7 games · updated July 2026

Best sandbox games

A toolset, a world, and no instructions.

Sandbox games hand you capability instead of objectives. Whether that produces a cathedral or a hole in the ground is entirely on you, and the genre's honesty about that is why it has outlasted most design trends.

The multiplayer ones are the interesting case. Give a hundred people the same tools and no goal, and what emerges, trade, territory, vandalism, architecture, tends to be more interesting than anything a designer would have scripted.

What to expect

Creative freedom with very little hand-holding.
Strong modding and community-server ecosystems in most entries.
No ending. These finish when you decide they do.

Start here

Where to begin with sandbox games

The entries we would hand someone new to the genre.

Sandbox

Minecraft

A block, a world, and fifteen years of people finding out what that means.

9.2/10

The ranking

All 7 sandbox games

Ordered by our editors' score across the whole library, so positions here match the main ranking.

Minecraft
9.2/10
Sandbox survivalPCMobileConsoleBuy to play2011
Place blocks, break blocks, survive the night. The most-played game ever made, and still the best multiplayer sandbox.
SandboxSurvivalMultiplayer
Terraria
8.7/10
Sandbox adventurePCMobileConsoleBuy to play2011
A side-on sandbox with the crafting depth of a survival game and the boss design of an action game. Eight-player co-op.
SandboxSurvivalAdventure
Rust
8.5/10
Survival sandboxPCConsoleBuy to play2018
A full-loot survival sandbox where the real threat is never the environment. Base building, raiding, and monthly wipes.
SurvivalSandboxMultiplayer
Albion Online
8.2/10
Sandbox MMORPGPCMobileFree to play2017
A classless sandbox MMO where the gear you lose was made by someone.
Fortnite
8.1/10
Battle royalePCMobileConsoleFree to play2017
A battle royale that turned into a platform and kept the shooter working.
Roblox
7.9/10
Game platformPCMobileConsoleFree to play2006
Not a game, a few million of them, made by the people playing.
The Sandbox
6.6/10
Voxel sandboxBrowserPCFree to play2021
Voxel creation tools with a land layer bolted on top.