/vr/ - Retro Games

I've been getting into this genre the past few months and one aspect of this genre that really surprised me was the realization of just how small it really was. There's a million RE games, a handful of SH games that actually matter, and then a lot of one off shit that either never caught on or was based on an some IP at the time. RE has definitely cemented itself as a pop culture icon, so why did the actual survival horror genre die so quickly exactly? By seventh gen it was all but dead, with only a mild resurgence in recent years. Perhaps it's part of an appeal to the genre but so many other games in this genre generally feel more along the lines of "passion projects" with a number of apparent flaws that would turn off average consumers, only RE and SH really feel like true "big budget" experiences. I was only born in 98 but to anyone that grew up with it just how long did RE stay relevant? It feels like RE2 was definitely still fresh in the minds of people but by RE3 it seems like there was a decline in interest overall.