13 Games Like Minecraft
Last updated:
If you love Minecraft’s blend of building, crafting, and endless exploration, you’re probably searching for other games that scratch the same creative itch. Whether you enjoy survival challenges, giant base-building projects, or relaxing sandbox worlds where you can shape anything you imagine, there are plenty of titles that capture that same magic. In this guide, you’ll find the best games similar to Minecraft. From cozy creative sandboxes to deep survival adventures built around freedom and discovery.
Table of Contents
About Minecraft
One of the most popular games of the 2010s, Minecraft allows you to rebuild the environment around you. The world of the game is open, infinitely wide, and procedurally generated. It is composed of small 3D cubes that represent specific types of materials or terrain. The gameplay is centered on mining and building various structures of your choice. You can also craft items like tools, weapons, and armor. There's an option to shift to the first or the third person view. Minecraft includes multiple modes that dramatically change the focus of the game. Survival and Adventure modes require the player to gather resources, hunt for food and fight monsters to survive. In the Hardcore mode, there’s even permanent death. Creative mode, by contrast, offers you to freely explore the world and construct whatever you want with unlimited resources. There’s also a multiplayer mode that allows the players to share their worlds and engage in the traditional MMO activities, such as player-vs-player combat. Minecraft’s crude visual style, reminiscent of Lego cubes, became an iconic part of the popular culture. There are many myths and fan fiction surrounding the game, such as the legend of Herobrine, a rumored character that officially doesn’t exist.
Why Gamers Love Minecraft
-
Unlimited Creativity You can build anything: houses, cities, machines, entire worlds.
-
Endless Exploration Every world is unique, full of biomes, caves, secrets, and surprises.
-
Simple but Deep Gameplay Easy to learn, yet packed with crafting, automation, combat, and farming.
-
Play Your Way Survival, creative, multiplayer, mods. The game fits any mood or style.
-
Infinite Replayability Procedural worlds, updates, and community creations keep it fresh forever.
Similar games
-
#1
Valheim
Why it's similar to Minecraft:Survival, building, crafting, and exploring a vast world with friends. Minecraft but Viking.
Prove your worth! Are you worthy of entering Valhalla? You have been sent to Valheim, the 10th Norse world. Only by defeating the mighty beasts of these lands will you win the favor of the gods. This quest will take you to the far reaches of this world, from the deepest forest to the highest mountain peak. You will craft powerful weapons, build unyielding castles and sail longships towards the horizon. Description Valheim is a game about exploring a huge fantasy world inspired by norse mythology and viking culture. You start your adventure at the relatively peaceful center of Valheim. The further from the center you travel, the more challenging the world becomes. But you will also find more valuable materials that you can use to craft deadlier weapons and sturdier armor. You will also build your own viking strongholds and outposts all over the world. Eventually you will build a mighty longship and sail the great oceans in search of exotic lands … but be wary of sailing too far... Features: Flexible house and base building system. Intuitive item crafting (weapons, armor, food etc). Huge procedural world. Dodge & block based combat system with a wide range of weapons. Defeat bosses & collect trophies. Engaging food & health system. Build & sail ships. Multiplayer (with focus on cooperation). Dedicated server.
-
#2
Terraria
Why it's similar to Minecraft:2D sandbox with mining, crafting, building, bosses, and endless progression.
Terraria is a 2D action adventure sandbox game, where players create a character and gather resources in order to gradually craft stronger weapons and armor. Players create randomly generated maps that contain different locations within it, and by gathering specific resources and triggering special events, players will fight one of the many in-game bosses. Created characters can be played on different maps. The game introduces hundreds of unique items that can be found across the entirety of the map, some of which may not even be encountered. Terraria have many different Biomes and areas with distinct visuals, containing resources and enemies unique to this biome. After gathering materials, players can craft furniture, and build settlements and houses, since after completing events or finding specific items NPCs will start to arrive, and will require player’s protection. Terraria can be played on three difficulties and has a large modding community.
-
#3
Starbound
Why it's similar to Minecraft:Crafting, mining, and building across procedurally generated planets. Space Minecraft vibes.
Starbound is a 2D adventure game with a heavy focus on the sandbox aspect and procedurally generated levels. Unlike many similar games of this genre, Starbound has a story you need to follow. Playing as a space officer whose planet was destroyed by aliens, you explore the universe and prepare for the revenge. In general, Starbound is a typical 2D sandbox with such activities as spelunking, crafting and exploring that are united with story missions. Quests help to find the information about the in-game universe and races and lead through different tasks. Some levels are based on platforming only, while the others make you change the environment and solve puzzles. Some of them are based on the character’s ability to turn into a ball and use both hands to hold tools. And still, the key feature of Starbound is procedurally generated levels and their design. The game features a huge amount of planets to explore, with multiple caves, buildings, labyrinths, and forests.
-
#4
Vintage Story
Why it's similar to Minecraft:Deep crafting, survival, and world simulation with a focus on realism and creativity.
Vintage Story is a game about innovation and exploration. It thrusts the player into a carefully-generated semi-autonomous world and challenges them to survive and overcome the natural and unknown threats of their new home. Intrepid players who accept this challenge will find themselves rewarded with mechanics that respects their intelligence and allows for tangible, realistic invention. In addition, they’ll find a world with its own character and a deep, interconnected narrative within it. It aims to reach the next level of quality in the voxel sandbox genre, as we, a small dedicated team, relentlessly expand it with story elements, more creation tools and survival elements. The game is currently an early access title. It is fully playable, pretty stable and has a decent level of game content to play around with. If you want to support the development of the game, please consider buying it or come and hang out in discord or the forums, we love to be in company with voxel game enthusiasts! For more details have a look at the About us, Features and News page.
-
#5
ARK: Survival Evolved
Why it's similar to Minecraft:Survive, craft, build bases, and tame creatures in an open world full of danger.
As a man or woman stranded naked, freezing and starving on the shores of a mysterious island called ARK, you must hunt, harvest resources, craft items, grow crops, research technologies, and build shelters to withstand the elements. Use your cunning and resources to kill or tame & breed the leviathan dinosaurs and other primeval creatures roaming the land, and team up with or prey on hundreds of other players to survive, dominate... and escape! Dinosaurs, Creatures, & Breeding! -- over 100+ creatures can be tamed using a challenging capture-&-affinity process, involving weakening a feral creature to knock it unconscious, and then nursing it back to health with appropriate food. Once tamed, you can issue commands to your tames, which it may follow depending on how well you’ve tamed and trained it. Tames, which can continue to level-up and consume food, can also carry Inventory and Equipment such as Armor, carry prey back to your settlement depending on their strength, and larger tames can be ridden and directly controlled! Fly a Pterodactyl over the snow-capped mountains, lift allies over enemy walls, race through the jungle with a pack of Raptors, tromp through an enemy base along a gigantic brontosaurus, or chase down prey on the back of a raging T-Rex! Take part in a dynamic ecosystem life-cycle with its own predator & prey hierarchies, where you are just one creature among many species struggling for dominance and survival. Tames can also be mated with the opposite gender, to selectively breed successive generations using a trait system based on recombinant genetic inheritance. This process includes both egg-based incubation and mammalian gestation lifecycles! Or put more simply, raise babies! You must eat and drink to survive, with different kinds of plants & meat having different nutritional properties, including human meat. Ensuring a supply of fresh water to your home and inventory is a pressing concern. All physical actions come at a cost of food and water, long-distance travel is fraught with subsistence peril! Inventory weight makes you move slower, and the day/night cycle along with randomized weather patterns add another layer of challenge by altering the temperature of the environment, causing you to hunger or thirst more quickly. Build a fire or shelter, and craft a large variety of customizable clothing & armors, to help protect yourself against locational damage & extreme temperatures using the dynamic indoor/outdoor insulation calculation system! By chopping down forests full of trees and mining metal and other precious resources, you can craft the parts to build massive multi-leveled structures composed of complex snap-linked parts, including ramps, beams, pillars, windows, doors, gates, remote gates, trapdoors, water pipes, faucets, generators, wires and all manner of electrical devices, and ladders among many other types. Structures have a load system to fall apart if enough support has been destroyed, so reinforcing your buildings is important. All structures and items can be painted to customize the look of your home, as well as placing dynamically per-pixel paintable signs, textual billboards, and other decorative objects. Shelter reduces the extremes of weather and provides security for yourself and your stash! Weapons, clothing & armor gear can also be painted to express your own visual style. Pick seeds from the wild vegetation around you, plant them in plots that you lay down, water them and nurture them with fertilizer (everything poops after consuming calories, which can then be composted, and some fertilizer is better than others). Tend to your crops and they will grow to produce delicious and rare fruits, which can also be used to cook a plethora of logical recipes and make useful tonics! Explore to find the rarest of plant seeds that have the most powerful properties! Vegetarians & vegans can flourish, and it will be possible to master and conquer the ARK in a non-violent manner! By bringing sufficient rare sacrificial items to special Summon locations, you can capture the attention of the one of the ARK’s god-like mythical creatures, who will arrive for battle. These gargantuan monstrosities provide an end-game goal for the most experienced groups of players and their armies of tames, and will yield extremely valuable progression items if they are defeated. Create a Tribe and add your friends to it, and all your tames can be commanded by and allied to anyone in your Tribe. Your Tribe will also be able to respawn at any of your home spawn points. Promote members to Tribe Admins to reduce the burden of management. Distribute key items and pass-codes to provide access your shared village! All items are crafted from Blueprints that have variable statistics and qualities, and require corresponding resources. More remote and harsh locales across the ARK tend to have better resources, including the tallest mountains, darkest caves, and depths of the ocean! Level-Up your player character by gaining experience through performance actions, Level-Up your tames, and learn new "Engrams" to be able to craft Items from memory without the use of blueprints, even if you die! Customize the underlying physical look of your character with hair, eye, and skin tones, along with an array of body proportion modifiers. As you explore the vast ARK, you'll find clues left by other Survivors who have made the ARK their home in ages past, in the form of collectible detailed 3D "Explorer Notes". By uncovering all of these, you can begin to piece together the true nature of the ARK, and discover its purpose! Everything you craft has durability and will wear-out from extended use if not repaired, and when you leave the game, your character remains sleeping in the persistent world. Your inventory physically exists in boxes or on your character in the world. Everything can be looted & stolen, so to achieve security you must build-up, team-up, or have tames to guard your stash. Death is permanent, and you can even knock out, capture, and force-feed other players to use them for your own purposes, such as extracting their blood to for transfusions, harvesting their fecal matter to use as fertilizer, or using them as food for your carnivorous tames! The mysterious ARK is a formidable and imposing environment, composed of many natural and unnatural structures, above-ground, below-ground, and underwater. By fully exploring its secrets, you’ll find the most exotic procedurally randomized creatures and rare blueprints. Also to be found are Explorer Notes that are dynamically updated into the game, written by previous human denizens of the ARK from across the millennia, creatively detailing the creatures and backstory of the ARK and its creatures. Fully develop your in-game ARK-map through exploration, write custom points of interest onto it, and craft a Compass or GPS coordinates to aid exploring with other players, whom you can communicate with via proximity text & voice chat, or long-distance radio. Construct & draw in-game signs for other players to help them or lead them astray... And yet.. how do you ultimately challenge the Creators and Conquer the ARK? A definitive end-game is planned. On the 100+ player servers, your character, everything you built, and your tames, stay in-game even when you leave. You can even physically travel your character and items between the network of ARK's by accessing the Obelisks and uploading (or downloading) your data from the Steam Economy! A galaxy of ARKs, each slightly different than the previous, to leave your mark on and conquer, one at a time -- special official ARKs will be unveiled on the World-map for limited times in singular themed events with corresponding limited-run items! Furthermore, you can now design or randomize your own unique 'Procedurally Generated ARKs', for infinite replayability and endless surprises. You can play single-player local games, and bring your character and items between unofficial player-hosted servers, back and forth from singleplayer to multiplayer. Mod the game, with full Steam Workshop support and customized Unreal Engine 4 editor. See how we built our ARK using our maps and assets as an example. Host your own server and configure your ARK precisely to your liking. We want to see what you create! The over-the-top hyper real imagery of the ARK its creatures is brought to expressive life using a highly-customized Unreal Engine 4, with fully dynamic lighting & global illumination, weather systems (rain, fog, snow, etc) & true-to-life volumetric cloud simulation, and the latest in advanced DirectX11 and DirectX12 rendering techniques. Music by award-winning composer of "Ori and the Blind Forest", Gareth Coker!
-
#6
Subnautica
Why it's similar to Minecraft:Crafting, base building, and exploration. Minecraft’s survival loop under the ocean.
Subnautica is a first-person game about survival in the deep sea. You control Ryley Robinson, a space traveler in the 22nd century, who crash-landed his starship on a planet that is covered almost entirely by the ocean. The protagonist needs to eat and drink, although this can be disabled in lower difficulty modes. He can desalinate oceanic water, catch or gather the seafood, and create useful tools and structures. Unlike many survival games, Subnautica has a detailed plot, in which Ryley has to uncover why his ship crashed. By exploring the ocean, finding the remnants of other crashes, and listening to the radio messages, Robinson will learn about the enormous Leviathan, the mysterious Precursors, and the reason why this planet is quarantined. The game is famous for its spectacular portrayal of the ocean and its wildlife. Robinson is equipped with a scuba diving gear that allows the player to spend most of the game underwater, although oxygen still has to be replenished. The player can dive deep and explore the world full of corals, fish, and other colorful sea creatures, often grotesque or bio-luminescent. The environment is randomly generated to improve replayability.
-
#7
Satisfactory
Why it's similar to Minecraft:Resource gathering and building. Minecraft’s creativity meets factory automation.
FICSIT - AN INTRODUCTION Welcome to FICSIT Incorporated! A company specialised in the research, development and application of new technology and science, anything to find short-term solutions to long-term problems! As part of our brand-new Save The Day program, you’ll be sent to one of many alien planets in an effort to contribute to Project Assembly, a project I am legally bound to not tell you anything about for fear of our lives. And my job. As an engineer and pioneer, you won’t only be constructing and automating the very factory that will contribute to Project Assembly, but also explore and exploit the planet and its inhabitants as you expand. Don’t worry, we’re super inclusive when it comes to alien lifeforms! We’ll even allow for pets, how cool is that!? Just don’t tell R&D. Below you can find the three main pillars of your mission! Time to get to work, and Stay Effective!* *This motto is FICSIT Inc. property. Please do not use ironically. CONSTRUCT To achieve company milestones according to satisfaction we expect you to construct your FICSIT Inc. factory in such a way that it allows for easy expansion and complexion. Not only will buildings grow more complex over time, so will the parts they produce. Project Assembly isn’t your average high-school science project. We’re making history here! Go big or go home!* Of course, this requires both high-level and low-level power management, good luck getting to nuclear! We even support stuff like multi-floor warehouses so you can stack your buildings, and a whole bunch of navigational constructs like jump pads and walkways! Walkways are the best. They’re attached to the ground and everything. *Employee will be expected to fund their own travel expenses AUTOMATE So you know how your FICSIT Inc. factory can be turned into this incredibly intricate maze of conveyor belts in every direction, merging, splitting, crossing each other above and below? Conveyor belts carry, after all, the life-blood of our company! Well, since you’ll be in a pretty big area you’re going to need outposts. To make your life easier, we’ve developed self-driving trucks and trains so you can set up your very own transport system between any point in your area! EXPLORE & EXPLOIT R&D hasn’t figured out how to clone materials yet, weirdly enough, so you’re going to have to go out and use our patented method of extraterrestrial pioneering! This means exploring to find more or new stuff to exploit, to help expand your FICSIT Inc. factory. You’re on an uncharted alien planet, so try to be careful, don’t go alone if you don’t have to, and use protection! Who knows what kind of organisms have made this place their home? Or who knows what awesome treasures you’ll find? Don’t worry, this is why we assigned you your very own FICSIT Inc. handler.
-
#8Dinkum
Why it's similar to Minecraft:Crafting, farming, building, and exploring in a cozy Aussie-themed sandbox.
Dinkum is a relaxed life-sim set in an Australian-inspired outback, where you build a small town from the ground up. You’ll farm, fish, catch bugs, mine, and explore as new residents move in and your settlement grows. The world feels warm and inviting, with plenty of freedom to shape the town however you like.
-
#9Dragon Quest Builders 2
Why it's similar to Minecraft:Block-based building, crafting, and creative freedom with RPG quests.
Dragon Quest Builders 2 blends creative building with a lighthearted RPG adventure. You explore colorful lands, gather materials, and construct villages that slowly come back to life. With a strong story and plenty of freedom to build, it feels like a cozy sandbox wrapped in classic Dragon Quest charm.
-
#10
Boundless
Why it's similar to Minecraft:Voxel sandbox with building, crafting, and portal-linked worlds shared with players.
Shirley, a brave young girl, embarks on a solo mission to rescue her robot friend Spark after a surprise attack by cosmic robot pirates. Determined to save her companion, she infiltrates the enemy spaceship—kicking off a fast-paced interstellar platforming adventure.Core Features Story-Driven AdventureFollow Shirley’s heartfelt journey through a mysterious spacecraft as she braves danger and uncovers secrets in her quest to reunite with Spark. Four Themed LevelsEach stage presents unique challenges and visual styles:A cluttered scrapyard-like warehouse filled with moving machineryDefense laser corridors requiring precise movementHigh-speed interstellar escape sequencesThe final showdown against the pirate leader aboard the command bridge Progressive DifficultyLevels grow increasingly complex, introducing new traps, enemies, and mechanics that test your reflexes and problem-solving skills. Unique Gadgets & Power-UpsUnlock tools like the Jetpack for aerial movement and the Magnetic Orb for manipulating metallic objects. These abilities are key to progressing through multi-layered environments. Integrated Puzzle ChallengesEach level features cleverly designed puzzles, hidden keys, and secret paths. Progress requires both timing and logic—think fast and move smart. Simple Keyboard ControlsDesigned for accessibility:Use C to confirm and interactUse Arrow Keys to move and navigate menusResponsive controls optimized for precision platforming Stylized VisualsLow-poly 3D graphics with bold color contrast, bringing a clean and modern sci-fi aesthetic to life. Immersive Audio FeedbackIn-game sounds dynamically respond to your actions: jumping, landing, activating traps, or triggering mechanisms—all heightening immersion. No MicrotransactionsEnjoy a full, standalone single-player experience. No paywalls, ads, or in-game purchases. Estimated Playtime3–6 hours for a regular playthrough. Additional time required for full completion.
-
#11
Craftopia
Why it's similar to Minecraft:A mashup of crafting, automation, building, and exploration in a huge open world.
Craftopia is the brand new multiplayer open-world survival action game. We have imagined what would happen when we combine our favorite video games altogether. Chop trees and mine stones as in Sandbox, Explore the world as in Open-world, Fight the hunger as in Survival, Cultivate and harvest as in Farming, Collect loots in dungeons as in Hack-and-slash, Automate activities as in Factory management, Hunt monsters and creatures as in Hunting action, Cast magical spells as in Fantasy RPG. Now we have a utopia for all of us. That is Craftopia.Farming20+ crops are available for you to grow. Of course, you can grow crops one by one, but there are more you can do. With the power of agricultural machines, you can have large scale fields. While enjoying your self-sufficient life, why not make your colorful orchards? Industrialization and AutomationYou can automate every single item gathering. When you get tired of cutting woods and mining stones? Let's automate! ...Tired of automation of simple activities? Then let's start using belt-conveyers to build huge factories. BreedingBy throwing Monster Prism at creatures, you can catch them as a pet. Not only animals like cows and deer, but most of the monsters are also tamable. Monsters, Gotta Catch 'Em All! Exploring DungeonsWhen the detector starts beeping, it's the sign that you're getting close to a dangerous dungeon. Back to the town to equip yourself, then enter the dungeon in the hope of finding treasures. It changes its shape every time you enter. At the end of the dungeon, you will encounter bosses to fight. You will gain new abilities when you unleash the power of the world. FishingIn Craftopia, you can enjoy fishing too. Taste some fresh fish, and craft a shield from turtle shells! Once you get used to fishing on the coastline, it's time to build a ship to sail! Let's catch a whale! VehiclesHoverboards, motorbikes, helicopters, automobiles, biplanes, tanks, air balloons, and machinery... Gather materials to craft what you want to ride! You can share a ride with your friends to explore the world together! Skill Tree100+ skills to learn in Craftopia. You can create your character by learning various skills. Some are good at crafting; some are skilled at broad swords; some might do better in automation. Your job will vary throughout the adventure, depending on your play styles!Character CreationGender/sex, race, hairstyle, eyes, faces, skin tones, facial hairs, face painting, you can customize all of them!MultiplayerMultiplayer is available. You can build factories, explore dungeons, catch fish with your friends. The choice is yours! You can be an assassin if you want to.
-
#12
No Man’s Sky
Why it's similar to Minecraft:Explore infinite worlds, gather resources, craft, and build bases anywhere in the galaxy.
No Man's Sky is a space action-adventure survival game developed by Hello Games. The overall visual style of the game is inspired by various science fiction books. Demoscene also served as a source of inspiration for the developers. The main feature that the game revolves around is the procedural generation. Each planet you visit is generated from scratch. The information about the planets and their inhabitants is dynamically updated so every player can discover a new species or planet and give it a name. No Man's Sky gameplay implies the exploration of space and planets some of which are inhabited with extra-terrestrial life, gathering resources, space battles, maintaining and upgrading the player's ship and completing bounty hunting missions. The main objective is to reach the center of the galaxy. On release, it was stated that the game is in fact multiplayer, but the size of its world is so big that the probability of meeting another player is extremely small. It turned out that it is impossible to meet any other player due to the extremely limited multiplayer aspect. As of 2018, Hello Games released the fourth major update which included the full multiplayer experience.
-
#13
Cube World
Why it's similar to Minecraft:Voxel-based exploration, RPG progression, and a blocky world similar to Minecraft.
What is Cube World? Cube World is a voxel-based action RPG with a focus on exploration. It takes place in a procedurally generated fantasy world made up of entirely of cubes.Features Choose between four different classes: Warrior, Ranger, Mage, Rogue. Action-based combat with dodging, aiming, combos, special skills and more. Explore a nearly infinite, procedurally generated fantasy world. Plan your next adventure with the 3D voxel world map. Scroll and zoom everywhere to find your next destination! Craft weapons, armor, potions, elixirs and food and more from ingredients found throughout the world. Tame pets that fight along your side and can be used as mounts. Non-linear, open world gameplay. Solve quests, help residents, fight huge monsters, explore ancient dungeons! It's all up to you! Discover procedurally generated lore and learn about ancient civilizations and magic artifacts. Retrieve unique magic artifacts to level up and improve your skills. Earn gold to buy items or to book an eagle flight to new lands. Cube World's unique per-land progression system makes finding loot, solving quests and clearing dungeons rewarding and exciting over and over again. Use your hang glider to take to the skies or explore the oceans with your boat. Find magic items to enter secret areas and to support you on your journey. Play solo singleplayer or join your friends in coop-online-multiplayer.
Frequently Asked Questions
What makes a game similar to Minecraft?
Games with building, crafting, exploration, survival elements, or sandbox freedom often feel like Minecraft alternatives.
Do all Minecraft-like games use blocky graphics?
No. Some do, but many focus on the gameplay loop of crafting, gathering, building, rather than a specific art style.
Are there open-world survival games that play like Minecraft?
Yes. Many sandbox titles use resource gathering, base building, and exploration as core mechanics.
Can I play Minecraft-style games with friends?
Most Minecraft-like games support co-op or multiplayer, letting players build or survive together.
Are there relaxing alternatives to Minecraft?
Absolutely. Many similar games focus on creativity, exploration, or building without intense survival pressure.