This is The Stepback, a weekly newsletter breaking down one essential story from the tech world. For more on how pervasive horror has become, follow Andrew Webster. The Stepback, arrives in our subscribers’ inboxes on Sunday at 8AM ET. Opt in for The Stepback here.

Resident Evil has been around for 30 years, but the survival horror series is more popular than ever. The most recent game, Resident Evil Requiem, has sold 8 million copies since it launched in February, already making it the 14th best-selling game that Capcom has ever made. At the same time, a reboot of the Resident Evil film series from Weapons director Zach Cregger is on pace to become the top-grossing movie in franchise history. This has had the effect of renewing interest in Resident Evil at large; according to a report from Game File, six different titles in the game series have sold at least 3 million copies so far this year. In an earnings report, Capcom called it “a virtuous cycle in which sales of both new and past titles grow together.”

Resident Evil isn’t alone. Rather, it’s indicative of an ongoing trend. Horror was once seen as largely a niche genre, but now, thanks to a combination of factors — including the rise of YouTube and widespread influence of indie games and viral memes — it has steadily grown into a dominant force. Horror tends to be cheaper to produce than other genres, but now it also has sales numbers that compete with the biggest blockbusters. It’s not that there haven’t been major horror success stories before. 2017’s It remains the top-grossing horror flick of all time, and the Resident Evil 2 remake from 2019 has sold almost 20 million copies. But in 2026 the concentration of horror hits, particularly across multiple mediums, has reached a new level, making it clearer than ever that scaring audiences is a big business.

The most obvious example of this in 2026 is in movies. Obsession and Backrooms — two films helmed by young directors who came up through YouTube — have raked in nearly $1 billion combined at the box office. They out-grossed established franchises like Star Wars and even legendary directors like Steven Spielberg. This despite costing a fraction of what a blockbuster film usually costs; Backrooms was made for an estimated $10 million, while Obsession cost less than $1 million. Before that, Iron Lung, another YouTube-centric horror flick, managed to rake in more than $50 million without the backing of a major studio. Horror movies have always been comparatively cheap to make, but now they’re frequently able to make a huge return on that investment.

Meanwhile, in the world of streaming, October has become something of a battleground. This year basically every major service has a tentpole series meant to lure subscribers during spooky season. Amazon just released a remake of Stephen King’s Carrie on Prime Video, helmed by Mike Flanagan, who made his name with a quintet of limited horror series on Netflix between 2018 and 2023, starting with The Haunting of Hill House. With Flanagan now at Amazon, Netflix’s big release this year is Below, a six-episode sea monster thriller starring Josh Hartnett and Stranger Things’ Charlie Heaton. Elsewhere, Peacock has a Friday the 13th prequel called Crystal Lake starring Linda Cardellini as Jason Voorhees’ mom, and AMC Plus is putting out a spooky detective series called Yaga, which features Carrie-Anne Moss and Heated Rivalry’s Hudson Williams. Not to be excluded, Disney Plus is currently airing the 13th season of American Horror Story.

The one name missing from this list is Apple TV, but that’s because the service got a jump on things by releasing the horror / comedy hybrid Widow’s Bay back in April. The show then proceeded to win a record number of Emmys, and it remains a fixture on Apple TV’s most-watched list. While streaming viewership data is much harder to come by than box office data, the sheer fact that every major streaming service is investing in horror-related series, with the backing of some major star power, is an indication of just how important it is.

And then there are games. While Resident Evil is the biggest name, there are plenty of other titles and franchises that have been buoyed by the current horror renaissance. Silent Hill has been on a steady run, highlighted by the Scottish spinoff Townfall this year, and the iconic Hellraiser just got its first proper video game adaptation. But it’s not just blockbuster releases. Indie horror games have not only been consistent bestsellers on platforms like Steam, they’ve also been the source material for a number of more moderate theatrical hits, including both Iron Lung and Exit 8. And a lot of that success begins with people watching horror games on Twitch and YouTube; Twitch says that viewers watched 287 million hours of horror content between January and September this year, and that the dedicated “horror” tag saw a 6 percent increase in viewership compared to last year.

With the potential to make a lot of money with very little investment, movie studios are naturally jumping all over the trend. Kane Parsons has reportedly signed up for a Backrooms sequel, Obsession director Curry Barker already has a new film due out next year, and Cregger’s next film has some major star power behind it. Meanwhile, studios are searching for the next Backrooms or Five Nights at Freddy’s anywhere they can. Both A24 and Neon are working on competing movies set in the SCP Foundation universe, a sort of terrifying and expansive fan-made project about a mysterious organization that keeps supernatural and paranormal entities secret, while Warner Bros. has scooped up the rights to internet phenomenon Siren Head. Elsewhere, both Silent Hill and Resident Evil have settled on a near-annual release schedule that shows no signs of slowing down — Capcom says that the ongoing success of Resident Evil led to a new quarterly sales record — nor does the horror fixation of major streaming services. Amazon went so far as to poach Flanagan from Netflix with an exclusive deal, and a struggling Xbox has invested in bringing Hideo Kojima’s horror game OD to consoles.

Obviously not all of these projects will be major hits. Not every spooky meme will become a Backrooms-level success. But studios, streamers, and game publishers are taking the genre more seriously now because that potential exists, and they seem more willing to take risks because the upfront costs aren’t as high. This means that, unlike other genres, the possibility remains that even as it explodes in popularity, horror will continue to remain weird and unexpected. After all, the best way to scare folks is to show them something new.