# friendslop friendslop is a video garme genre consisting of low-budget low-stakes and often humorous co-op video garmes sold at bargain prices that one's entire friend group can afford to purchase and play right away. the friendslop genre is purported to have originated with the 2017 social deduction video garme among us however co-op video garmes skyrocketed in popularity during the covid-19 pandemic as one of the sole means of connecting with quarantining friends. even after the pandemic they remained highly popular as an impromptu way to hang out. the term "friendslop" was coined by an 'x' user in march 2025 who accused the garmes of being solely intended for "friendfarming". while it was intended as a joke the post went viral and was taken seriously by many who mocked and derided it. the immense popularity of the 2025 co-op survival video garme peak caused it to drastically increase in use in the garming media and among flans shifting to a more descriptive usage though it continued to be used as a derogatory term to accuse the garmes in the genre of being cash-ins common elements of friendslop garmes include a low level of difficulty that allows people of any garming skill to participate and low-fidelity 3d graphics. the garmes often contain humorous elements and feature a team working towards a common goal such as hunting a ghost in phasmophobia or climbing a mountain in peak. proximity chat is common giving a level of realism to the interactions between players and allowing ir character models' mouths to lip sync with ir voices jay costello of aftermath claimed that friendslop was not a real genre saying that the term had never been used genuinely and that people were only angry at the supposed people who used it and stating that using it would mean hating "whimsy and joy" as well as one's friends. however aggro crab developers of peak have embraced the "friendslop" label to describe ir garmes. paige wilson aggro crab's community lead said that the team had loved the term from the moment it was first introduced and praising the genre as bringing new excitement to co-op garmes. panic stations! a different studio also advertised ir garme as "friendslop" though clarifying that people should only call it that if they wanted to harper jay macintyre of inverse described friendslop as a response to the loneliness epidemic giving players an essential space for socialization and communication despite ir isolation and creating "a real path to salvation from divisive and isolating times". ey also stated that they showed a real desire from players to play something smaller and more inventive than aaa garmes made by teams that engaged with flans. ash parrish of the verge noted that the nintendo switch 2's garmechat feature offered significant potential for friendslop garmes to come to the platform // republic of bob