The best survival games ask a lot of you under adverse conditions. Monsters will be on your tail, and likely so will nature and or other players. During all of that you have to make sure to find shelter, keep warm and keep fed – an experience that’s bound to make you grateful you’re just simulating it from the safety of your gaming chair.
But as difficult as survival games can be, they are also multifaceted. There is often an element of battle, but you also get to explore your surroundings, build, spend time with other players and tame nature. These games are often stressful, but you can design your very own corner of their digital world and get by just fine or take the fight to others.
Whether it’s the literally never-ending variety of worlds in No Man’s Sky, taming dinosaurs in ARK: Survival evolved or building the castle of your dreams in Minecraft before you hide away from restless creepers, in many ways the best survival games are like the best MMO games – there is always something new to see and do.
This list will introduce you to the best survival games on all platforms – no matter what you’re looking for, there’s a survival game for you.
Best survival games
Why you can trust TechRadar We spend hours testing every product or service we review, so you can be sure you’re buying the best. Find out more about how we test.
Platforms available: PC, PS4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, iOS and Android
From its lovely Tim Burton-esque art style to its deep and engrossing crafting system, Don’t Starve is like a beautiful nightmare.
Exploring its creepy world is never jump-out-of-your-seat frightening, but you’ll be terrified if you lose all your progress getting killed by a marauding spider thing. Or starvation. Or eating something deadly. There are lots of ways to die in Don't Starve, which is actually surving feels great but can be quite a lot of work.
Consider picking up the Don’t Starve Together add-on too, which introduces four-player co-operative play into the mix and makes the game easily one of of the best co-op games around.
Platforms available: PS5, Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S, PC, PS4, Xbox One and Nintendo Switch
There’s a part of us that feels that, after the release and subsequent polishing of No Man’s Sky, all other games should just go home. What’s the point in playing something else when No Man’s Sky offers an entire universe for you to explore?
It's a phenomenal technical achievement, a sci-fi nerds dream, and also one of the best survival games. No Man's Sky will keep you busy as you collect resources, craft new gear, upgrade ships and defend yourself against a menagerie of environmental hazards and intergalactic nasties.
Since its initial release, No Man's Sky has consistently grown in features, including VR, which immediately made it one of the best VR games around, too.
Platforms available: PC, PS4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, iOS and Android
There’s never been a Jurassic Park survival game, and while it’s not officially licensed, Ark: Survival Evolved might be as good as we’ll get. Waking up on a deserted beach with just your wits and a loincloth, it’s up to you to find shelter, craft tools and weaponry, and forge alliances with fellow players on an island teeming with giant aggressive dinosaur inhabitants.
This game is really lively and immensely popular, so popular in fact that we can look forward to a sequel featuring Vin Diesel in 2023, as well as an animated TV show.
Ark is a bit rough around the edges and very unforgiving for newcomers, but taming your own ferocious T-Rex is hard to beat, and Ark deserves a spot on our list of best survival games for that already.
Platforms available: PC, PS4 and Xbox One
This barbarian-themed survival game does Arnie proud with brutal combat, lush environments to explore and giant settlements to create. You can spend your time in Conan Exiles alone or with friends, no prior knowledge of the source material required.
All you need to know is this: you're an exiled barbarian, one of thousands, trying to surive in the sandy wilds with only your muscles and astoundingly good carpentry skills.
While there has been a lot of talk about whether the price of the additional content the game offers is justified, you can play the base game for hundreds of hours and never feel the need for anything extra, especially if you play with friends.
Platforms available: PC, PS4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, iOS and Android
Perhaps the most famous survival game of them all – although for many who like to focus on building that side of Minecraft has slid into obscurity.
At the heart of Minecraft remains an engrossing survival adventure, seeing you collect resources, build a shelter, and heading into the heart of the Earth to take on the increasingly aggressive inhabitants while hunting for rare treasures. Thanks to a large variety of crossplay options, it's one of the best crossplay games, too.
If you want to get started in Minecraft on PC need help working out what version of Minecraft to download where, check our guide on how to download Minecraft for PC.
Platforms available: PS5, Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S, PS4, PC, Nintendo Switch and Xbox One
Taking the survival genre 20,000 leagues under the sea, Subnautica mixes sci-fi scares with underwater thrills. It’s one of the most polished survival games out there, with a unique world to explore and a great loop of resource gathering, enemy battling and base improvements.
If you're not one for deep, murky waters, then Subnautica can be genuinely stressful experience (that's why it's made our list of the 10 worst games for thalassophobia) and it's truly not taking you by the hand as far as deciding what to get on with goes, but no game has an atmopshere like Subnautica, and it's one of those games that make surviving feel really good.
If Subnautica has got you, er, hooked, don't forget to check out Subnautica: Below Zero, set two years after the events of the original game.
Platforms available: PC, PS4 and Xbox One
The grandfather of the best survival games in many respects started life as a mod before blowing up in such a huge way that it became its own game. Based on military sim Arma 3, it adds that ol’ faithful of videogames, zombies, into the survival mix. However, it’s not the undead you need to be most afraid of, but other players – they roam the maps in makeshift gangs, preying on the weak and stealing your hard-earned gear.
DayZ has the potential for some great roleplaying, big PvP battles, and of course unforgiving survival elements. The tables can turn quickly on you in this game, but if you've found a good group, anything is possible.
Platforms available: PC and PS4
This one’s great for horror game fans – it’s the most out-and-out scary on the list, even though other players and the building mechanics are often a lot less scary. The Forest has been around for a while, but it's still known as one of the best survival games to play with friends.
As a survivor of a plane crash landing in that titular forest, The Forest has you evading the wandering mutant cannibals lurking within the twisted thicket of brush and foliage. This one is a toughie, and most enjoyable with a gang of pals – especially because you have to fortify your position against both cannibals and other players.
- The best horror games for enjoyable scares
Platforms available: PC, PS4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, iOS, Android)
Like 16-bit Minecraft, the pixel-art Terraria is one of the most popular survival games out there. Colorful and vast, Terraria lets you take on lots of monstrous foes, digging deep into endless caverns before returning to your home to construct gigantic bases to hone your skills.
It’s a great game, with a cutesy art style that belies its complexity. For years, Terraria received large updates, and the amount of stuff there is to see and collect is really astounding. Losing in Terraria can be frustrating for that very reason, but there are so many things to do and discover that you'll just start it all over again – truly the mark of the best survival games.
Platforms available: PC
Starbound has a very similar art style, and playstyle, to Terraria, but takes survival up to the outer reaches of space.
It has the same side-scrolling open-world exploration but has a bit more of a quest system than some of the more free-form entries on this list. A great one for Terraria fans and those who are looking for a unique set of challenges.
