RANKING · 16 TITLES

The 16 best survival games on Steam in 2026

Among survival games on Steam, Terraria leads right now, then Project Zomboid and The Forest.

Ordered by fit with the genre, Steam review score, number of reviews and how each game plays. Steam figures checked 13 Sept 2026. How the order works

The 16 best survival games, ranked

01
97% positive · 1,554,677 reviews · USD 9.99
Terraria
Terraria is a 2D sandbox that outgrew the '2D Minecraft' shorthand: bosses, classes, and a craft tree that keeps rewriting the world. Co-op is optional; the map is persistent.
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02
94% positive · 481,033 reviews · USD 24.99
Project Zomboid
Knowledge of heating, moodles, and TV schedules is the skill.
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03
96% positive · 682,426 reviews · USD 19.99
The Forest
The Forest is first-person survival on a cannibal island: build, raid caves, keep a story in the background. Co-op is the usual way in.
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04
93% positive · 377,108 reviews · EUR 20.49
Raft
Raft is an ocean craft loop: expand the floater, dive, do not get sharked. The base is a square of wood that grows, and the island is a stop you chose with a sail.
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05
94% positive · 547,040 reviews · USD 29.99
Valheim
Valheim is a Viking survival sandbox: you gather, build, sail, and fight biome bosses on a world you keep. Co-op building is the spine.
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06
87% positive · 397,652 reviews · EUR 43.99
7 Days to Die
7 Days to Die is a voxel zombie sandbox whose week ends in a horde night. You mine, you wall, you hope the seventh dusk finds the concrete finished.
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07
90% positive · 95,389 reviews · EUR 39.99
Grounded
Grounded is backyard survival at ant scale: base, bugs, and co-op optional. A lawn becomes a biome, and a spider is a raid you did not schedule.
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08
90% positive · 43,276 reviews · EUR 18.99
Banished
Banished is a harsh village sim: food, firewood, and a winter that does not care whether you named the dead. A famine is a schedule you wrote when you built one house too many.
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09
86% positive · 105,536 reviews · USD 39.99
Enshrouded
Building and shroud exploration sit on the same save.
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10
90% positive · 51,942 reviews · EUR 29.99
Medieval Dynasty
Medieval Dynasty is a first-person village: hunt, marry, tax, repeat. A house becomes a street, and the save is a family that still needs grain.
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11
95% positive · 487,243 reviews · USD 29.99
Palworld
Palworld mixes creature collection with guns and base craft.
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12
85% positive · 102,257 reviews · USD 2.49
Green Hell
Green Hell is a first-person Amazon survival game where infection, parasites, and sanity sit next to hunger.
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13
85% positive · 51,313 reviews · EUR 29.99
They Are Billions
They Are Billions is a colony RTS that ends when the horde finds the hole you left in the wall — a campaign of postponing that minute.
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14
95% positive · 541,469 reviews · EUR 14.99
Don't Starve Together
Don't Starve Together is the co-op hunger clock: seasons, bosses, and a camp that can starve while someone is still talking. A crock pot is the save, and winter is a date you both forgot.
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15
75% positive · 67,272 reviews · EUR 33.99
ICARUS
ICARUS drops you on a planet for a timed prospect, then you extract or die. The mission ends. The unlocks wait in the lobby for the next drop.
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16
94% positive · 56,276 reviews · EUR 23.79
Rain World
Rain World is an ecosystem you do not top: hibernate before the rain, or the world eats you. Creatures have errands. You are food that learned to jump.
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How this ranking works

Orders games tagged survival, from zombie sandboxes to jungle attrition. They share a tag, rarely the same evening.

How this list is ordered →

Related rankings

What is a survival? →

The 16 best survival games, ranked

Terraria

Project Zomboid

The Forest

Raft

Valheim

7 Days to Die

Grounded

Banished

Enshrouded

Medieval Dynasty

Palworld

Green Hell

They Are Billions

Don't Starve Together

ICARUS

Rain World

How this ranking works

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