What is friendslop?

What is friendslop and where did this genre come from? Which games are friendslop and which are not? We answer these and other questions in this article.

The Term

Although the very first game of this genre appeared in 2018 (Among Us), the term itself was coined by X (formerly Twitter) user BLOODY MARY on March 17, 2025. The tweet cited Lethal Company, R.E.P.O., and Content Warning as examples of games in which you can “farm” friends.

Here is the tweet itself:

As you can see, the tweet went viral and gained millions of views, and the word “friendslop” became firmly established in the minds of players as one of the game genres (although it initially had a negative connotation).

Characteristics of Friendslop Games

Friendslop games have several characteristics that set them apart from other games. Let’s take a closer look at these features.

First and foremost is the presence of a cooperative mode. Games in this genre must have multiplayer (although single-player mode is also available in most cases) and, as a rule, they support up to 4 players on average. It would be weird if a genre that has “friend” in it you wouldn’t be able to play with friends, right?

The second rule that absolutely all games in this genre follow is a low entry threshold. There are no difficult bosses here; this is not Dark Souls. Even the greenest beginner who launches the game can start playing right away. There is also no tutorial in such games.

No storyline. Yes, most friendslop games have a level system (pass the first level, move on to the second, and so on), and the player may receive some kind of notification as soon as the level loads, but there is no plot as such. For example: “You are in a hospital. There is no electricity. Get out as quickly as possible, or the monsters will eat you!”

This leads to another key feature of friendslop games: event generation. Events are not scripted and, as a rule, are generated naturally:

  • by the players themselves (one of the reasons why games of this genre get millions of views on YouTube)
  • by game locations (the mountains in PEAK, abandoned buildings in Lethal Company, etc.)
  • by monsters (if present)
  • by specific goal (climb the mountain, survive the level, sell scrap, etc.)
  • by items available for the player

Players in friendslop games are not enemies to each other (but could be competitors in some titles/cases). On the contrary, often only through cooperation and the correct distribution of roles in the team you can pass a particular level.

Low price. This is one of the factors that positively influences the spread of the genre as a whole. It’s not a fail to spend $5 or $10, even if the game isn’t very interesting — you’ve simply spent an evening in the company of friends.

Other notable technical features include proximity chat and lip sync. The latter synchronizes players’ voices with their lip movements in the game, increasing the level of immersion.

The last thing to mention about friendslop games is their developers. There are no giants of the gaming industry in this genre, and it is completely dominated by indie developers — hence the large overlap with games in the indieslop genre. The vast majority of friendslop games are created on the Unity engine by small teams of 2-4 people. The choice of Unity is no accident — there are a large number of assets and tutorials (both in text format and on YouTube) for this engine, and it is relatively easy to use. So if you’re thinking about creating a game, maybe friendslop is what you’re looking for 🙂

What games are not friendslops?

Since the key feature of any friendslop game is cooperative mode, any indie game that lacks this mode cannot be considered a friendslop. Even if it’s a game created in a couple of evenings, has several levels, and sells for $1. Multiplayer is mandatory and is the main game mode!

The Future

The number of games in the friendslop genre will continue to grow steadily. They do not require large development budgets, and several Coop Asset Game Kits are available for indie developers in the Unity Asset Store, which greatly simplifies and speeds up the development of cooperative mode, which is the cornerstone of games in this genre.

Mods availability (mostly due to BepInEx game patcher) also play role in popularizing friendslop games and increasing their lifespan. They add character customization, new levels, monsters, items, and such.

On the other hand, such easy access to game development leads to the obvious: spam of low-quality friendslop games on Steam. This is one of the reasons why friendslop.it was created — we will help you choose the best game in the genre!