2025 kicks off with another live service death as Friday the 13th: The Game fans sadly twerk on its grave

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Don't cry because it's over, smile because Jason has an ax

Friday the 13th: The Game
(Image credit: Gun Media)

Friday the 13th: The Game has just ended online service, and since fans knew it was coming, they had the chance to give the survival horror multiplayer a proper burial – one that involves bikinis and stuff. 

While Friday the 13th was removed from storefronts in 2023, players who already owned the game had access to it through the very end of New Year's Eve 2024. So, instead of choreographing their midnight kisses, fans decided to put on their best ass-breaking dance emotes and shimmy throughout a forlorn Camp Crystal Lake. 

It's been a difficult journey for Friday the 13th: The Game. It succeeded in collecting a dedicated fanbase upon its release in 2017, but franchise creator Victor Miller's legal battle over copyright first killed its ability to release new content, then Friday the 13th closed its servers in 2020, enabling only peer-to-peer matchmaking. That brings us back to the game's permanent shutdown on December 31, 2024. 

Immortal hockey mask killer Jason and his victims put aside their differences for the end of an era, snapping celebratory pics and solemnly gyrating in their cabin's living room. Some people got to play a few final matches – in the asymmetrical game, a team of counselors try to kill Jason before he slaughters them – and others just kept thrusting in their swimsuits until their screens went black. 

"What I would give for one more hour," one player despaired on Reddit. 

"That 12:01 cutoff time hit like bricks for a lot of long-time players," agreed another fan. "My only hope is that someday we see a new title for Jason that’s like this. [...] If done right, it could be something truly special. But it’ll never be as special as what we had."

Weeks before it dies for good, Friday the 13th: The Game isn't just surprisingly active - it's the most fun I've had with a multiplayer horror game all year. 

Ashley Bardhan
Ashley Bardhan
Senior Writer

Ashley is a Senior Writer at GamesRadar+. She's been a staff writer at Kotaku and Inverse, too, and she's written freelance pieces about horror and women in games for sites like Rolling Stone, Vulture, IGN, and Polygon. When she's not covering gaming news, she's usually working on expanding her doll collection while watching Saw movies one through 11.