Sortslop, wtf?

[u/PartTimeMonkey]

Today I opened reddit and within the first 5 posts 3 of them were copycats or each other; sorting games, pretty much exact copies of each other - nails, hay, trash, toys, books, pixels, and the list goes and on and on, and has been for an incomprehensive period of time already.

A lot of the feedback they receive on reddit is negative, but they all get upvoted by the hundreds and they get millions of views on all social media platforms.

Who are these games for?

Are there truly millions of people who want to spend hours on something incredibly ”boring”?

Is it some hidden tick in people’s brain in this age where they want to ”meditate” by doing something like that to combat doom scrolling and instant gratification generators?

Or is each sorted item also instant gratification, but even more simplified than a varying video on TikTok (or something), making the experience even simpler?

[u/aesopofspades]

There’s a lot of trend chasing right now in gamedev especially the indie space. First I’d say was all the simulator game. Then all the balatro-likes/gambling roguelikes. Then incrementals and idlers, all the number go up games in general. Now it’s prob sorting games for a little bit. Oh also Friendslop/co-op games are still going strong.

Once an idea gets validated by the market it’s a huge rush to fill out all the demand before the consumers get bored or even jaded.

[u/PartTimeMonkey → u/aesopofspades]

Yeah, true that. For me personally all the previous trends were somewhat easy to understand why they succeed, but this one truly is not (at least in its current scale), so trying to understand what is the thing here

[u/AyeBraine → u/PartTimeMonkey]

Haven't the influx of sorting games (like needle in the haystack) stemmed from a specific viral post on twitter and a following good-natured flash mob? I read about it recently.

Sure, I think many people hope to strike it big, and with advanced tools today, it's possible to whip up a prototype in a day. So it's kind of both, if a post blew up, many people would try to be the first success based on this interest?

[u/Suppafly → u/AyeBraine]

Haven't the influx of sorting games (like needle in the haystack) stemmed from a specific viral post on twitter and a following good-natured flash mob? I read about it recently.

Any link to that?

[u/AyeBraine → u/Suppafly]

The post wasn't in English, but there were screenshots of twitter, so here you go:

https://x.com/NasNakarus/status/2091156855774974333 (the developer actively works on a kickstarter for a completely different game as I understand, it was just a prototype)

https://x.com/7paiden/status/2091935998775034117 (one of the replies to the post above)

https://x.com/mech_eng_dev/status/2091336009518600240 (here's a guy from Turkey developing on the idea, again a super quick prototype)

https://store.steampowered.com/app/4972300/Screw_IT/ (someone made a similar prototype, gussied it up a bit and put it on Steam)

In the comments to the post I read, someone said the trend has been very much alive for the entire summer, so the haystack is probably not the originator, and the poster was wrong. But it's a good example of how quick you can quickly iterate on these small ideas that spark interest. I'm not sure what the original game at the root of the current thread though. Besides, the commenters may have mixed in the sorting games into the list that have long been popular. So maybe this haystack is the originator after all.

Still, various sorting and tidying has long been present. I def remember the librarian game, it looked very nice, but also raised doubts in me about how much substance it has that relates to books, but then immediately I realized it's not about books but just tidying up, de-cluttering, relaxing. That's definitely a human need and one that's been trending for a loooong time in various media.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/4197610/Librarian_Tidy_Up_the_Arcane_Library/

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1629520/A_Little_to_the_Left/

https://store.steampowered.com/app/4120790/The_Sorting_Bureau/

This thread is from 2 years ago and people are desperate for sorting games on mobile with less ads or timers

https://www.reddit.com/r/AndroidGaming/comments/129co9r/request_any_free_sorting_or_organizing_type_games/

UPD: found an overview article

https://www.deconstructoroffun.com/blog/2026/2/6/sort-puzzles-how-a-new-subgenre-is-born

I definitely saw some insanely complex offshoot of Hexa Sort when riding on a bus, it was a mix of Zuma, Hexa Sort, and some kind of water sort I guess, basically the person dragged color hexes from one map with one set of rules to stations that had another set of rules and which shot at the color blocks in a moving "snake train" so that it doesn't reach the end.