10 games I bought because of TikTok

Look, before we start, everyone needs to understand one thing. TikTok has completely destroyed our ability to make responsible decisions.

I no longer buy games because of reviews. I don’t even buy games because my friends recommended them. No, now I buy the game because I saw footage of a stupid little guy falling off a mountain at 1 in the morning and someone screaming into a microphone. It's true. Here are the games TikTok completely rigged you to buy this year.

sled game

I rushed to Steam after seeing a TikTok of a little penguin sledding down a hill at Mach 5, with three frogs watching from the side as if they were witnessing a Nascar event.

Sledding Game feels like it was scientifically designed in a lab to appeal directly to people who miss the golden age of flash games and own at least one plush toy. Everything about it is aggressively attractive.

The developers posting updates on TikTok were genius. Because every clip looked like a game where I accidentally wasted 6 hours. Watching the map slowly develop through TikTok clips made me strangely emotionally attached to this game before I even bought it. It's as if I'm watching someone's small, cozy child grow. There's also something very powerful about a game that's all about 'little creatures squirm!'

Librarian: Arcane Library Cleanup

Librarian: Tidy Up Arcane Library going viral proved to me that TikTok users will turn any task into a personality trait. Please explain why millions of people are suddenly debating whether quietly putting books on the shelf is comforting or psychologically painful. The premise is deceptively simple. You organize your books into a magical library. That's it. All you have to do is sort your books like the most qualified library assistant in the world. Still, I couldn't stop watching the video.

The whole TikTok about this game felt like a social experiment. Half of the comments were people saying, “This looks really comfortable.” The other half were people who said they'd rather walk through traffic than alphabetize fake order forms for four hours. Of course I bought it right away.

content warning

Content warnings make it feel like someone looked at Lethal Company and said, why not add a culture of influence? I mean that's the best compliment possible.

The whole concept is perfect TikTok bait. You and your friends literally go into a terrifying underground monster zone to record content called SpookTube. It's already fun, but what's really genius is that the game lets you save and upload actual footage you've recorded.

This meant TikTok was immediately flooded with clips of people screaming, dying, hitting walls and accidentally filming the worst found footage ever. Of course, I bought it because I was weak. Watching a creator like CaseOh completely lose his composure while some nightmarish creature folds his team like lawn chairs was enough to convince me that this game had to exist in my library.

spider web fishing

Web phishing has personally weaponized my nostalgia for Animal Crossing. The second I saw a video of little cat avatars fishing together, chatting and acting silly, I was done. There was absolutely no way I wouldn't buy this game. TikTok was basically holding a cozy aesthetic moodboard in front of me like a hypnotist's clock.

Nothing dramatic happens, and no one is trying to save the world. Exist peacefully with your friends, catch fish, and customize your character and atmosphere. Apparently, this is all people wanted, as TikTok has become completely obsessed with the game. I think part of the appeal of web fishing is that it feels almost suspiciously authentic. There is no battle pass. It's just little cats fishing together. Because life is hard. Sometimes that's necessary.

Super Battle Golf

Every TikTok video of Super Battle Golf looks like a sporting event taking place right before societal collapse. People are driving golf carts around each other, swinging clubs like medieval warriors, planting mines, and trying to somehow complete the course. The comment “Golf with friends, not golf with friends” was painfully accurate. Because this game turns every friendship into a temporary blood feud.

TikTok clips were irresistible because every clip was instantly enlarged. Someone lines up a regular golf shot and three seconds later an orbital laser appears from the sky like a celestial beacon. I bought it after seeing 8 people piled into one golf cart and racing toward disaster, with someone screaming incoherently through a close-up chat, and I have no regrets.

die by disco

This game made my brain light up like a Vegas casino. Everything about Dead As Disco seems designed specifically for short videos. Every punch synced to the music looks like it belongs in an edited TikTok fancam full of comments from people saying “OH THIS ATE.” It helps it fit.

Watching battle clips perfectly synced to the soundtrack activated something primal in me. I was convinced that I, too, could become a rhythm-fighting god instead of someone who often misses QuickTime events out of embarrassment.

Mega Bonk

I want you to know that the name alone has already piqued my interest. Megabonk sounds like a game invented by someone sleep-deprived at 4 a.m., and of course I respect that. TikTok loved this game because every clip looked completely incomprehensible in the best way. Explosions occur everywhere. A skeleton on a skateboard doing something very dangerous; A monkey wearing sunglasses that appears to be causing economic collapse.

Roguelikes go viral on TikTok. Because eventually you reach a point where the gameplay no longer seems intentional and starts to look like divine intervention. Megabonk gets to that point almost immediately. It's beautiful.

repo

Repo was convinced that fear and stupidity were the two most powerful forces in multiplayer games. The concept itself is already stressful enough. Transport your precious items carefully while terrible monsters try to kill you. It sounds pretty easy, but your teammates are there too, instantly turning any mission into a workplace safety violation.

Repo's TikTok clips have been inescapable for some time, and they all follow the same formula: 'everything seems fine' to 'screaming disaster.' The monster encounters were the main reason the game exploded in popularity online, but the real stars were the characters themselves. Its strange little cylindrical body and giant eyes make every moment 10 times more fun. Fear immediately becomes comedic when the person screaming appears to be a sentient thumb.

Plus, there's nothing more fun than watching your squad spend 10 minutes carefully transporting fragile loot. It's just that someone accidentally fired the microwave across the room right before extraction. It's really art.

Yap yap

TikTok has fully entered the era of friends screaming into microphones, and YapYap may be the purest example of that. The gimmick is gorgeous. Cast spells using your real voice. It sounds cool and immersive until you realize that most people immediately use this power for evil.

All of YapYap's viral clips are just complete vocal messes and I watched about 5 of them before purchasing. Games like this work well because they create immediate comedy without trying too hard. No setup required. Humor comes naturally from people who completely break down under pressure. At this point, TikTok has become a natural habitat for friend games. Every few months, a new cooperative disaster simulator emerges and collectively consumes the internet. As fun as it is, YapYap takes its place.

vertex

I knew this game was going to ruin my life when I saw someone peel a banana off a dude on a mountain. Peak is a type of game that TikTok was created to promote. Because every clip is a perfect storm filled with teamwork, betrayal, physical disaster, and human suffering.

It takes all of you working together to climb this mighty mountain. Instead, the whole group turns into the worst away team imaginable. People are constantly falling over, someone is always wasting important items, and at least one person is obsessed with sabotaging others for content. The banana clip alone would have sold thousands of copies. There's something timeless about slapstick comedy that takes place at catastrophic heights.

Peak accurately captures the energy of wanting to collaborate with people who share one collective brain cell. I think it's my favorite genre of games right now. TikTok wasn't what convinced me to buy Peak. I was convinced that watching my friends fall down the mountain over and over again would be a form of entertainment. What a confusing realization.