Boys Love has flourished as a genre in gaming since the early 2000s, with new titles coming out all the time and new publishers regularly appearing in the industry, both in Japan and around the world. New players are discovering the wide variety of games available all the time, with diversity constantly growing.
Early BL visual novels included 2002's Gakuen Heaven, which later became a multimedia franchise of manga, anime, and drama CDs; 2003's Angel's Feather, which incorporated RPG gameplay elements; and 2004's Animamundi: Dark Alchemist, which was censored for English-language release. Despite some attempts to incorporate other gaming types, Boys Love typically stayed within the realm of visual novels, with the genre and the medium growing side by side over the years.
The first BL visual novels to be translated into English were Enzai: Falsely Accused and Absolute Obedience, released in the west by JAST USA in 2006, with Animamundi following later that same year from Hirameki International.
Togainu no Chi, the first title from NITRO CHiRAL, was released in Japan in 2005, and came to English-speaking audiences as Togainu no Chi - Lost Blood - in 2020. NITRO CHiRAL are one of the most well-known BL game producers around the world, and Togainu no Chi represented a turning point for BL as a game genre, expanding the scope and raising the quality possible from these games.
Representation of same-sex relationships has become more prevalent since these early games were first released, and now many titles offer m/m romance options within a variety of genres, depending on who you play as and who you want to pair up with – everything from Baldur's Gate to Fire Emblem to Stardew Valley provide the choice to be male and romance men. Boys Love is a more specific genre within this broader category, however, and typically includes specific tropes and themes.
NU: Carnival is a Boys Love RPG featuring battle and exploration elements designed for Android and iOS, though due to its explicit BL content it isn't available through the App Store and instead must be downloaded and installed from its website. It has been a breakaway worldwide hit, registering more than a million downloads within weeks of release. Though developed by a Taiwanese company, it features Japanese voice acting, and is available in English, Chinese, Japanese and Korean.
The growth of BL gaming can be partially attributable to the ability to play games on phones, as evidenced by NU: Carnival's huge popularity – players no longer even need a laptop in order to engage with games. Another reason for the popularity of BL games in recent years is increased localization to English- and Chinese-speaking markets, with translations of Japanese games and locally-produced titles providing audiences with a broad variety of games to choose from depending on their specific interests.
DRAMAtical Murder's popularity in the west, for instance, introduced a broad audience of players to Boys Love visual novels, a genre and medium many of them may not have previously been aware of.
What the future of Boys Love in gaming looks like is a question of how well BL adapts to changing trends and technologies – the success of NU: Carnival certainly suggests that there's a huge audience for BL gaming content out there waiting to be catered to, even if computer and even console-based visual novels decline in popularity in the future.
While not everyone who enjoys m/m romance in their gaming experience will be a fan of Boys Love tropes specifically, it's safe to say there'll always be a sizable group looking to include BL in their gaming experience.