20 Games Like Minecraft To Play In 2024
Finding games like Minecraft that are sure to capture your unwavering attention much like Mojang's sandbox gem be a challenge. The 2011 masterpiece is one of the best-selling games of all time, after all, standing strong as one of the most highly played titles even more than a decade after its genre-defining release. One can attribute the immense success that Minecraft has seen to its unique blend of sandbox, survival, and RPG features. The creativity it allows players to partake in, whether they're looking to build majestic castles or underwater fortresses, is unrivaled. With countless biomes to explore and creatures to fend off or even tame, there's also far more to do than just craft in-game.
Whether you personally enjoy Mojang's masterpiece more for the sandbox experience that it offers or for its fair yet challenging survival mechanics, you may have a difficult time trying to locate good games like Minecraft. You can always search for some on ever-growing game libraries like Steam via genre tags, but the sheer number you'll have to scroll through can make such a process seem daunting. We've got you covered here with a good few to look to as we dive into 20 of our favorite games like Minecraft, from the dinosaur-ridden Ark to Vintage Story, an entry that found its roots as a mod for Mojang's sandbox sensation.
Ark: Survival Evolved
- Developer: Studio Wildcard
- Platform: Mobile, Nintendo Switch, PC, PlayStation 4/5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S
- Release Date: June 2, 2015
Ark: Survival Evolved and its recent remake, Ark: Survival Ascended, lean more into the crafting and survival genres than many sandbox titles like Minecraft do. Much like Mojang's own game, however, Ark strikes a fun balance between the calm of building and the thrill of exploration. You're thrust into a science fiction-esque version of the Jurassic Period and forced to build, craft, fight, and gather your way through a stunning yet largely unforgiving world made up of vibrant biomes. There are dinosaurs to tame, giant creatures to prove victorious against, technological advancements to achieve, and more. You can enjoy Ark with friends as well, or even try your hand at PvP online.
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Astroneer
- Developer: System Era Softworks
- Platform: Nintendo Switch, PC, PlayStation 4/5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S
- Release Date: December 12, 2016
If you thought dinosaurs were a big differentiator, how do you feel about an interstellar sandbox setting? Astroneer is a stunning open-world game that sees you exploring and reshaping distant worlds as you please. You can build alongside friends or alone, craft vehicles to help your planetary and intergalactic exploration, terraform to create anything you'd like to and gather materials, and much more. You can think of anything you see in Astroneer as clay waiting for you to remodel it to your liking with the handy in-game "deform" tool, whether it be for a base you're building or for easier travel. The sheer amount of creative possibilities makes Astroneer feel like a cozy space Minecraft of sorts.
Cube World
- Developer: Picroma
- Platform: PC
- Release Date: July 2, 2013
Cube World is a voxel-based action RPG at its core, but, much like Minecraft, it focuses heavily on features typical of sandbox games including elements like crafting, exploration, taming, and more. If you favor Mojang's classic for such activities as well as its adorable blocky art style, Cube World may just be worth a look. It's ideal for fans of combat and magic-aligned Minecraft mods, too, with adventurous questing and classes such as mage, ranger, rogue, and warrior to choose from. The gameplay itself is non-linear, meaning that you can create, fight, forage, or search for magic artifacts as you please at your own pace. If you're looking to take the colorful procedurally generated world on with your friends in co-op, you can also opt to play online.
Dinkum
- Developer: James Bendon
- Platform: PC
- Release Date: July 14, 2022
At first glance, you may not think of Dinkum as a good game like Minecraft. However, it has a lot more in common with Mojang's own than one might initially presume. While Stardew Valley-like elements such as farming and Animal Crossing-esque features like donating to a museum are indeed present, Dinkum is largely a sandbox experience in which you can build, craft, engage in combat, gather, mine, and traverse as you please. You're able to terraform the Australia-inspired world however you'd like, and you may just find that its charming blocky appearance is also reminiscent of Minecraft's. This is yet another entry that you can enjoy either alone or alongside friends, and we'd recommend it either way if you're searching for some cozy sandbox fun.
Don't Starve
- Developer: Klei Entertainment
- Platform: Mobile, Nintendo Switch, PC, PlayStation 4/5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S
- Release Date: April 23, 2013
Don't Starve blends its creepily cute art style with an unforgivingly cruel world and intriguing cast of characters to create a truly monumental experience. Much like in Minecraft, you can craft, explore, gather, and mine, but you'll have to focus far more on survival than you do in Mojang's sandbox game. With magic and science galore to aid you, you'll advance and take on everything from the dark (if you thought Minecraft's nights were punishing, think again) to hungry, monstrous creatures as you build your way through the randomly generated world you get in Don't Starve. If you'd prefer to explore the storybook-looking ins and outs of this game with friends, you can opt to play the multiplayer spin-off, Don't Starve Together.
Dragon Quest Builders 2
- Developer: Square Enix
- Platform: Nintendo Switch, PC, PlayStation 4/5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S
- Release Date: December 20, 2018
Players oftentimes describe Dragon Quest Builders 2 and its predecessor as Minecraft-like games with RPG features, and they're not wrong. Set in a fantasy land facing an evil threat, the game features a blocky art style reminiscent of Minecraft's iconic own and lets you battle, build, craft, farm, gather, and explore. You can play through the single-player campaign for a fun blend of sandbox elements and RPG features or opt to play through the dedicated online sandbox mode with up to three friends if you'd prefer to focus entirely on building instead. Dragon Quest Builders feels like a mashup of Dragon Quest's mainline series of games and Minecraft, and we'd recommend it to any fan of either for the creative outlet it provides as well as its quirky chibi-looking characters and compelling gameplay.
Eco
- Developer: Strange Loop Games
- Platform: PC
- Release Date: February 6, 2018
Eco is a sandbox game with building, crafting, harvesting, mining, and all of the features we love Minecraft for with an added difficulty thanks to its focus on real-world issues such as climate change and the destruction of ecosystems. In this unique entry, you'll need to advance and build up a society of people while also maintaining the natural world around you, taking care to not destroy it as you work to progress civilization. This is no easy feat when you consider the amount of terrain changes that building actually entails. If you do properly analyze the impact you have on the world and construct with care, you can create a bustling civilization in harmony with nature from the ground up.
Lego Worlds
- Developer: Traveller's Tales
- Platform: Nintendo Switch, PC, PlayStation 4/5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S
- Release Date: June 1, 2015
Minecraft, but make it Lego. That's sort of what Lego Worlds feels like as you play, allowing you to explore seamless landscapes and create anything you'd like using colorful Lego bricks. It's a childhood dream come true, a virtual Minecraft-like situation in which you have Lego bricks of all kinds at your disposal to build with. There's more to the game than just building, too, as you can use landscaping tools to terraform as you please and utilize everything from gorillas to helicopters to traverse the vibrant world. You'll also encounter all sorts of silly characters and creatures as well as shiny treasures to unearth. If you're a Lego fan or simply a sandbox stan, Lego Worlds is worth a look.
Outpath
- Developer: David Moralejo Sanchez
- Platform: PC
- Release Date: October 16, 2023
Clicker and idle games meet Minecraft in Outpath, a relaxing base-building experience that sees you crafting, creating, expanding, exploring, gathering, and more without any time limits or pressure to play at anything other than your own pace. The 3D art is vibrant and the music reacts to your actions, bringing the atmosphere to life while you build. You can choose to automate everything and play either actively or idly, engaging in chill activities when you do click, such as fishing and even platformer-esque parkour. Outpath is the perfect go-to game to de-stress and unwind with after a long day, packing many of our favorite Minecraft features without any of the anxiety that may usually accompany them.
PixArk
- Developer: Snail Games
- Platform: Nintendo Switch, PC, PlayStation 4/5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S
- Release Date: March 27, 2018
While we've already covered Ark, you may be searching for a game that not only plays like Minecraft does, but one that also matches its cozy blocky style more closely. That's where PixArk comes in, a different version of Ark with all of the crafting and dinosaurs you could want but also a much more colorful, voxel-based aesthetic. You can still play either alone or with friends online and build, explore, farm, gather, and tame as you please. You'll advance much like you do in Ark, unlocking new technology to help you on your way while you traverse the game's procedurally generated Jurassic world and befriend or hunt down scaly creatures of all shapes and sizes.
Raft
- Developer: Redbeet Interactive
- Platform: Mobile, PC
- Release Date: May 23, 2018
If you like Minecraft but want to change things up a bit and stray away from the mostly on-land setting, you may enjoy Raft. This sandbox game takes place almost entirely at sea, seeing you build up and customize a floating raft until it's a full-blown base island on water. You can play alone or with friends, but you may prefer to do the latter once you encounter the man-eating sharks that sporadically attack your raft. While you'll spend a good portion of time on the open water, you'll also explore land as you discover it and learn some of the game's backstory in between your building, crafting, farming, and scavenging. Raft is a must-have for sandbox and survival game stans alike.
Roblox
- Developer: Roblox Corporation
- Platform: Mobile, Nintendo Switch, PC, PlayStation 4/5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S
- Release Date: September 1, 2006
Roblox is absolutely massive right now. With all of the possibilities it offers, it's no wonder. While Roblox itself is a free online game platform and creation system, you'll find countless crafting and sandbox experiences to try out within it. Whether you're looking to play a game exactly like Minecraft or one with heavier role-playing elements, you'll find something fit for your tastes in no time while exploring the available Roblox creations. Much like Minecraft, Roblox games also feature a unique blocky art style and an outlet for player creativity. If you end up tiring of a certain Roblox game or want to hop genres entirely, you can always do so.
Rust
- Developer: Facepunch Studios
- Platform: PC, PlayStation 4/5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S
- Release Date: December 11, 2013
Rust is more of an adult sandbox survival game experience thanks to its challenging gameplay and online community, but it's incredibly fun and a worthy mention regardless. If you grew up playing Minecraft and want something with just as much crafting, exploration, and possibilities but also more combat, difficulty, and PvP-heavy mechanics, then you'll want to give Rust a go. You start the game naked and have to build your way up with tools while also fending off the surrounding wildlife and more importantly, other players. You can try and ally with friends to make things easier or take your chances at building a solo base in Rust, choosing from procedurally generated worlds that reset biweekly, weekly, or even monthly.
Sons of the Forest
- Developer: Endnight Games
- Platform: PC
- Release Date: February 23, 2023
Sons of the Forest stands strong as a solid survival game alongside its beloved predecessor The Forest. While it ticks all of the sandbox boxes you'd want it to, including building, crafting, exploring, and gathering, it also adds an element you may not usually expect from the genre: horror. While you're improving your base and trying your best to get by on a beautiful, seemingly untouched island after suffering a helicopter crash, you'll also have to face off against humanoid cannibals of all gruesome shapes and sizes. There's also a story to follow as you traverse caves and loot the map, which you can enjoy alone or alongside your friends in multiplayer.
Starbound
- Developer: Chucklefish
- Platform: PC
- Release Date: July 22, 2016
Starbound stands out as it's not a 3D experience but rather a charming pixel-style 2D game that follows you as you try to survive in space aboard your damaged ship. You'll have to explore planets to try and build, craft, fight, and gather your way successfully through the stars, all while taking on quests and eventually, saving the universe itself. There are all sorts of customization options including seven playable races to choose from and discoveries waiting amid the procedurally generated universe galore, such as menacing bosses, colorful characters, dangerous dungeons, and more. If you'd prefer to play with some pals instead of traversing Starbound's interstellar challenges alone, you can do so.
Subnautica
- Developer: Unknown Worlds Entertainment
- Platform: Nintendo Switch, PC, PlayStation 4/5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S
- Release Date: December 16, 2014
Much like Raft, Subnautica is all about water. However, you'll be living under the sea in this game instead of above it, making use of what you find scattered about an alien ocean floor to build and craft your way to survival. You can make functional submarines, take on massive aquatic creatures, traverse underwater volcanoes, and much more in Subnautica, a sandbox experience that blends light horror with sci-fi. If you're hoping to build a giant base upon the sea floor with various nooks and crannies to decorate or are instead simply looking to make a vehicle and set out to learn more about your backstory, you can. Subnautica, while certainly story-driven when compared to other games of a similar genre, is a solid choice for all kinds of players.
Terraria
- Developer: Re-Logic
- Platform: Mobile, Nintendo Switch, PC, PlayStation 4/5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S
- Release Date: May 16, 2011
Terraria is Starbound's non-interstellar soul sister and spiritual predecessor, featuring a pixel 2D art style and the ability to build to your heart's content. You can customize your randomly generated world and its various biomes as you please, building massive homes for the various NPCs aboveground or mining your way through mushroom-ridden caverns below. There are Lovecraftian bosses to overcome and in-game events to prove victorious through as well, adding a more challenging flair to the sandbox-survival experience Terraria offers. The game is still receiving content updates over a decade after its 2011 release with a big one just on the horizon, meaning you'll likely never run out of things to do. We'd dare to say that Terraria may end up taking Minecraft's spot in your heart over once you've given it a go.
The Planet Crafter
- Developer: Miju Games
- Platform: PC
- Release Date: March 24, 2022
The Planet Crafter is another solid option for players looking to experience space survival and all of its intergalactic challenges. You can play this game with up to nine other friends, altering the ecosystem of an inhospitable planet to make it more habitable as you build, craft, gather, and explore. The alien land you find yourself on features various unique biomes, with some proving more unforgiving than others. You'll encounter everything from cute creatures to gnarly insects as you try to advance and build up a brand-new biosphere, terraforming the environment as you see fit for your tastes. There's definitely plenty of sandbox, sci-fi, and survival fun to be had in The Planet Crafter for Minecraft fans and newcomers to such genres alike.
Valheim
- Developer: Iron Gate Studio
- Platform: PC, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S
- Release Date: February 2, 2021
While it may seem like a far cry from Minecraft, Valheim features many of the same core mechanics such as building, crafting, exploring, and gathering, albeit with Viking mythology and brutal challenges to face aplenty. If you want to set off on your own saga alone or with friends in multiplayer and tackle formidable foes while building impressive longhouses as you please in between battles, Valheim may just be the perfect game for you. The premise is certainly different and the gameplay will keep you hooked, with various distinct biomes to explore and seemingly endless opportunities for creative building. The game is still in early access, which means that even more content is underway as updates roll out and Valheim nears its full release.
Vintage Story
- Developer: Anego Studios
- Platform: PC
- Release Date: September 27, 2016
Vintage Story stands out amid our other entries here as it's a game that actually started as a Minecraft mod. Due to this fact, it aesthetically appears much like Mojang's own game does, featuring the iconic blocky art style and handy tool hotbar. However, Vintage Story is much more difficult, with Lovecraftian challenges and unforgiving wilderness to overcome at all corners. You'll need to build, craft, explore, and gather just as you do in Minecraft, but you'll progress through various ages from the Stone Age onward as you advance. Thanks to its procedural technology, you can expect to traverse a vast open world with diverse climate conditions, geological features, and landscapes as well as all sorts of creates from the cute to the downright terrifying. If you want something truly akin to Minecraft, you should check this mod-turned-game out.
