What is repo? The viral horror video game explained

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If you were on the game page of YouTube, Twitch or almost every social media platform last week, you may have seen a brand new game in your feed: repo. This viral video game sensation apparently blown up in the air overnight and had a massive reaction of players, streamers and contents alike.

But what exactly is repo? What do you do in it, who did it and where can you play it? The most important thing is why is it so popular? We have the answers to all of these and more questions in this guide, which you have to go through repo, the viral video game sensation.

What is repo?

Repo is a co-op multiplayer horror game in which the players have to join together in order to deliver valuable objects to an extraction point and at the same time avoid terrible creatures. The players have to communicate to achieve their goals, and the whole thing focuses on exaggerated physics simulation, similar to goat simulator and many other games like it.

Up to six players can play together in a private lobby – there are no public lobbies in the game – and the game contains the proximity voice chat. This means that you can hear other players who are near you, but you probably cannot hear players who are far away. You can also buy upgrades and weapons to make your time easier to transport valuables.

Repo was developed by Indie Developer Semiwork, a small team based in Uppsala, Sweden. Before the repo, Semiwork had only developed another game, a “lively animated action roguelite” called Voidigo. It also saw a decent success with a few thousand positive reviews on Steam, but it is far from nearly at the level of the repo.

Why is Repo popular?

This is a more difficult question to be answered, but a pretty similar trajectory followed as other virus games in recent years. Repo was published on Steam on February 27, 2025, but for the first week or so it didn't really see much success. Then the internet did what it can do best and streamers from Twitch and YouTube stumbled on it and played it on their streams. These streams were then transformed into videos that were hosted on YouTube, and clips of these videos were then shared on Twitter, TikTok and YouTube shorts, where they became viral and ultimately returned to the popularity of the game.

Now there are hundreds of videos of the game on YouTube, some of which have achieved millions of views, and it is quite consistent in the top trend games on Twitch and YouTube streams. It also has over 30,000 reviews on Steam – a large amount for a small game like this – and over 95% of these reviews are positive.

If we had to guess why it is so popular, we put it on three key factors. The first is that it is a horror game that leads to some bombastic reactions from popular streamers when a creepy creature appears and ruins its day. The second is that it is primarily a multiplayer experience, so that word of mouth grows exponentially because people – streamers and players – play and talk about friends alike. After all, the focus on physics means that things are getting silly pretty quickly, which ensures very common moments and clips.

Is Repo child -friendly?

Repo is supposedly a horror game, so it could be a bit too scary for younger children. There is no age valuation on the Steam page of the game, but based on what we saw from the game, we would recommend it for people aged 13 and over. Most of the blood and gore are not available, and most of the “horror” comes from Jump -Schrecken and a creepy atmosphere.

Where can you play repo?

Repo is currently available exclusively on Steam, where they reset 9.99 US dollars. It is currently in early access, which means that it is not considered “finished”, but is very playable in its current form and the content updates will be present very soon. According to SemiWork, Repo will be in early access for 6-12 months, and during this time it plans to add “adaptation of the players, meta progress, more story elements, more upgrades, more devices, more levels and enemies”. The price for repo increases when it hits its publication of 1.0, so that interested players should buy sooner than later.

At the time of writing, no plans were announced to bring the game to other platforms, so some lists that show the game have appeared in stores such as the PlayStation Store, but these do not seem to be legitimate. The only official version of Repo is on the PC in the Steam Store.