Skip to content
indielist (beta)

The best open world survival craft indie games, ranked by reviews

5 min read for players

open-world-survival-craftgenre-guidedata-reportrecommendations

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

indielist tracks 37 open world survival craft indie games on Steam, holding 7,135,823 reviews at an average of 87% 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. ARK: Survival Evolved · 579,234 reviews · 83% positive · 2017
  4. The Forest · 570,988 reviews · 96% positive · 2018
  5. Valheim · 452,821 reviews · 94% positive · 2021
  6. Don't Starve Together · 367,165 reviews · 95% positive · 2016
  7. Palworld · 355,335 reviews · 94% positive · 2024
  8. Project Zomboid · 343,212 reviews · 94% positive · 2013
  9. Subnautica · 331,738 reviews · 97% positive · 2018
  10. Raft · 318,148 reviews · 93% positive · 2022
  11. No Man's Sky · 307,436 reviews · 85% positive · 2016
  12. Satisfactory · 228,423 reviews · 97% positive · 2024
  13. Starbound · 120,582 reviews · 90% positive · 2016
  14. ASTRONEER · 117,846 reviews · 92% positive · 2019
  15. The Long Dark · 110,190 reviews · 89% positive · 2017
  16. Subnautica: Below Zero · 97,547 reviews · 90% positive · 2021
  17. Don't Starve · 96,212 reviews · 97% positive · 2013
  18. Core Keeper · 48,722 reviews · 93% positive · 2024
  19. Forager · 43,532 reviews · 90% positive · 2019
  20. Stranded Deep · 43,247 reviews · 74% positive · 2022

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.