Phasmophobia News

Phasmophobia broke its Steam concurrent player record on Halloween

Phasmophobia has been on a roll of late. Thanks in part to exposure from streamers and content creators it has held the top spot on Steam's global weekly top sellers list for the past three weeks in a row.

Given its spooky nature, a new update, and people social distancing indoors, everything was set up for the VR game to do particularly well on Halloween, and so it did. Checking SteamDB reveals that 112,717 people played Phasmophobia at its peak on pumpkin day, which is a new high for the game.

The occasion helped no doubt, but it's been holding firm enough since. Last night it peaked at 96,765 players, which is still a fair bit above the days leading up to Halloween. If you're a wuss like me and haven't played it, it's a four-player online co-op psychological horror game that tasks you with pulling together your ghost hunting equipment and giving a haunted house a shakedown - good luck with that. The indie game is currently in Early Access and is being put together by one person - making all the success all the more impressive.

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Steam Global Top Sellers for the Week ending 1 November 2020

View more information and data on SteamDB

Halloween Art Contest Winners

We recently announced a public art contest on our forums and discord servers. We got an insane amount of entries with so much amazing art work. So much creativity! If you entered thanks so much! After difficult discussions we finally managed to pick our five favourites and here they are!

Once again thank you to everyone who entered! It was inspiring to see so many people enter!

[h3]Entry by: Epesse[/h3]

[h3]Entry by: Allimonae[/h3]

[h3]Entry by: Dudu[/h3]

[h3]Entry by: Dell_the_Engie[/h3]

[h3]Entry by: Robyn[/h3]

[h2]Honourable Mention[/h2]
[h3]Entry by: Liron[/h3]

Thank you to everyone that submitted! We'll be doing more contests like this in the future!
If you entered and want to show your art off, you can post it in our fan-art section on the official Phasmophobia discord: discord.gg/Phasmophobia

Post Launch Update #3

[h2]Fixes[/h2]
* Fixed a bug where the microphone would reset in the audio options each game.
* Several optimisations to help with timeout disconnects.
* Potential fix for anyone on a University internet not being able to connect to the server.
* Fixed a bug where dead players couldn't use voice chat.
* Fixed a bug where the Non-VR pause menu would become unusable.
* Fixed a bug where dead players were able to use the walkie talkie.
* Fixed a bug where you could take a Photo outside of Edgefield and it would count as Dead Body evidence.
* Fixed some spots where you could glitch through walls on Tanglewood.
* Fixed some spots on the Farmhouse maps where the Ghost could get stuck.
* Fixed an issue where you could change the text style of your name.
* Fixed a bug where VR Toggle mute was set to hold and not toggle.
* Fixed a Non-VR bug where the pause menu screens would overlap.
* Fixed a bug where rebinding drop to left mouse button would make the main menu unusable.
* Potential fix for save files being corrupted if you crash.
* Fixed a bug where the Ghost wouldn't always lower the room temperature.
* Fixed a bug where changing the voice language wouldn't change the voice recognition language.
* Fixed an issue where your would get disconnected by client timeout when loading levels.
* Fixed a bug where your sanity would raise during a Ghost Event.
* Fixed a bug where the ghost death hands could be seen on cameras.
* Fixed a bug where you could take photos through walls/ doors.
* Fixed an issue where players with 1GB vram graphics cards would crash in multiplayer when loading into a level.
* Fixed a bug where the photo evidence names would be in different languages depending on who took the photo.
* Fixed a bug where your sanity would raise by 25 during one of the ghost events.
* Fixed a bug where the windows and door handles in some doors were still visible when you were dead.
* Fixed a bug where the Ghost Orb would sometimes get disabled.
* Fixed a bug where the Smudge Sticks smoke would last forever if you swapped it into your inventory.
* Fixed a bug where you could get the temperature through the wall when you were outside.
* Fixed an issue where objects could fall behind the truck shelves and be made unreachable.
* Fixed a bug where several player sound effects were not being affected by the master volume.
* Fixed a bug where the push to talk button had to be held down for 1 second after your question for it to register as a phrase.
* Fixed a bug where the default items daily challenge wouldn't complete.
* Fixed a bug where the thermometer would set off motion sensors.
* Ridgeview: Fixed a bug where the ghost orb would spawn outside of the basement.
* Fixed a bug where VR players would spawn outside the Truck if they were outside of their play space.
* Ridgeview: Fixed a bug where the ghost orb would spawn outside of the basement.
* Fixed a bug where the Ghost would try to throw items that were on the VR inventory belt.

[h2]Changes[/h2]
* Upgraded the server code to PUN2. This should fix most timeout disconnects and all voice chat issues.
* If your voice recognition is working you can no longer get a response on the Spirit Box just by talking, it will now only answer if you asked a question.
* Updated localisation.
* Lowered the pitch of the EMF Reader sound.
* Lowered the brightness of the lights on the main menu.
* The Australia server has been removed from the region selection.
* Ghost writing will now count for photo evidence.
* The lobby room list will no longer show empty or full rooms.
* Lowered the amount of sanity that you lose during a ghost event.
* The Ghost Orb and Bone will now spawn more towards the middle of the room.
* If your voice recognition stops working the Spirit Box will default to giving a random response by talking.
* The room temperature will no longer raise over time if the ghost leaves the room.
* Most of the save data has been moved off of the save file to help with optimisation and help prevent save files getting corrupted when you crash.
* The server invite code will now always be hidden by default.

[h2]New[/h2]
* Added a voice sensitivity slider in the audio options.
* The text on the Spirit Box will say what the response said.
* Added a copy button for the server invite code that can be used when the code is hidden.
* Added text to show the server version on the server password screen.
* Added a button to enter passwords from your clipboard.
* Added LIV support for VR.
* Additions for Halloween.

Phasmophobia outsells Baldur's Gate 3, Cyberpunk 2077 on Steam

Co-operative haunted house sim Phasmophobia is still reeling in sales, and staving off some major competition in the process. The horror game is atop the Steam top-sellers list for the second week in a row, outdoing Baldur's Gate 3, Cyberpunk 2077, and others on Valve's store.

A little over a month from first release, the immensely popular ghost game shows little sign of slowing down. Two weeks ago, the co-op game broke into the top five most-played games on Steam, with over 85,000 players at once. Now, it's held onto the number one spot as Steam's top-selling game for two weeks, holding steady against competition from The Outer Worlds, which just came out on Steam, Grand Theft Auto V, and Among Us, which has become firmly embedded in third place.

For many games, that wouldn't be so notable, but Phasmophobia was made by one person, and the fact developer Kinetic Games is bringing in more revenue - the measurement for the Steam top-sellers - than some of the largest, most respected studios in the industry is quite remarkable. What's more, between it and Among Us, you have four developers between two of the top three. It's nice to see small teams getting a look in among the juggernauts of the medium.

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