The 12 Best Simulation Games

Game enthusiasts and industry personnel pose for a photograph with “The Sims 4” during the EA Play … [+] event at the Hollywood Palladium on June 08, 2019 in Los Angeles.

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Simulation games are wildly popular for a simple reason: They let you do things you’d otherwise never be able to try, all in the comfort and safety of your home. From high-octane racing to deeply tactical sports and city management, the genre has left few stones unturned, but new and fantastic ideas appear every year.

The best simulation games can replicate real-world activities or systems in true-to-life and detailed ways. Many go beyond in their efforts to offer deep strategy, immersive gameplay, and even educational value, giving players a genuine feeling of control, a regular sense of achievement, and potentially transferable skills.

Finding the best simulation game for you might seem daunting, but a few titles stand out, and this guide should set you on the right track.

What Is A Simulation Game?

As a whole, simulation games have a few common factors. First and foremost is realism and accuracy. It’s not so much about the look of a simulation as the mechanics and logic behind it–even if modern sims can do their best to look and feel like their authentic counterparts.

Top sim games often involve resource management, pressured or complex decision-making, the optimization of processes, the prioritization of tasks, and, much like life, a little luck. As they encourage you to learn how they work, they introduce factors to complicate and deepen the experience, such as physics, key skills, economics, and social situations.

Underpinning most simulation games are objectives or goals to meet: earning money, creating products, winning competitions or simply making people happy. Targets often get more difficult as you get better, forcing you to optimize your strategies and abilities, or even discover an entirely new way of thinking.

Simulation games have a lot in common with sandbox games, despite being distinct genres in their own right. Many are both simulations and sandboxes, giving you realistic systems with the freedom to create and explore. However, simulation games tend to accurately mimic real-world systems, processes and experiences, opting for realism with a heavier focus on structured objectives.

Top Simulation Games

The first simulation games emerged in the early 1980s. Many consider FS1 Flight Simulator to be the grandfather of the genre–an Apple II game created by SubLogic that eventually paved the way for Microsoft Flight Simulator. In 1989, the city management game SimCity established developer Maxis as the go-to sim creator, which went on to revolutionize “life simulation” with The Sims in 2000.

Fast-forward to now, and there’s a simulator for almost anything–you can drive a tractor, manage a European soccer team, fly over your real-life house, compete in 24 Hours of Le Mans, or just jetwash a driveway.

With this in mind, here’s a list of the greatest simulation games.

12. Game Dev Story

Game Dev Story is by far the simplest of all the simulation games on this list, but it doesn’t make it any less brilliant. Kairosoft, a Japanese outfit specializing in mobile simulation games, found its first hit with Game Dev Story in 2010, in which you transform a tiny indie studio into a huge AAA developer.

Don’t let its low-def isometric graphics fool you; there’s a surprising amount of depth involved as you try to find the perfect game to meet the demands of each console generation. It’s therefore apt that Game Dev Story has been adapted to all major consoles since its release, most recently to Xbox Series X in 2023.

As a particularly nice touch, Game Dev Story has a delightful anti-piracy measure: those who download it by nefarious means will see their in-game studio hemorrhage money because the in-game titles you make also get pirated, meaning you go bust. What goes around comes around.

11. F1 23

The F1 racing series has been excellent for a long time, particularly after its strongest upgrade came with F1 2020, which tried to save us all from COVID-19 isolation. Things have only gotten better for the high-octane racer since then.

Unlike the FIA, Codemasters and EA have worked hard to make Formula 1 better and more exciting with every passing year, with genuine thrills, spills and competition. Combined with a wheel for true immersion–especially one with a frankly mad F1-inspired interface–you can feel part of Spa Francorchamps, Circuit Gilles Villeneuve, or Yas Marina. There’s even a team management and career mode, giving you the sport from every angle.

10. Gran Turismo 7

Not content with one F1 racing game? Well, here’s another one. “Real Driving Simulator” Gran Turismo 7 might not be the most accurate replica of modern racing, but its integration of VR, scalable difficulty, and outright accessibility makes it among the best simulation games available to newcomers and competitive drivers alike–and a gateway to more intense, true-to-life alternatives like Assetto Corsa and RaceRoom. Just make sure you get a half-decent wheel for the real experience. You might even get the chance to buy and drive your IRL car.

9. Kerbal Space Program

As highlighted in my piece on the greatest sandbox games of all time–and a testament to the genre’s crossover with simulation games–intergalactic rocket sim Kerbal Space Program has an incredible handle on physics, manufacturing, and testing. If you’re going to find success in space, you’re going to have to blow up a few things–just ask SpaceX.

Luckily, it’s less expensive to do these things from the comfort of your PC, and you’ll probably learn a thing or two from KSP’s incredible raft of tools. Experimentation is key, and there’s no chance you’ll engineer a successful launch in your first dozen tries, but that’s not the point–you and your gang of fearless Kerbals will pull out all the stops to make the next mission a success. That first-ever feeling that everything’s going to be alright is beyond brilliant. Then your rocket will explode, but it’s not the end. With Kerbal Space Program, it’s never the end.

8. Two Point Hospital

As a spiritual successor to Theme Hospital, Two Point Studios’ Two Point Hospital is everything you want from a management sim, and for good reason: It’s stressful and anarchic but without all the terrible things you’d rather not face as a visitor to a real-life hospital, never mind a medical practitioner.

One part finance and another part lifesaver, Two Point Hospital offers balanced but nuanced gameplay, with nice visuals and humor. Treat people for Grey Anatomy, Inflated Ego, Gurning Loins, and Jest Infection while making sure your hospital is built to last, you have enough money to deal with the next illness, and you’ve got a janitor capable of capturing the ghosts of the dead.

7. Cities: Skylines

Picking up from the disastrous SimCity release in 2013–which effectively killed the franchise–is Cities: Skylines from Colossal Order and Paradox Interactive, which managed to recapture the scale and brilliance of Maxis’ original series but actually work.

Cities: Skylines isn’t the most exciting simulation, but it gives players the tools to design, build and manage their world. Excited about zoning laws? This is for you. Can’t wait to enact a city-wide policy? It’ll send you to heaven. Love a high-rise building? The clue’s in the game’s title. Sure, you must balance the books and keep the populace happy, but you’ll figure it out. What’s more, this eight-year-old game doesn’t just offer substantial modding support–it’s got a sequel coming out soon. It’s probably everything you need from a modern city-building game.

6. The Sims 4

Despite being released in 2014 for PC–and getting PlayStation and Xbox releases in 2017–The Sims 4 has remained relevant because nothing else offers what it does. Life sims are few and far between–even if new contenders have entered the market–but this endless DLC-spinning machine gives players seemingly unlimited control to create and influence the lives of avatars.

It’s a testament to Maxis and EA that The Sims 4 remains popular with a casual gaming audience because it still sets the benchmark for easy-to-play titles. Despite its penchant for inflicting curveballs and unpredictability on the lives of your innocent characters, The Sims 4 is a truly remarkable creation, even if it’s a little hamstrung by expensive downloadable content.

5. Animal Crossing: New Horizons

Animal Crossing: New Horizons is a standout simulation game due to its charming and immersive world. Players move to a deserted island and transform it into a personalized paradise by gathering resources, crafting items and designing their homes and landscapes. The game’s real-time clock and seasonal events create a dynamic and engaging experience, encouraging daily play.

The game fosters social connections, encouraging players to visit friends’ islands, trade, and enjoy multiplayer activities. It’s one of the most soothing games ever made–no wonder so many people bought a Nintendo Switch during lockdown.

4. PowerWash Simulator

Developed in 2022 by FuturLab and published by Square Enix’s indie-focused Collective label, PowerWash Simulator is a delightfully simple game that equips you with a classic jetwasher as you vow to clean up the frankly filthy neighborhood of Muckingham. Vehicles, houses, playgrounds, and entire estates all need your attention, and it’s ridiculously compelling.

Climb on a roof with a ladder to clear out some guttering. Crouch to cleanse the underside of a seesaw. Carefully line up a motorbike’s pedals for a quick blast. You won’t miss a damn thing thanks to the game’s relatively forgiving 100% system. Before you know it, you’ll consider challenging Ellie Gibson for her 24-hour PowerWash Simulator record–it’s that engrossing.

3. Football Manager

Purists know that Championship Manager: Season 97/98 is the epitome of the football management sim, but full credit to Sports Interactive’s breakaway Football Manager series: it’s the best you’ll ever get, and nothing even comes close.

We’re now up to Football Manager 2024, the 20th annual release for the breakaway franchise. There’s a reason it’s regularly shortlisted for glory at events like the 2024 BAFTA Games Awards: once you boot it up, you just can’t stop playing it. If you want to become a manager of a major soccer team, Football Manager is the closest thing to a real-life role, though you don’t have to endure social media hatred, indiscriminate sacking, or the fallout of aggressive takeovers.

2. Microsoft Flight Simulator (2020)

Microsoft Flight Simulator is a gold-standard game, but its biggest strength lies in Microsoft’s decision to abandon the series for 13 years before releasing its magnum opus for PC in 2020, before dropping it on Xbox the following year. With it, the company harnessed the perfect trio to make the experience irresistible: incredible computing power, AI assistance, and enhanced digital mapping.

It was a masterstroke. You can take off from your local airport and fly over your house. You can hop in the biggest plane and decide your best bet is to see if anything’s hidden in Antarctica. You can just sit in the cockpit and listlessly stare at the cockpit of a Boeing 787 Dreamliner. You can explore the world at the click of a button, and everything looks beautiful.

With its latest 2020 outing, Microsoft has made the experience more accessible than ever, allowing you to fly with minimal inputs and skills. Still, it’s always ready to raise your skills gradually; the only thing you need is a little patience. You won’t have to wait long for a follow-up–Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 is coming soon.

1. Stardew Valley

Few games in this world are as beloved as Stardew Valley. Solely created by Eric “ConcernedApe” Barone in 2016, SV gives players an inherited, rundown farm to transform into a pocket of paradise, on which you can grow crops, raise animals, and upgrade your inventory through mining and crafting. As seasons change, so does the world and your harvest.

You can also enjoy a wonderful relationship with the local townsfolk, as Stardew Valley focuses on community interaction. You can participate in festivals, make gifts for other people, and even find love. Its open-ended style means you can get involved in the underlying story or just build your perfect home. Its gorgeous, simple art style also means it runs on anything, but beware if you download it on your mobile–you might never put it down.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

What Are Good Race Car Driving Simulator Games?

While F1 23 and Gran Turismo 7 in VR are superb experiences, there’s every reason to take the next step and throw yourself into competitive racing games. The best games to start with are Assetto Corsa and its sequel, Assetto Corsa Competizione, which aren’t the friendliest introductions to sim racing, but offer a fantastic range of realistic tracks, responsive cars, and a learning curve that will make you appreciate just how difficult it is to handle a Lamborghini Aventador SV on a wet afternoon at Brands Hatch.

While they’ve been around for a long time, both iRacing and RaceRoom have adapted to modern tastes and continue to be cult favorites among serious sim racing fans. If you want a spoonful of chaos, consider BeanNG.drive: a community of modders that create anything and everything to try. Just hope you’ve got a good PC if you’re going to run a few cars at once.

Finally, let’s not forget Euro Truck Simulator. Think Assetto Corsa, but you’re going a quarter of the speed, it’s still raining, and you’re trying not to jackknife a truck as you reverse into a warehouse on the outskirts of London. It isn’t sarcasm to say it’s thrilling—good lord, it’s stressful.

What Are Good Flight Simulator Games?

Microsoft Flight Simulator is the best off-the-shelf flight simulator, but IL-2 Sturmovik series will give you a real lesson in historical flying, giving you access to the world’s classic wartime planes and a good heap of dogfighting for good measure. It learned a lot of lessons from Microsoft, notably the need to press two dozen buttons just to take off, but the experience is sublime—real seat-of-your-pants stuff.

If you want to go truly deep into the world of flight simulators, Prepar3D is Lockheed Martin’s top-level simulation software, and it’s not even that pricey for a casual player. it was developed to train private pilots, commercial organizations, and the military, and offers training for some scenarios, including maritime and ground assaults. You can even go underwater or climb to sub-orbital heights.

What Are Good Space Simulator Games?

Aside from Kerbal Space Program, Elite Dangerous is a particularly brilliant open-world space simulation game that recreates the Milky Way and saddles it with human traits like trading, combat, extortion, robbery and mining. There’s a fantastic story underneath it all, plus a real sandbox element, but you can be whoever you want to be.

Similarly, No Man’s Sky is now an excellent experience—don’t let early naysayers put you off, because developer Hello Games rescued this one. This procedurally generated space exploration game lets you explore a seemingly infinite number of planets and systems, allowing you to live your life how you want, whether it’s tilling the land or flying to a new and exciting destination.

What Are Good Tycoon Games?

When you think of Tycoon games, you focus on the ones with “Tycoon” in their names, and for good reason. Still, better things have arrived since then. Frontier’s Planet Zoo lets you make an establishment that blows San Diego out of the water; the Tropico series makes you the world’s hottest dictator (by climate, not by looks); Planet Coaster is the ultimate rollercoaster title.

Still, the “tycoon” business label has broadened in recent years. Check out Jurassic Park Evolution if you want to create the finest dinosaur park the world’s ever seen; meanwhile, Prison Architect is an intimidatingly clever proposition if you’re ensuring the worst of the worst are kept in captivity.

What Are Good Farming Games?

While Stardew Valley boils the farming experience down to its simplest parts, the obvious place for serious agronomists to start is with the imaginatively titled Farming Simulator series, which gives you largely unfettered access to crop harvesting, animal husbandry, production management, and more tractors than you can shake a sheep at.

If you still long for the simple life, check out My Time at Portia instead—a lovely alternative to Stardew Valley that takes visuals up a notch and focuses heavily on the people around you.

What Are Good Dating Simulator Games?

As a result of cynicism and nausea towards outwardly romantic games, the dating simulation scene is a little more extravagant than others, but it’s all the better for it—so long as you’re willing to throw yourself into weird situations.

First up is Boyfriend Dungeon, a hybrid-genre game combining dungeon crawling, roguelike elements, and a quest to find your one true love. It’s one of the oddest propositions, combining the broadest spectrum of gender identities with weaponry, dating, and serious topics. If you want to explore the deepest ideas, nothing quite comes close.

Then again, have you ever wanted to date a pigeon? Hatoful Boyfriend is your best place to start. OK, that’s a bit silly; as stupid as it sounds, this game delivers remarkable writing and a surprisingly deep plotline that’s among the best dating simulators out there, even if the characters are common birds. They’re just avatars—once you look past what they are, you learn who they are.

No list like this can be written without a nod to Doki Doki Literature Club: a dating simulation you cannot miss (if you’re an adult, at least). You need a strong stomach—it’s quite the ride—but without spoiling anything, nothing quite breaks the boundary between gaming and reality like it. Surely that’s what you want from a simulation?

Bottom Line

It’s tough to find the right simulation game for you because you need to know which itches you want to scratch. Once you realize what you need–realism, gameplay, subject matter, or escapist dream–you’re on the right track. Don’t give up, because this is the perfect type of game to find a new vocation, even if it’s digital.

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