10 Best Games Like Minecraft

Minecraft scratches an itch that so, so many survival-crafting games often fail to reach. And yet, even with its untouchable prowess and cult status, the fact is, if you do look a little further into the back catalog of block-based sandbox titles, then you’ll likely find hundreds, perhaps even thousands of worlds that share a lot of the same basic principles and world-building components.

Of course, if you are stuck on where to go from the bottomless boroughs of Minecraft, then allow us to introduce you to several notable alternatives.

10. Roblox

Roblox might find itself in a broader spectrum than a lot of survival-crafting games on this list, but to tell you the truth, it is a platform that brings a ton of the same basic world-building features as Minecraft. With thousands of options to choose from—custom worlds, themed dungeons, and seasonal events, for example—Roblox is an easy alternative that scratches a lot of the same basic itches.

9. PalWorld

PalWorld is, to some basic extent, the illegitimate brainchild of both Pokémon and Minecraft. True to the spirit of both cult classics, the enormous open-world collect-a-thon boasts a plethora of biomes to explore, customize, and transform, as well as a roster of adorable yet versatile companions who you can train, battle, and utilize to conquer a surprisingly sizable bouquet of challenges and milestones. It’s big, and it’s certainly cute. It’s basically Pokémon with base-building elements.

8. Valheim

Valheim takes a slightly darker approach to the world-building process than Minecraft, but ultimately takes the bull by the horns with a moldable interface that allows you the creative freedom to build mythological blueprints from raw materials and embark on epic quests across a continuously evolving universe that’s bursting at the seams with milestones, upgrades, and skill trees, to list just a few of its primary components.

7. Don’t Starve

At its core, Don’t Starve is a rigorously tough single-player survival-crafting game that invites you to wage war on the ominous biomes of an underbelly that’s devoid of natural resources or helping hands. It’s a tricky one to chomp through I’ll admit, but it does make good use of its difficulty spikes with a great deal of fantastic base-building and foraging features to keep your stomach growling for hours. What’s more, it features an underling—Don’t Starve Together—co-op chapter, which means you can also, you know, starve together.

6. LEGO Fortnite

While you could argue that most LEGO games have underlying ties to Minecraft in one way or another, LEGO Fortnite, of all titles, is probably the best hybrid to wax both sides of the spectrum. Aside from it having the full breadth of the LEGO toolkit and a wealth of opportunities to flex your creative wizardry, it also comes equipped with a full-fledged world to craft upon and transform into a custom brick-based utopia. The Fortnite expansions, well, they pretty much speak for themselves.

6. Stranded Deep

Stranded Deep washes you ashore a deserted island with little more than an inflatable raft, a couple of resources, and a vague sense of purpose. Similar to most rags-to-riches sandboxes, you have little choice but to craft, evolve, and make the best of the sticky situation that you find yourself in. With that, you have islands to explore, materials to collect, and an entire nautical ecosystem to manipulate in order to keep your head above water. Pun intended. And yes, it is a relatively difficult first-person survival-crafting game — but one that touts a bunch of quality perks to keep you busy.

5. Conan Exiles

Conan Exiles isn’t massively different than Stranded Deep, in the fact that, as an exiled protagonist with scarce resources or experience in the wild, you have to learn how to tackle the elements, maintain needs, and fashion structures from whatever tools and resources you can find in an incredibly lofty world of dangerous creatures and unsavory characters. Again, it’s a tough cookie to crack, but if it’s a sizable open-world RPG that you’re on the market for, then Conan Exiles is sure to give you a run for your money.

4. Terraria

Terraria has been coined as the “2D Minecraft” of the genre — and for good reason, too. Frankly, it is a very similar game, and it does foster a lot of the same basic brick-based building mechanics and opportunities for players to create their own monolithic utopias. More to the point, though, it’s a fantastic game that has incredibly deep pockets, with more than enough materials, blueprints, and avenues of exploration to keep you invested for hours, weeks, and perhaps even months.

3. Cube World

Cube World is a voxel-based action RPG that puts a heavy emphasis on crafting, exploration, and animal taming. Much like your trope-riddled RPG, it features moldable classes, magical artifacts, and a non-linear progression system that allows you the flexibility to alternate between play styles, whether it’s building intricate sandboxes or engaging in mythical quests across swathes of dungeons. It’s an ideal companion to Minecraft, and frankly, one that deserves to sit atop the same podium.

2. Vintage Story

Vintage Story is, in spite of all its efforts to envelope its own twist, a Minecraft mod that adopts most, if not all of the same building elements. The only difference here, of course, is that it uses its procedural properties to create a through-the-ages narrative that builds up from the Stone Age. It’s a little more complicated than Minecraft, and it does feature some unfavorable curveballs to keep you second guessing. That said, it’s about as close to vanilla Minecraft as you can get, so it’s worth shelling out for, for sure

1. 7 Days to Die

7 Days to Die is a pulpy survival-crafting zombie game that encompasses several familiar aspects of building, customizing, and maintaining a successful stowaway environment. Granted, it doesn’t possess the same amount of depth as Minecraft, nor does it contain quite as many sandbox elements. Still, if you’re after an open-world build ‘em up with undead ties in its veins, then you ought to consider taking a big ol’ bite out of this deadly hourglass.