Gaming

● Aliven.✎ 4

Pokémon Sleep

An app that tracks the player's sleep with the phone on the mattress and rewards them with Pokémon that gather around a sleeping Snorlax in the morning. The record's entry for the game played unconscious: announced in 2019 and released in 2023, it topped the charts in its first week, filled feeds with sleep-score screenshots and made 'I need to go to bed for my Snorlax' a sentence said by adults.

▸ 2023peak 2023still up

☠ Deadn.✎ 4

Redfall

Arkane Austin's vampire co-op shooter, released in May 2023 at 30 frames per second on a console sold on 60, always online, with enemies that stood still and a studio that had not wanted to make it. The record's entry for the Xbox launch that made Phil Spencer apologise on a podcast, and for the closure of the studio in May 2024, a year to the month.

▸ 2023peak 2023†2024

● Aliven.✎ 3

Slay the Princess

A visual novel in which a narrator tells you to go into a cabin and kill a princess, and every choice about whether to obey produces a different princess, released in October 2023 by two developers and spread through YouTube by people describing their own routes. The record notes that the game's chief mechanic was disagreement, and that streamers were told what to do by chat and by the narrator at once.

▸ 2023peak 2024still up

● Aliven.✎ 4

Sol's RNG

A Roblox game in which the player presses a button and receives an 'aura' with a stated rarity, one in a thousand, one in a million, one in a billion, and does nothing else. The record's entry for the RNG genre: in 2024 it was among the most-played games on the platform, its rarest auras were screenshotted like lottery tickets, and it gave the word 'aura' a numerical meaning a full year before the slang did.

▸ 2023peak 2024still up

◐ Dyingn.✎ 3

Sons of the Forest

The sequel to a cannibal-island survival game, released into early access in February 2023 and selling two million copies in its first twenty-four hours, with over 400,000 people on it at once. The record notes that the phenomenon within the phenomenon was Kelvin, a brain-damaged companion who follows written instructions and cut down the tree a great many players had built their house in.

▸ 2023peak 2023still up

◐ Dyingn.✎ 4

Starfield

Bethesda's first new setting in 25 years, a space role-playing game released in September 2023 with a thousand planets and, according to the internet, nothing on most of them. The record's entry for a launch that was large, fine and disappointing at the same time, and for the loading-screen counts that became its meme.

▸ 2023peak 2023still up

● Aliven.✎ 3

Street Fighter 6

Capcom's June 2023 fighter that reversed a decade of the genre's decline in public: a modern control scheme for newcomers, a Battle Hub with arcade cabinets, and an Evo 2023 that set entrant records. The record files it as the game that let people who had never learned a quarter-circle join in.

▸ 2023peak 2023still up

◐ Dyingn.✎ 3

Suika Game

A puzzle game in which fruit is dropped into a jar and identical fruit merge into larger fruit, up to a watermelon, sold on the Japanese Switch store from 2021 and ignored until Japanese VTubers and streamers picked it up in September 2023. Within two months it was the best-selling game on the eShop worldwide and had a hundred browser clones. Also called the watermelon game.

▸ 2023peak 2023still up

● Aliven.✎ 3

The Coffin of Andy and Leyley

A horror adventure about a brother and sister who escape a quarantined flat by cannibalism and worse, made in RPG Maker by one developer and released in October 2023, and the year's most argued-about small game once its incestuous subtext, which the game makes text, reached social media. The record notes that the developer was harassed and doxxed and withdrew from public view, leaving the studio to speak.

▸ 2023peak 2023still up

◐ Dyingn.✎ 3

The Finals

A free shooter about a game show in which buildings can be brought down on the opposition, surprise-released during The Game Awards in December 2023 and briefly the game everyone was playing over Christmas. The record files it as a launch that was a moment and a live game that became a habit for fewer.

▸ 2023peak 2023still up

● Aliven.✎ 4

The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom

The 2023 sequel to Breath of the Wild, which sold ten million copies in three days and turned the internet into a workshop: Ultrahand contraptions, Korok torture devices, working tanks and a great many flying machines that did not work. The record's entry for a launch whose viral content was made entirely by the players.

▸ 2023peak 2023still up

☠ Deadn.✎ 4

The Lord of the Rings: Gollum

Daedalic's stealth game about a character who eats fish, released in May 2023 to reviews that made it the lowest-rated game of the year, a $10 add-on for Elvish dialogue, and an apology from the studio that the internet suspected had been written by a chatbot. Daedalic then announced it would stop making games. The record's entry for the flop as a spectacle.

▸ 2023peak 2023†2023

◐ Dyingn.✎ 4

Toilet Tower Defense

A Roblox tower-defence game built on Skibidi Toilet, the YouTube series of singing heads in toilets fighting camera-headed men, in which players place camera and speaker units to stop waves of toilets. The record's entry for the fastest transfer of a meme into a game it has on file: within months of the series taking off it was one of the biggest games on the platform, and its 'Skibidi' units were traded like pets.

▸ 2023peak 2024still up

☠ Deadn.✎ 3

Unrecord (Trailer)

A gameplay trailer for a body-camera shooter, released in April 2023 by a small French studio, so photorealistic that the internet spent a week debating whether it was real footage, doctored video or a game, before the developer showed the Unreal Engine editor to prove it. The record files the trailer, since as of this entry the game itself has not been released.

▸ 2023peak 2023†2023

☠ Deadn.✎ 4

Apex Legends Mobile

A phone version of the battle royale built by Tencent's studio for EA, released worldwide in May 2022 and named iPhone game of the year by Apple that December. The record's entry for the shortest life of an award-winning game it holds: it was closed in May 2023 with a statement about the quality bar, with no refunds and a great many players who had bought a season pass that week.

▸ 2022peak 2022†2023

● Aliven.✎ 3

Brotato

A survivors-like in which a potato holds six weapons at once against waves of aliens, released into early access in September 2022 by one French developer as the most-played follower of Vampire Survivors' template. The record notes that the game's twenty-second rounds and unlockable potatoes made it a permanent second-monitor fixture, and that it was ported to every platform including phones.

▸ 2022peak 2023still up

● Aliven.✎ 3

Core Keeper

A top-down mining and survival game for eight players that took Terraria's structure underground and added a farm, released into early access in March 2022 by a small Swedish studio and selling half a million copies in two weeks. The record notes that it was the spring's co-op game of choice and was described by nearly everyone as 'Stardew meets Terraria', which is fair and which the developers did not resist.

▸ 2022peak 2022still up

● Aliven.✎ 3

Cult of the Lamb

A game in which a sacrificed lamb starts a cult, recruits woodland animals and manages their faith between dungeon runs, released in August 2022 and selling a million copies in its first week on an art style that made brainwashing look adorable. The record also files the January 2024 update that added mating between followers, promised on social media at a follower count and delivered as threatened.

▸ 2022peak 2022still up

● Aliven.✎ 3

Dave the Diver

A game in which a man spears fish by day and runs a sushi restaurant by night, released in full in June 2023 and selling a million copies in ten days. The record files it for the argument that followed: it was nominated as an independent game at The Game Awards while being made by a subsidiary of Nexon, and the internet discovered it had no working definition of 'indie'.

▸ 2022peak 2023still up

● Aliven.✎ 3

Dinkum

An Australian take on Animal Crossing made by one person, in which you build a town in the outback, catch bugs and are threatened by crocodiles, released into early access in July 2022 and selling by the hundred thousand in a fortnight on the strength of the phrase 'Aussie Animal Crossing'. The record notes that the phrase did the work of a publisher.

▸ 2022peak 2022still up

● Aliven.✎ 4

Doors (Roblox)

A Roblox horror game in which players walk through a hotel of numbered doors while entities named Rush, Ambush, Seek and Figure hunt them in the corridors. The record's entry for the game that made Roblox horror a genre in its own right: within weeks of release it was the most-clipped thing on the platform, and 'hide in the closet' became a reflex for a generation.

▸ 2022peak 2022still up

● Aliven.✎ 3

Dwarf Fortress (Steam Release)

The December 2022 release on Steam of a colony simulator that had been free, text-rendered and impenetrable since 2006, now with graphics and a mouse, which sold half a million copies in a month and made two brothers who had lived on donations for sixteen years secure. The record notes that the stated reason for a paid version was health insurance, and that the internet bought it partly for that reason.

▸ 2022peak 2022still up

● Aliven.✎ 4

Elden Ring

FromSoftware's open-world Souls game, co-written with George R. R. Martin, released in February 2022 to a month in which the entire internet appeared to be playing one game. Around 12 million copies in the first weeks, a Game of the Year sweep, and the usual argument about difficulty conducted at unusual volume. The record's entry for the launch itself.

▸ 2022peak 2022still up

● Aliven.✎ 4

Evade (Roblox)

A Roblox survival game in which players run from 'nextbots', flat images of internet faces that slide across the map at speed with a distorted sound. The record's entry for a meme's second life: the nextbot format came from Garry's Mod, the faces came from a decade of image boards, and on Roblox a running child pursued by a JPEG became a whole genre with its own tournaments.

▸ 2022peak 2023still up

● Aliven.✎ 3

Faith: The Unholy Trinity

A horror game about a priest and an exorcism drawn in the style of an Atari 2600, with rotoscoped animation for its monsters and a synthesised voice reading its text, released in full in October 2022 after its free first chapter had spent five years on YouTube being clipped. The record notes that the graphics are the fear, and that the possessed girl's crawl has been in more compilations than most films.

▸ 2022peak 2022still up

☠ Deadn.✎ 4

Forspoken

Square Enix's 2023 open-world game, which trended in August 2022 for a trailer in which its heroine, transported to a fantasy world, said 'so let me get this straight' and listed the plot. Released in January 2023 to reviews about its dialogue and a company statement that its sales had been 'lacklustre'. The record's entry for a game whose trailer became a meme template before its launch became a lesson.

▸ 2022peak 2023†2023

◐ Dyingn.✎ 4

Gran Turismo 7

Polyphony's 2022 racing game, well reviewed and then, two weeks after release, taken offline for more than a day by a patch that also cut race payouts, leaving an always-online single-player game unplayable and its Metacritic user score the lowest of any Sony game at the time. The record's entry for the microtransaction revolt that produced an apology and a million in-game credits.

▸ 2022peak 2022still up

● Aliven.✎ 3

Iron Lung

A short horror game in which a convict pilots a submarine through an ocean of blood on a moon, seeing only by photographs, released in March 2022 by one developer and made famous by Markiplier's playthrough and his announcement, that November, that he would write, direct and star in a film of it. The record notes that a game with a budget of nearly nothing became a film with a budget of quite a lot.

▸ 2022peak 2022still up

● Aliven.✎ 2

Kick

The streaming platform that offered a 95/5 split and a lot of money to Twitch's biggest names, and got them, and got a reputation as the place where the rules were looser. The record's entry for 'went to Kick' as a phrase with implications.

▸ 2022peak 2024still up

● Aliveadj.✎ 3

Maidenless

An insult from Elden Ring, delivered by a character on first meeting to note the player has no Finger Maiden to guide them, and adopted within a week of the February 2022 release as the game's word for single, lost or both. The record's entry for the medieval fantasy that gave the internet a new way to say 'touch grass'.

▸ 2022peak 2022still up

● Aliven.✎ 4

Marvel Snap

A card game of three-minute matches and twelve-card decks, built by Hearthstone's former designers and published by a ByteDance subsidiary. The record's entry for a game as collateral: it won the mobile prize at the Game Awards in 2022, and in January 2025 it went dark in the US for a weekend alongside TikTok, because its publisher fell under the same ban, making it the only card game to be a foreign-policy casualty.

▸ 2022peak 2022still up

● Aliven.✎ 4

NIKKE

Goddess of Victory: Nikke, a third-person shooter gacha game in which the player commands android women from behind, a camera angle that became its whole reputation. The record's entry for the game everyone joked about and then played: it made hundreds of millions in its first year, its studio went public on the strength of it, and 'it has good gameplay actually' was said in its defence more than for any other game.

▸ 2022peak 2023still up

● Aliven.✎ 3

Needy Streamer Overload

A Japanese game in which you manage a streamer called Ame, who wants a million followers and does not want to be alone, by choosing what she posts and what she takes, released in January 2022 and a hit among the streaming audience it depicts, who spent the year discussing which of its many endings was the least bad. The record notes that the game's audience is the game's subject, and the game knows it.

▸ 2022peak 2022still up

◐ Dyingn.✎ 4

Overwatch 2

Blizzard's free replacement for Overwatch, released in October 2022 with the promise of a co-op story mode that was cancelled in May 2023. The record's entry for a sequel that became the internet's example of a broken promise: when it arrived on Steam in August 2023 it was briefly one of the worst-rated games on the platform, mostly for what it had not become.

▸ 2022peak 2023still up

◐ Dyingn.✎ 4

Pokémon Scarlet and Violet

The 2022 open-world Pokémon games, which sold ten million copies in three days, the fastest launch in Nintendo's history, while the internet compiled clips of a frame rate in the teens, Pokémon clipping through the floor and a background townsperson animating at two frames a second. The record's entry for the biggest launch to be laughed at as it happened.

▸ 2022peak 2022still up

◐ Dyingn.✎ 4

Rainbow Friends

A Roblox horror game set in an abandoned theme park where colour-coded monsters called Blue, Green, Orange and Purple hunt players who are collecting blocks. The record's entry for the 2022 wave of kid-horror on the platform: it arrived weeks before Doors, its Blue became a plush, a costume and a nursery-school drawing subject, and its fan animations on YouTube reached numbers the game itself never needed to.

▸ 2022peak 2022still up

● Aliven.✎ 3

Signalis

A survival horror game in the style of the first Resident Evil, set in a frozen off-world mining colony run by an East German-flavoured regime, made by two people in Germany and released in October 2022 to a fandom that formed around its ambiguity, its android heroine and a red-headed girl it would not explain. The record notes that a six-slot inventory was the year's most-discussed design decision.

▸ 2022peak 2022still up

◐ Dyingn.✎ 3

Slime Rancher 2

The sequel to a game about farming small bouncing blobs with a vacuum gun, released into early access in September 2022 and reaching a hundred thousand concurrent Steam players on its first day, a number that a first-person farming game had not reached before. The record notes that the original was a YouTube staple for children, and that the sequel's launch was the same audience arriving as adults.

▸ 2022peak 2022still up

● Aliven.✎ 4

Steam Deck

Valve's handheld PC, announced in July 2021 to a reservation queue that filled within minutes and shipped in February 2022, which turned Linux gaming from a hobby into a device and made 'Deck Verified' a green tick that publishers chase. The record's entry for the hardware launch that made the PC portable and made a large part of Steam's back catalogue relevant again.

▸ 2022peak 2023still up

● Aliven.✎ 3

Stray

A game in which you are a cat in a walled city of robots, released in July 2022 on PlayStation and PC and a phenomenon less for its play than for its viewers: the internet spent its launch week posting videos of real cats watching the screen. The record notes that a dedicated button to miaow did most of the work, and that a charity sold copies in exchange for shelter donations.

▸ 2022peak 2022still up

● Aliven.✎ 3

Streamer Awards

An awards show for streamers, run by a streamer, which began as a joke in a studio and became the industry's actual awards within three years, with red carpets, feuds and a meme every year about who was snubbed. The record files the snub discourse.

▸ 2022peak 2025still up

● Aliven.✎ 4

The Strongest Battlegrounds

A Roblox fighting game built on One Punch Man in all but name, in which players pick a hero and punch each other through the scenery. The record's entry for the platform's anime brawler as a spectator format: its combo clips, ragebait and ragdoll physics filled TikTok in 2023 and 2024, and a whole vocabulary of 'ult', 'lethal' and 'get carried' spread from it into playgrounds.

▸ 2022peak 2024still up

☠ Deadn.✎ 3

Trombone Champ

A rhythm game in which the trombone is played with the mouse and every note slides into the next, released in September 2022 by a two-person studio and viral within days for clips of national anthems and film themes played very badly on purpose. The record notes that the game is a good rhythm game underneath, and that nobody bought it for that.

▸ 2022peak 2022†2022

◐ Dyingphr.✎ 3

Try Finger But Hole

The most famous of Elden Ring's player-written messages, assembled from the game's restricted word list and left beside every hole, ledge and door in the Lands Between within days of the February 2022 launch. The record notes the message system was meant for hints, and that this was, technically, one.

▸ 2022peak 2022still up

● Aliven.✎ 3

Tunic

An adventure game about a small fox in a world that looks like a Zelda game and is explained only by pages of a manual written in an invented script, released in March 2022 after seven years of one man's work. The record notes that the manual, collected page by page, was the story the internet told about it: a game that made adults feel like a child reading a booklet they could not yet read.

▸ 2022peak 2022still up

◐ Dyingn.✎ 4

Battlefield 2042

DICE's 2021 Battlefield, with 128 players, no classes, no scoreboard and a hovercraft that could drive up the side of a skyscraper, released to Steam reviews that made it briefly one of the worst-rated games on the platform. The record's entry for the launch that lost the series its own audience, and the reason Battlefield 6 was marketed as an apology.

▸ 2021peak 2021still up

● Aliven.✎ 4

BedWars (Roblox)

A Roblox version of the Minecraft server mode in which teams protect a bed, bridge across the void and try to destroy the other beds. The record's entry for a mode changing platforms: the format was famous on Hypixel for years, and the Roblox version reached a billion visits inside its first year, with its own kits, YouTubers and season pass, on a platform whose players had mostly never seen a Minecraft server.

▸ 2021peak 2021still up

● Aliven.✎ 4

Blue Archive

A gacha game set in an academy city of schoolgirls with guns and halos, in which the player is a teacher called Sensei. The record's entry for the game that took over anime fan art: by 2023 its characters dominated the illustration sites, its soundtrack was remixed without end, and its assistant Arona became one of the most-drawn mascots in the medium despite the game itself being a fairly plain strategy title.

▸ 2021peak 2023still up