The best building indie games, ranked by reviews

Data report Assembled from live indielist data on 2026-06-06. Rankings update as data changes.

indielist tracks 131 building indie games on Steam, holding 10,907,885 reviews at an average of 88% positive. This list ranks them by Steam review count, the most reliable public sales proxy, with a white-box sales estimate behind every title. The most reviewed is Terraria with 1,216,769 reviews. Figures are tracked by indielist; sales numbers are modeled estimates that each expand into their full formula.

The ranking

1. Terraria · 1,216,769 reviews · 97% positive · 2011
2. Rust · 1,140,437 reviews · 87% positive · 2018
3. Garry's Mod · 1,070,495 reviews · 97% positive · 2006
4. Stardew Valley · 868,743 reviews · 98% positive · 2016
5. ARK: Survival Evolved · 579,234 reviews · 83% positive · 2017
6. The Forest · 570,988 reviews · 96% positive · 2018
7. Valheim · 452,821 reviews · 94% positive · 2021
8. Palworld · 355,335 reviews · 94% positive · 2024
9. Project Zomboid · 343,212 reviews · 94% positive · 2013
10. Raft · 318,148 reviews · 93% positive · 2022
11. People Playground · 293,143 reviews · 98% positive · 2019
12. Schedule I · 275,336 reviews · 98% positive · 2025
13. Satisfactory · 228,423 reviews · 97% positive · 2024
14. RimWorld · 203,546 reviews · 98% positive · 2018
15. Factorio · 191,633 reviews · 98% positive · 2020
16. Oxygen Not Included · 132,230 reviews · 97% positive · 2019
17. Starbound · 120,582 reviews · 90% positive · 2016
18. ASTRONEER · 117,846 reviews · 92% positive · 2019
19. Kerbal Space Program · 116,084 reviews · 95% positive · 2015
20. Frostpunk · 112,340 reviews · 93% positive · 2018

How this list is built

Games are ranked by Steam review count, the most reliable public proxy for sales when actual figures are private. Each title links to its indielist page, where the white-box sales estimate expands into the full Boxleiter formula, so you can audit the number rather than trust a black box. Review counts come from Steam; sales figures are modeled estimates, not official sales data.

Want the underlying estimate for your own game? Try the sales estimator, or browse the full game directory.