A trend is only useful if it points at a gap. “Cozy games are big” tells you nothing — half of YouTube
is already making cozy content. What matters is where demand is rising faster than supply. Here are the seven
trends we track in 2026, and the open shelf inside each one.
1. The single-player comeback
After years of live-service fatigue, single-player narrative and sandbox games are surging in wishlists. The gap:
deep-dive content — lore, choice consequences, builds — the kind of content the live-service era
trained creators to stop making. Audiences are hungry for it; supply has not caught up.
2. Y2K nostalgia and retro revivals
Early-2000s aesthetics, PS2-era platformers, and retro revivals are climbing on Trends. The gap is
“what to play first” curation and “games like X” discovery —
evergreen, low-supply queries that age well.
3. AI backlash in games
Steam AI disclosure rules and audience skepticism turned “is this AI-made?” into a real search
category. The gap: how to read Steam AI disclosures before buying, and roundups of explicitly
human-made games. Creator-intent, almost un-served.
4. Steam Next Fest and demo discovery
The festivals dump hundreds of demos at once and create a one-week content window. The gap is
focused, day-one demo coverage in specific genres — not the 35-demo mega-lists that crowd
instantly. See our Next Fest watchlist guide.
5. Sports events become gaming events
The World Cup, Olympics, and esports finals spike search interest in their licensed games (FC, NBA, F1). The gap:
small-channel tournament and career-mode ideas that ride the spike without fighting the big
sports channels.
6. Horror micro-niches
Broad horror is saturated, but micro-genres — horror fishing, cozy horror, analog horror, PS1-style indie horror —
have devoted audiences and thin shelves. Combine a horror sub-genre with a specific game and the shelf opens up.
7. Big games still matter — but only with narrow angles
A huge launch (GTA 6, etc.) is not an opportunity to copy the giants; it is a demand spike you can serve through
narrow doors: no-spoiler guides, beginner tips, performance, creator-policy explainers. See our
GTA 6 phase plan.
If a trend makes you think “everyone is already doing that,” ask what the audience needs that the
everyone-content does not provide. That need is the gap.
How to turn a trend into a video
Pick the trend, then narrow twice. “Cozy” → “farming cozy” → “most profitable first-year crops.”
Check supply on the narrowed topic. Run it through Shelf Saturation. Open? Record. Crowded? Narrow again.
Title for the search, not the trend. Specificity beats hype — see how we score.
These trends are read from the same Demand / Supply / Timing signals behind the daily ranking.
When a trend spikes, the affected games move up automatically.
A patch or comeback is one of the cleanest timing triggers — the
Steam update checker tells you whether that momentum still has an open
YouTube shelf before you record.
How to track a trend without chasing it
The failure mode with trends is rebuilding your channel around each one. The fix is to keep a single lane (a
format and audience you own) and ride trends inside it — one rising game at a time, not a new identity every
month. Track trends as inputs to your existing lane, not as the lane itself:
Watch the demand signal, not the hype. A trend with rising search and Steam activity is actionable; a trend that is “everywhere” in press but flat in search is just noise.
Apply your existing format. If you make settings guides, the trend gives you the next settings guide — not a reason to start making essays.
Set a freshness budget. Roughly one in four videos can be a trend play; the rest should be evergreen. This keeps the channel compounding instead of restarting.
Drop trends that close. When a trend’s shelf fills, move on. Loyalty to a closed trend costs you the next open one.
Reading the demand / supply / timing map for a trend
Every trend above is really just a shift on the same three-axis map: demand rising, supply still thin, timing
window open. The trends that look saturated from the outside (cozy games, big launches) usually have an open
pocket somewhere on the map — a specific format or audience the giants left uncovered. The trends that look small
(horror fishing, AI disclosure) often have unusually clean demand-supply gaps for exactly that reason: the giants
are not there yet. Your job is not to pick the biggest trend; it is to find the pocket on the map where all three
axes line up. That is what the ranking surfaces, refreshed daily, so you do not have to eyeball it.
2026 trends FAQ
Which 2026 trend is best for a small channel? The one with the cleanest demand-supply gap inside your existing format — often a micro-niche (horror fishing, AI disclosure, retro curation) rather than the biggest headline trend.
How often do these trends shift? Demand and supply move daily; the broad themes hold for months but the open games inside them rotate weekly.
Should I cover trends I do not enjoy? No. A trend outside your lane burns out fast and produces weak videos. Ride trends through a format you already do well.
What if a trend closes before I publish? Pivot to the evergreen version of the same topic (guide, comparison, performance) rather than the time-boxed one — the evergreen shelf stays open longer.
Find your next low-competition game on TrendForge — a trending-games ranking built for small YouTube and streaming creators.
