Hence, it’s worth briefly going over how we’ve approached ranking these, what types of games we’ve included, and what we haven’t. Survival games have diversified considerably since the days of the Minecraft Alpha, with everything from familiar zombie-fests to games set in space and even underwater. You can play them for hundreds of hours or just a handful and get something out of the experience either way. Finally, survival games are quite flexible in terms of how much you want to engage with them. They also offer something for everyone, from crafting and base-building systems for creative types, to exploration and combat for more adventurous players.

They combine the freedom of exploration that open-world games offer with a clear set of goals and an easily understandable sense of progress. There are multiple levels to the appeal of survival games.

Your overarching goal is simply to get from one day to the next to find food and water, build shelters, and thrive in the face of the elements and hostile flora and fauna. Popularised by games like Minecraft and DayZ, survival games see players pitched against the environment itself. The rise of the survival game is probably the most significant new gaming trend of the 2010s.

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