'Vampire Survivors' Breaches Steam's Top Sellers List

A seemingly ordinary top-down bullet hell game’s status rose from obscure to sensational overnight after a surge in interest across social media platforms.

“Vampire Survivors,” an indie game made by solo developer Poncle, recently made waves in the gaming sphere a few weeks after it launched in mid-December 2021. The game is a simple time-based bullet hell shooter with pixel graphics, minimalistic gameplay and roguelite elements.

Despite its low-budget aesthetics, “Vampire Survivors” currently has over 16,000 positive reviews on Steam with an average player count of roughly 30,000, according to SteamDB.

The game is also enjoying a healthy viewer and streamer base in Twitch, where it recorded a high peak of 137,000 concurrent viewers Tuesday.

Players wouldn’t be wrong if they compared “Vampire Survivors” to a browser game since anyone can play a free version of it on itch.io. Meanwhile, the version that’s available on Steam is currently in early access, so players can expect more content to be added to the paid version of the game down the road.

As far as gameplay goes, “Vampire Survivors” is almost fully automated. All spells and attacks are activated automatically, and all players need to do is maneuver around enemies while collecting XP crystals. After leveling up, players can choose between one of three different upgrades that can help them survive for longer.

Survival is the only goal in the game. However, the innate roguelite elements do give players other goals to achieve outside of the actual gameplay objective. Coins can be collected and used to unlock new characters or purchase upgrades from the game’s shop. There’s also a list of achievements and unlockable items that players can obtain through normal gameplay.

Users on Steam praised “Vampire Survivors” for its addictive simplicity as well as its “Castlevania”-esque pixel art graphics. The smart use of the “one-button gameplay” design contributed much to the appeal of the game without taking away any feelings of power or achievement from the player.

All of these combined makes “Vampire Survivors” the perfect game to unwind with after a long day. The rewarding yet low-effort combat is great for relieving some stress while remaining simple and easy enough to gain the attention of anyone who likes video games.