Why do we love to watch gamers fall, tumble, and slide from impossible heights?

Gaming trends come and go, but some ideas are so popular that they become genres of their own. A good example of this is the falling game, in which the challenge is to get as high as possible without tumbling back down to the bottom. These notoriously goofy games often take off on streaming or social media — likely because there’s something irresistible about watching someone struggle before ultimately tumbling back into the abyss.

There is a rich variety of falling games out there now, some with more staying power than others. The 2016 physics-based platformer Human: Fall Flat has a sequel in development. Getting Over It With Bennett Foddy, released in 2017, is an absurd game starring a man in a cauldron trying to climb impossible heights with a sledgehammer and a limitless source of gumption. 

Fall Guys is a joyful battle royale that pits players against both each other and ridiculous obstacle courses that are crowded with comical hazards. Last summer, the Chinese game Only Up! took off among content creators and climbed the Twitch charts. Only Up!, a game about climbing an impossible and absurd obstacle course, had a barebones narrative, simple assets, and little replay value. Its success was based off the same dizzying heights and brutal tumbles as Getting Over It.

This year, the comedy games Chained Together (climbing an obstacle course while literally chained to your co-op partners) and Stretcher Men (two players carrying a patient uphill on a stretcher) both enjoyed a brief window in the spotlight.

The first and most obvious reason that these games are popular is that it is very funny to see people fall down. There’s a reason why slipping on a banana peel is such a classic gag, and the punchline can be amped up with some tastefully applied ragdoll physics. Observing someone perish in a FPS game or struggle to win a tactical RPG battle isn’t particularly entertaining, but watching someone slip and fall is great. 

The stakes are also extremely clear. When someone marks a new record in their personal progress, or clears a particularly daunting hurdle, it’s a point of pride. It can take dozens of attempts to get over a tricky platform, but it only takes one slipup and a few seconds to lose all of that progress. For some gamers, this kind of challenge is particularly satisfying, in the same way one would take pride in climbing Everest.

Even if you yourself are not interested in playing these games, it can be fun to watch others attempt the task. Similar to horror games, falling games give content creators a lot of material for dramatic reactions. Failure is expected and often inevitable; the point is not whether one can make it to the top, but if one can invest the time and effort and attempts it will take to eventually earn that success. Falling is a way to rub salt in the wound and taunt the player for making the effort, which makes eventually reaching the summit all the more rewarding.

As these falling games continue to take off, it’s interesting to see how developers play with the formula. For instance, Cairn is an upcoming indie game from The Game Bakers about climbing a mountain. The climbing is designed to be as realistic as possible, and that includes the built-in risk of potentially plummeting.

Gravity is a cruel mistress, and many games will include a few falling hazards. But some developers go all the way and build the threat of falling into every element of their game. It’s interesting to see these titles pop off regularly. It’s a simple joy to watch someone struggle, climb, and eventually fall — but one that seems to never grow old.