10 Best Survival Games on Nintendo Switch (2025)

Isn’t all we do as adults survive? Well, maybe not always living on the brink of death, but certainly looking to amass resources and, essentially, keep on living. In that sense, survival games would fit right at home with us all, challenging us with scenarios that require resource gathering and management.

The situation may veer on the extreme, with some games taking you to zombie apocalypses and settings in the blankness of space. Curious to discover the best survival games on Nintendo Switch this year? Let’s get a move on, shall we?

What is a Survival Game?

A survival game challenges you to stay alive for as long as possible in a typically hostile environment. You’re often required to gather and manage resources, build shelters, and craft useful tools.

Through exploration, you’ll find items that sustain your hunger and health, as well as survival against hostile enemies and creatures.

Best Survival Games on Nintendo Switch

Time to expand your gaming library with the best survival games on Nintendo Switch.

10. Windbound

All alone, stranded on the Forgotten Islands, you must explore and survive. Fortunately, Windbound looks stunning, begging that you trode deeper into its woods to discover the secrets and treasures ahead. You’re starting from scratch, crafting tools and weapons for hunting and defending yourself.

Moreover, you’re unraveling past mysteries of the island and making connections to the future. Overall, it’s a pretty engaging survival game for anyone curious to see how well they might do on a strange but homely island.

9. Ark: Survival Evolved

Dinosaurs co-exist with humans, some friendly, others needing to be tamed. In Ark: Survival Evolved, you’re still stranded on an island. But you’re not alone, with dinosaurs to tame, train, breed, and ride.

Sounds awesome, no? Even better, 80+ dinosaurs await your discovery, each unique in the ways you tame and train them. But while feeding and managing your pets is a huge part of the game, so is sustaining your own thirst, hunger, and health.

8. Outward

There are several survival elements to manage in Outward: thirst, hunger, sleep, health, and enemies. While the environment can harm you, so can diseases.

Through exploration, you’ll discover hidden cities where resources might lie, careful to avoid hostile creatures. You can try out missions and dungeon-crawling quests as well, garnering generous rewards over time.

7. This War of Mine

Wars have many casualties, not just directly on the battlefield, but also commoners living in proximity to unstable regions. And with the state of the world right now, there’s no better time to empathize with the struggles ordinary people might face during war.

This War of Mine is not only an unapologetic story exploration of civilians surviving snipers and scavengers, but also deeply challenging your sense of morality. At times, though, you might have to make life-and-death decisions so your people have food, medicine, and live to see another day.

6. Don’t Starve Together

Don’t Starve Together, on the other hand, uses a unique art style to charge you and your friends with surviving the wilderness. Lots of dangers, twisted creatures, and surprises await you beyond your fire-lit camp.

And treading farther away from safety has its repercussions. Often, you’ll have to weigh the risk versus the reward of going out to explore and craft new tools and structures.

5. Stranded Deep

When your plane crashes in the Pacific, you scurry off to the nearest island to begin life anew. Only nature seems to be out to get you, both at sea and on land.

Stranded Deep’s greatest strength as one of the best survival games on Nintendo Switch is its replayability. Every new run presents you with endless paths you can take, whether to focus on diving underwater for resources, scouring the island for prey… however you choose to survive is up to you.

4. Minecraft

Minecraft is a world of endless possibilities that always seems to have something new to discover. And it’s constantly updated, too, with new resources and materials you can experiment with. While the sandbox has a more intense combat experience against mobs, you can slow down the pace in survival mode, exploring randomly generated worlds and building anything imaginable.

3. Subnautica

It’s a whole world under the sea, and Subnautica is determined to show it all to you. All of the gorgeous blue of the deepest parts of the ocean, the breathtaking coral reefs, and the enormous aquatic species.

While it’s easy to get lost in the awe of the deep sea, exploring lava fields and winding caves, you also want to manage your oxygen supply. You want to keep an eye out for food and crafting resources. The deeper you go, the more rare resources you’ll find, allowing you to craft advanced gear that makes your Subnautica life easier.

2. No Man’s Sky

By virtue of No Man’s Sky being an infinitely procedurally generated universe, there’s no counting just how many planets you stand to discover. And within which you’ll find unique alien species and unexpected challenges. Perhaps hostile lifeforms you’ll need to overcome to colonize your newest planet.

And in turn, farm and craft resources to upgrade your ship’s speed, weapons, and engines to explore farther, as well as your suit to withstand toxic environments. Over time, you’ll thrive in your niche of exploration, trading, or exploration. You might even become Thanos, the Conqueror, molding and bending the universe to your will. 

1. Terraria

Lastly, check out Terraria. It’s relatively easy to jump into, growing in depth and complexity the more you play. Starting with nothing and potentially running and managing an entire community will take hundreds of hours. “A labor of love,” as the developers continue to add content. Not that the hours will feel wasted –far from it.

You’ll feel pretty fulfilled when your digging, fighting, exploration, and building efforts yield returns, when the basic tools you started with transform into better gear and shelter. And with more power comes better chances to beat increasingly tough enemies and bosses.