franchise, and brought the horror back to the horror franchise.
After years of focusing on action sequences, Resident Evil: Biohazard brought players into the first-person perspective as you take on the role of Ethan as you search for your wife, who has gone missing, but as you find the house she has gone missing in, you find out that the family there aren’t exactly normal and hide a scary side that turns them and their home into a monster-filled nightmare.
- Release Date: January 2017
- Platform: PlayStation 4 and 5, PC, Xbox One and Xbox Series X/S
- Developer: Capcom
- You Should Play: To try out Resident Evil’s first-person horror perspective and the disgusting location its set in.
- Copies Sold: As of May 2026, 17.4 million copies sold
A Plague Tale: Innocence
If you aren’t a fan of rats, we both do, and don’t recommend A Plague Tale: Innocence, as it is filled with rats that will scare the living daylights out of you whether you like them or not, as seeing a whole wave of rats swarming towards you is something you can’t just shake off.
Set way back in the mid-14th century, players take control of two characters, a sister, Amicia, and her little brother, Hugo, as they are chased away from their home and sent into the wide world as a plague of rats threatens to eat the world alive, including them, but luckily the player can resort to stealth to escape these rats and the humans hunting them down.
- Release Date: May 14, 2019
- Platform: PlayStation 4 and 5, Xbox One and Xbox Series X/S, and PC
- Developer: Asobo Studio
- You Should Play: To uncover an amazing story that will have you in tears by the end while cowering in the dark.
- Copies Sold: 1 million sold as of 2021
Phasmophobia
Ghost hunting has always been a rather spooky endeavour that people around the world have always been curious about, with many of them thinking, ‘I could find a ghost easily.’ Because of this thought, Phasmophobia was created so that gamers around the world could venture into various houses and other locations to see if they could discover any ghosts lurking about.
What makes Phasmophobia so scary is that you are essentially defenceless from these ghosts as you enter their domain; they fully interact with you, as they speak to you, throw items around, and even hunt you, leaving you running out of the house both in the game and in real life.
- Release Date: September 18, 2020
- Platform: PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, VR
- Developer: Kinetic Games
- You Should Play: If you have an interest in the paranormal and are willing to get face-to-face with it.
- Copies Sold: 22 million copies sold
Still Wakes the Deep
Time to take a trip to the sea, or more accurately, to an oil rig in the sea, as you take on the role of Cameron in Still Wakes the Deep as you begin your daily work on an oil rig that finds a mysterious object in the ocean during a diving expedition that turns out to be a discovery that should have been left in the ocean.
After finding this object, the oil rig begins to get taken over by a strange entity that morphs the rig itself and the other workers on board, creating some rather horrifying monsters that will hunt you down, forcing you to use various methods of stealth and running away to survive. We also did a review of the DLC for Still Wakes the Deep, so go check that out.
- Release Date: June 18, 2024
- Platform: PC, Xbox Series X/S, PlayStation 5
- Developer: The Chinese Room
- You Should Play: To see a unique setting for a horror game filled with psychologically twisting moments.
- Copies Sold: 4,000 copies sold
Alien Isolation
Finally, one of the more horrifying games you will likely want to play is Alien Isolation, which is set in the Alien universe but 15 years after the original movie, where you now play as Ripley’s daughter, Amanda Ripley, as she searches for her mother as she ventures to the Sevastopol Station, where things haven’t exactly gone to plan.
Once aboard this station, Amanda slowly discovers that Xenomorphs and other problems are lurking around, attempting to hunt her as she stealths around through the vents to avoid the ever-learning Xenomorph, which literally learns how you play the game to adapt to your playstyle, causing even more fear to be instilled in the player, as you can’t just do the same thing over and over again, but instead you have to learn and adapt yourself.
- Release Date: October 7, 2014
- Platform: PlayStation, Xbox, PC
- Developer: Creative Assembly
- You Should Play: If you are a fan of the Alien franchise and are ready to experience a threat like no other.
- Copies Sold: As of May 2015 2.1 million copies sold
These are all the different horror games that we think you would have an absolute blast playing, with many of these games keeping you worried and excited all at once, so make sure you turn your lights off, get lots of snacks, and enjoy the screaming in terror.
What is a Horror Game?
There are quite a few thoughts on this, but the main idea is that a horror game is something that will instil fear in the player through various methods, like causing unease or terror through jump scares or its atmosphere.
Are There Free Horror Games?
There are some free horror games, but the ones that are the most worthwhile and feature the best mechanics and horrifying aspects do cost money.
What Horror Game is Good for Playing With Friends
The best horror games you will want to play with your friends are games like Phasmophobia, The Outlast Trials, and many more.
For your next read, why not check out our review of Fakin It XL, or check out our article about the upcoming Conan: The Black Pyramid game and its recent trailer.
Liam is a Senior Editor, Writer, and Critic for Thumb Wars and has been working with the team since day one. Liam is a big fan of all things gaming, as you will catch him playing all of the new releases from every genre you can imagine. Whether you find Liam gaming just for fun or spending his free time streaming, you will always find a smile on his face when it comes to all things gaming.
