Friendslop · Summer 2027 release decision
Friendslop Games Market Research
Social deduction, co-op extraction and shared journey games had the best records, close enough to call a tie. But the market is crowding fast.
What to make. At each one's best price, 27%–29% of 2023–25 launches reached 500 first-year reviews, against 18% or less elsewhere. Extraction's rate is the surest (15 of 53).
The market. At the same prices, friendslop beats other games: 9.5% of 2025 launches reached 500 reviews, against 6.2% of other online games and 3.6% across Steam. Still, 67% of recent launches got under 50 reviews, and we expect about 853 releases in Q3 2027, up from 463 in Q3 2026.
So our pitch must stand out from hundreds of rivals, and we should plan post-launch updates: friendslop reviews arrive more slowly (26% in the first three months, against 36%).
Reviews measure attention, not sales; quality and marketing aren't measured.
Evidence for the decision
Definitions for each activity
Every friendslop game gets one activity: the main thing the group does together.
- Co-op extraction. A small group goes somewhere dangerous, grabs loot, footage or quota items, and has to get back out alive (Lethal Company, R.E.P.O., Content Warning). Of the 211 we found on Steam, most are first-person (91%) horror games (86%), about half use procedurally generated maps (48%) or get tagged Funny (53%), and 4 players is the usual cap (57% of those that list one). The median price is $7.99.
- Haunting and escape. The group investigates or survives a ghost or monster, with no loot quota (Phasmophobia, DEVOUR, Escape the Backrooms). Of the 655, almost all are horror (95%) and most are first-person (79%), leaning into survival horror (64%) or psychological horror (63%). 4 players is the usual cap (66%), and the median price is $4.99.
- Shared journey. The group climbs, travels or solves its way through a place together (Chained Together, RV There Yet?, Muck). Of the 517, most are tagged Adventure (68%), about half are platformers (54%), and many are third-person (40%) or physics-based (40%). 4 players is the most common cap (48%), and the median price is $4.99.
- Social deduction. Someone in the group is lying, and the rest have to find them (Among Us, LOCKDOWN Protocol, Liar's Bar). Of the 279, most are tagged PvP (78%) and Strategy (62%), and 61% carry Steam's Social Deduction tag. Lobbies run bigger: 10 players is the most common cap (26%). The median price is $4.99, and 23% are free.
- Party competition. Friends compete in minigames, races, duels or drawing games (Crab Game, Stumble Guys, Party Animals). It's the biggest activity at 1,252 games: most are Casual (80%) and PvP (78%), many are tagged Funny (60%), and some are Colorful (38%) or Arcade (32%). The median price is $3.99, and 23% are free.
- Table and gambling. Card, dice or roulette games with stakes and bluffing (Buckshot Roulette, BidKing). Of the 224, most are tagged Strategy (69%) and PvP (66%), and about a third are tabletop (35%), board (33%) or card games (31%). 4 players is the most common cap (41%), and the median price is $3.99.
- Job or shop. The group runs a shop or works a job with orders, money or chores (Supermarket Together, Kebab Chefs! - Restaurant Simulator, How to Fish). Of the 178, most are simulations (76%) played first-person (67%), and many also work solo (65% are tagged Singleplayer). 4 players is the usual cap (60%), and the median price is $6.99.
- Hangout. No win or quota: the point is being together, fishing, chatting, exploring or messing with physics (WEBFISHING, Big Walk). Of the 110, almost all are Casual (89%), and many are sandboxes (45%) or tagged Relaxing (38%). The median price is $4.89, and 22% are free.
What to make: social deduction, co-op extraction or shared journey
- Three activities lead, and they're about tied. A “hit” here means 500+ reviews in the launch month plus eleven months. Among 2023–25 launches at each one's best price, social deduction hit 8 of 28 ($5–9.99), co-op extraction 15 of 53 ($5–9.99) and shared journey 4 of 15 ($10–19.99). That's 27%–29%, against 18% or less for every other activity.
- Extraction's rate is the surest. It rests on the most games, while shared journey's rests on only 15, so treat that one as the least certain.
How games get an activity. A model reads each game's tags, description and player modes and picks one activity. It agrees with our hand labels 80% of the time, so a few famous games land next door (PEAK in co-op extraction, Schedule I in hangout). Hover an activity's name for its definition.
Hit rates use 2023–25 launches (hits/games underneath). “Best price” is the paid price band with the highest hit rate among bands with at least 10 launches. Free games are left out, but hangout's actual best is free (2 of 10, 20%). “Games” counts every launch since 2018.
Before choosing: pitch all three to similar audiences, then playtest demos with real friend groups. Compare wishlists per view, how many groups get a game started, and how many come back on their own. This data can't measure any of that.
For the first prototype, aim for a clear group goal, readable roles, quick recovery after failure, and enough variety to want another run. These are ideas to test; this study doesn't show they cause success.
The market: friendslop beats other games at the same price, but most launches stay small
Most launches get little attention. Of 1,300 friendslop games launched in 2023–25, 10% reached 500 first-year reviews, 2% reached 5,000, and at least 67% stayed under 50. At $5–9.99 it was 53 of 389 (14%).
Compare with other games at similar prices
Other online means multiplayer games outside friendslop, such as co-op like Raft, shooters and MMOs. All Steam means every game from the same years, single-player and friendslop included. The online rules are in the methods.
First-year hit rates after matching the price mix
After launch: friendslop reviews keep coming for longer
The median established friendslop game got 26% of its first two years of reviews in months 1–3, against 36% for other online games and 36% across Steam. So plan an update and more outreach after launch. These are games that already did well, so this doesn't show weak launches recover on their own.
When each game's reviews arrived
Summer 2027 outlook: about 853 friendslop releases in Q3 2027
Friendslop went from 1.3% of new Steam games in 2018 to 3.4% in 2025 and 4.9% so far in 2026. By 19 October, 124 had come out this quarter, against 28 by the same date in 2025. We expect about 737 in Q4 2026 and 853 in Q3 2027 (range 659–1,425), or 7.7% of Steam releases.
Q4 beat Q3 in 6 of the last 6 years, and Q1 fell below Q4 in 6 of 6, partly because many friendslop games launch after October Next Fest and near Halloween.
Friendslop releases by quarter, through summer 2027
Share of all new Steam games
So: expect a crowded catalogue. More games doesn't mean more players, so don't expect better odds because the genre is growing.
Where the attention goes: friendslop's share of online-game reviews
Friendslop's share of online-game reviews comes in waves, each led by a few breakout games: social deduction in 2020, then co-op extraction from late 2023. A single hit can swing it by 10 points or more, so we don't forecast it.
Friendslop's share of online-game reviews, by activity
Research details: methods, classification, game list and data
Methods, definition, and limits
Scope. 117,009 Steam games released since 2018, 14,183 of them online multiplayer, collected 19 October 2026. “Friendslop” means cheap online games where friends make most of the fun through co-op, chaos or deception, including social deduction, party games and cheap co-op horror. Polished co-op like Raft doesn't count.
Online. A game counts if Steam lists an online co-op, online PvP, MMO or cross-platform feature, or an Online Co-Op, Massively Multiplayer or Social Deduction tag. “Other online” is everything in that pool not classified as friendslop.
Labels. We labelled 1,024 games one at a time, drafted with AI help (406 friendslop), and trained two models: one for whether a game is friendslop and one for its activity. On a random sample, the friendslop count was 4% below our hand-checked estimate. Cozy farming sims, desktop idlers and solo-first shop sims don't count.
Outcomes. A hit is 500 reviews in the launch month plus eleven months, for games released by 19 October 2025. For early-access games, launch is the first month of reviews when that's at least two months before the listed date. Prices are current full US prices.
Limits. Intervals only cover sampling noise, not sorting mistakes. Quality, budget and marketing aren't measured, so none of this shows what causes success. Release estimates were tested on past quarters, but a bigger break than anything in 2022–26 could land outside their range.
All Steam. On 20 October 2026 we pulled review histories for every 2018–25 Steam game with 500+ lifetime reviews (only those can reach 500 first-year reviews). They don't change which games count as friendslop.
Sources: Steam store, query, review and review-history APIs; scikit-learn. The data is downloadable below.
Research appendix: how we found and classified the games
These are about finding the games, not what to build. Social Deduction is a precise tag but covers only 12% of friendslop; broad tags need price and other signals.
Which tags distinguish friendslop?
Descriptions and reviews add little to classification
Related tags across Steam
Search all 3,426 classified games
Search by name or tag, filter by activity, or select a heading to sort.
* Counted as friendslop by the model rather than labelled by hand. Where the activity model disagrees with a hand label, the label is shown underneath.
Download the data
Each CSV opens in Excel and matches the page. To check a table cell yourself, filter online_launches_first_year.csv, then count hits and launches.
- online_launches_first_year.csv: every friendslop and other online game released 2018 to 19 October 2025, with activity, price band, first-year reviews and whether it was a hit. Games under 200 reviews without a history list lifetime reviews, but their hit flag is still exact.
- activity_hit_rates_by_price.csv: each activity's 2023–25 hit rate in every price band, with 95% intervals and which band counts as the best price.
- activity_table.csv: the activity table as shown.
- price_comparison_2018_25.csv and hit_rates_price_matched_by_year.csv: the two price charts.
- review_timing.csv: when each group's reviews arrived.
- releases_by_quarter.csv: quarterly releases by activity, plus the estimates and their ranges.
- attention_by_month.csv: friendslop's monthly share of online-game reviews by activity, with the marked games.
- friendslop_games.csv: every classified friendslop game with tags and price.