It’s Time To Welcome The Biggest Upcoming Horror Games Of 2026

The 2026 gaming slate is loaded with exciting upcoming releases. While the big names like Grand Theft Auto 6 and Wolverine will steal the spotlight, the often under-the-radar horror genre is set to have a big year as well. Quality horror has been on the rise lately, both in gaming and in media in general, and 2026 is going to put that trend to the test.

Below are some of the most exciting and standout horror games coming in 2026. Not all of them have a detailed release date yet, but they’re all currently confirmed to be launching this year, and some of them are just a few weeks away. If you’re looking to keep the spooky vibes going throughout 2026, then look no further than the biggest horror games coming in the next 12 months.

Resident Evil Requiem

The Biggest Horror Gaming Franchise Returns

Whenever a new Resident Evil is on the horizon, it immediately becomes one of the biggest horror games of the year. Queue: Resident Evil Requiem, the latest mainline entry in the long-running series. This one is striking a balance between the series’ more recent first-person entries and its third-person remakes, shifting between the two at the push of a button.

For the first time since Resident Evil 6, you’ll have more than one protagonist to choose from. This time around, you can play as Grace Ashcroft in the more tense survival-horror sections, and the returning Leon S. Kennedy on the action-horror side. Besides Leon’s return, the anticipated return to Raccoon City is getting a lot of buzz. It’s in rough shape after being bombed out following the events of the “Raccoon City Incident,” but it remains the most iconic location in the series, and fans are eager to see what horrors still lurk there.

ONTOS

Back To SOMA

There aren’t many names in the gaming industry today more synonymous with horror than Frictional Games. The developer behind three of four Amnesia games — The Dark Descent, Rebirth, and The Bunker — as well as the beloved SOMA (and the criminally underrated Penumbra series), this team’s next game seems to be returning to the sci-fi horror genre.

Instead of a derelict underwater research station, ONTOS is set inside a hotel on the moon that has been repurposed into something… stranger. There’s a central mystery at the game’s core that you’ll have to uncover involving illicit experiments, family history, and fractured reality. ONTOS also features the voice of Stellan Skarsgard, and between that kind of acting talent and the talent at Frictional Games, this is shaping up to be another horror hit from a studio that’s made a ton of them.

Reanimal

Beasts Of Unusual Size

Swedish developer Tarsier Studios made a name for itself in the indie horror scene with its creepy Little Nightmares platformer series. However, in a strange twist of fate, Tarsier decided to leave the IP in the hands of Bandai Namco, who handed the franchise off to Supermassive Games. In its stead, Tarsier began work on what can only be described as a spiritual successor called Reanimal.

All the hallmarks of Little Nightmares are here: a pair of creepy little children in a world that seems way too big for them, massive humanoid monsters with disproportionate limbs that just look wrong, and perhaps most crucially, couch co-op. Most exciting of all, Tarsier has shown a talent for writing gripping stories without an ounce of dialogue, and Reanimal looks like it will stick with that trend.

Clive Barker’s Hellraiser: Revival

Such Sights To Show You

When Saber Interactive announced it was working on a Hellraiser game, it was met with a mix of excitement and apprehension. Fans of the franchise have been rabid for anything new since the 2022 film’s middling reception. However, licensed horror properties that have received game adaptations of late have been made into asymmetrical multiplayer games, like The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, The Evil Dead, and Friday the 13th, to name a few.

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Hellraiser Revival skips slow-burn horror and leans into action, giving players weapons, powers, and a brutal new way to survive the nightmare.

That apprehension was washed away with the debut of the Clive Barker’s Hellraiser: Revival trailer, which showcased a single-player, first-person action horror game rife with the franchise’s trademark body horror aesthetic. The game will feature a mix of stealth, combat, and puzzles, along with some crafting and supernatural abilities unlocked via a new puzzle box called the Genesis Configuration. Hellraiser: Revival looks like it will be everything that series fans could want from a video game adaptation, which is a bit of a rarity these days.

Decrepit

Visceral First-Person Soulslike Combat

Soulslikes are one of the most popular genres in gaming right now. While in some ways that’s great, as it means lots of deep, satisfying, and brutally challenging combat systems, it also means oversaturation. Then, along comes a game like Decrepit to not only shake things up, but to provide some horrifically violent visuals to go with it.

Decrepit sets itself apart in the Soulslike scene with its first-person perspective, but that’s not what makes it jump off the screen. It’s the combat that’s so striking. Your attacks crunch into enemies, and that’s good because they get right up in your face. The perspective makes those hits much more visceral than the typical third-person Soulslike. The perspective is also what pushes Decrepit into the realm of pure horror. While the enemy design is clearly inspired by Dark Souls, seeing them up close like this is genuinely freaky.

Grave Seasons

The Stardew Valley Of Your Nightmares

For fans of farming sims who want something a little bit spookier, Grave Seasons fits that bill. Its pixelated art style clearly tries to draw comparisons to Stardew Valley, but when night falls, this charming little town gets darker in more ways than one. As you try to establish your little farm into something more sustainable, a string of murders starts to take place.

On top of farming and selling your goods, you’ll need to investigate these killings and try to identify the culprit. Much like Stardew, you’ll complete quests for the townsfolk (and even romance some of them), improve your farmland, and explore the surrounding area. You can even romance the killer if you get lucky (or unlucky) enough. What’s most intriguing about Grave Seasons is that the developers say that everything you do will affect the narrative, from which quests you complete to which crops you sell.

I Hate This Place

Cel-Shaded, Isometric, Open-World Horror

The cel-shaded visuals and top-down perspective of I Hate This Place are immediately reminiscent of games like Borderlands (visually) and Darkwood, but this game is something altogether different. For one, not only is it an open-world horror game, but it places a heavy emphasis on crafting, which means scavenging, and that means venturing into empty buildings while low on supplies and trying to grab what you can while hoping the creature lurking in the corner doesn’t spot you.

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A day-night cycle will keep you honest, forcing you to spend your days looting and your nights holed up in whatever shelter you’ve managed to secure. Enemies are stronger and more plentiful at night, so venturing out in the dark is almost never a good idea (unless you’re desperate). Combat is rarely a full-frontal affair. Instead, you’ll have to use stealth and traps to your advantage, luring enemies away to create an escape route. Between the eye-catching visuals and the focus on stealth and crafting, I Hate This Place is doing a great job of securing its own niche in the horror genre.

Fatal Frame 2: Crimson Butterfly Remake

The Return Of A Classic

Widely considered one of the greatest horror games of all time, the remake of Fatal Frame 2: Crimson Butterfly takes that old classic and rebuilds it from the ground up. While the story remains largely the same, everything else has received an overhaul, from the visuals to the audio to the gameplay mechanics and controls, making this a true remake and not a remaster with a few bells and whistles added on.

The story of twin sisters lost in a haunted Japanese village has captivated gamers for decades. However, it’s the iconic Camera Obscura mechanic that Fatal Frame 2 is most fondly remembered for. This tool lets you capture deadly spirits by photographing them, meaning that to fend off the game’s many dangers, you have to stare right at them. Because this is a remake, the map has been expanded to feature additional side quests and new areas to explore. This means that Fatal Frame 2: Crimson Butterfly Remake has plenty to offer long-time fans and newcomers who want to experience this classic for themselves.

The Dark Pictures Anthology: Directive 8020

Supermassive Goes Sci-Fi

The Dark Pictures Anthology is unique in the horror gaming world. Unlike most horror games, these are essentially playable narratives, not unlike Telltale’s games, albeit with a horror focus. The next entry in this series, Directive 8020, will be the fifth Dark Pictures title, and this time it’s taking a sci-fi approach to chills and thrills.

Set on the colony ship Casseopia, you control one of five crew members as they survey Tau Ceti f, a planet located far from a dying Earth. Tau Ceti is humanity’s last hope, but unfortunately, the crew of the Casseopia isn’t the only life around. For the first time in the Dark Pictures series, you will have direct control over your characters, rather than watching them act out scenes themselves based on your inputs. There is also an inventory system, exploration tools like a flashlight and a scanner, and a Turning Point mechanic, which allows you to rewind pivotal decisions if you don’t like the outcome, harkening back to Life is Strange’s rewind mechanic. Directive 8020 looks to be Supermassive Games’ most robust Dark Pictures entry to date, and that’s enough to get us hyped.

Onimusha: Way Of The Sword

Samurai Survival Horror

While not a traditional horror game by any stretch, it’s hard to look at the visuals of Onimusha: Way of the Sword and not see the horror genre’s presence in every frame. It’s set in a dark fantasy version of Japan’s Edo period, where a swordsman named Miyamoto Musashi battles demons with the help of a magical Oni gauntlet, which absorbs the souls of his enemies.

Onimusha looks to be incorporating some Soulslike elements into its combat, from light and heavy attacks to parries and dodge rolls. However, what sets it apart is the more grounded nature of its combat and the way that Miyamoto can maneuver enemies in battle. By timing a parry correctly, you can steer your enemies around the battlefield, allowing you to manipulate situations to your advantage. Think more Ghost of Tsushima and less Nioh, and if you’re a fan of combining brutally satisfying combat with horrifying demonic enemies, Onimusha: Way of the Sword will be right up your alley.

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