Industries Reflect on the “Friendslop” Trend
Games like Peak, REPO, and RV There Yet? have made quite a splash in the gaming world this year. Yet, there’s one particular term that many, including some industry investors, find a bit grating: “friendslop.” Recently, Binni Erlingsson, principal at Behold Ventures, took to LinkedIn to voice his concerns about this label. He believes this term will be showing up in more pitch decks as developers seek to tap into the current trend on Steam. While Erlingsson has no beef with the games themselves, he’s keen to see the end of the “friendslop” label before it gains even more traction.
“I know it’s super new as a term, but it’s catching on and I want to lobby for killing it before it flies off,” he asserts. “Mainly because I feel that the term itself is negative. ‘Slop’ to me means that something is sloppy, not well done, and a bit junky.”
Interestingly, Peak is credited with bringing “friendslop” into the mainstream back in 2025, yet neither of its studios anticipated this explosion. Erlingsson notes that, having personal ties with some of the studios pushing this genre forward in Sweden, he wouldn’t use the term “slop” to describe them at all.
“I feel ‘slop’ devalues their skill and also in a way makes a little bit of a dig at the userbase at the same time. ‘Oh, you like friendslop games?’ (says the token elitist gamerguy in my head). It’s simply a term that sounds negative to me.”
The trend isn’t entirely surprising, according to Erlingsson, especially when you consider the gaming backgrounds of younger generations.
“Gen Z and Gen Alpha are raised on playing, laughing, and creating with their friends on Roblox, Toca Boca World, and Minecraft. This is how I assume they are going to continue into adulthood,” he explains. “They will look for experiences that mirror what they grew up with, and the current gaming landscape isn’t fully equipped to catch them. But ‘friendslop’ games are, and they fit perfectly into this narrative. (Plus, they usually cost as much as a restaurant meal or even just a drink, far below what an AAA experience costs. Perfect for young people in this economy.)”
While Erlingsson doesn’t see games like Peak or REPO fading into obscurity anytime soon, he firmly believes we should collectively aim to “kill” the term “friendslop.” Though, based on its rising popularity, it might already be too late for that.
“We might be slop, but we’re human-made locally-sourced artisanal slop,” the developers of Peak humorously pointed out in response to the claims about their award-nominated multiplayer game.
Categories
PC Gaming
Platforms