The best horror video games
The top 3 according to 598 votes from people: Silent Hill 2 · Resident Evil 4 · Alien: Isolation. (Updated Feb 18, 2026.)
The scariest and most acclaimed horror games, from survival-horror classics to modern remakes: the consensus of OpenCritic's horror ranking and several 'best horror games' rankings.
Top 20
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1
Silent Hill 2
Konami, 2001. James Sunderland returns to Silent Hill after a letter from his dead wife; voted best horror game ever by IGN readers.
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2
Resident Evil 4
Capcom, 2005. Leon S. Kennedy rescues the president's daughter in rural Spain; remade in 2023 (OpenCritic 92).
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3
Alien: Isolation
Creative Assembly, 2014. Amanda Ripley is hunted aboard Sevastopol station by a xenomorph that learns from you.
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4
Resident Evil 2
Capcom, 2019 remake of the 1998 game. Leon and Claire in Raccoon City, stalked by Mr. X; OpenCritic 92.
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5
Amnesia: The Dark Descent
Frictional Games, 2010. No weapons, just hiding in the dark; often called the scariest game ever made.
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6
Dead Space
Visceral Games, 2008. Engineer Isaac Clarke dismembers Necromorphs aboard the USG Ishimura; remade in 2023.
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7
Alan Wake 2
Remedy, 2023. A writer and an FBI agent caught in a horror story come true; OpenCritic 89.
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8
Silent Hill
Konami, 1999. Harry Mason searches for his daughter in a fog-bound town; the start of the psychological horror series.
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9
Fatal Frame II: Crimson Butterfly
Tecmo, 2003. Twin sisters fight ghosts in a lost Japanese village using only an old camera.
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10
Inscryption
Daniel Mullins Games, 2021. A card game in a creepy cabin that keeps turning into something else.
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11
System Shock 2
Irrational Games and Looking Glass, 1999. The rogue AI SHODAN on board the starship Von Braun.
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12
Resident Evil
Capcom, 1996 (remade for GameCube in 2002). The Spencer Mansion and the birth of the term 'survival horror'.
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13
Five Nights at Freddy's
Scott Cawthon, 2014. Survive five nights as a security guard watched by animatronics; it spawned a huge franchise.
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14
Until Dawn
Supermassive Games, 2015. Eight friends on a mountain where anyone can die depending on your choices.
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15
SOMA
Frictional Games, 2015. Existential sci-fi horror in an underwater research station.
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16
Bloodborne
FromSoftware, 2015. Gothic and Lovecraftian horror in the cursed city of Yharnam.
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17
Resident Evil 7: Biohazard
Capcom, 2017. The series' switch to first person, in the Baker family's Louisiana farmhouse.
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18
Outlast
Red Barrels, 2013. A journalist with only a night-vision camera inside Mount Massive Asylum.
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19
The Last of Us
Naughty Dog, 2013. Joel and Ellie among the Infected; its 2014 remaster tops OpenCritic's horror ranking (94).
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20
Doki Doki Literature Club!
Team Salvato, 2017. A cute dating-sim visual novel that turns into psychological horror; OpenCritic 87.
Candidates
They don't make it into the top 20… yet. Vote for them to move them up.
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21
Silent Hill 2 (2024 remake)
Bloober Team, 2024. A ground-up remake of the 2001 classic; OpenCritic 87.
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22
Half-Life: Alyx
Valve, 2020. VR horror-action in City 17, with the infamous Jeff level; OpenCritic 93.
How is this ranking ordered? By people's votes: each ▲ adds a point and each ▼ takes one away. Anyone can vote and add what is missing.
Is something missing?
Comments (7)
Resident Evil 4 is action, not horror. Doesn't belong at #2.
RE4 has plenty of horror moments, the Regenerators still haunt me.
Alien: Isolation is the scariest game ever made, that AI is evil.
Where's P.T.? A demo, but the scariest hour in gaming.
Silent Hill 2 at #1, correct. The original, not the remake (though the remake is surprisingly good).
Alien: Isolation is the scariest game I've ever played. Hiding in a locker with the alien sniffing around... no thanks
Silent Hill 2 at #1, the remake proved how good the story is.