when Kennedy R. was a kid, there was one solution that could cure almost any stressful situation: video games. He can remember spending hours after hard days at school playing Harvest Moon, a Japanese farm simulator created for the Super Nintendo console. Through the thick of grad school, games like Stardew Valley and other open pixel worlds became a way to escape the pressure. But it wasn't until the pandemic that her love of quiet, simple games turned from a nostalgic hobby into an active and growing online community. Now, Kennedy is better known as Cozy K., a streamer with half a million followers on TikTok and more than 200,000 subscribers on both YouTube and Twitch, all of whom are devoted to watching her play one of the fastest-growing gaming genres: cozy gaming.
Even if you don't know the nickname, you've probably played a cozy game before. They are defined by their ability to learn quickly, with a low-stakes, relaxed atmosphere and often mimic familiar, real-life situations. This makes production simple and installations endless — in Unpacking Players move into new houses, in Venba, Players learn how to make a variety of traditional Tamil dishes. Kris Alexander, associate professor of gaming at the Metropolitan University of Toronto, says Rolling rock that there has been a rapid increase in interest in these types of games over the past three years, which experts say shows people's desire to play games that are specific to their own cultural and personal experiences. As a genre, casual games are often rated as inferior to AAA offerings, seen as the choice for people who can't commit to or learn a difficult game. But comfortable players say Rolling rock it's not about finding the simplest option. Instead, in a gaming world that has become known for celebrating exclusion, peace-focused gamers say they're done waiting for acceptance — and are carving out their own space for community.
Since every gamer's definition of a low-stress game is different, there's no exact number for how many more comfortable games have been taken since the rise of the genre. But online communities focused on welcoming games have grown exponentially since 2020. Felicia W. is one of the moderators of Reddit r/cozygamers. What started as a small meeting place for interested gamers quickly grew into a major subreddit, with more than 137,000 members and dozens of similar offshoots.
“I see a lot of women in their twenties and thirties, some even in their forties, this different generation that has always loved the game but never felt included,” she says. “So now they see this community where they can talk about games and share photos without being shamed or rejected for their age or gender.”
According to Alexander and other experts, the surge in interest first started during the Covid-19 pandemic, when everyone from high school students to adults had many free hours to spend on video games. According to Verizon, video game usage grew by 75 percent during 2020. Around the same time, Animal crossing new horizons was released on the Nintendo Switch and sold over 30 million units that year alone, more than any other Animal crossing versions combined. (This type of success isn't unique to Nintendo—the success of 2016's farming simulator Stardew Valley was created by an indie developer, but has also sold over 30 million units after a spike in the time of the pandemic.) Alexander points to the ease with which games can be comfortably made by developers, the low learning curve for players, and the way their facilities are adapted may be a major factor in their appeal. (Indie game developers that focus exclusively on the genre have also started to appear more in the last four years, as larger companies continue to lay off entire teams.)
“The draw for players old and new, especially when it comes to casual games, is this idea that it's more accessible,” Alexander says. “I know I could just sit there and I'll be able to pick it up real quick. I think people just didn't know this was a genre. And on the development side of things, people are turning to direction [them] because you really [just] we need to find a smooth core mechanic that feels good.”
says Kennedy Rolling rock that toys labeled as comfortable or relaxing are not new — some of the older examples, such as Little computer people and Harvest Moon, were first released in the 90s. What he thinks is new is the community around these kinds of programs. Even the welcoming games title was “community-built,” says Kennedy, which allowed the genre to become an entry point for people later in life who might be interested in starting to play but aren't clear on how to get started.
“Sometimes you just want to chill out in a cute little town that you've painstakingly decorated. “Me and a lot of other people don't necessarily like, after a long, hard day, to get our heart rates soaring in a competitive first-person shooter,” he says. “Before, I felt like 'I'm just a person who happens to play games sometimes. And the games I personally like no one really talks about. And now I feel like there is a place in the gaming world for me to identify myself as a gamer. Now it's more of a community experience.”
And taking on the mantle of the comfortable gamer doesn't have to start and end with buying or downloading a new game. Em W., the creator behind cozy gaming TikTok @wisteriem, says that the popularization of cozy gaming has allowed the genre to infiltrate other aspects of gaming, such as the aesthetics of game settings. Now gamers have started creating custom gaming monitors and desk setups — think less Darth Vader's glowing red lights and more tranquil garden chic — a trend that accessory companies are now leaning into.
“I feel like a lot of us who really love casual gaming are chasing that nostalgic feeling of the games we played as kids,” he says. “We finally have grown-up money and we're using it so we can heal our inner child by creating our dream play setups to enjoy these wholesome toys as a form of self-care and release from the stress that comes with being an adult. .”
It wouldn't be a subset of the internet if it weren't for reason, and the current topic of discussion is what deserves to be called a cozy game. Does it count as a game if there is farming but also a timer? What if it has simple mechanics but involves something unrelated to nature or cooking? Michael Wong, a professor of psychiatry and behavioral neuroscience at McMaster University in Ontario, Canada, believes there's a neurological reason why so many people seek alternatives to comfortable play — one that could also explain why what a person considers a comfortable game may not meet the same criteria for someone else.
In a 2021 study investigating stress in undergraduate students, Wong's research suggested that students who played a relaxing game for 20 minutes had nearly the same calming effects (lower heart rate, blood pressure) as students who spent 20 minutes in a mindfulness meditation session.
“I chose cozy gaming [because] you don't need to be a gaming expert to pick up your phone or pick up a device to play,” explains Wong. “This study confirms that anxiety is highly subjective. So if meditation doesn't work for you, there are other strategies.”
Since stress varies from person to person, it stands to reason that discussions about what games can be considered truly homemade depend entirely on who's holding the controller. But while each of the players he talked to Rolling rock outlined various favorite games that they consider worthy of the title, all hoping that this new fascination with comfortable programs will create a space for the gaming industry to be less exclusive.
“Gaming is very male-dominated, from the marketing to the aesthetics of gaming peripherals, which game publishers actually choose to put money behind,” says Kennedy. “Exists [been] a stigma in gaming around comfortable gaming. But now, because there's this identity, there's this ownership of it and this pride in comfortable gaming now, and I think that's a really important thing, especially for people who haven't focused on gaming all these years.”
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