The Era of Cozy Games is Upon Us

Go back only a couple of console generations, and the most popular games were aggressive titles like Grand Theft Auto and Call of Duty. Ask any Boomer out there what video games are, and they’ll have some enraging flashback about Doom (or just admit the last thing they played was Pac-Man).

Games certainly started off as shooters and action, and for a long time, they were marketed as primarily masculine (in, y’know, the testosterone way).

But here we are only a few decades into the industry, and yes, there is Fortnite, but there is also Minecraft, Animal Crossing, and Stardew Valley. In 2020, Minecraft surpassed 200 million units sold, and Animal Crossing: New Horizons opened with more sales than Doom Eternal. There are games on Steam like Kind Words, in which you anonymously write about your feelings to others and empathize in return. Millions of letters have been written. There are puzzle games like Monument Valley and Manifold Garden that provide mesmerizing beauty. The entire indie sphere has transformed the industry into true art.

Of course, part of the success of these “cozy games” has been the pandemic and the need for calm and escape, but they were doing just fine pre-pandemic too. Games have been more than blood-and-gore for a while, but now the market for artful/therapeutic/wholesome games has really had a chance to prove…