Phasmophobia is a 2020 paranormal horror game developed and was published by British indie game studio Kinetic Games (based in Southampton). The game became available in early access for Microsoft Windows with virtual reality support in September 2020. In the game, one to four players take on the role of ghost hunters who work to complete a contract where they must identify the type of ghost haunting a designated site and complete other optional objectives.
Phasmophobia rose in popularity after many Twitch streamers and YouTubers played it during October 2020, becoming the sixth-most popular game on Twitch of that month and the best selling game on Steam globally for several weeks from October to November 2020. It earned positive reviews from critics, who praised its innovativeness. Phasmophobia is the tied 49th best-selling video game as of September 2026.
Gameplay Phasmophobia is a horror investigation survival game played from a first-person perspective. The player works solo or in a group with up to three other players to complete a contract in which they must identify the type of ghost haunting the specified site. Players can communicate through voice chat, both locally within a short distance and globally via walkie-talkies. Phasmophobia features speech recognition allowing certain pieces of equipment, Cursed Possessions, and the ghost to understand key words and phrases spoken by players. Gathering evidence to determine the correct ghost type and surviving will net the majority of the cash and XP, but completing objectives and taking photos, videos, and audio will augment or even double the rewards. Investigators are encouraged to complete as much as possible to level up and earn money to unlock maps, levels, and item upgrades.
Players create or join a lobby where preparation for the contracts takes place. Phasmophobia gives players the option to customize their appearance by picking between eight different paranormal investigators to distinguish between group members. Located at two corkboards in the lobby, a contract location is voted on between players, while the difficulty is set by the host. All equipment is purchased and upgraded at a computer in the lobby and selected to be loaded into a van from which the group will operate upon arriving at the site. Players who survive and have completed their objectives (or wish to give up) must return to the van and close the van's barn doors to leave.
Phasmophobia features twenty-nine different ghosts, each of which behaves differently and provides unique clues. Upon arriving at the site, one of these ghost types will be randomly assigned for the mission. As players attempt to complete the contract, sanity will drain, with certain events and circumstances affecting the rate at which it does so. When sanity is low enough, a ghost will begin to hunt and attempt to kill the players (assuming the "Friendly Ghost" custom difficulty setting, which disables hunts, is not enabled). During the hunting phase, all exit doors are locked so players must outrun and/or hide from the ghost until the end of the hunt. Depending on the ghost type's strengths and weaknesses, it may be able to hunt when sanity is higher or lower. Locations Small maps 6 Tanglewood Drive 10 Ridgeview Court 13 Willow Street 42 Edgefield Road Camp Woodwind Grafton Farmhouse Nell’s Diner
Medium maps Bleasdale Farmhouse Maple Lodge Campsite Point Hope Prison Sunny Meadows Restricted
Large maps Brownstone High School Sunny Meadows Removed
Asylum
Equipment Upon starting the game for the first time, players will be presented with a set of rudimentary starter equipment consisting of eight Tier I items: an old radio, a notepad, a laser pen, an electromagnetic field detector, an old camcorder, a mercury thermometer, a small UV flashlight, and a retro metallic flashlight, with more of these available to buy in the store, assuming the player has enough funds to do so. Additional equipment types or upgrades can be unlocked depending on player level and subsequently purchased. Certain types of equipment like Firelights, Igniters, Incense, and Crucifixes may be needed to complete the optional objectives and protect players.
Upon loading into the contract, players will start in the van where they will find the equipment they have selected and the Objective Board, listing the objectives they need to complete as well as the name of the ghost and showing all ten of their photos. It also houses the Surveillance Computer (used to monitor CCTV cameras and video feeds), the Sanity Monitor (used to monitor player sanity), a map of the current site, the Sound Sensor Screen (used to stream audio into the Truck and monitor said audio), and the Site Activity Monitor (used to monitor the ghost's activity). This set of equipment is permanently located inside the van and is used to track the status of the players and ghost’s activity, although on certain difficulties, the Sanity Monitor and Site Activity monitor may be disabled and appear as smashed screens. Players also have a journal on hand where information about the ghosts, evidence, objectives, and photos can be found. Evidence and ghost identification must be marked in the Journal to receive money and XP that can be used to purchase and upgrade more equipment.
Evidence Players must utilize the various pieces of equipment to identify the three pieces of evidence unique to the type of ghost they are dealing with, and often to complete optional objectives as well. However, on Nightmare difficulty and higher, the ghost will only show two or lower pieces of evidence, forcing players to use the ghost's special traits and abilities to determine the correct ghost type. Some ghosts also have forced evidence, which will always show up as long as there's at least 1 evidence given. As of November 2025, there are seven possible pieces of ghost evidence.
Media In the Chronicle update in June of 2025, the media system was introduced as a way for players to earn extra money and to get perfect games. Each media type has different recordable items and are recorded using different types of equipment.
Photo evidence can be taken with a photo camera. Items that count towards photo evidence include ghosts, bones, dead bodies (of teammates), fingerprints, footprints, EMF readings, freezing temperature readings, dirty water, used crucifixes, ghost writing, and cursed possessions.
Video evidence can be recorded with a video camera. Recordable videos include ghosts, teammates dying, ghost writing, ghost orbs, items being thrown, lights being switched, doors moving, motion sensors going off, salt being disturbed, candles blowing out, Ouija Boards, crucifixes burning, and other assorted interactions.
Audio evidence is recorded with a sound recorder. Recordable sounds include EMF 5, music boxes, Ouija Boards, candles blowing out, crucifixes burning, ghost writing, spirit box responses, ghost audio, and assorted paranormal sounds.
In order to get a perfect game, players must have five unique photos, five unique videos, and three unique sounds. A unique piece of media is one that has not been taken before (ex: if a ghost photo has already been taken, subsequent ghost photos of the same type will become duplicates, which give less money; however, if a different photo is taken, it will be unique). Players must also balance the unique media requirements with the limited number of deletions, after which media cannot be deleted. Lower difficulties have upwards of five deletions, while higher difficulties will only have three deletions.
Cursed Possessions Cursed Possessions, also called "Cursed Items" or "Cursed Objects", are a group of items in Phasmophobia that allow players to directly interact with the ghost itself. Some abilities of the Cursed Possessions include the ability to make the ghost appear, force a hunt, ask the ghost questions, or even kill the player. As of May 2024, there are a total of seven cursed possessions in Phasmophobia. They include the Ouija Board, Music Box, Haunted Mirror, Tarot Cards, Summoning Circle, Voodoo Doll, and the Monkey Paw. Each item offers a distinct way of interacting with the ghost. Each cursed item has a 1 in 7 chance to spawn on each map, with different spawn locations for each item. Only one cursed possession will spawn on the map unless set otherwise via custom difficulty. The only exception being insanity difficulty in which no cursed possessions spawn. Having any Cursed Possession reduces the multiplier of custom games, while specifically choosing once lowers it further. The Monkey Paw is the most extreme, with a 5x multiplier reduction. The Music Box, Haunted Mirror, Tarot Cards, Summoning Circle, and Voodoo Doll were all released in version 0.5.0, known as the Cursed Possessions update. The Monkey Paw item was added at a later time, in update 0.8.1.0.
The Ouija Board was the first Cursed Possession in Phasmophobia, being present in early alpha and the initial release. Similar to a Spirit Box, the Ouija Board allows players to ask the ghost questions, such as "Where are you?" or "How old are you?". The Ouija Board can give players more helpful answers than a Spirit Box. The ghost will respond by moving the dial to one letter at a time, spelling out an answer. Asking questions on the Ouija Board will lower the player's sanity more or less depending on the question. Asking the question "Hide and Seek" will count down and trigger a cursed hunt, and asking a question without enough sanity will break the Ouija Board and trigger a cursed hunt. The Music Box is an item that allows the player to locate the ghost. Once the Music Box is obtained, a player can trigger it, and the ghost will begin to creepily hum along with the music. Any players nearby will start losing sanity. Once a player drops the Music Box or runs out of sanity while the song is playing, the Music Box gets too close to the ghost, or the ghost is near the Music Box for too long, the ghost will immediately begin a cursed hunt. The Haunted Mirror is a Cursed Possession that allows players to peer into it and see the ghost room. Each time a player looks into the mirror, their sanity will decrease by a significant chunk immediately, and then further over time. If a player runs out of sanity while looking into it, it will break and trigger a cursed hunt. Tarot Cards are a Cursed Possession that can be used by "pulling" cards from the deck. There are a total of 10 tarot cards in the deck. When pulling a tarot card, the card will burn with a distinct flame effect, the color present in this effect depends on what card was pulled. Some tarot cards can benefit the player, such as restoring their sanity significantly or even fully restoring it. There are also tarot cards that are less desirable to receive as a player, such as "The Moon", a card that drops a player's sanity to 0%, or "Death", a card that triggers a cursed hunt. The Summoning Circle is a Cursed Possession that only spawns on floors and cannot be picked up or moved. The Summoning Circle is a circle outlined in red that is surrounded by 5 candles. Players can light the candles using an igniter. Each candle lit will drain some of the player's sanity. Once all 5 candles are lit, the ghost will appear in the middle of the circle. After appearing, if the player had the required amount of sanity to light all 5 candles, the ghost will remain still for a few seconds before beginning a cursed hunt. If not, the ghost will immediately begin a cursed hunt.