Phasmophobia Climbs The Ranks As New Indie Favourite
This year has been a blockbuster one for indie titles. Many small studios with only a handful of developers have been busy at work delivering hit after hit. This trend in indie developers first started with Fall Guys and its small group at Mediatonic. Then, Among Us came along and shocked the world with its fun game play and tiny team of only three people. Now, an even smaller indie endeavour has surpassed Among Us.
With only one person developing it, Phasmophobia has become the most recent indie craze. Just in time for Halloween, this indie title has been a huge success due to its replayability and spooky co-op options. A player and three friends can work together as paranormal investigators, going from house to house finding ghosts and taking notes on them.
Players can take the role of either paranormal security, monitoring CCTV cameras placed around the haunted location, or active paranormal investigation, travelling through the area looking for clues and utilising the various paranormal tools available to them to locate and study the ghosts. The investigation only gets more dangerous as time goes on, as the ghosts can actually become hostile toward investigators given the right conditions.
Click to enlargeThe fun of Phasmophobia comes from its replayability and ever-changing gameplay. There are ten different kinds of ghosts that players can encounter during their investigations. This means that each investigation will rely on different kinds of skills and tools. Some of the most fun players have while playing Phasmophobia comes from the game's full voice recognition, in which players can communicate directly with ghosts during EVP or Ouija Board sessions. This means that the ghost could attack or cooperate with players based on what they say. This feature alone has created numerous funny situations, which have been recorded by streamers across the globe.
Phasmophobia was the fifth most streamed game on Twitch during the first week of October, according to statistics website Twitchtracker.com. The game has only taken off in popularity since then, as many people are purchasing it due to Steam's appropriately timed Halloween Sale. The game has been marked down by ten percent, which has encouraged more Twitch viewers to actually play it. As a result, the game has been slowly making its way up the ranks on Twitch as a whole.
Click to enlargeAs of the writing of this article, over 20,000 people are viewing Phasmophobia streams on Twitch. The game boasts even more Twitch followers, as over 300,000 people have the game on their radar. Popular streamers like Loserfruit, Jacksepticeye, and Markiplier have been delving into the world of Phasmophobia, and racking up views as a result. Loserfruit's Phasmophobia stream at the beginning of the month boasted over 145,000 viewers.
Meanwhile, YouTubers Markiplier and Jacksepticeye have racked up millions of views streaming the game. Markiplier and Jacksepticeye both have about 4 million views on their respective videos of the game. To this day, Phasmophobia is still wildly popular on both YouTube and Twitch, as more people are buying it as Halloween gets closer and closer.
The streamability of Phasmophobia brings up an interesting, and at times divisive, point in the game industry- that Twitch and YouTube streams have helped small indie titles rise to the top of the ranks almost instantly. The community has seen this trend come to light during the quarantine, when more people have been looking for entertainment than ever.
Both Twitch and YouTube have put indie titles in the spotlight again, as viewers tune into these platforms before making a purchase. In a way, streaming has become a new, hyper-effective way to advertise a game.
Click to enlargeIt's no wonder that developers often gift popular streamers game keys and download codes for a chance of having their game broadcasted to the world. No longer does the gaming public have to solely rely on the hearsay of their friends and family, as now they can participate in streams and find out for themselves if a game is really as good as everyone says it is.
It is for this reason that streamers can be considered the influencers of the gaming world, as they have convinced people around the world to try out or buy various indie and AAA titles over the years. Streamers have made it possible for even the smallest indie titles, such as Phasmophobia, to take off and exceed expectations.
Much like the horror game Five Nights at Freddy's, Phasmophobia has entered the gaming mainstream despite everyone's expectations. Both games were only developed by one person, which also proves that small studios can make blockbuster games. By the words and videos of streamers alone, these games soared to previously unheard of heights, entering the mainstream vocabulary and taking the gaming world by storm.
Click to enlargeWith Halloween just around the corner, there is no doubt that Phasmophobia will soar to even greater heights. Many people have the game on their radar, as it encapulates the spirit of the Halloween season. With its replayability and multiplayer features, Phasmophobia will take both the gaming and streaming world by storm.
With many small titles like Phasmophobia rising to fame, gamers everywhere are curious about the next huge hit of 2020. There are two months left to find out, plenty of games to stream, and plenty of Twitch and YouTube channels that will be more than willing to cover them. After Halloween, gamers should expect another huge hit to be on the horizon. The only question is- which game will it be?
Images via Kinetic Games.
