Why are horror games so popular on Roblox?
As Roblox Corp.'s game-making platform Roblox has grown, developers in the space have begun experimenting with all kinds of twists on familiar genres. As others have documented, plenty of these games have been race-to-the-top riffs on multiplayer classics, often influenced by if something like the Netflix TV show Squid Game becomes an international hit.
But one genre in particular has begun to stand out in a really fascinating way: the horror genre. Roblox creators of all sizes are beginning to learn that the (particularly young) playerbase wants the thrill of the jump scare. Some of the most popular experiences across all genres include games like Doors, Piggy, and Evade.
In particular, Piggy has managed to rack up over 11 billion visits (Roblox Corp.'s metric for players accessing games) and Evade has crossed over 1 billion visits. What are these two games doing so well?
The folks at Roblox Corp. were keen to connect us with Piggy creator MiniToon and Evade creators Beefchoplets and OsterDog (all three requested that they go by their pseudonyms for this conversation) for a chat about horror on Roblox. Here are some takeaways that might help developers on Roblox or even other platforms:
It obviously matters what kind of horror games are popular on Roblox. It's not a platform for Silent Hill-likes or riffs on Fatal Frame. The root of popular Roblox horror games seems to be Five Nights at Freddy's. That's probably because Five Nights is already popular with the target demographic (young players), but also because the mechanics are simple: weird autonomous creatures try to hunt you down, when they pop up for a jump scare, it gives you a thrill.
MiniToon's riff on the format Piggy trades animatronic robots for anthropomorphic
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