The best survival games of all time

By Jesse Lennox Updated March 16, 2025

If you want to be really technical, basically every game is a survival game. After all, the point is to avoid dying, right?

Games in the survival genre take that experience to the next level by forcing you to worry about things like eating, drinking, sleeping, and the weather. Oftentimes, the enemies are less of a concern than the environment itself. Still, there’s something very satisfying about managing to overcome your situation and thrive in hostile lands. Survival games, like Metroidvanias and roguelikes, are some of the most popular among big and small developers so there are a ton of options out there. If you want to know the best ones you can play right now, we’ve got you covered.

As survival games become more popular, our list of upcoming video games is filling up with more all the time to keep an eye on.