First let's check back in on the same Google Search data I pulled in 2023 to compare how much we, the audience, are actually seeking cozy games. We're looking at the past five years or search interest for the terms: cozy games, relaxing games, and casual games.

The main term "cozy games" is twice as popular as it was in 2023 when I identified the surprising spike the phrase had already experienced between 2020 and 2023. Google doesn't share raw search volume so this is all relative, not absolute, but it's still clear evidence that the interest in cozy games has continued to explode.

What is surprising to me is the comeback for the phrase "casual games." It's one we used a lot in the late twenty-teens but was eclipsed by "cozy" around 2022. Anecdotally, I think "casual" suffered from also being pejorative and may have fallen away in favor of the more positive tone "cozy." They aren't exactly interchangeable terms, but it's interesting to see casual make such a sharp comeback this year, which may mean some cozy gamers are reclaiming it.

Okay, then what about the supply of cozy games? Yeah, that's gone up too.

This isn't a perfect measure either. It doesn't capture every game that cozy gamers might like, only every game that has been user-tagged that way. Naturally, the number of games identified as "cozy" goes up as the term itself becomes a popular descriptor.

When you look at the number of games tagged as "cozy" that launched last year between the same dates as this year (January to October), it's 468 last year to this year's 1,341.

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