Bullet Heaven Genre Gets Official Steam Tag — and Here's Why

Steam settled the bullet heaven genre naming debate. The platform added an official Bullet Heaven tag, and the games you'd expect are already under it: Vampire Survivors, Brotato, Deep Rock Galactic: Survivor, The Spell Brigade, Megabonk, Jotunnslayer: Hordes of Hel.

The tag ID is 723991 — searchable now, separate from the existing Bullet Hell tag (4885), which covers a different genre entirely.

Bullet heaven genre — key takeaways

• Steam has added an official Bullet Heaven genre tag (ID: 723991)
• Vampire Survivors, Brotato, Deep Rock Galactic: Survivor, The Spell Brigade among tagged games
• The tag distinguishes the genre from Bullet Hell, which it is not
• Nordic Ashes, Besmirch, and other recent releases now have a cleaner discoverability path

Why this took five years

The genre's problem was always naming. "Survivor-like" describes the lineage but not the mechanic. "Reverse bullet hell" is accurate but awkward. "Horde shooter" exists but covers different games. "Bullet heaven" was the community's own term, coined to contrast with bullet hell — the genre is you drowning enemies in projectiles, not the other way around.

Steam runs on tags, and until now these games had to choose between imprecise options or rely on user-submitted tags that varied across the library. A developer releasing a new entry in the genre today had no guaranteed way to surface it to players already searching for Vampire Survivors-style games.

The official tag changes that. It's the first time the platform has recognized the genre as a distinct searchable category rather than a subset of roguelite or shooter.

What it means for indie devs

Any developer making a Vampire Survivors-style game now has one tag to use at launch instead of guessing between "roguelite," "action," and "indie." One tag, one search page, one result that surfaces your game to players already looking for the genre.

The best bullet heaven games of 2026 list we published earlier this week was already using the term. The Nordic Ashes Twilight of Yggdrasil DLC released last week is one of the games that fits squarely under the new tag — a bullet heaven roguelite set in Norse mythology with three new realms. Besmirch, Die in the Dungeon, and Gambonanza all land in the same cluster.

For players, searching "bullet heaven" on Steam now actually works. Before this, finding new entries meant either already knowing which games existed or hoping the recommendation system made the connection. Now there's a tag page. You browse it.

Frequently asked questions

What is bullet heaven? Auto-attack roguelite survival games where the player generates projectile density rather than dodging it. Vampire Survivors is the genre reference point.

How is it different from bullet hell? Bullet hell games put the player on defense against dense enemy projectile patterns. Bullet heaven games flip the ratio — the player overwhelms enemies.

Which games have the tag now? Vampire Survivors, Brotato, Deep Rock Galactic: Survivor, The Spell Brigade, Megabonk, Jotunnslayer: Hordes of Hel, and more being added as developers apply the tag.

Was there a tag before this? No official one. Developers used "roguelite," "bullet hell," and "action" in combination.

References

• Bullet Heaven tag on Steam — official genre tag page
• Steam on X — official Steam X account where the new tag was noted
• Vampire Survivors — official trailer on YouTube — the genre reference point, for context on what bullet heaven actually looks like
• r/pcgaming — Steam decrees bullet heaven the official name — community discussion thread