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Horror games about madness

In these games the mind gives way. A sanity or stress meter climbs as you face the dark, and when it breaks your sight and hearing distort, your crew or heroes turn on you, and you can no longer trust what is in front of you. Others follow a character who hears voices or sees things, so the fear comes from not knowing which parts of the world are real.

The top 30 of 56 horror games about madness, ranked by player and critic scores

The 30 best, 2026

  1. Lobotomy Corporation key art: the AI Angela, eyes closed, in a lab coat with long pale hair, on a black background 2D horrorLobotomy CorporationPsychic trauma can drive employees insane, so that they ignore orders, turn on each other or are brainwashed. 94% on Steam (58,014 reviews)59 h or morePaidPC
  2. Sucker for Love: Prelude key art: the pink title on a green heart beside Ln'eta, green-skinned with pink eyes and wrapped in tentacles AnimeSucker for Love: PreludeThe store asks you to keep your mind from spiralling into insanity while you woo her. 96% on Steam (532 reviews)about 24 minFreePC
  3. Downfall key art: the title in an ornate white frame on a dark cracked wall, blood dripping below and a man sitting hunched in the corner PsychologicalDownfallThe store calls it a tale of love, madness and murder, as the getaway slides from bad to worse to insanity. 94% on Steam (1,710 reviews)about 4.5 hPaidPC
  4. DISTRAINT: Deluxe Edition key art: Price in a shirt and tie among a couple with teacups, an old woman in a wheelchair with a rabbit and three bald men, under a looming red elephant PsychologicalDISTRAINT: Deluxe EditionCritics describe the story as the main character's spiral descent into insanity as his guilt turns his surroundings into nightmares. 93% on Steam (12,970 reviews)about 2 hPaidPC, PlayStation, Xbox, Switch
  5. The Last Door: Season 2 screenshot: a man in a dark coat stands by a glowing gas lamp on a night street before an old brick house PsychologicalThe Last Door: Season 2 - Collector's EditionYou uncover forbidden knowledge that may be driving you mad, closer to the heart of madness than ever before 94% on Steam (992 reviews)about 8 hPaidPC, Mac, Linux, iPhone
  6. Isolomus key art: a green three-fingered plasticine hand and a large pale human hand almost touching fingertips against black PsychologicalIsolomusThe maker calls it the scream of a consciousness dying in isolation, an interactive experience of madness. 95% on Steam (418 reviews)about 15 minPaidPC, Linux, Switch
  7. Darkest Dungeon key art: a masked swordsman, a plague doctor and a highwayman with pistol and dagger stand before walls of skulls in a red-lit crypt 2D horrorDarkest DungeonStress builds in every hero, and at the breaking point they can turn paranoid, masochistic, fearful or irrational. 92% on Steam (163,343 reviews)56 h or morePaidPC, Mac, Linux, PlayStation, Xbox, Switch, iPhone
  8. True Fear: Forsaken Souls Part 2 key art: title beside a pale cracked-mask figure holding a finger to its lips, in a dark hole in cracked blue ice PsychologicalTrue Fear: Forsaken Souls Part 2The story turns on the question of whether Holly's mother was crazy, told through notes and photographs in an asylum. 92% on Google Play (42,600 ratings)about 8 hPaidPC, Mac, PlayStation, Xbox, Switch, iPhone, Android
  9. HUMAN key art: the title in glowing, scratched white strokes over a dark, empty concrete corridor lit by a single bare ceiling bulb PsychologicalHUMANIts maker sets it somewhere between sanity and madness, where illusions become reality. 94% on Game Jolt (627 ratings)about 30 minFreePC
  10. Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice key art: Senua in silhouette stands among wildflowers before a great tree lit by golden sunlight and falling leaves PsychologicalHellblade: Senua's SacrificeSenua lives with psychosis, and the game was made with neuroscientists and people who experience psychosis. 90% on Steam (76,810 reviews)about 7.5 hPaidPC, PlayStation, Xbox, Switch
  11. The Consuming Shadow Insanity Edition key art: the title in black letters on a red glow, ringed by dim occult glyphs 2D horrorThe Consuming ShadowA sanity meter drains when you flee monsters or make bad choices, bringing hallucinations and, at its lowest, the choice of suicide. 93% on Steam (330 reviews)PaidPC
  12. Traum key art: Mike asleep on his desk over highlighted paperwork, with a mug and a framed photo of him and his wife beside him PsychologicalTraumSteam players describe it as a game about insanity and hallucinations, one man's slide into doubt, guilt and shame. 92% on Steam (383 reviews)about 2 hFreePC
  13. The Song of Saya key art: Saya, a girl with long dark green hair in a white dress, with pale glowing wings against a starry sky PsychologicalThe Song of SayaThe Steam page says that after Fuminori meets Saya, his madness begins to infect the world. 89% on Steam (10,476 reviews)about 4 hPaidPC
  14. Dreams in the Witch House key art: old gabled houses and bare trees under a green night sky, one attic window glowing purple 2D horrorDreams in the Witch HouseWalter's sanity is a stat you must keep up as the dreams and otherworldly threats grow. 91% on Steam (399 reviews)about 7.5 hPaidPC
  15. To Do List cover art: a dark pixel-art figure with a wide white grin and glowing eyes sits on a hill under a grey sky, hugging something red PsychologicalTo Do ListReviewers describe the cheerful hero's slow slide into madness over his seven days of chores 92% on itch.io (643 ratings)about 30 minPay what you wantBrowser, PC
  16. Para Eyes key art: a pale, bald figure with goggles and cables plugged into its head reaches out in front of a wall of glowing green monitors PsychologicalPara EyesA sanity meter drains with every anomaly you miss, and the night ends if it reaches zero. 96% on Steam (152 reviews)PaidPC
  17. Asleep: Act 1 key art: a frightened girl runs with a flashlight past lockers, a clawed shadow hand behind her and a small figure in a red-lit doorway PsychologicalAsleep: Act 1A sanity meter shaped like a light bulb drains in the dark; when it empties, monsters become harder to dodge. 92% on Steam (316 reviews)about 2.5 hPaidPC, Mac, Linux
  18. Sanitarium key art: a single bloodshot green eye staring out between strips of rough bandage PsychologicalSanitariumThe store describes a dark world where a very thin line separates senses from madness 84% on Google Play (1,710 ratings)about 9 hPaidPC, Mac, Linux, iPhone, Android
  19. Who's at the door? key art: a pale, wide-eyed doll-like face seen through a green door peephole against black PsychologicalWho's at the door?The hero lives with hallucinations, and the press release describes the protagonist as having schizophrenia. 90% on Steam (1,662 reviews)about 1.5 hPaidPC, PlayStation, Switch
  20. Bad Dream: Stories art: an ink-drawn butcher's cleaver with a bloody notch beside a severed finger on stained yellow paper PsychologicalBad Dream: StoriesThe maker promises fear, madness, helplessness and sadness, and Butcher's town is haunted by a madman 94% on Steam (117 reviews)about 2 hPaidPC
  21. Vlad Circus: Descend Into Madness key art: a balding clown in white gloves and a loose tie clutches his face and screams upward, lit teal above and red below in dark smoke PsychologicalVlad Circus: Descend Into MadnessA stress meter replaces health, and as it fills Oliver hears whispers and blacks out, waking somewhere else in the house. 89% on Steam (205 reviews)about 4.5 hPaidPC, PlayStation, Xbox, Switch
  22. CHAOS;HEAD NOAH key art: Rimi, a pink-haired schoolgirl with a large winged blade, and Takumi with a sheathed sword, seen from above on cracked grey concrete PsychologicalCHAOS;HEAD NOAHTakumi slips into positive and negative delusions until he cannot tell what he imagined from what he saw 88% on Steam (1,211 reviews)29 h or morePaidPC, Switch
  23. Knock-knock key art: the red-haired Lodger in a scarf holds up a glowing candle while a huge shadowy skull-faced figure looms among dark branches PsychologicalKnock-knockThe goal of each night is to reach dawn with the Lodger's threadbare sanity intact 87% on Steam (2,087 reviews)about 3 hPaidPC, Mac, Linux, PlayStation, Xbox, Switch, iPhone
  24. Funerama key art: a black-and-white dithered banner with the blackletter title, a pine forest on a hill and a blurred pale face, with the words a game by Thibault Rivera PsychologicalFuneramaThe story follows the slow degradation and dissolution of a novelist's sick mind. 98% on itch.io (63 ratings)about 30 minFreeBrowser
  25. The Well Speaks to Me key art: a white sketch of a stone well with a rope on black, beside the jagged hand-drawn title and a purple corner marked 1 PsychologicalThe Well Speaks to MeThe maker's line for it is that you can't stop her from going insane, and her remarks grow stranger day by day. 92% on itch.io (109 ratings)about 25 minPay what you wantPC
  26. Lovecraft's Untold Stories key art: pixel-art Earth in a starry sky ringed by purple tentacles, a horned goddess, a pale ghoul and a winged, tentacle-faced Cthulhu 2D horrorLovecraft's Untold StoriesWrong choices in events drain your sanity, and an investigator who goes mad takes their own life 86% on Google Play (2,230 ratings)about 6 hPaidPC, Mac, PlayStation, Xbox, Switch, iPhone, Android
  27. Touch of Madness key art: a faceless man in a hat holding a revolver in red lines beside a long-haired figure in white, with pairs of red eyes in the dark above them PsychologicalTouch of MadnessNeo is a man lost in his own mind, and the places he crosses shift with his grip on reality. 100% on Steam (87 reviews)about 1 hPaidPC
  28. The Floor Above key art: a gagged man in a red jumpsuit sits in a chair with a snarling ginger cat on his lap, beside the title PsychologicalThe Floor AboveSome anomalies are only fragments of Mike's imagination, and you blink to tell which. 89% on Steam (279 reviews)about 3 hPaidPC
  29. Death Frame key art: a hooded skeletal ghost with glowing blue eyes reaches out of a dark picture frame toward the viewer, beside the title PsychologicalDeath FrameDiaries trace a mind consumed by madness, and the madness grows stronger the further you go. 97% on Steam (59 reviews)about 2 hPaidPC, PlayStation, Switch
  30. Omen Exitio: Plague key art: a pale hand with rosary beads holds a glowing Earth while purple tentacles curl around it PsychologicalOmen Exitio: PlagueThe investigation strains your sanity, and the story keeps asking whether you are simply going insane. 85% on Steam (496 reviews)about 6 hPaidPC, Mac, Linux, Switch, iPhone

Short enough for one evening

Done in an hour or so

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11 games

Every game of the kind

More picks

Scores are those players and critics give on the stores and sites named; each game's page says where.

More kinds of horror

  1. Short horror games621
  2. Psychological horror games530
  3. Horror games with multiple endings417
  4. Horror puzzle games341
  5. Survival horror games259
  6. 2D horror games254
  7. PS1 horror games233
  8. Stealth horror games180
  9. Horror escape games164
  10. Surreal horror games145
  11. Horror visual novels137
  12. Anime horror games132
  13. Haunted house games131
  14. Mystery and detective horror games127
Every genre

Where you play

  1. Steam horror games1009
  2. Epic horror games97
  3. GOG horror games270
  4. itch.io horror games592
  5. PC horror games1337
  6. Mac horror games391
  7. Linux horror games261
  8. PlayStation horror games404
  9. Xbox horror games367
  10. Switch horror games317
  11. Mobile horror games188
  12. VR horror games69
  13. Browser horror games236
  1. Scary games1456
  2. Free horror games561
Every game, A to Z