A games investor has urged the industry to abandon the term “friendslop,” arguing that it unfairly devalues a growing wave of co-op and social games gaining traction on Steam.
The comments came from Binni Erllingsson, a games industry investor, who addressed the term in a lengthy LinkedIn post as it begins appearing more frequently in pitch decks and conference conversations. “Friendslop” has emerged as shorthand for a new category of low-cost, multiplayer-first games designed around shared play with friends.
“My main agenda here is that I don’t like the name,” Erllingsson wrote. “I know it’s super new as a term but it’s catching on and I want to lobby for killing it before it flies off.” He said the issue lies with the word “slop” itself, which he believes carries negative implications about quality and effort. “‘Slop’ to me means that something is sloppy, not well done and a bit junky,” he said.
Erllingsson added that the label misrepresents the studios behind the games. “Since I live in Sweden and know some of these studios personally that are leading the genre, I can say that those would be the last words I would use to describe those studios,” he wrote. “I feel ‘slop’ devalues their skill and also in a way makes a little bit of a dig at the userbase at the same time.”
Investor says trend was inevitable
While critical of the terminology, Erllingsson said the success of these games was entirely predictable based on his previous experience working with younger audiences. He pointed to his time working on analytics for Minecraft and later leading user research and analytics at Toca Boca.
“I’ve seen in data and research for a long time now that Gen Z and Gen Alpha will change where the game industry will go,” he wrote. “And that finding those paths will be key to making good investment bets.”
According to Erllingsson, those generations were raised on games centered around shared creativity and social play, including platforms like Roblox, Minecraft, and Toca Boca World. “They are raised on playing, laughing and creating with their friends,” he said, adding that he expects those preferences to continue into adulthood.
He argued that many modern releases are not fully designed for that shift, but the co-op-focused games now trending on Steam fit those expectations more closely. Erllingsson also highlighted affordability, noting that many of these games “usually cost as much as a restaurant meal or even just a drink, far below what an AAA experience costs.”
He added that similar trends are emerging internationally. “There’s a huge trend of Chinese audiences loving co-op experience to play with their friend groups and partners as well,” he wrote, calling those factors key indicators for where the industry is headed over the next decade.
Erllingsson said his investment strategy at Behold Ventures has focused on founders who recognize this generational shift. “There aren’t many of them, but I get so happy when I find them,” he wrote. He closed his post by repeating his call to abandon the term entirely, writing, “Also ‘friendslop’ as a term. Let’s collectively kill it,” before asking others to suggest better alternatives.
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