Rising trend of survival games?

There has been an increasing trend of survival video games sold  in the market. Zombie survivors, environmental survivor, post-apocalyptic survivor, horror survivors, sci-fi survivors, adventurous survivors and more. The survivor themed game play is where the player has to endure or fight just to continue playing. There is a sense of thrill in the fight for survival and the horrific feeling in dying.

DayZ

Zombie survivors are the common theme for the survivor genre. Players have to fight off zombie hordes in order to live another day. The sense of dread in the knowledge in managing the amount of bullets and medical supplies. The beautiful feeling of gratification in surviving a day of zombie hordes encourages players to push on.

DayZ is currently is most popular zombie survivor video games out there. Players can play as single player, co-op or online and explore a post-apocalyptic world where zombies horde are found everywhere. When night time comes, it get even scarier as players can only see using their flash lights and zombie easily gang up on them. Other online players can choose to attack other players in the course of the game. So, I guess its fair game for everyone.

Rust

Another popular survivor game is Rust. There are no zombie, monsters or any dangerous animals. It is a multi-player game where players are set to live in a vast open-world and can choose to either to make  friends to form alliances or enemies. So I guess its fair game, not a good game to make friends. Unlike DayZ, players can build structures to make a home and defenses against other players.

Don't Starve

Don't Starve, the game title says it all, find food to live another day. Players is set in a 2D world of which I'm guessing is inspired by Tim Burton (Demon of Fleet Street, Nightmare Before Christmas, Corpse Bride) because it is a creepy game. There is a brain meter which measures the character's sanity, if low the player will notice hallucinations appearing and hungry eyes in the shadows. Craft tools to collect resources and research to build new tools.

There are survivors game to come, each with its own premise and gimmick to entice players to try. I hope to see more kinds of survivors in the future.