Vampire Survivors

The player selects one of multiple characters, each with different starting weapons and bonuses, and control them on an endless stage featuring an auto-generated, repeating layout. The player's weapons attack automatically, and the goal is to survive as long as possible against constant waves of monsters that inflict damage upon contact. Defeating monsters and exploring the stage allows to collect experience gems, which are used to level up; "floor chicken", which restores the player's health; and other helpful items. Each level increase gives the choice of three or four weapons and power-ups named "passives". Once players have collected six weapons and six power-ups and upgraded them fully, any further levels gained will offer only gold coins or floor chicken.

Another way to upgrade weapons and passives is by opening chests, which are dropped by particularly powerful monsters and may contain one, three, or five random items. Most weapons have an ultimate (or "evolved") form that can be attained by opening a chest after fully upgrading them and meeting other specific conditions, typically having a specific passive or that passive at max level.

Vampire Survivors is nominally set in rural Italy in 2021. Hordes of monsters summoned by the evil Bisconte Draculó (a villain inspired by Count Dracula) ravage the land, prompting the Belpaese family and other heroic survivors to take it upon themselves to hunt down and defeat Draculó. This quest takes them through monster-infested locales such as a cursed forest, a haunted library, an abandoned dairy plant, an ominous tower, and an otherworldly chapel, culminating in a battle against an Eldritch otherworldly being referred to as "The Directer". Despite the game's title, the characters do not fight any vampires in the story.

Italian developer Luca "poncle" Galante began developing Vampire Survivors in 2020 using the Phaser framework while he was unemployed. He aimed to create Vampire Survivors to manage a community, drawing from his past experience as an administrator for an Ultima Online server. The game was inspired by Magic Survival, a 2019 mobile game that also featured a character that automatically attacks enemies.

Development of the initial early access version took about a year, during which Galante spent around £1,100 on assets, art, and music. Galante was inspired by the Castlevania games, and one of the art asset packs included sprites in a similar style to the characters in the early Castlevania games. Prior to developing Vampire Survivors, Galante worked in the gambling industry, using his knowledge of flashy graphics for slot machines as part of the appeal for the game's chest-opening animations.

While Vampire Survivors was initially obscure upon its release, it became a hit by late January 2022, reaching over 30,000 concurrent players on Steam. This number continued to rise, with the game surpassing 70,000 concurrent players the following month. Due to the success of Vampire Survivors, Galante was estimated by The Sunday Times in August 2024 to have accumulated £40 million, making him one of the wealthiest game developers in the United Kingdom.

While not the first game in its genre, Vampire Survivors inspired several other titles referred to as bullet heavens or reverse bullet hells, characterized by automatic gameplay and roguelike progression, which were released in the following year, mostly at a low price and in early access. Some of these include Deep Rock Galactic: Survivor and HoloCure – Save the Fans!. In one case, Poncle licensed the Vampire Survivors name and engine for a Warhammer 40,000 themed take on the game, the upcoming Warhammer Survivors, while Jujutsu Kaisen Rumble: Survivaton, based on the Jujutsu Kaisen works and published by Shueisha Games, adds battle royale-style multiplayer concepts.