10 Video Games That Inspired Waves Of Copycats Across The Industry

Published Jul 31, 2026, 9:30 PM EDT Although Kaitlyn grew up with a passion for both video games and writing, she never imagined she'd eventually combine them into a career. Now, with several years of experience in the industry across Guides, Features, News, & Reviews, Kaitlyn enjoys nothing more than continuing to deep dive into the games she's passionate about and share her findings with readers. In her downtime, Kaitlyn enjoys unwinding with her favorite horror films, despite being a major scaredy-cat. It's no surprise that video game developers and publishers set out to capitalize on trends that players seem to respond to. With the industry giants, this is generally a slower process, and trends develop over years. However, with indie games, the process is generally faster because they are much smaller than AAA games. This means that when one indie game goes viral, you'll generally see similar games pop up on Steam within just a few days. Now, there's nothing wrong with being inspired or designing a game with popular trends in mind. However, most of these copies rush development to capitalize on the hype, producing lower-quality games. So here are games that triggered a pattern of clones after they went viral. 10 I'm On Observation Duty I'm On Observation Duty is actually an interesting one, because the game didn't achieve as much popularity as some of the others on this list. However, because it was so popular among streaming communities, it inspired games that then went on to have their own copycats and arguably became more popular. I'm On Observation Duty popularized the stationary spot-the-difference anomaly gameplay loop, which led to direct copies such as Improbability Control Bureau by Faelune and Scott H.F. Dunbar, and inspired games like Exit 8 by Kotake Create. The latter of which turned the concept into an interactive walking loop with the same premise of spotting anomalies. Exit 8, ironically, then became so popular that anomaly games are now sometimes referred to as Exit 8-likes, even though I'm On Observation Duty sparked the initial trend. Exit 8 then inspired games like Shinkansen 0 by Chilla's Art, Hospital 666 by Lokin, and even Kotake Create's own sequel, Platform 8. 9 Librarian: Tidy Up The Arcane Library Librarian: Tidy. Up The Arcane Library is a simple indie game released early in 2026. In it, you're stuck in one massive library and tasked with putting over 3,000 books on shelves. That's it. Being so simple, Librarian was easy to replicate, and that's exactly what happened when the game became so popular. One of the first to do this was Supermarket Chaos by BunnyHop, which uses the same concept in a grocery store. Since Librarian is still new, there aren't tons of copies on the market yet, but several are coming to Steam, including Cellar Keeper by EgoTrampoline, Never Sort By Color by Bryan Livingston, and TV Archive: Tidy Up Together. It's too soon to say how these games will do compared to Librarian; however, I do think that part of Librarian's appeal was that it centered around a popular interest, fantasy books, so perhaps there's room for games like that covering other popular interests, like Lego and VCR tapes. 8 R.E.P.O. R.E.P.O. is technically part of this process on both ends. It's hard to deny that R.E.P.O. clearly took inspiration from Lethal Company since they both revolve around the same general premise. That said, R.E.P.O. has since developed such an individual identity for itself that things have come full circle, and now it's even inspiring similar games. One example of this is YapYap by Maison Bap, which, like Lethal Company, designed a game focused on meeting a quota in a dangerous location, but combined it with the more chaotic goofiness of R.E.P.O. Of course, with so many of these horror co-ops popping up, it's becoming progressively harder to determine what inspired each game or if they all continuously inspire each other. 7 Supermarket Simulator Supermarket Simulator is another one that caught the eye of streamers and YouTubers and took off from there. While some creators like Jacksepticeye, Markiplier, and Caseoh only featured the game briefly, other creators, like Game Grumps, went on to make nearly 50 videos surrounding the game and even sell merchandise based on their fake supermarket. Shout out to the Buy & Leave! Now, simulation games are already popular, but this game certainly sparked a surge in simulation games that focus on running a store of some kind, such as Megastore Simulator by YOLO Games Simulator, Mall Simulator by F13 Games, and TCG Card Shop Simulator by OPNeon Games. 6 Lethal Company In terms of games that created dozens of clones overnight, Lethal Company might be the one game on this list most victim to this. Despite still being in Early Access, Lethal Company quickly became one of the biggest co-op games on the market. In Lethal Company, up to 4 players band together to scavenge for scraps on dangerous moons and try to meet their quota while staying alive. I'd argue that Lethal Company inspired the entire category of what some now call "friendslop games" because so many games attempted to capture this chaotic co-op style of gameplay. R.E.P.O., which is on this list for having its own clones, was even clearly inspired by this concept. 5 Phasmophobia It's hard to believe that Phasmophobia is still in early access, but that hasn't stopped it from becoming one of the biggest horror co-op games on the market and inspiring dozens like it. Phasmophobia is a game in which up to 4 friends head into haunted homes to sleuth out what paranormal entity may be lurking inside before it hunts them down instead. While there aren't as many direct copies of this game, it did show how popular horror-based co-op games could be among players, which then led to games like Demonologist by Clock Wizard Games, Lethal Company by Zeekerss, and Content Warning by Zorro, Wilnyl, Philip, thePetHen, and Skog. 4 Among Us Despite being released in 2018, Among Us reached peak popularity during 2020 when players were looking for a way to connect with friends while dealing with COVID. Being available on mobile as well, Among Us was extremely accessible to almost anyone, became popular among streamers, and is still being downloaded and played today. Now, since Among Us is based on the popular in-person party game Mafia, it's a bit hard to say which games are copying Among Us versus just also creating a game inspired by Mafia. However, some, like SuspectEnemy by Horse Games and Imposters by Scott H.F. Dunbar, are a little more obvious. 3 Getting Over It With Bennett Foddy Getting Over It With Bennett Foddy now has so many clones that "Bennet Foddy-Types" has actually become its own sub-genre of games. The game itself is a bit of a meme for being designed to be extremely frustrating and nearly impossible to beat. While stuck inside a pot, you are tasked with using a massive hammer to pull yourself up a mountain. It's designed to make you want to rage-quit, and for that reason, makes for great content and lots of laughs as others watch their friends or favorite streamers struggle, confident they can do it themselves if they tried. Some examples of games that took direct inspiration from this game, with similarly frustrating gameplay, are Get To Work by Isto Inc. and A Difficult Game About Climbing by Pontypants. 2 Five Nights At Freddy's We all remember when FNAF hit the market. This creepy little horror game about being a night security guard at Freddy Fazbear's, which might as well have been a haunted Chuck E. Cheese, captivated players regardless of preferred genres or age ranges. This only further took off when MatPat began exploring its lore on GameTheory and helped build a deeply invested community around the game. As more games in the franchise were released and movies began production, it's no surprise that devs who wanted to join in on the hype started sharing their own FNAF games left and right. There are some genuinely well-made fan games, but if you type 'Five Nights' into the Steam search bar, you'll see just how many ridiculous, more meme-focused copies there are. FNAF even inspired a few NSFW clones. 1 Meccha Chameleon lemorion_1224 Meccha Chameleon is the latest victim of this trend. Upon release, Meccha Chameleon quickly became one of the fastest-selling games of the year for being a new, unique co-op game that didn't feel like anything else on the market. In an elaborate game of hide-and-seek, players must use their painting skills to camouflage themselves onto the map and hide from the seeker. It's chaotic, requires less skill than you'd think, and large, public lobbies mean anyone can play. Naturally, all this has only made Meccha Chameleon a target for copies like Animal Chameleon by Crispy Codeworks and Scribble Hunt by Scribble Bunny.