Top 10 Scariest Video Games of All Time

Amnesia is by far the scariest video game I have ever heard of. I have had trouble sleeping since 2010!
The scary thing about it is that you have no weapons, just a lantern, and that lantern runs out quickly.
If you're in the dark too long, you lose sanity.
When you lose sanity, you hallucinate stuff, hear things that aren't there and your character starts to move around by itself and gets harder to control. That means it's way harder to run away from a Gatherer!
Also, if your sanity goes all the way down, your character passes out and it restores completely, although when your passed out, your vulnerable.
Your lantern, or any kind of light completely attracts gatherers, and if you look at a nearby monster, your sanity harshly drops.
The graphics are really bad, but it's still enough to keep you awake all night.
I'm so happy to see this old 2010 game is still ranking high on 2017 Top Horror Games lists!
My brother rarely gets scared of video games, but he was terrified playing this one, while I haven't played the game myself, it does scare my unlike any other game I have seen. The sense of paranoia fuels the scare factor. And don't even get me started on the wine cellar, that area was TERRIFYING! It was a scary game alright, and scare us it did. While people go "SLENDER MAEN IS the BEAST GAEM ever! "... Really? Slender was nothing but jump scares, this game isn't like that at all. I don't know about anyone else, but when I play a horror game I want something to chase me, Amnesia: The Dark Descent did this perfectly without making it repetitive or stupid. You could play this game several times over and still get scared of it. In my opinion, the best horror game ever released.
The reason I vote for this is because of the way it scares the crap out of you.
It doesn't use a cheap, cheesy jump scare.
It doesn't have scripted events that you expect to happen after a while.
It doesn't let you look at where the monsters are.
Instead, it builds up dread, tenses up the atmosphere to the point where you get skittish of every change in the light. It randomizes the monster encounters, making their encounters that much scarier. And with the sanity counter, you can't afford to lose it looking at the monsters.
Outlast was decent, but the jump scares got repetitive and predictable. Silent Hill was extremely close (I would've voted for it a couple years back) but had its moments, and don't get me started on FNAF. I'm sorry if it sounds like I'm rambling here, but Amnesia is hands-down the most terrifying game I've seen.
I can't even bring myself to play it myself. Once upon a time, I first saw this game when my dad got it, saying "oh, hey, I got this new creepy little game, I'll play it tonight! " I was 7 at the time, and my siblings were only a bit older. Little did we know it wasn't just a creepy little game.
We watched our dad play it for maybe an hour or so every night, but when literally all my siblings, including me, became WAY TOO SCARED of this game to the point where we couldn't go the bathroom by ourselves, or open doors or go in dark room; heck, we were too terrified to to anything alone. Our dad then decided he shouldn't play it anymore...
Now, several years later, my older siblings bought it again, and we didn't know whether to be excited... Or really, really nervous.
We waited until midnight... Turned off all the lights and turned the volume really high... And yeah, we're all too scared of candles and lanterns now. And hallways. And all that good stuff. I guess that ...more

This one is all about atmosphere. And a sense of hopelessness. That is what makes is scary to me. Lighting, or lack thereof, and creepy/strange sounds all add to a truly absorbing setting, and make you feel as if you could be attacked from anywhere, at any time, by pretty much anything. Also, you can feel the sheer terror of the supporting characters, which only adds to your own. Fantastic game.
To be more specific, the game is set on a giant mining ship that has sent out a distress signal and you're part of the rescue team that's been ordered to investigate. You soon discover that every crewmember has mutated into a violent monster. When most of your team is killed it's up to you to rescue the dark and claustrophobic ship while aliens jump out at you from every corner. It's tense, bleak and immersive, thanks to a superbly designed setting and some truly creepy audio.
One of the few modern horrors that focus on atmospere, the creepy dark and flickering lighting, the corpses gore and blood pools, the disturbing enemies, and the hopelessness. These create tense and scary areas, and the enemy placement creates climaxes to keep the game from getting boring while creating jump scares, and intense and frantic firefights. I'm glad the other two sequels stayed true to the original.
A truly terrifying experience. I had gotten the game from a friend who wanted to see my reaction to it. He forgot to mention it was a horror game. I've never been more scared and terrified in my life. Every step you take requires so much courage and fortitude, because in any room, in any hallway, those harbingers of death and destruction, the necromorphs, can be waiting to end you once and for all.
I got a 13 year old kid and he's scared of the game. It's annoying cause he keeps yelling. It could scare adults too. I played it once and when I saw slender. I didn't make me scared or anything. I also saw slender in real life and it scared me so hard. Lucky he's gone. I almost died when that happened. But I survived
Slender is a game where no matter how old or young you are you will always be scared by Slender. Creepy music followed be whispering in your ear and random blood all over the walls, you cannot argue that Slender will always scare the crap out of you!
You're walking through a forest at night. You pick up a page that says something like "LEAVE ME ALONE. " Then this ominous thudding music kicks in. The next thing you know Slender man is standing in front of you and it's game over.
This game is the scariest one that I played. And I like it SO much because it's a different kind of scary, it's simple, and scares the crap outta people. The simplicity of it makes it scary.

As opposed to bland jump scares, Silent Hill 2 is disturbing as it is iconic. Games like Resident Evil 4 and Dead Space just shove something scary in your face, but SH2 makes you walk away from the game mentally disturbed.
Probably my favorite game of all time. Don't know about now, but it scared me back in the day. I constantly found myself pacing back and forth or just standing still with the profound dilemma of whether I even should proceed to the next room or simply continue down a pitch black hallway or not. Yeah. That nerve wracking, numb-with-fear, stop-dead-in-your-tracks kinda scare. Oh and ofc probably the best game OST ever in terms of ambiance, which was actually probably the biggest contributing factor as to why it's so scary. But others would definitely be the empty/quite town, the thick fog, the alarmingly unconcerned people you meet, the eerily "human-like" creatures with their "thingy" textures and features, which never really poses any physical threat yet still manages to make you wanna take another route if possible. Just to give you an idea of what it felt like; it always bothered me as soon as James made a teeny weeny sound -for instance those creaks from turning a locked doorknob, ...more
Scary, just plain scary. I'm not scared of huge monsters, I'm scared of a seemingly normal everyday place with unknown things coming at you, things that are realistic
Dude how is this not #1? An have you played this game?! This has scary pop-ups and makes you feel scared while you play it.
A very scary, disturbing and umm... Frontal game (you know what I mean) But I found the ending disappointing. And the second one I haven't seen the ending but I hope it's a lot better. In conclusion: messed up imagery, not knowing much, somewhat gross and creepy characters, all make a scary game.
I watched my boyfriend play this game and it was so scary, we were screaming at every turn. I mean you can't go wrong with an abandoned asylum with crazy people running around. Plus you are unarmed, you run or hide and it makes it that much scarier and heart wrenching.
Got in on the PS4 and played it around 3am with a friend. Even with someone there this game was completely terrifying and has tremendous amounts of mental buildup before a single corpse (let alone enemy) appears. Story isn't anything special but as for flat-out horror, it excels.
The only reason this isn't #1 is because it just came out and hasn't had time to be voted on like the rest of these. Trust me, it's definitely number one.

It's sad that few have never, or even heard of this game. I think it should at least be in the top 100. When you first start the game, you will probably be confused about what to do. However, at the same time, you get this strange feeling that something is about to pop out and kill you. I never played the game, but this is what I saw when my friend was playing it at his house, and I came in once in a while to watch him: You seem to be a security guard watching security cameras. As time goes on, the teddy bears start doing strange and scary things. Then a bear appears in your room, and the lights go out. Then the bear jumps out at you from the shadows, and the screen gets all statically, and the screen then changes to words: Game Over.
I absolutely adore this name. It's challenging, incredibly so, and Scott uses jumpscares differently. He doesn't just flash it in your face and wait until the suspense builds again. He tells you it's coming, gives you cams to figure out when, and the paranoia of knowing those facts make them all the more effective. Plus, even after the original terror has worn off, you can spend hours and hours pacing a room or searching the internet and developing your own theory for what happened in this twisted restaurant. Deep, disturbing, and so scary you may think twice about going back to Chuck E. Cheese's for your birthday this year.
This is possibly one of the scariest games in ages. If you're a first timer on this game, I can explain what you do. Just make sure you read this carefully. You work as a security guard at the magical place where fantasy and fun come to life called Freddy Fazbear's Pizza. There are four main antagonists in this game, the leader being Freddy Fazbear, Bonnie the Bunny, Chica the Chicken, and Foxy the Pirate Fox. Your main objective is to watch the cameras and check your doors when one of the animatronics gets too close. Bonnie is usually the first one to leave the stage followed by Chica. Watch for those two first. You have to survive all the nights without running out of power. Also, make sure you listen to everything that a man named Phone Guy tells you to do. You might not hear from him anymore after Night 4. There is also one mysterious animatronic in the game called Golden Freddy. He can get to your office wether the doors are closed or not, so watch out for him. That's all and ...more
I really respect this game. It brings an original new idea on how to play the game and it has a really creepy atmosphere with genuinely creepy looking enemies. It was disappointing that they had to use a jump scare when you die, other than that; it's great! I just wish the fanbase didn't ruin it like the creepypasta fanbase did with Ben Drowned. After the 2nd FNAF game it became kind off cliche and just plain stupid. The 2nd game introduced new ways for the enemies to kill you like the vent and not keeping the music box wound up. The 3rd and 4th are just boring, and FNAF World just looks like crap.

I haven't played many of the titles on this list, so my opinion may be invalid. The amount of time that I spent wiping sweat off my controller during the first survival sequence in the village square added up to more time than I spent on the game itself.
Nothing makes you wet your pants more than a regenerator reviving itself after you have waisted all of your ammo shooting at its head only to see it completely healed just moments later.
Lots of ammo. Tons of enemies everywhere and a strong tough protaganist. This is a great game but I feel it is more action than horror. Its got elements of horror but I can't call this that scary.
I just would like to put it out there that resident evil 4 is the greatest game ever for any reason. I have my wet pants to prove it.

Cursed me with insomniac and nightmares for weeks and weeks, and whenever the name "dead guy" is mentioned, my sins have time to go to jupiter.
My dad has this game and even the cover looks scary!
Manhunt 2 is very, very dark and actually spooks me.
This game gave me goosebumps!

What you may also wish to consider is that, bar its own sequel, no game in the top 10 here are anywhere near as old as the original Silent Hill. In this era detail wasn't what it is now, and the PSOne (or anything Gen 5 systeem) could never take anything like a regenerator. I know it's been said countless times but, this game laid the foundation for horror in gaming, arguably even more so than the 2 Resident Evil games that already existed at the time of it's release.
This game touched me deep inside, Besides the horror that scared the fritz out of me when I first played it at night and the down right sic monsters, the story showed so much! I stand to my answer, Silent hill is pure perfection!
Should be in the first places, even the poor quality of the graphics or animation, the atmosphere in the game and every scenery is enough to scare anyone.
I have only ever watched my friend play it, I couldent build up the nerve to give it a shot. My friend couldent even finish it. I want to hear if anyone acually can finish it AND say they didn't get scared. If I hear this I will declare you a LIAR! I almost peed watching my friend play. I loved it though and acually do want to play it. Wish me luck...

I played this when I was around ten years old. It was so scary that I didn't even get past 3 missions. I never even finished the game. Your flashlight will come very much in handy but you can't use your weapon at the same time. The graphics of this game still hold up in 2020. If you love horror then I definitely recommend checking this game out.
This is the scariest game at level 2 mars city underground when the radio chatter starts chatting. I played this since I was like 4 or 5 years old when the lights when out I got so scared also my therapist said that to me he got scared too when the lights when out I played this so many times. This came back in 2004 for the PC and 2005 for the Xbox So this is more better than Resident Evil 4.
Nope not so scary but when I was 10 years old in 2011 my therapist said he played Doom 3 he liked it I was in 4th grade when he told me When hebllayed that mission where the lights when off he got really scared! So I played this as a childhood when I was 4 or 5 years old until I was 10. Ugh... I even couldn't sleep I had nightmares I was scared my parents were with me had jumpscares too!
Holy! @#$, this is terrifying! I've seriously never played a game that's scarier than this. It's ridiculously frightening, every single moment. There's not a second where you're not on the edge of your seat. Easily the scariest game of all time.

Even though I haven't played the Dead Space games, if the eye poke machine mini-game from this installment is anything to go by, you'll be thanking God that you don't live in a reality with that kind of nightmare fuel. Also, seeing the Necromorph transformations on YouTube firsthand will probably have me scarred for a day or two until then. Truly the perfect blend of science fiction and survival horror.
Most beautiful graphics to see the blood & deads. Nice storyline to give you the adrenaline.
It's the future of horror.
This should be in the top three easy. Kids these days don't know good horror.

Fear is such a great game, but the remakes are nowhere near as scary as the original. (extraction point and perseus mandate) Fear 2 and 3 are more action than horror and are never going to be as scary.
I usually enjoy FPS games, but not this one. I quickly quit this game because it is just too scary.
The best thing about this game is it has both ghosts and humans as enemies
This game was so scary, it's understandable why it was cancelled. I couldn't just imagine how terrifying Silent Hills would be if it wasn't cancelled and Kojima wasn't kicked out of Konami. Just the demo of the game is enough to nearly make me pass out. Sure, other horror games made me scared and run out of my room, but none are enough to make me pass out like PT. I would also think that if Silent Hills was released, it would be very controversial.
For real I've never been scared of a game before but this was crazy, not surprised it got cancelled its seriously terrifying! Quite F'd up as well with a dead fetus in the sink, the storyline being of a horrible nature, all the twists and turns, not many jump scares BUT NONE ARE NEEDED it's freaky enough without them but it certainly adds to the whole atmosphere. Everything changes as you go round and round but yet it's all the same, you will see it and think wow it's repetitive, but, trust me if you have a ps4 or somebody you know has one download Silent Hills P.T (playable teaser) I guarantee you, it will leave you bones feeling icy cold...
This was the first horror game I was actually scared while playing. Most games have jump scares that sometimes work on me. But this game made me not want to go down the halls and see what's next. It's a real shame Silent Hills was canceled after they showed off this masterpiece. "Is it the best horror game? " No, it is only a demo, but I feel like it should be in top ten.
It's very psychological. Those small changes every time you enter the door, and you never know when the ghost appears behind you twitching and watching. Unfortunately it's canceled so we just have to wait for someone to do a similar idea later on

A game which fills you with stress, anxiety, total fear and dread for playing the video game, that is what a horror game is. Alien: Isolation hits all the marks for being so terrifying. You are on a space station and have to complete several missions whilst trying to escape that terrifying Xenomorph which makes the atmosphere just perfect. Not only that this game gives you so much fear that you feel like your in Amanda Ripley's shoes. No matter what happens when that Xenomorph finds you and you have to run your heart is going to beat so fast it will burst just like the alien chest burst. Good luck sleeping tonight if you have played this game.
''SPOILERS''
Alien: Isolation is the best survival horror game I've played.
The game has a creepy atmosphere, and you'd better not make much noise because that attracts enemy A.I. And of course the game design. Science fiction style from the 70s makes it complete. The game finally takes place after the events of Alien the movie. The game has great features like the peeking system, the scavenge/craft system and the noice system.
When I played the first mission for the first time I was a bit confused. You just wake up after hyper sleep, and you need to dress up. But later, when you step into the airlock for a spacewalk, that was amazing.
There are also times when you feel safe. But that is ruined when you look out a window and you see the endless void. Then you remember that you are really stuck.
But that's not everything.
I hate these moments that you are stuck because the AI is doing nothing. Just standing or guarding literally nothing. Like a ...more
The Xenomorph is fantastic, it's A.I. is top notch, and the model is amazing too. The gameplay is very smooth, the graphics are great too. The game makes you feel like you're in the ship with the characters, when you hide from the alien I actually feel fear. I rarely get that from games. Or even movies. So yeah, this is probably the scariest game I've ever played.
Amazing alien A.I., great lighting, amazing sound effects, does an excellent job of cultivating a constant sense of dread; this game has it all if you're looking for a great atmospheric horror.

The ambiance is VERY creepy, and then add that creatures can appear behind you seemingly out of nowhere and that you can step on a metal tray and it makes you think something is creeping up behind you, etc. Just the whole game is very creepy.
Although I (sadly) missed the huge surgeon in steamed room jumpscare that everyone says is the scariest moment in gaming, I got s jumpscare that involved seeing a large shadow of "surgery", all lights going off, the guy disappearing, some time spent searching, and then the surgeon bursting out of a closet.
It scared the &@! # out of me, okay.
And yes, the puppy audio file is very disturbing.
If you saw the scenes with Sander Cohen, Dr. Steinman, and Suchong and the Puppy(an audio diary), you would be freaked out. Not to mention big daddy fights. But Sander Cohen having you photograph corpses of his students for his "masterpiece" is just creepy.
This is one of my favorite games, but it isn't too scary. It just has a few terrifying scripted events, that's all.

It is scary. What makes it even scarier is the fact that it was based on a Japanese urban legend that has to do with a haunted house, Himuro Mansion. You take pictures of ghosts and if you take a picture of a hostile ghost, it will pounce at you and grab the camera lens and you have to use a special camera effect in order to shoo it away.
The most mentally scarring game out there.
Ugh, it's so good
One of the scariest games for ps2. fatal frame 1 is even more scary

That's a very good horror game with amazing story. I don't know why it's so underrated. Maybe because of some retards who never played it and then judged it...
Definitely very underrated horror game, I found it scarier than Silent 1,2,3, and 4. And the enemies very fantastic, very creepy.
An amazing game
Very scary you should play it if you love horror games very unique game very fun
This game is scarier than any game I played but not scarier than amnesia

I think the phone guy is the killer. Here are some edvidence I collect from research:
1. On Villains Wiki, There is a image of the killer holding a phone and wearing a security guard badge
2. It's kinda hard to accuse Mike Schmidt as the killer because their pupil colors don't match. So, It's impossible to accuse Mike as the culprit
3. All of the animatronics killed the phone guy on night 4 of the first game. So probably the animatronics seek revenge or maybe, They are helping the police to catch the killer. Check the killer on Villains wiki. It says that the killer is arrested.
4. The Phone Guy worked as a night guard
I find this game scarier than the first game. When I began this game, it became fun. I knew what to do because my brother played it. Then Toy Freddy came. He's easily the creepiest character in the game ( aside from the Puppet). I closed out of the game because he's sooo creepy. Love it and hate it.
Will terrify you out of your wits, because the old animatronics and the new ones are there and you never know when they will pop up out of thin air and murder your face like crazy. The suspense is crazy and the jumpstart are sudden so you could probably faint after being attacked. You are paying for total horror when you buy this <:0
@Powerfulgirl10
This game may not be scary to you, but it is to some. Scott did a great job combining the story elements with the survival part.
I don't know, I like fnaf as a whole, but honestly I only played this for its story. This is probably the worst game in the franchise with Springtrap's 'jumpscare' being the worst jumpscare out of any of the fnaf games. The gaming mechanics were interesting and this game added a lot to the story with some sense of 'closure' (there were obviously still some plot holes and the story was continued). I loved the minigames though and the atmosphere with the minigames made a very uncanny atmosphere where you did not know what to expect as you progressed further into the game.
Scariest game ever I played this game and screamed very very loud I did not make It to the end but I did my best.
What happened to the fluffy cute animals?
None of the games are scary.
I think "creepy" and "unsettling" is a better word. The atmosphere in this game alone creeps me out. The music certainly doesn't help either. This is easily one of my favorite games of all time and even after finishing it 10+ times it still scares me. (Gamecube version)
In my opinion, this game was the most scariest game, and the hardest of the resident evil series. Have to survive on a limited amount of ammunition against insanely strong zombies.
The scariest in the entire series in my opinion. Plus I don't know if this is for REmake but that game was exceptional at what it set out to do and the additional scares from Lisa and the Crimson heads enhanced this creepy atmosphere while 4 is a good game, I really don't find it scary, at all!
Soon as them zombie dogs jumped through the window I was gone.
Even though I've never played this game, I heard that this will make you crap bricks. It's kind of annoying though, because just as soon as you reach the door...BAM! The exorcist girl's face pops out. It's like, just let me win, dangit! I can imagine that's what goes through the minds of gamers that play this, along with the idea of hiding in a corner and crying like a little girl because they didn't expect to see something so ugly. I don't know, but I'm not playing the game ever. Sorry.
When my friend made me play this I hated him and gave him the cold shoulder for weeks, but I once saw a video of a guy who played this, and he punched his computer and broke it, hilarious!
By the time you're on Level 3, you start to get scared in case you die in the second half of the level, because there is that scary scream.
No. Not scary, just cheap and unfunny.
EDIT: Changed my mind it's funny.
Seriously, five nights at Freddy's is supposed to be fun! There are 3 types of scary, fun scary, sad scary, and scary scary, all the other f.n.a.f games are fun scary, having the excitement rushing through your veins as they try to get you, but f.n.a.f 4 is something else entirely, it's sad scary, with it no being fun at all, taking inside a house, in a little kids nightmares, now that's what really makes me sad for Michael afton, but also think that this is the only f.n.a.f game that's scary. It's the scariest out the f.n.a.f series and it's the only one that haunts me, espically with nightmare Freddy, once he's just spawned onto the bed behind you by the Freddles, he just stalks and stares at you from behind, getting ready to kill you, once you look at the bed, YOUR DONE FOR! Then nightmare fredbear, who's the next scariest animatronic, being the culprit of the bite of 83, and just stares at you on night 5 when you flash your flashlight at him, and also having a stomach mouth, ...more
Guys, this game should be at least in the top 10. Because it's the hardest game for me. I'm so scared that when I close a door, my hands are shaking too much!
Drug fuelled child's nightmares are a lot scarier than Chuck E. Cheese animatronics.
By the way Bonnie is a man. FFS I'm not a fan and I can tell immediately.
Scariest of the series

The Hunter zombie is one of the scariest. It crawls and jumps on you and tears out your insides. The Witch is also scary. She appears out of nowhere and scratches you up with her long black fingernails. Sometimes she's just sitting down with her back facing you. If you walk behind her she will look behind her back and attack you if she sees you.
It's a great game, but it's not that scary.

Twisted Metal isn't scary.