Silent Hill is one of horror gaming’s most respected series, but its numbering is deceptive: the numbered entries are only loosely connected, and several of the best-regarded games have no number at all. Konami has also revived the franchise aggressively in recent years, adding a remake and a brand new mainline entry. Here is every Silent Hill game in release order, what connects them, and which ones actually deserve your time.
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Silent Hill Games in Order: The Complete Release List
In release order the series runs: Silent Hill (1999), Silent Hill 2 (2001), Silent Hill 3 (2003), Silent Hill 4: The Room (2004), Silent Hill: Origins (2007), Silent Hill: Homecoming (2008), Silent Hill: Shattered Memories (2009), Silent Hill: Downpour (2012), Silent Hill: Book of Memories (2012), the cancelled demo P.T. (2014), Silent Hill: The Short Message (2024), the Silent Hill 2 remake (2024) and Silent Hill f (2025). Only the first four were made by Konami’s internal Team Silent, and that original run is what most people mean when they talk about the classic era.
| Game | Platform | Genre | Why It’s Great | Rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Silent Hill | PlayStation | Survival horror | Fog-shrouded original that traded jump scares for dread and dream logic | 8.9/10 |
| Silent Hill 2 | PlayStation 2, Xbox, PC | Psychological horror | Widely considered the finest horror narrative ever written for games | 9.7/10 |
| Silent Hill 3 | PlayStation 2, PC | Survival horror | Direct sequel to the original with the series’ most grotesque art direction | 9.2/10 |
| Silent Hill 4: The Room | PlayStation 2, Xbox, PC | Survival horror | Claustrophobic apartment hub and a genuinely unnerving haunting mechanic | 8.2/10 |
| Silent Hill: Origins | PSP, PlayStation 2 | Survival horror | A capable handheld prequel that explains the town’s grip on Travis Grady | 7.5/10 |
| Silent Hill: Shattered Memories | Wii, PSP, PlayStation 2 | Narrative horror | Reimagines game one and quietly psychoanalyses the player as you go | 8.5/10 |
| Silent Hill 2 (2024 remake) | PlayStation 5, PC | Psychological horror | Faithful over-the-shoulder rebuild that preserves the original’s tone | 8.7/10 |
| Silent Hill f | PlayStation 5, Xbox Series, PC | Psychological horror | Moves the series to 1960s rural Japan with a wholly new cast and setting | 8.6/10 |
The Team Silent Era (1999-2004)
The first four games are the foundation. Silent Hill (1999) follows Harry Mason searching for his adopted daughter Cheryl and establishes the town’s cult mythology and the Otherworld, the rust-and-blood alternate version of reality. Silent Hill 2 (2001) discards that plot almost entirely to tell a self-contained story about James Sunderland receiving a letter from his dead wife. Silent Hill 3 (2003) is the only true direct sequel, picking up Heather Mason’s story seventeen years after the first game. Silent Hill 4: The Room (2004) began life as a separate project and ties in through the serial killer Walter Sullivan. These games rely on sound design more than visuals, which is exactly why veterans recommend reading a gaming headset buying guide before starting a playthrough.
The Western Development Years (2007-2012)
After Team Silent dissolved, Konami handed the series to studios outside Japan. Origins (2007, Climax) is a PSP prequel starring trucker Travis Grady. Homecoming (2008, Double Helix) leans toward action and borrows heavily from the film adaptation. Shattered Memories (2009, Climax) is the standout: a Wii-led reimagining of the first game with no combat at all, in which a psychiatric framing device quietly changes the world based on how you answer questions. Downpour (2012, Vatra Games) sends convict Murphy Pendleton into the town and has strong ideas buried under technical problems. Book of Memories (2012) is a Vita dungeon crawler and is the clear outlier. Several of these entries run best on modern PCs through community patches, so a gaming graphics card buying guide is useful if you plan to force higher resolutions.
P.T. and the Lost Silent Hills
In 2014 Konami released a free PS4 “playable teaser” under the fake studio name 7780s Studio. When players solved its final puzzle, it revealed itself as Silent Hills, a project from Hideo Kojima and Guillermo del Toro starring Norman Reedus. The game was cancelled in 2015 and P.T. was pulled from the PlayStation Store, making it effectively unobtainable on anything but a console that already downloaded it. Its first-person looping corridor became one of the most imitated horror designs of the decade. If you want to chase that atmosphere, playing in the dark on a properly calibrated panel helps; a OLED gaming monitor buying guide is a sensible companion read.
The Modern Revival (2024-2025)
Konami restarted the franchise with a slate announced in late 2022. The Short Message arrived first in January 2024 as a free, short first-person experience dealing with bullying and social media. Bloober Team’s Silent Hill 2 remake followed in October 2024, rebuilding the 2001 game in Unreal Engine 5 with over-the-shoulder combat and no loading screens, and it was received far better than most fans expected. Silent Hill f launched in September 2025 with a script by Ryukishi07, relocating the series to a 1960s Japanese town and delivering the first entirely new mainline story in over a decade.
Chronological Order of Silent Hill Games
Story chronology is loose because most entries are standalone, but a workable in-universe sequence is: Silent Hill f (1960s Japan, separate), Silent Hill: Origins, Silent Hill, Silent Hill 4: The Room, Silent Hill 2, then Silent Hill 3. Homecoming, Downpour and Shattered Memories sit outside that thread entirely. Playing in release order is still the better experience, since the games build on each other’s visual language rather than their plots.
Where to Start With Silent Hill
Newcomers should start with the Silent Hill 2 remake. It is the most accessible version of the series’ best story, it runs on current hardware, and it requires zero knowledge of the other games. If you prefer originals, play Silent Hill 2 (2001) and then Silent Hill (1999) and Silent Hill 3 back to back as a pair. Emulating the PS2 entries at higher resolutions is popular, though it demands more CPU headroom than people expect, so a quick pass over a gaming CPU buying guide pays off. Long horror sessions are also posture-punishing, and a ergonomic gaming chair buying guide is more relevant here than for most genres.
Which Silent Hill Games to Skip
Book of Memories is a loot-driven co-op dungeon crawler with almost nothing in common with the series, and Homecoming’s combat-forward design undercuts the horror. The HD Collection released in 2012 is also best avoided: it was built from incomplete source code and shipped with framerate problems, altered fog and re-recorded voice acting that many fans dislike. Track down the original PS2 discs or the PC versions instead, and if you are building a retro setup an upscaler and capture card buying guide will save you a lot of trial and error.
Frequently Asked Questions
Do the Silent Hill games in order connect to each other?
Only partially. Silent Hill, Silent Hill 3 and Silent Hill: Origins share the Mason family and the cult storyline, and Silent Hill 4 links through the killer Walter Sullivan. Silent Hill 2, Shattered Memories, Downpour and Silent Hill f are self-contained stories that require no prior knowledge.
How many Silent Hill games are there?
There are thirteen releases counting the four Team Silent games, five western-developed entries, the P.T. demo, The Short Message, the Silent Hill 2 remake and Silent Hill f. Additional arcade titles, mobile spin-offs and the pachinko machine are usually excluded from franchise lists.
Is the Silent Hill 2 remake a good starting point?
Yes, it is the best entry point available. The remake tells a complete standalone story, runs natively on current consoles and PC, and modernises the controls without changing the themes. Playing it first will not spoil any other game in the series for you.
Can you still play P.T. in 2026?
Not legitimately. Konami delisted P.T. from the PlayStation Store in 2015 and blocked re-downloads, so the only way to run it is on a PlayStation 4 that installed it before removal. Several fan-made recreations exist for PC, though they are unofficial and vary considerably in accuracy.
