Once upon a time, I didn’t consider myself to be a gamer.
At least, not a real gamer. I was obsessed with the likes of Harvest Moon and Minecraft, spending hours farming my little crops and building my little block designs. I was sure any real gamer would just look at me and laugh.
That started to change when I met my husband, who started teaching me how to play what I would have considered back then to be real games; the competitive types like League of Legends, the dungeon-crawly types like Diablo 3, the RPG types like Final Fantasy.
But I kept that soft spot in my heart for my quiet, combat-free games, the happy spaces I’d spend hours in as I curled up on the couch.
Then, 2020 happened.
Early in my days on Instagram, I noticed there was a sort of subculture on social media around the same types of games I’d always liked—and in 2020, they exploded in popularity when Animal Crossing: New Horizons hit the shelves. There was just something about that relaxing vibe that worked for all of us in the middle of a global pandemic.
That’s when I realized that the games I loved and had always thought were separate from proper gaming were, in fact, their own genre of proper gaming:
Cozy games.
What’s the cozy gaming trend?
There are two sides to this: cozy games, and cozy gaming.
Cozy games are a genre of games that focus on calm, relaxing activities, usually something like crafting, farming, or building. They don’t have combat, or if they do, it’s not the main point of the game—and they often keep it within a PG-13-at-most window.
Cozy gaming is the lifestyle trend surrounding cozy games and related content, including things like social media posts that feature calming, relaxing vibes.
Why is it so popular?
This may be a bit subjective, but I think a lot of the love for cozy gaming comes from those gamers like me who aren’t so much into the competitive or super-violent games and want something more relaxed for their downtime.
I personally also chalk it up to the big marketing push that came out of the AC:NH launch, especially as people started to recognize the way a game like that could bring people together in a time when they otherwise couldn’t.
They also often have ways for people to stretch their creative muscles—many of the cozy games that incorporate home design have entire followings for inspiration and guides!
And that makes them perfect for fall.
This is the season where we tend to gravitate toward all things comfy; warmer blankets, bigger sweaters, carefully constructed nests on the couch.
So at least to me, it makes sense that that’d be what we pick; games that don’t require us to sit up and focus, that we can enjoy with all the same vibes of our surroundings.
YOUR TURN
2 thoughts on “Cozy game vibes: What they are and why I love them”
This hit so close to home. I used to think the same thing that if I wasn’t grinding ranked matches or pulling all-nighters on boss fights, I wasn’t a “real” gamer. But give me a cozy farming sim, some lo-fi in the background, and a blanket burrito situation, and I’m in absolute heaven.
It’s wild how cozy gaming has grown into such a legit genre (i guess?) and community. WoW during its prime was the serotonin I needed 😀
Do you have a current go-to cozy game to recommend?
i like dreamlight valley