The rise of cosy gaming has been described as the closest many young people will get to home ownership. More than a quarter of 20- to 34-year-olds still live with their parents, and no wonder they are escaping into virtual properties that they can decorate and furnish as they like.
What is cosy gaming?
Cosy gaming has its origins in social simulation games such as Harvest Moon (1996) and The Sims (2000). It refers to gentle, low-stakes time-wasting activities like the virtual farming of Stardew Valley that people find relaxing. While some prefer shooting zombies, gentle and non-violent world-building continues to be a big trend in video games. In 2020, just 19 cosy games were released on the distribution service Steam; in 2025, there were 616.
Home-owning in cosy games
The latest cosy games include Hozy, which allows players to clean, paint, and decorate abandoned homes with satisfying mechanics and intuitive controls. It is like making the world a brighter, tidier, more aesthetically pleasing place, one abandoned house at a time. Some people find painting virtual walls very rewarding, even if they have never painted an actual wall.
This irony helps explain the subgenre's popularity. Games such as MakeRoom, Unbox the Room and Renovation Plan offer a form of satisfaction to a generation that may never own homes of their own. In the UK, 29% of young adults between the ages of 20 and 34 still live with their parents. Real decorating is boring and hard, but cosy gaming offers young people a level of control they rarely experience in real life.
While actual home-owning involves tax, subsidence, dry rot, party wall agreements, and broken boilers, cosy gaming provides players with a calm, predictable sanctuary that helps them manage their stress levels. As one player put it, 'I was at my pretend house waiting for a virtual plumber to turn up.'
