Little Nightmares Spiritual Successor is a Big Hit

Tarsier Studios is celebrating its new horror game Reanimal crossing a major milestone after it was released this past February to rave reviews.

Reanimal has sold 1 million copies

Little Nightmares was one of the most popular new horror adventure series that debuted during the Xbox One and PlayStation 4 generation, and by the time Little Nightmares 2 came out in 2021, its fanbase had only grown larger. The games were quite unique, letting players explore a dark and, in many literal cases, twisted world, with evil, grotesque monsters lurking in the scenery, hunting down players who control small children who can only run and evade to survive.

Little Nightmares 2 was followed by a split between Swedish developer Tarsier Studios and the publisher and IP owner of the series, Bandai Namco. The latter enlisted Until Dawn and The Dark Pictures Anthology studio, Supermassive Games, to continue the Little Nightmares series with a third installment, as Tarsier was forced to leave Little Nightmares behind. Last year, Supermassive’s Little Nightmares 3 was finally released, though many fans of the franchise felt it didn’t quite live up to its two predecessors. Meanwhile, Tarsier’s Reanimal, which is essentially a Little Nightmares game in all but name, dropped a few months later to very high praise.

Reanimal sales prove Tarsier name is strong

It seems that Tarsier Studios is doing just fine without the Little Nightmares IP. On X, Reanimal publisher THQ Nordic announced that Tarsier’s spiritual successor to Little Nightmares has sold more than 1 million copies in the three months it’s been out. For comparison, it took the original Little Nightmares over a year to sell 1 million units. However, Little Nightmares 2 still has it beat, as it reached the same milestone within its first month back in 2021.

The critical receptions of both Little Nightmares 3 and Reanimal seem to confirm that Tarsier Studios is still the master of Little Nightmares-style horror adventure games. It’s also impressive to see Tarsier garner such a big following of horror game fans that migrated with it and jumped into Reanimal. It’s a testament to Tarsier’s reputation and how well-known the studio has become in the horror space since 2017.

2026 is a massive year for horror games, with Game of the Year contender Resident Evil Requiem having released just a few weeks after Reanimal, Supermassive’s sci-fi horror Directive 8020, Fatal Frame 2: Crimson Butterfly Remake, and Silent Hill: Townfall coming up later this year. Reanimal crossing the million-sold milestone is a statement, and it’s easy to imagine the game selling 2 million copies before the end of the year, especially considering that, out of all these other big name horror games, it’s the only one that offers both a local and online co-op experience.

Reanimal is available for Xbox, PlayStation, PC, and Nintendo Switch.

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