In the game, one to four players work to complete a contract where they must identify the type of ghost haunting a designated site, with several other optional objectives.

Phasmophobia features speech recognition[4][5] allowing certain pieces of equipment, Cursed Possessions, and even the ghost to hear players speaking and understand key words and phrases.

Gathering evidence to determine the correct ghost type and surviving will net the majority of the cash and XP, but completing objectives and taking photos will augment or even double the rewards.

Phasmophobia gives players the option to customize their appearance by picking between eight different paranormal investigators to distinguish between group members.

All equipment is purchased and upgraded at a computer in the lobby and selected to be loaded into a van from which the group will operate upon arriving at the site.

As players attempt to complete the contract, sanity will drain with certain events and circumstances affecting the rate at which it does so.

Upon starting the game for the first time, players will be presented with a set of rudimentary starter equipment consisting of eight Tier I items: an old radio, a notepad, a laser pen, an electromagnetic field detector, an old camcorder, a mercury thermometer, a UV glowstick, and a retro metallic flashlight, with more of these available to buy in the store, assuming the player has enough funds to do so.

Certain types of equipment like Firelights, Igniters, Incense, and Crucifixes may be needed to complete the optional objectives and protect players.

This set of equipment is permanently located inside the Van and is used to track the status of the players and ghost’s activity, although on Nightmare and Insanity difficulties as well as with two specific Custom Difficulty settings, the Sanity Monitor and Site Activity monitor may be disabled and appear as smashed screens.

Evidence and ghost identification must be marked in the Journal to receive money and XP that can be used to purchase and upgrade more equipment.

A photo of the ghost will net the most money, but other items that count towards photo evidence include bones, dead bodies (of teammates), fingerprints, footprints, disturbed salt, interactions, dirty water, used crucifixes, Ghost Writing, and Cursed Possessions.

Kinetic Games has stated that reworks to the Photo system will be coming in the near future, with Video and Sound evidence.

They include the Ouija Board, Music Box, Haunted Mirror, Tarot Cards, Summoning Circle, Voodoo Doll, and the Monkey Paw.

The Music Box, Haunted Mirror, Tarot Cards, Summoning Circle, and Voodoo Doll were all released in version 0.5.0, known as the Cursed Possessions update.

Sanity begins at 100% at the start of a game and decreases passively as the player wanders in dark areas.

The hunt is a gameplay feature designed to add complexity and danger to players' investigation of a specific location.

[16] In the future, Kinetic Games has promised reworks to core systems like Photo evidence, Progression, CCTV, horror, hunts, events, and more, as well as new additions, including Video and Sound evidence, character customization, new character models and animations, new optional objectives and tasks, new interactions, hallucinations, and new ghost models.

[17][18] This was likely due to the game becoming early access around the beginning of the Halloween season, as well as being similar in popularity to its inspiration P.T.

[22] One of the more concerning examples of hacking were stream snipers, who changed their player models to a more NSFW one, likely causing said streamers to receive warnings and bans for inappropriate content.

"[31] Since August 2023, IGN considered it one of the "12 Best Horror Games on PC", stating that "Nothing beats that moment when you suddenly see your friend twist and contort from getting got by one of Phasmophobia’s many evil spirits as you all scramble to the exit for a hasty escape.

"[32] Rich Stanton of PC Gamer called it "the best ghost game ever made", as well as declaring that it was "unlike anything else I've played", and that it "comes up with shit that'll turn you white".

[6] Cass Marshall, writing in Polygon, also gave a positive review, describing it as "a nice, cozy kind of horror and once it gets rolling, it is brilliant", while also finding that the game had numerous bugs which have since been fixed.