The next viral "friendslop" co-op experience is here, and it wants to strand you at 30,000 feet with your friends and a plane on fire. Dear Passengers, the debut PC title from Ukrainian studio Flexus Games, casts you and your crew as the flight staff of the world's worst airline. A gameplay trailer released on July 14, 2026, racked up millions of views across social media in days, and the game's Steam wishlist is climbing fast ahead of a full 2026 launch.
Drawing on NDTV, dev.ua, and CHS HYD, here's the full picture of the Dear Passengers game before it lands on Steam.
Dear Passengers is a physics-based cooperative multiplayer game for PC, developed and published by Ukrainian studio Flexus Games. The title is the studio's PC debut after nearly a decade making mobile idle games with hundreds of millions of downloads. In Dear Passengers, players take on the roles of an airplane crew for a chaotic budget airline, trying to keep flights in the air, passengers alive, and cargo intact despite an escalating series of disasters. The game supports both solo play and online co-op, though the developers have been clear from day one that it is designed as a group experience for friends. Steam wishlisting is live now, and the Steam page details every core system.
Dear Passengers compares to other airline or airport simulation games as a physics-based co-op comedy rather than a traditional business or management sim. Unlike Airport CEO or Sim Airport, Flexus Games' title focuses on real-time chaotic crew coordination, closer to Overcooked and PlateUp than to serious tycoons.
The Dear Passengers game splits its crew into two clear roles. One player takes the cockpit and flies the plane, contending with dynamic weather, turbulence, and mechanical hiccups. The rest of the crew works the passenger cabin, serving food and drinks, calming nervous passengers, repairing damaged equipment, putting out fires, and resolving whatever emergency situation the flight throws at them before it turns catastrophic. Realistic physics of character and luggage movement mean turbulence can send suitcases, snacks, and passengers flying across the cabin at any moment. Every job pays out based on how well the crew handles the route, and the developers have promised no two flights ever unfold the same way.
You can partially customize your airline crew in Dear Passengers, though Flexus Games has not publicly detailed a full character customization system for the 2026 launch. Crews assign their own roles between pilot and cabin duties before takeoff, and independently select the passengers and cargo for each route.
Before each takeoff, the crew independently selects the passengers and cargo to be transported. This is the game's core risk-reward mechanic. More expensive cargo and demanding passengers pay much better, but they also multiply the difficulty of the flight ahead. Dangerous cargo raises the odds of mid-air disaster. Problem passengers push cabin morale to the edge and can trigger cascading incidents when panicking. The choice sits with the crew before every route, letting groups match their appetite for chaos to how much money and stress they want on the manifest. It is the moment that turns Dear Passengers into a proper co-op strategy game rather than a pure slapstick simulator.
Once airborne, Dear Passengers leans hard into physics-based chaos. Reported in-flight events include bird strikes, sudden equipment failures, escaped animals (including crocodiles that reportedly get loose in the cabin), and even attacks from airborne pirates who need to be repelled from the aircraft. In extreme situations, players may need to leave the aircraft mid-flight, either to repair the hull or to fight off pirates who have boarded. Turbulence intensifies throughout each flight, making even routine cabin tasks like serving drinks progressively harder. Combined with ragdoll physics on characters, luggage, and unfortunate passengers, this creates the kind of emergent slapstick that has helped titles like Overcooked and PlateUp reach breakout status.
Dear Passengers uses built-in proximity voice chat, meaning teammates only hear each other clearly when they are physically close together inside the aircraft. When a pilot is up front and cabin crew are at the tail sorting a fire, they cannot simply shout coordination across the plane. That constraint is designed to make emergency coordination genuinely chaotic and force crews to run between compartments to relay information. Solo play is supported, but the developers have consistently framed Dear Passengers as a game for groups.
The Dear Passengers trailer released on July 14, 2026, went viral almost immediately. The Game Awards official Instagram account posted the trailer to over 100,000 likes within days. Streamers including CouRageJD picked up the pitch, and countless "perfect game to play with friends" comments piled up across social media. Flexus Games has said the buzz has grown faster than any of its previous projects, and the studio's Steam wishlist is on pace to become one of the standout indie stories of Steam Next Fest 2026.
Yes, trailers and gameplay videos are available for Dear Passengers. Flexus Games released the main gameplay trailer on July 14, 2026, which The Game Awards Instagram account amplified to over 100,000 likes. Streamers like CouRageJD have posted extended footage, and the Steam page hosts an embedded trailer.
You can join the Dear Passengers community through the game's Steam page, which hosts the primary discussion hub, plus Flexus Games' LinkedIn page where the studio posts development updates. The game also has active social media buzz on X and Instagram tied to viral trailer coverage.
Flexus Games is a Kyiv-based independent game development studio founded in 2020. The team of 70-plus people grew during the pandemic and Russia's full-scale war on Ukraine, initially focused on mobile hybrid-casual and mid-core titles that pulled hundreds of millions of downloads across app stores. Dear Passengers is the studio's first PC project and its first cooperative multiplayer title. In dev.ua's coverage, the team summarised its design ethos as making a game that is fun, where every element from the design and graphics to the sound and trailer is aimed at making players laugh with friends rather than quit in anger.
Flexus Games has locked in a 2026 launch window for the Dear Passengers game but has not yet confirmed a specific release date or a demo drop.
Dear Passengers is scheduled for a PC release on Steam sometime in 2026, though Flexus Games has deliberately left the specific date open. No public demo has been announced yet, and Steam wishlisting is the only sign-up available. Given the pace of viral attention since the July 14 trailer, an announcement at Gamescom or during Steam Next Fest 2026 is plausible.
Alex Castellari · Editor
Editor
