30 Games Like Phasmophobia — Best Co-op Ghost Hunting Horror Games

Games like Phasmophobia are cooperative horror titles where a group of friends hunts ghosts using EMF detectors, spirit boards, and night-vision cameras. Kinetic Games’ hit spawned an entire wave of imitators, and many of them eventually grew into projects with identities of their own: some follow the “gather evidence — identify the ghost — survive” loop almost beat for beat, while others take the same basic idea and find completely different ways to scare players. This list brings together the best Phasmophobia alternatives for every taste: direct clones centered on hunting the supernatural, co-op horror games with different mechanics, options for low-end PCs, free-to-play projects, mobile games, and even Roblox modes.

This selection focuses on one specific formula — if you want the horror genre as a whole, from asymmetric hide-and-seek to story-driven scares, check out our separate list of the best horror games.

These games use the same basic gameplay loop as Phasmophobia: a team of hunters arrives at a haunted location, sets up equipment, gathers evidence, and uses it to identify the type of ghost while trying to survive until the contract is complete. The differences are in the details: in some games, identifying the spirit is not enough and you also have to banish it through a special ritual; elsewhere, the hunt takes place inside an Egyptian tomb; and in some cases, the ghost is controlled by another player. If you have already spent hundreds of hours in Phasmophobia and want “more of the same, but new,” start here.

Phasmophobia’s main rival and its best-known clone, Demonologist is probably the game most often compared directly with the original. A team of 1–4 demonologists explores mansions, abandoned asylums, and other cursed locations, listening for whispers through a spirit box, revealing fingerprints with ultraviolet light, detecting anomalies with a thermometer, and figuring out which of more than twenty types of supernatural entities has taken up residence.

The key difference is that identifying the spirit is only half the job — you also have to exorcise it, which requires a special ritual that varies depending on the type of ghost. Add cursed objects such as tarot cards and a music box, a steadily dropping sanity meter, and sudden hunts when the lights go out and your only options are to run and hide. Built on Unreal Engine 5, the game also looks noticeably more expensive than most of its competitors: its gloomy interiors can get under your skin even without jump scares. Demonologist is probably the game most often recommended when you want to put Phasmophobia aside for a while.

Here, you can do more than simply investigate a ghost — you can actually capture it, and that changes the entire dynamic. The equipment is familiar: detectors, cameras, thermometers, and flashlights, but the objective is different. Instead of identifying the spirit and leaving with a clear conscience, players have to pull it into a special trap, almost like in Ghostbusters. Ghost Watchers features more than twenty gadgets, while your targets include not only ordinary ghosts but also demons with unique behavior, each requiring a different approach. The locations are varied as well, ranging from isolated abandoned houses to an entire ghost town.

The full release arrived in July 2025 and significantly polished the game after its long period in Early Access.

FOREWARNED takes the Phasmophobia formula out of suburban houses and drops it straight into Egyptian tombs. A team of archaeologists descends into ancient ruins, gathers evidence, and uses it to determine which of the cursed Mejai — mummies with unique abilities — is guarding the burial site. Then comes something the original does not offer: you can grab your loot and rush for the exit, or take the risk, venture deeper, and try to escape with even more treasure, knowing you could lose everything at once. Every raid is procedurally generated, and the loot you recover can be invested in better equipment for the next expedition. Among the direct Phasmophobia alternatives, FOREWARNED is one of the games most often praised for its depth and replayability — no two trips into the tomb feel quite the same.

Ghost Exile is considerably harsher than its inspiration: the ghost does not patiently wait while you gather evidence but actively interferes with the investigation and hunts far more aggressively. A team of up to four players identifies the type of spirit, places protective seals around the house, and performs an exorcism ritual — simply “identify it and leave” is not an option here. The game features more than a dozen locations, a character editor, and voice interaction with the supernatural: the spirit reacts to what you say into your microphone, and a careless word can easily provoke a hunt. The developers continue to release major updates, while the basic “survive and banish” formula makes Ghost Exile feel noticeably more intense than the original.

In Ghost Exorcism INC., you are a hired operative working for an exorcism corporation, taking contracts in castles, mansions, and abandoned buildings, locating supernatural entities, identifying them, and banishing them for money. The toolkit is familiar — detectors, frequency analyzers, surveillance cameras — but every type of ghost has its own weakness, and choosing the wrong exorcism method can ruin the entire contract. You can also speak to spirits through a connected microphone, much like in Phasmophobia, while full VR support turns the hunt into a completely different kind of ordeal. The game originally launched back in 2021 and has remained relevant largely because of its focus on ritual exorcisms and its fully fledged VR mode.

DeathWatchers follows Phasmophobia almost beat for beat: the same paranormal investigation contracts, the same creepy houses, and the same high-tech gadgets, now supplemented with occult rituals. The project launched in 2024 and has a much smaller audience than the genre’s biggest competitors, but it is competently made and never feels like a cheap knockoff. It is a sensible choice for players who have already exhausted all the major alternatives and still want more of that familiar ghost-hunting experience with a few interesting variations, from new types of evidence to a slightly different approach to exorcising supernatural entities.

Midnight Ghost Hunt turns ghost hunting into a loud PvP game of hide-and-seek: four hunters face four spirits controlled by real players. The ghosts possess furniture and other household objects, freezing in place and pretending to be part of the environment, while the hunters sweep through the mansion with radars and vacuum-like weapons. At the stroke of midnight, everything changes: the ghosts gain power and go on the offensive against their former pursuers. This is the most action-heavy game in this section — instead of methodical investigation, you get constant fights, ambushes, and chases throughout the house, with hunter and prey switching roles in a matter of seconds.

BIGFOOT replaces ghosts with a cryptid: a team of hunters tracks Bigfoot through American national parks. The basic toolkit looks familiar: cameras, motion sensors, and bait. But firearms, traps, and drones are added to the mix because the target is not an incorporeal spirit but a huge, cunning, and extremely angry creature capable of confusing its pursuers and sneaking up from behind. You can play against an AI-controlled monster or another player who takes on the role of the yeti. BIGFOOT has been in Early Access since 2017, and over the years it has accumulated both plenty of content and a dedicated audience of cryptid-hunting fans.

Strictly speaking, these games are not about hunting ghosts, but they have a lot in common with Phasmophobia: close cooperation, voice chat in the dark, and moments of panic that can instantly turn into laughter. This is where much of the Phasmophobia audience moved between 2023 and 2025 — first to Lethal Company, then to Content Warning and R.E.P.O. If you still want to get scared with friends but have grown tired of gathering evidence and talking into spirit boxes, pick something from this category. You can also check out our list of the best co-op horror games.

The biggest co-op phenomenon of 2023 and the game that kicked off a new wave of interest in the genre. A crew working for a nameless corporation lands on abandoned moons, collects scrap to meet a profit quota, and tries not to become food for the local wildlife. What it shares with Phasmophobia is the overall structure: a base you return to between expeditions — a spaceship in this case — the same short trips into the darkness, and the same voice chat where a teammate’s scream crackles through the radio a second before the connection suddenly cuts out. The monsters range from terrifying to absurd, while the quota rises faster than you can get comfortable, creating the game’s signature blend of horror and black comedy that dozens of later releases tried to imitate. Our Lethal Company monster guide will help you figure out which creatures can be dealt with using a shovel and which ones you should run from without looking back.

Content Warning turns the formula inside out: instead of merely surviving monsters, you make money from them. A team of aspiring streamers descends into the Old World with a video camera, records the most horrifying things they can find, and uploads the footage to an in-game video platform in pursuit of views. The scarier and more dangerous the footage, the more money the video earns, so instead of running away from danger, players get as close to it as possible with the camera rolling, daring each other not to chicken out. That contrast — everyone deliberately looking for trouble in pursuit of likes — is exactly what turned Content Warning into a viral hit almost immediately after release.

R.E.P.O. was a breakout hit in 2025, becoming one of the most talked-about co-op games on Steam almost immediately after launch. Up to six players control clumsy semi-robotic characters and haul valuable objects out of gloomy mansions and research facilities. Every piece of loot has physical weight: a heavy piano has to be carried by two people, while a fragile vase must be held at arm’s length with mechanical manipulators as you pray nobody trips on the stairs. Meanwhile, creatures roam the corridors and react sharply to every noise. The resulting blend of horror and spontaneous comedy feels like a direct continuation of the tradition established by Phasmophobia. Our R.E.P.O. beginner’s guide will make those first expeditions a little easier to survive.

DEVOUR is a fast-paced action horror game for 1–4 players about a cult that summoned a demon and now has no idea how to deal with it. Each map revolves around a different exorcism ritual with its own rules: on one, you have to carry goats to an altar; elsewhere, you burn dolls or collect keys, all while a possessed cult leader races through the building and drags careless players into the darkness. With every stage of the ritual, she becomes faster and more aggressive, so hesitation is punished immediately. The game regularly receives new maps, while Halloween brings themed events that draw back even players who completed every location long ago.

Escape the Backrooms is based on the internet mythology of the Backrooms: endless yellow offices, buzzing fluorescent lights, damp carpeting, and entities you have to avoid as you move through a chain of levels deeper and deeper into the unknown. Four-player co-op, locations recreated with painstaking attention to creepypasta canon, and constant updates have made Escape the Backrooms one of the most popular games in the liminal horror niche, while its full release arrived in October 2025. If your team gets stuck on another level and starts going in circles, our Escape the Backrooms walkthrough will help you find the way forward.

KLETKA is a horror game about descending into the abyss inside a rattling industrial elevator. You have to keep the cabin supplied with fuel, repair it on the move, and defend it from whatever crawls out of the darkness between floors, all while making sure your teammates’ greed for every valuable object they spot does not get the entire group killed at once. You can operate the elevator alone or with up to four players, and in co-op the panic escalates much faster. The full release arrived on February 19, 2026, and the game quickly found its audience.

The Outlast Trials is a cooperative prequel to the cult classic Outlast series, where up to four test subjects of the Murkoff Corporation are put through sadistic Cold War-era “trials.” This is pure horror with no gadgets and virtually no humor: there are no weapons, only running, hiding, a few consumables such as lockpicks, and teammates who can revive you after you are knocked down. Each outing is a run through a grim scenario packed with killers, traps, and hallucinations, while between trials the shared hub lets you unlock perks and equipment suited to your playstyle. For a group that has had enough of the “scream and laugh” formula and wants genuine fear built around chases through dark corridors, it is one of the strongest co-op horror games of recent years.

Backrooms: Escape Together is a 1–6 player co-op game set in the Backrooms universe, built around a simpler and more straightforward formula than Escape the Backrooms. The team makes its way through eleven procedurally generated levels, relying on whatever supplies they can find and trying to descend deeper without losing their sanity or their teammates in the buzzing silence. The layouts are reshuffled every time, so there is no route you can simply memorize, while hunger, darkness, and local entities keep the pressure on from the very first minute.

PANICORE is a cooperative survival horror game for up to five players about escaping from a deadly trap where every mistake can cost you your life: death is permanent, and there are no revivals. The team searches grim procedural locations, gathers everything needed to escape, and tries not to attract AI-controlled monsters that react not only to footsteps but also to voices picked up by the microphone — meaning that screaming in fear is literally dangerous here. Short, nerve-racking runs, genuine randomness, and the constant threat of permanent death make PANICORE an excellent choice for a group that wants higher stakes and real consequences for mistakes.

In Paranormal Cleanup, you do not exorcise supernatural entities — you clean up after them. A crew of 1–4 cleaners reports for the worst shift of their lives, scrubbing away ectoplasm, unclogging toilets, and restoring order in places where the paranormal has already taken over, all while terrifying creatures roam the corridors. The joke of “cleaning up after ghosts” is mixed with genuine tension: you have to work quickly and quietly instead of standing around looking at the scenery, or the shift can end very badly. Its unusual premise and four-player co-op make Paranormal Cleanup a welcome change of pace after a dozen more serious Phasmophobia clones.

Co-op horror is largely an indie genre, which means many of these games can run on an ordinary office laptop. This section brings together reliable options that work on integrated graphics and older video cards: all of them have minimum requirements around the GTX 750 level or lower. Phasmophobia itself and most of the games from the first section are not particularly demanding either, but these are some of the least hardware-intensive games in the genre and should run on just about anything.

Pacify is an ideal “first co-op horror game” for a low-end PC: this 2019 release can run on practically any machine. A group of up to four players investigates a haunted house, and to pacify a possessed girl they have to collect dolls scattered throughout the rooms and burn them while she shifts between her calm and hostile forms. The longer the match continues, the faster and more aggressive she becomes. Rounds are short, jump scares are frequent, and by the end of the evening there is usually more laughter than genuine terror — making it an excellent introduction to the genre for a group of newcomers trying co-op horror for the first time.

In Silence is an asymmetric horror game about a blind monster with exceptional hearing. The survivors repair a car and search the surrounding area for weapons, communicating almost entirely in whispers: any sound, including voice chat, can instantly reveal your position and bring the creature straight to you. One player controls the monster itself — it cannot see, but it can “hear” the map down to the slightest noise, so the tension remains even when everyone is completely silent. The minimum requirements are extremely modest, around the level of a GTX 660, yet the game can be more nerve-racking than many far more expensive horror titles with much more impressive visuals.

White Noise 2 is a tense 2017 horror game built around a “four investigators versus one monster” format. A team equipped with flashlights searches dark locations for clues while the monster sets traps and hunts them down. Light is not just a way to see where you are going but also your only weapon: a focused beam can blind the creature and buy you a few seconds to escape. Thanks to its age, the game runs on very old hardware, yet its deep darkness and effective sound design still give it plenty of atmosphere. Every match is a short, nerve-racking game of cat and mouse where the outcome can depend on just a few seconds of light aimed in the right direction.

Boo Men puts you in a different role: instead of hunting supernatural creatures, you are a thief breaking into a house where they have already made themselves at home. Your task is to steal a list of valuable items while monsters roam the rooms. Light is your main ally: yes, it keeps the creatures away, but turning on too many lamps at once overloads the wiring and cuts the power at the worst possible moment. Co-op for up to four players, deliberately low-poly visuals reminiscent of the original PlayStation, and modest system requirements that virtually any laptop can handle make Boo Men an easy entry point into the genre.

The honest answer to the question “what can I play like Phasmophobia for free?” is that there are almost no full-fledged free clones on PC — the genre mostly consists of inexpensive indie games. There is, however, one genuinely notable free co-op horror title with a very different approach, which we cover below, while Boo Men and Pacify are among the cheapest paid alternatives. Another way to get a Phasmophobia-like experience for free is through Roblox modes, but those have their own dedicated section at the end of this list.

SCP: Secret Laboratory is a completely free multiplayer horror game set in the SCP universe, where several dozen players can clash on a single server. After a containment breach at a secret facility, scientists and security personnel try to escape, creatures released from their chambers attempt to kill everyone they encounter, and invading insurgents seek to seize control of the complex, turning every match into unpredictable mayhem. Much of the experience revolves around voice chat and iconic SCP entities such as the faceless SCP-173, which only moves when nobody is looking at it — if the entire team blinks at the wrong moment, it can suddenly be standing right next to you. For a completely free game, SCP: Secret Laboratory has an unexpectedly large and dedicated community that has kept its servers active for years.

There is no official mobile version of Phasmophobia — Kinetic Games has only released the game on PC and consoles. Any “Phasmophobia Mobile” files you find online are fake: at best, they are amateur imitations; at worst, they are malware disguised as installers. Mobile horror has developed its own scene, though, and below are several established games for Android and iOS — both cooperative and single-player — that offer similar thrills without putting your smartphone at risk.

Specimen Zero is probably the closest mobile game to Phasmophobia in spirit: a first-person co-op horror game where a team of up to four players explores a dark complex, gathers items, and hides from a monster roaming the corridors. It features voice chat, several maps, and multiple difficulty settings, while the controls have been properly redesigned for touchscreens instead of feeling like a direct PC port. The visuals are surprisingly solid for a mobile horror game, and the game is available for free through Google Play and the App Store.

Horrorfield is an asymmetric multiplayer game in the vein of Dead by Daylight, compressed into a mobile format: four survivors face one killer. The survivors repair equipment around the map, search for keys, and try to reach the exit, while the player controlling the killer hunts them one by one and attempts to make sure nobody escapes alive. Each character has a distinct role and set of abilities — one may be better at healing teammates, while another repairs machinery faster — so escaping without teamwork is difficult. Matches last around five to seven minutes and fit the mobile format perfectly: you can finish a round while standing in line or during a break without committing to a long session. The game is free with optional in-app purchases and is available on Android and iOS.

Eyes: Scary Thriller is a veteran of mobile horror, centered on a haunted mansion and familiar to many players from the early years of Android. The objective sounds simple but quickly becomes stressful: collect bags of money scattered across several floors and escape while the ghost Krasue roams the corridors. The game’s signature mechanic is a set of mystical eyes hidden throughout the mansion: picking one up lets you briefly see the building from the ghost’s perspective and plan a safer route in advance. It is a single-player game, but also one of the most downloaded titles in the genre and an easy way to find out whether this kind of horror appeals to you without spending anything.

Roblox is the easiest way to play something resembling Phasmophobia for free: developers on the platform have long since recreated the ghost-hunting formula, and these modes can run even on low-end devices and smartphones. Naturally, their production values do not match full Steam releases, but for an evening session with classmates after school, they do exactly what they need to do — and cost nothing.

SPECTER 2 is the best-known Phasmophobia clone in Roblox and a direct sequel to the original SPECTER. It follows the formula closely: a team of ghost hunters, haunted houses, EMF detectors, spirit boxes, and identifying the ghost type based on gathered evidence. There is also a progression system and regular updates introducing new locations, giving players plenty of reasons to keep returning. For a free Roblox experience, SPECTER 2 looks and sounds surprisingly serious — the jump scares can genuinely catch you off guard, even when everyone in the group thinks they are used to them.

Paranormica was built directly around the Phasmophobia blueprint: paranormal investigations, evidence gathering, and the same familiar EMF detectors, spirit boxes, thermometers, and cameras. Its core mechanic closely mirrors the original — you have to compare the signs recorded in the in-game journal, determine exactly which type of ghost is haunting the house, and then get out before it begins hunting. You can play alone or with a small team, and investigations become much more fun in co-op: while one player checks the instruments, another can keep watch over the corridor. The atmosphere is among the strongest of Roblox horror experiences — its darkness and sound design work almost as effectively as they do in some full-priced games.

DOORS is Roblox’s biggest horror game, with billions of visits: it takes place in a hotel where any of a hundred doors may conceal one of dozens of entities. Every monster follows its own survival rules: you have to hide in a wardrobe from Rush, quickly turn around when Screech appears, and simply avoid looking at Eyes altogether. The game can be played solo or with a team of up to four players, and it is in co-op that DOORS becomes a particularly entertaining horror experience in the spirit of Phasmophobia, where half the screaming comes from false alarms.

Apeirophobia is Roblox’s take on the Backrooms: a team of up to four players searches for a way out of endless yellow corridors while solving puzzles and running from the entities that inhabit them. The levels follow one another and gradually become more difficult: in one, you may need to memorize a code; in another, sneak past a blind monster by relying on sound; elsewhere, the main challenge is simply not losing track of your teammates in the darkness. In terms of atmosphere, it is closest to Escape the Backrooms from the “full-sized” games covered above — the same liminal spaces and the same feeling that you could stay lost forever, only here it is free and available directly through a browser or on a phone. For a long evening with friends when you want some scares without installing a demanding game, it is an excellent option.

The closest alternative is Demonologist: the same four-player co-op, evidence gathering, ghost identification, and gadget-based investigation, but with a mandatory exorcism ritual and Unreal Engine 5 visuals. Ghost Watchers and Ghost Exile come next, with both adding spirit capture and exorcism mechanics to the familiar formula.

No, there is no official mobile version of Phasmophobia — Kinetic Games releases the game only on PC and consoles. Any APK files called “Phasmophobia Mobile” are unofficial fakes and can be dangerous to install on a smartphone. Specimen Zero and Horrorfield offer a somewhat similar experience on Android and iOS, as do Phasmophobia-inspired modes in Roblox.

There are no fully free Phasmophobia clones on PC, but there are several games with a similar feel: the multiplayer horror game SCP: Secret Laboratory on Steam, as well as Roblox modes such as SPECTER 2 and Paranormica, which reproduce the ghost-hunting mechanics almost one for one and are completely free. Among paid alternatives, Boo Men and Pacify are some of the cheapest options.

Yes. Almost all direct alternatives — Demonologist, Ghost Watchers, Ghost Exile, and FOREWARNED — can be played solo, although their balance is still designed around a team. Eyes: Scary Thriller and DEVOUR also work as full solo experiences, while Lethal Company and R.E.P.O. quickly lose much of their appeal when played alone.

Yes. The genre consists mostly of indie games with modest system requirements: Pacify, In Silence, White Noise 2, and Boo Men can run even on office laptops with integrated graphics. Phasmophobia itself and Demonologist require a somewhat more powerful graphics card, but neither needs a high-end gaming PC.

SPECTER 2 and Paranormica are the closest matches, with both recreating the Phasmophobia formula: a team of ghost hunters, EMF detectors, spirit boxes, and identifying the ghost type based on collected evidence. For cooperative monster hide-and-seek, DOORS and Apeirophobia are also good options. All of them are free and can even be played on mobile.

Which Phasmophobia alternative has impressed you the most? Tell us in the comments which game has produced the most screams from your group and which one you would recommend to a newcomer picking up a spirit box for the first time.

Опрос: A ghost has moved into your place. Who are you calling?

1. The Phasmophobia crew with a spirit box

2. A Demonologist squad with a banishing ritual

3. Content Warning streamers — at least the views will pay for repairs

4. SPECTER 2 kids from Roblox — cheap and fearless

5. Nobody — we'll split the rent

Co-op horror games are released so often that even the three dozen titles in this selection are far from the limit. Beyond the specific “games like Phasmophobia” formula, the genre is only getting broader: studios are experimenting with submarines, reporter cameras, and hardcore raids, while classic scary games built around playing with friends are not going anywhere. If you want to dig deeper — from Resident Evil to indie gems — check out our list of the best horror games of all time. Below are three more projects that did not make the main list but work particularly well with a group of friends.

The Headliners sends a team of reporters into a city overrun by anomalies to capture sensational footage. Much like in Content Warning, the camera is both your main tool and your main source of income: the more dangerous and spectacular the material you bring back, the higher the episode’s rating and the larger the payout, which can then be spent on better equipment. Between outings, the team prepares for the next report and divides responsibilities — one person handles the camera, another lights the way and watches everyone’s back. You can play alone, but the game works best with four players, especially when one person is trying to keep the shot steady while another drags the cameraman away from the latest creature.

Murky Divers can easily be described as “Lethal Company underwater”: the crew of a fragile submarine dives toward flooded laboratories to steal and destroy evidence against a corporation while creatures circle through the murky darkness outside. Operating the vessel is a shared responsibility — one player takes the controls, another watches the sonar, someone else ventures outside with a flashlight — and any moment of panic can instantly turn a coordinated dive into chaos filled with shouting and collisions inside the cramped compartments. Between expeditions, the crew turns in recovered loot at the base and patches up the submarine for the next dive. Co-op supports up to eight players, so there is more than enough room for entertaining chaos.

GTFO is for players who stopped finding Phasmophobia scary a long time ago: a brutal four-player cooperative shooter built around raids into an infested underground complex, where a team without coordination, silence, and clearly assigned roles may not survive even ten minutes. At first, the squad creeps past sleeping creatures, conserving every bullet and speaking in low voices, but one mistake can turn the entire expedition into a desperate last stand fought with the final scraps of ammunition, where someone else’s error can get all four players killed. The expeditions are difficult and demand genuine coordination, so every victory has to be earned.