Top Three Popular Games for this Fall Season

(Fall) into gaming with UA’s Twitch!Every fall season each year, a new game reveals itself that keeps everyone’s attention, whether it’s a cozy game, a horror game, an action game or a puzzle game- There is a new addition or update. However when you think of the most classic  fall games, Stardew Valley, Phasmophobia and Dead by Daylight might be some of the first games on your mind.With Stardew Valley being a cozy comforting farming simulation game; it’s the perfect game to sit back, light a candle and relax to. Not only can you customize and arrange your own little world inside the game, but it’s a relatively low effort game, so regardless of age or gaming experience you can pretty much be guaranteed a fun time. Want your heart to skip a beat and to encounter some jumpscares? Maybe add some friends? Try phasmophobia for a paranormal experience. With voice chat you can hear others locally or globally to have a shared spirit chasing experience. There are lots of different items to observe and track ghosts, with multiple ghosts being present in the game. Try your best to not get possessed!Do you like the idea of the scare but want less spooks and more of a hide and seek challenge? Dead by daylight will keep you busy and give you new seasonal characters to look forward to. Chase or be chased by a variety of killer characters. Regardless of your pick, these three fall games can guarantee a good time. 

What everyone wants is a good game that keeps its audience engaged and a constantly updated game, so there’s something new to explore every once in a while. Each of these games are not only frequently updated, but with each update they usually introduce new characters, new features, and enhance what has already been added in the game. These three games have a great track record of being fan favorites and this is most likely why people keep wanting more.  

Stardew Valley

Of course farming games have to be a constant during the fall and Stardew Valley stays on everyone’s mind, even though it may become repetitive. A little break away from the game gives players enough time to come back to it and love it even more.

The most recent update was 1.6 which was released in 2024, which was a massive update for the game- Detailing multiple bugs, graphic and sound fixes and new events, items and achievements. Knowing how large that update was, we can assume 1.7 will entail nearly the same amount.

Fans have been wanting new dialogue sequences with NPC for a while, whether it’s between a married NPC or a friend NPC. As well, new festivals to spice up the seasons and to avoid having repeating days. New challenges or activities to be held after the community center had been built. 

The update does not have a release date just yet, this is due to the development of another game called Haunted Chocolatier. Though the game developer had said the update may come out before or after this new game.

The Stardew Valley team has separated the work.  Eric ‘ConcernedApe’ Barone, the creator, is making a new game called Haunted Chocolatier, while the rest of the dev team works on the 1.7 update. Now what the update entails is still unknown, along with the release date of the second game. 

Haunted Chocolatier- https://www.hauntedchocolatier.net/2025/09/02/on-the-recent-stardew-valley-1-7-update-announcement/ is still very under wraps as to what the story is and the game mechanics and visuals. However from what Barone had revealed the player is a chocolate maker who collects ingredients, bakes and sells in a shop. Sounds underwhelming no? If you boil down Stardew Valley to just a farming simulator, then it too sounds underwhelming. 

The update will release cross platforms day of, so if you play on computer, or switch, or phone- All will be able to enjoy it instantly. 

Stardew Valley averages between 120,000 and 130,000 players. Its peak playing time was between April and March, and October and November. Its highest player count was 236,614 when the 1.6 update came out in 2024. 

Phasmophobia

Now who doesn’t like a scary game you can play with friends? With September coming to an end, horror games are going to ramp up, and this game has constant updates through this year and into 2026, with its most recent aiming towards their 5th year anniversary https://www.kineticgames.co.uk/blog/phasmophobia-dev-preview-20.

The Chronicle update was released in June, and is a part of their 2025 Roadmap and Beyond plan they gave players at the beginning of the year. 

The update consisted of:

• New photo opportunities of the EMF reader and ghost forms
  • No longer able to photograph door movements, light switches, thrown objects and ghost interactions- These are now video format 
• New media type: Video recording, which can be used up to 5 times in an investigation
  • There are several opportunities to record evidence with the videos 
• New equipment, the sound recorder which gives a new evidence type
• The CCTV got a rework with a new screen allowing players to view up to 5 cameras at once
• Unique media got a rework as well, if a player captures something new it will be marked as unique, though if they capture the same thing again it will be marked as duplicate and receive less money
• The reward system and progression system got fixes 
• New objectives and challenges

During the 5th anniversary update, the Grafton Farmhouse got an update as well as the lobby got some touches to celebrate. 

A new map is in the works called Nell’s Diner, which is inspired by American diners. It is a smaller map, due to the popularity of other small maps, and will have 11 possible ghost rooms. There will be new interactable objects, new looping spaces and new hiding places. 

The lighting in the rooms dims as you go further back, and one room in particular, the freezer “Throws a curveball at players when identifying the ghost. How can you know if a ghost is present somewhere that’s permanently cold?” Kinetic Games said on their blog. 

Lastly the map allows for the community to come up with the story telling, as the diner seemingly abandoned during operations, with food still on the table. 

The team is still working hard on their 2025 Roadmap and Beyond plan which gives players an idea of the future updates. 

The next few updates that have yet to be released are the player character overhaul and the new map. 

Phasmophobia averages between 10,000 to 16,000 players a month with it reaching peak playing time between October and November. Its all-time peak was 112,241 players when it launched its early access back in October 2020. 

Dead by Daylight

Another multiple player game, a deadly hide and seek. DBD has recently reached over 60 million players and continues to be one of the most known horror games. With their new update, Sinister Grace, it keeps the community engaged.

A new killer https://deadbydaylight.com/news/sinister-grace-krasue-vee-faces-the-music/ was introduced in early September and its new design and lore has made the community thrilled. 

The Krasue is the new killer based on the folktales from Southeast Asia, specifically Thailand. It is a woman ghost whose body is a trail of organs floating. It is a nocturnal spirit that is based on the belief that when an individual, mainly women, engages in sinful behavior during their previous life, it curses them to this spirit. 

In DBD lore however, it is a woman named Burong Sukapat who wanted stage fame and had accepted an offer that seemingly allowed her this success. Though this offer was to allow another to inhabit her body at night. 

As it says on the Dead by Daylight site, the curse started when Sukapat woke up in a field covered in blood. 

The character in game is shown as a normal woman, however when standing in the character screen, the idle animation shows when The Krause appears, splitting the woman in half and having a float head with trailing organs appear. When it leaves, it picks up the body of the woman and puts itself back into her. 

When in the form of The Krause, speed is increased with a whip as your weapon. When in the form of the woman, you have a projectile that can poison the survivors, leaving them more open to attacks from the whip. 

The perks of The Krause are Hex: Overture of Doom, Ravenous and Wandering Eye.

Though Krause is not the only new character, a new survivor also joined, Vee Boonyasak. Her lore ties into Burong Sukapat as both of them shared the same stage. 

Her perks are Ghost notes, One-Two-Three-Four!, and Road life. 

Dead by Daylight averages between 30,000 and 50,000 players a month. Its peak playing time is around June and July. The highest player count was 120,430 during the 2025 release of Five Nights at Freddy’s character Springtrap. It’s really cool to see such a dynamic game get to be compared to the some of the cult classics such as FNAF, and it makes it’s even more awesome that now that it’s spooky season these games can get more of the love they deserve.

In conclusion, we hope you get to play some of these games as they are patiently waiting to make your fall season a little sweeter and scarier!

Click the link below to see an article from prior UA Twitch editor’s talking about another beloved game; Minecraft!