Wardogs' rise shows hardcore shooters are back, says Escape from Tarkov's Nikita Buyanov

Gaming has always moved in waves, and 2026 looks like the year the tide shifts toward hardcore first-person shooters

Every few years, the industry seems to rally around a single trend. Not long ago, the deckbuilder boom dominated the conversation. That wave traces back to Slay the Spire, a game whose success — combined with the relatively approachable design of the genre — inspired a flood of imitators and innovators alike. Card-based roguelikes seemed to be everywhere for a stretch, each one trying to put its own spin on the formula.

After that came the survival craze. Titles like Palworld, Nightingale, and Enshrouded landed in quick succession, joining a long list of releases crowding an increasingly busy genre. Craft, build, tame, survive — the loop became familiar almost overnight, and players had more open-world survival options than they could reasonably keep up with.

Now, as the calendar turns to 2026, a new label seems to be taking over: the hardcore FPS era.

Why hardcore shooters are having a moment

The appeal is easy to understand. After years of forgiving loadouts, generous aim assist, and streamlined difficulty, a growing number of players appear hungry for shooters that punish mistakes and reward mastery. Hardcore FPS titles typically lean on slower, more deliberate gunplay, higher stakes per match, and systems that respect player skill over raw progression. The result is a genre segment where every firefight matters — and where a single careless push can end a run.

It also mirrors what happened with deckbuilders and survival games. Once one or two standout titles prove there's an audience, studios move quickly to stake their claim. The survival boom showed how fast that cycle spins: Palworld, Nightingale, and Enshrouded were just three names among many arriving within a short window. There's little reason to think the hardcore FPS wave will unfold any differently.

A familiar cycle repeating

If the pattern holds, 2026 will bring a steady drip of announcements, early access launches, and competing takes on the hardcore shooter formula. Some will refine the genre; others will fade as the market saturates. The deckbuilder era eventually cooled, and the survival genre is already showing signs of crowding. Hardcore FPS is simply the next beneficiary of the industry's trend-chasing rhythm.

What happens next

Expect the wave of hardcore FPS reveals and launches to build through 2026. Whether the genre produces a defining hit the way Slay the Spire did for deckbuilders remains to be seen, but the stage is set. For players who like their shooters punishing and precise, the next twelve months should offer plenty to keep an eye on.

Source: the original publisher