By Paula Beaton It’s October, and that can only mean one thing: spooky season is here! Love them, hate them, or are too scared to try them but love watching a playthrough, the best horror games to play on Xbox are perfect for this time of year.
We’ve rounded up 30 of the best horror games on Xbox right now. Some of these are classics, some are more recent releases, but all will leave you wondering whether it’s safe to turn out the lights…
We’re starting off strong with one of the best horror games to play on Xbox, period. Alan Wake 2. The sequel to Alan Wake sees you play as two protagonists: FBI agent Saga Anderson and Alan Wake himself, blending action-adventure and survival horror as you investigate small-town ritualistic murders and take on supernatural enemies. There’s also an option to reduce the “horror flash” jump scares, if you’re not feeling brave.
If you prefer stealth to taking down monsters, Alien Isolation is a lesson in how to imbue a game with a creeping, pervasive sense of dread. I’m not kidding when I say this is the most tense I’ve ever been when playing a horror game. You play as Ellen Ripley’s daughter, Amanda and must stalk the alien — or is it stalking you? — through the seemingly abandoned Sevastopol Station to uncover the truth behind your mother’s disappearance. I can’t wait for the sequel next year!
House of Ashes might be my favorite Dark Pictures game — it reminds me of The Descent (2005). Set in Iraq in 2003, you play as five different characters, all part of a military unit sent to investigate a suspected underground chemical weapons facility near the Zagros Mountains. Following an ambush which causes sinkholes to open in the ground, something evil awakens in the remains of a buried Sumerian temple, and you’re nothing but prey to these ancient creatures.
Layers of Fear is one of those games I’ve never played, only watched others play. That was enough. The 2023 reimagining and remake of the 2016 classic combines the first two games alongside a new story and for anyone who loves psychological horror and narrative-driven games, it’s a must-play.
There are loads of Dark Pictures titles to choose from, but I think Little Hope is one of the best horror games to play on Xbox, particularly this Halloween. In this choice-driven game, you play as one of four college students, stranded in the spooky town of Little Hope as a thick fog blankets everything. As you try to escape, you’ll witness terrifying visions of the past, haunted by the events of the XVIIth century Andover Witch Trials.
The remake of the 1998 classic is one of the best games in the franchise and lets you play individual campaigns for both Leon Kennedy and Claire Redfield. It’s packed with new puzzles, areas, and storylines, so even if you played the original, the Resident Evil 2 remake is worth your time!
I haven’t played Clive Barker’s Hellraiser: Revival yet, since it only came out on October 8th, 2026, but as a huge fan of the 80s Hellraiser movies, I’m going to at least watch a playthrough or try to brave the terror! This is the first Hellraiser game and a totally new chapter in the story, as you play as Aidan, who must use the mysterious power of The Genesis Configuration (a new puzzle box) to rescue his girlfriend Sunny from the Labyrinth. I’m looking forward to seeing my “favorite” Cenobites, including Chatterer, Deepthroat, and Butterball.
Watch our for our review of this, landing soon on the site.
I’ll admit that Amnesia: The Bunker scared me to death the first time I played it — it might even be one of the reasons I don’t play as many horror games today. This first-person horror is the scariest Amnesia game, in my opinion, and definitely one of the best horror games to play on Xbox. What could be worse than being alone, in a dark WWI bunker, with just one bullet in the barrel of your gun?
Another sci-fi horror entry, SOMA is one of the best horror games to play on Xbox if you’re a fan of the genre. Set deep beneath the ocean, you’re tasked with seeking out the remaining inhabitants of underwater facility PATHOS-II while avoiding an omnipresent AI, twisted monsters, and other creatures that lurk in the dark.
Whether you played The Sinking City or are new to the series, this one beats the original hands down, in my opinion. The Sinking City 2 has a 78 score on Metacritic and is set in a roaring 20’s port city during a supernatural flood. The same Lovecraftian terrors lurk in the darkness, but this time around, they’re even more terrifying! Compared to the open-world vibes of the first game, it’s a more focused survival horror adventure experience, with revamped melee and gunplay.
I was excited to play The Occultist from the first peek, and wasn’t disappointed. Paranormal investigator Alan Rebels travels to the island of Godstone to investigate the disappearance of his father, with the help of his Mystic Pendulum. If you’re a fan of stealth, the good news is that you’ll spend your time hiding and sneaking, using your pendulum to unravel mysteries and solving puzzles along the way. It’s a slow burn, and a little clunky in places, but overall a spooky experience!
Bloober Team smashed expectations out of the park with the Silent Hill 2 remake, a glorious homage to Konami’s 2001 cult horror hit. Whether you played the original game or are coming totally fresh to the franchise, it’s one of the best horror games to play on Xbox, period. As James Sunderland, you return to the eerie, fog-covered town of Silent Hill after receiving a letter from your wife Mary. Only, Mary died three years earlier…
It’s horror, but set in space — and Observation scared the daylights out of me when I played it. Tense, claustrophobic, haunting, and great if you prefer your horror slow burning and story driven. By controlling S.A.M., the space station’s artificial intelligence, you’ll help Dr. Emma Fisher discover what happened to her crew.
I can’t choose between Little Nightmares I and II and honestly, you should play both. In the first game, you play as Six, a nine-year old girl armed only with a lighter, while the second game, which acts as a prequel, sees you play as Mono, a little boy who wears a paper bag over his head, and together with Six, you must solve puzzles and escape a dark, distorted world.
Slay The Princess is a game I came late to, but a must-play for horror fans and one of the best horror games to play on Xbox. I don’t often play games multiple times for different endings as I find that tedious — but this is an exception. Your mission is simple: There’s a princess in a cabin in the woods and you must slay her, or the world will end. This is a visual novel, so there’s a lot of reading, and your choices impact the story — oh, and you’ll die, a lot. If all that sounds good to you, then this dark tragicomedy will be a memorable experience!
After 13 years in development limbo, Routine finally landed on Xbox just when we thought it would never see the light of day. It was worth the wait, and while it’s far from perfect, its 80s retro-futuristic setting on an abandoned lunar base is genuinely one of the scariest places you’ll ever explore in a game.
Did I mention that you’re totally on your own? There’s no maps, waypoint markers, or HUD to guide you, just your C.A.T. (Cosmonaut Assistant Tool) that will help you along the way. The sound design builds dread, the robots you encounter are unsettling and alarmingly strong, and you’ll need to hide and run to survive, and there’s a deep story to uncover here too.
The original Dead Rising games were some of the most fun you could have while taking on the zombie apocalypse (bashing a zombie’s brains in with a guitar, anyone?!) and the Dead Rising Deluxe Remaster is well worth your time whether you loved those games or are new to the franchise. The first game has had a full graphical overhaul and looks great, but you’ll still be able to take on zombies with all your favorite household objects!
If there’s a game on this list that stands out for sheer creepiness, my money’s on Luto. Psychological horror games get under your skin in a way that other games can’t and in Luto you are trapped in your home, venturing deeper into the unknown. That’s about all I can say without giving away the story, but don’t play this one in the dark. Or do, if you like that kind of thing.
Don’t waste your time with the film, but do play the original game it was based on as it’s one of the scariest and best horror games to play on Xbox! The Mortuary Assistant is set in 1980s Connecticut and you’re a newly hired mortuary assistant at a haunted mortuary. It’s a short game, but with multiple endings, you can play through several shifts to see what changes. I’d definitely recommend keeping the lights on for this one.
As a huge fan of zombie films and games, I can’t choose between these two. They’re very different experiences, with the original Dying Light more of a linear survival horror while Dying Light 2 has a branching, choice-driven narrative and more in-depth story. Both have hordes of zombies, fast-paced parkour, and a wide variety of melee weapons, firearms, and ranged weapons to find, buy, or craft. If pushed, I’d say I enjoyed the story of Dying Light 2 more than the first game, but it’s worth playing both.
Sometimes horror is the most fun when it’s a shared experience, and Phasmophobia checks off your ghost hunter ambitions while allowing you to team up with three friends. Hunt down over 20 different ghost types, explore more than 10 haunted locations, and use ghost hunting equipment like thermometers, spirit boxes, and EMF readers. If your friends love horror games as much as you do, this is a wild ride!
It’s an oldie but a goodie: The Evil Within remains one of the best horror games to play on Xbox! Released in 2014, it’s getting a bit long in the tooth now but is a classic reminiscent of original Resident Evil, with a unique, intricate story, limited resources, and terrifying enemies.
One of the more recent games on our list, Reanimal is from the original creators of the Little Nightmares series — but the world here is much darker and creepier. You can play solo alongside an AI or pair up with a friend — either way there are two characters to choose from: The Boy, armed with a lighter, or his sister, The Girl, with her lantern. You’re on a mission to rescue their friends from a hellish, monster-infested island and there are some genuinely terrifying moments.
As someone who loved the original Dead Space, I was excited for the 2023 reboot and the new Dead Space has been rebuilt from the ground up. Isaac Clarke is back to repair the mining ship the USG Ishimura, but something’s gone horribly wrong and all the crew have been slaughtered. Isaac must now hunt for his missing partner, Nicole, while uncovering what happened on the ship and surviving the unfolding nightmare. The Necromorphs are even more terrifying this time around, the sound design is eerie and atmospheric, and it’s a tense, claustrophobic experience.
It wouldn’t be a horror games roundup without a Backrooms game, and Escape the Backrooms is just about as much fun as you can have with your friends in the Backrooms, while also being terrified. Explore over 30 levels of the backrooms with up to three friends — don’t get lost as every team member must reach the exit alive to escape!
If you love classic survival horror games like Resident Evil, then Crow Country is hands down one of the best horror games to play on Xbox. It’s a charming modern homage to 32-bit titles with its low-poly art style and the creepy, abandoned amusement park setting is packed with sub-locations to explore. There’s a cozy vibe here that means it’s great if you’re looking to be scared, but not TOO scared.
Another Resident Evil classic makes the cut: Resident Evil 4 Remake sees you resume the role of Leon Kennedy as he tracks the president’s kidnapped daughter to a secluded European village, where something’s terribly wrong with the locals. With modernized gameplay, a reimagined storyline, and vividly detailed graphics, this is a must-play for fans of the 2005 survival horror, but is just as much fun if you’re new to Resident Evil.
Bloober Team’s 2025 game Cronos: The New Dawn is a brutal third-person sci-fi survival horror where you play as The Traveler, an agent of a post-apocalyptic organization called The Collective. You’ll use temporal rifts to travel back in time to 1980s Poland where you must extract vital essences from specific individuals before a catastrophic mutation event known as “The Change” wipes out humanity. With healing items and ammunition scarce, exploring the grim world is an incredibly tense experience — and expect jump scares.
I remember playing the original Fatal Frame games in the early 2000s, at a time when Japanese horror cinema was also gaining in popularity, so it’s great to see a remake of Fatal Frame II Crimson Butterfly come to Xbox. The second instalment in the series has been rebuilt from the ground up as you follow twin sisters lost in abandoned Minakami village haunted by vengeful spirits. All the terrifying moments from the original are still here, including the woman in the box!
If you’re looking for any more inspiration on what to play this month, check out our roundup of all the new games coming to Xbox in October.