What are the best games like Minecraft? Way back in 2010, a little game called Minecraft proved to be a revelation in video games, inspiring a whole generation of players and developers in the process. It’s a blocky sandbox world that essentially lets us create anything we like and share it with our friends. The cultural phenomenon sold millions of copies, even before Microsoft acquired developer Mojang Studios in 2014.
Since its initial release, there have been a plethora of Minecraft clones. Each does their best to match one of the best PC games of all time, but few have really delivered the whole package like Minecraft does. Sometimes, though, you may only want part of the Minecraft experience, augmented with other aspects that make the Minecraft-like unique. That’s where this guide to the best games like Minecraft comes in. All the games on this list are similar to Minecraft in some fashion, be they crafting games, building games, adventure games, or an altogether different part of what makes Minecraft our favorite blocky game.
The best games like Minecraft in 2024 are:
Stardew Valley
Farming in Minecraft is one of the most relaxing activities… until a creeper comes along and blows up a large chunk of your land, that is. If you often find yourself tending to your crops instead of building and mining then Stardew Valley will be right up your stree… err, planting row.
It starts out as you inherit your grandfather’s old farm, which gives your character a reason to leave the city behind and try to make it on their own in the countryside. Outside of your customizable house, you’re given a vast plot of land to work with, which you can clear and develop as you wish, making space for a multitude of crops and animals. Venturing outside of your farm introduces you to the village where you can meet villagers, go shopping, fish, and even mine. Getting to know the locals builds up relationships and, eventually, you’ll be able to marry the love of your life.
The other way to stave off any loneliness as you earn money by selling crops and livestock is to make the most of Stardew Valley’s multiplayer. It’s certainly handy to have a few more, erm, hands as you venture into the mines and face hostile monsters. Besides that, Stardew Valley is one of the most relaxing games on PC and an experience that’ll help make the days fly by. Should you ever tire of the core game then there are also countless Stardew Valley mods to transform the experience further.
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Trove
Most often considered the game most like Minecraft, Trove contains all the cubey characters and building mechanics you’ve grown used to but throws in some of the structure from free MMOs to vary and guide your playing experience. Players have heaps of classes to pick from – like a Neon Ninja or a Dino Tamer – and can select from three different crafting specialties. All these variations have their quirks, strengths, and weaknesses, which makes for more effective team building.
There are also different levels for you to craft through, and they each vary in difficulty and reward. Don’t worry, though, as at the center of this game and its variations is the same spirit of craftsmanship and creativity that made Minecraft so compelling in the first place.
Fortnite
Fortnite has completely changed over the years, in more ways than just the lengthy lore of the Battle Royale mode. While we already recommended Fortnite as a great alternative to Minecraft for its fun and youthful graphics and various game modes, the game’s expansion ito a ‘gaming hub’ truly includes perhaps the most relevant Minecraft-like of them all.
Lego Fortnite is an entirely separate game to the older creative and battle royale modes, and takes a lot of inspiration from Minecraft. Explore a large, procedurally generated land, hunt animals and scavenge for food, build tools, weapons, and a base, and survive against the feral animals and terrifying monsters around you. There are caves to explore for more rare resources, in contrast to Minecraft underground areas, and there are no places to reach like The Nether or The End, but there are varying biomes to visit. Where Lego Fortnite varies here is that these colder and warmer areas each come with their own additional PvE elements and the harsh weather affects your characters health, and you must find ways to manage the heat and cold. This combination of Minecraft-like mechanics and entirely new features makes Lego Fortnite a fantastic alternative to the king of sandbox games.
Vintage Story
If there is one single Minecraft alternative worth playing right now, it’s Vintage Story. This “uncompromising wilderness survival game” looks just like a Minecraft mod, but is a full story game exploring the very real threats of nature, including extreme weather and wildlife.
Alongside the threats of bears and snow, eldritch horrors await in the darkness, adding another element of fear to the survival game. While Vintage Story might look like Minecraft on the surface, it feels like a very different game, and one that can live and be enjoyed alongside our favorite voxel game.
7 Days to Die
Seven Days to Die might be a little more gory than Minecraft, but the similarities are still there – just with more realistic zombies and guns instead of a diamond sword.
Much like any other survival game, 7 Days to Die starts you off with nothing but your bare hands as you go in search of the resources needed to craft and build your way through a post-apocalyptic world. Like Minecraft’s villagers, there are NPCs to trade with; like Minecraft’s redstone, there are various traps and weapons to add to your base; like the various Minecraft biomes, there are five unique environments. All the Minecraft essentials are there, so if you like a bit more horror with your survival crafting, 7 Days could be worth a try.
Seed
Seed is an amalgamation of several different genres, and its myriad mechanics imbue the life game with a similar degree of freedom that we expect from the best games like Minecraft. After our home planet’s destruction, humanity has found a new home for itself in Avesta, a remote planet in the vast reaches of space. Your colonists must survive and thrive by exploring Avesta’s vast expanse, harvesting resources, and using them to construct houses, farms, and other structures that benefit your society.
Just as Minecraft is generally better with friends, Seed is an MMO that allows you to join cooperative forces. Your combined efforts to put down roots on Avesta can bring a sprawling metropolis to fruition – just be careful that another player doesn’t come along to disrupt your budding utopia. Seed is currently in pre-alpha development, but you can join the Seed early access period for a taste of your next favorite game like Minecraft.
Roblox
The pitch behind Roblox will immediately sound familiar if you’ve spent any time with games like Minecraft. David Baszucki’s build ‘em up game-creation platform contains all the map manipulation you’ve grown used to. However, there are also more options in place so you can shape the games people play on your map, which means you can craft anything from a simulation to a racing game. That’s what makes it one of the best building games you can play.
You’ll quickly notice, though, that the aesthetic is slightly different. While everything in Minecraft is block-themed, Roblox looks more like Lego brought to life. There’s also a bit of economy to Roblox, as players can buy, sell, and create virtual items. You can even buy clothes, too, though you’ll need a Builders Club membership to sell them. Here are some Roblox promo codes and Roblox music codes to get you started.
Experiences make up a whole bunch of the appeal of Roblox, so here are the best Roblox games available to play for free right now. We also have plenty of code guides for these experiences, popular ones such as Blox Fruits codes, Blade Ball codes, War Tycoon codes, and many more.
Satisfactory
You’re dumped on an alien planet with little direction other than ‘make it prosperous’. Satisfaction is a first-person building game that sees you constructing a planet-spanning factory to produce all kinds for your employers. You’ll have to fight against the planet’s inhabitants and also your own planning shortfalls if you want to succeed.
Although the excavation side of Satisfactory pales in comparison to Minecraft, the act of exploring the wilderness and fending off its current inhabitants is reminiscent of our favorite block builder. Throw in some first-person factory building, and you’ve got a rather edgy, futuristic, occasionally infuriating game goodness. It just had a rather large update, too, so there’s no better time to tip your toe into alien factory building.
Terraria
A list like this couldn’t exist without including Terraria, could it? It’s been famously referred to as ‘2D Minecraft’ for as long as the sun has been burning. The fact of the matter, however, is that it’s got a lot more going for it than that.
The concept is ultimately the same, as you create your own objectives: build an impressive mansion or base of operations, explore the far reaches of the land, or delve deep into the underground hunting for riches. As you explore further and learn more about Terraria you’ll quickly discover there’s a lot more at play.
By completing specific goals, you can unlock NPCs that’ll stay and work in your base, such as a nurse or a wizard. They each have varying benefits and are necessary if you’re to defeat the Terraria bosses, progress further into the Underworld, and eventually unlock expert mode – more bosses, enemies, biomes, and items. While Terraria’s creative freedom isn’t as open as it is in Minecraft, it offers much more when it comes to combat, and you’ll sink a lot of time into it if you want to complete everything.
No Man’s Sky
After a controversial launch on PC and PS4 in 2015, the small team behind No Man’s Sky has put a great deal of effort into delivering the dream game many hoped it would be originally. It’s closer than ever now due to a series of expansions that have added base building, survival mode, and well over 30 hours of story. The most significant addition, however, is online multiplayer – which for many people finally makes No Man’s Sky the game they always wanted it to be.
So what is No Man’s Sky? Looking at the larger picture, the space game is about exploration. You go on a personal journey through multitudes of galaxies and planets as you make your way to the center of the universe. But that end goal of eventually reaching the center is merely the driving force for you to experience just how much of the game there is. You can meet other intelligent species, bump into hostile robots, document docile creatures, and get into space wars.
If you were put off by the reception No Man’s Sky initially received, but still harbor some fondness for that original vision, then you should give it a second chance. The game’s 2.0 update, Beyond, added far more content to the multiplayer experience and massively improved elements such as base building and missions, to great success. It’s changed significantly and could even be considered a successor to Minecraft: You can build a home, farm, and harvest crops, and turn your excavation of natural resources into factories. And subsequent updates continue to make it an increasingly compelling world.
Minecraft Legends
If you love the Minecraft world but are looking for something outside of the sandbox game genre, then look no further than Minecraft Legends (well, aside from maybe Minecraft Dungeons!). Minecraft Legends is a real-time strategy game made by Mojang, filled with the same characters and resources you recognize from Minecraft itself.
There are multiple modes in Minecraft Legends, so you can either go in solo and complete the story of a Piglin invasion on the overworld, protecting your own base from the horde, or cute, I mean terrifying, foes. Alternatively, in competitive mode, you and other teams are pitted against each other, and you must try and take down their base while defending your own from a takeover. Don’t worry, though, the latter still includes the invasion of the Piglins, so you’ve also got that to bear in mine, too.
Deep Rock Galactic
Currently on Steam Early Access, Deep Rock Galactic takes the core concept of mining for ores and valuables and has created an entire game around it, while upping the sense of peril. Of course, mining is a huge part of Minecraft, but if you’re playing vanilla, there’s little more to it than digging a series of tunnels in hopes of striking gold… well, diamond.
Deep Rock Galactic expands on that greatly. It lets you choose your preferred class, team up with three friends, and then delve into the “most hostile cave systems in the galaxy.” More than a mining simulator, it’s a first-person shooter in which each cave you venture into is procedurally generated. So, just like in Minecraft, you’ll experience something new every time you play.
You can drill straight down to your objective or choose to create branching paths, exploring as much of the underground as possible. What may sway your decisions are the hostile creatures that will stand in your way. You’ve got a vast arsenal of weapons to deal with these threats, but you’ll only be able to hold them off for so long before you’ll be forced to rush to the surface with as many of your treasures as you can carry.
Starbound
Much like Minecraft, Starbound places you in a randomly generated world of infinite possibilities with the freedom to fight, craft, build, and explore it solo or with friends online. Rather than gallivanting around a three-dimensional Minecraft map, however, Starbound is set in a Terraria-esque 2D universe with the ability to hop between a variety of planets on a whim.
Whether you’re building a charming log cabin next to your friendly alien neighbors, roaming the galaxy looting and scavenging, or gunning down bad guys in the most dangerous corners of the universe, Starbound’s richly varied gameplay is guaranteed to appeal to Minecraft fans of all types.
And that’s it for our big ol’ list of games like Minecraft to keep you busy before the Minecraft 1.20 release date rolls around, and you’ll jump back into the OG. If you’re in the market for more of that sweet Minecraft content, we’ve also got handy lists of the best Minecraft shaders and Minecraft mods to make the original game feel entirely new.
Original article by Jordan Forward.