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indielist (beta)

The best building indie games, ranked by reviews

5 min read for players

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Data report Built from live indielist data on 2026-07-24. Rankings update as data changes.

indielist tracks 179 building indie games on Steam, holding 11,664,567 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 Rust with 1,383,303 reviews. Figures are tracked by indielist; sales numbers are estimates that each expand into their full formula.

The ranking

  1. Rust · 1,383,303 reviews · 87% positive · 2018
  2. Terraria · 1,227,439 reviews · 97% positive · 2011
  3. Garry's Mod · 1,081,337 reviews · 97% positive · 2006
  4. Stardew Valley · 882,604 reviews · 98% positive · 2016
  5. ARK: Survival Evolved · 583,081 reviews · 83% positive · 2017
  6. The Forest · 577,971 reviews · 96% positive · 2018
  7. Valheim · 455,972 reviews · 94% positive · 2021
  8. Palworld · 379,930 reviews · 94% positive · 2026
  9. Project Zomboid · 350,081 reviews · 94% positive · 2013
  10. Raft · 321,118 reviews · 93% positive · 2022
  11. People Playground · 295,783 reviews · 98% positive · 2019
  12. Schedule I · 282,319 reviews · 98% positive · 2025
  13. RimWorld · 243,385 reviews · 98% positive · 2018
  14. Satisfactory · 232,215 reviews · 97% positive · 2024
  15. Factorio · 193,619 reviews · 98% positive · 2020
  16. Oxygen Not Included · 142,787 reviews · 97% positive · 2019
  17. Starbound · 120,624 reviews · 90% positive · 2016
  18. Kerbal Space Program · 118,802 reviews · 96% positive · 2015
  19. ASTRONEER · 118,359 reviews · 92% positive · 2019
  20. Cult of the Lamb · 109,350 reviews · 96% 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 estimates, not official sales data.

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