Games Like Cities: Skylines

Raise a city from the ground up and transform it into a thriving metropolis with the most realistic city builder ever. Push your creativity and problem-solving to build on a scale you've never experienced. With deep simulation and a living economy, this is world-building without limits.

Why similar: City Builder 41.1%, Building 11.6%, Management 7.5%, Simulation 7%, Economy 6.8%

Why You'll Like It: It directly expands the same road-building, zoning, service-management, and large-scale urban simulation that made Cities: Skylines so compelling.

Build a soviet republic from an impoverished country into a rich industrial superpower in a city builder with intricate production chains and a fully simulated global economy. Manage the lives of your citizens from education to work and party loyalty to criminal activity.

Why similar: City Builder 35.1%, Building 12%, Moddable 10.6% ★, Management 9.3%, Economy 9.2%

Why You'll Like It: It scratches the same systems-heavy planning itch but with even deeper control over utilities, industry chains, transit, and city logistics.

SimCity 4 Deluxe Edition includes the bestselling SimCity 4 and the all-new SimCity 4 Rush Hour Expansion Pack. Create the most massive region of cities ever, with a farming town, bedroom community, high-tech commercial center, and industrial backbone.

Why similar: City Builder 36.5%, Building 13.6%, Economy 10.5%, Management 10.4%, Sandbox 8.8%

Why You'll Like It: This is the classic city-sim cousin, built around zoning, infrastructure, budgets, and watching a metropolis emerge from your planning decisions.

The classic transport simulation genre has a new gold standard with Transport Fever 2. Discover a whole new world by navigating transport routes through land, water and air. May progress and prosperity find their way!

Why similar: City Builder 33.2%, Management 11.5%, Building 9%, Simulation 8.9%, Economy 8.8%

Why You'll Like It: It leans more into transport, but building efficient road, rail, and transit networks around growing towns hits the same traffic-optimization appeal.

Build and manage your dream city in this captivating simulation game. Create unique urban landscapes and enjoy compatibility with the mobile versions. Unleash your creativity and shape the metropolis of your dreams.

Why similar: City Builder 39.4%, Moddable 15.2% ★, Building 13.5%, Management 10.3%, Sandbox 9.3%

Why You'll Like It: It delivers a modern SimCity-style sandbox full of zoning, roads, public services, and sprawling cities to optimize and decorate.

Highrise City offers a new spin on City Simulations & Tycoon games expanding the economy and resource management aspect. Experience a modern take on the genre enriched with a complex resource based economy system.

Why similar: City Builder 40.7%, Building 11.2%, Sandbox 8.8%, Simulation 7.8%, Economy 7.6%

Why You'll Like It: It blends large-scale city layout with more involved resource and production management, making urban growth feel richly interconnected.

Anno 1800™ – Lead the Industrial Revolution! Welcome to the dawn of the Industrial Age. The path you choose will define your world. Are you an innovator or an exploiter? A conqueror or a liberator? How the world remembers your name is up to you.

Why similar: City Builder 58.8%, Economy 10.7%, Simulation 7.3%, Strategy 6.1%, Sandbox 4.4%

Why You'll Like It: It is more economy-focused, yet the pleasure of planning districts, balancing services, and scaling a beautiful living city is very similar.

El Presidente is back! Prove yourself once again as a feared dictator or peace-loving statesman on the island state of Tropico and shape the fate of your very own banana republic through four distinctive eras.

Why similar: City Builder 51.2%, Economy 10.8%, Management 10.4%, Simulation 7.6%, Building 7%

Why You'll Like It: It offers a smaller-scale but highly satisfying mix of city layout, infrastructure, economy, and civic management.

Foundation is a grid-less, laidback medieval city-building game with a focus on organic development, monument construction and resource management.

Why similar: City Builder 54.9%, Building 8.9%, Management 7.4%, Economy 6.7%, Simulation 6.6%

Why You'll Like It: Its organic settlement growth and service placement emphasize the same long-term satisfaction of shaping a functioning town over time.

Urbek is a city building game where you can build your own neighbourhoods: from nightlife district to industrial district. Don't exhaust your natural resources before you have an educated population to build more efficient structures.

Why similar: City Builder 38%, Building 13.8%, Management 10.3%, Economy 9.1%, Sandbox 8.1%

Why You'll Like It: Its organic neighborhood growth and zoning-like planning make it a relaxed but very recognizable city-builder alternative.

Kingdoms and Castles is a city-building simulation game about growing a kingdom from a tiny hamlet to a sprawling city and imposing castle. Make trade agreements, alliance, and war with neighboring AI controlled kingdoms. Each villager and resource is individually simulated.

Why similar: City Builder 58%, Building 13%, Sandbox 6.5%, Strategy 5.2%, Simulation 5.1%

Why You'll Like It: It captures the joy of growing a settlement block by block while managing happiness, production, and city defenses.

Cities in Motion 2 is the sequel to the popular mass transit simulation game Cities in Motion. Build, manage and lead your transportation network to provide cities with their ever changing needs. CIM2 introduces new features including multiplayer game modes, day and night cycles, timetables and dynamic cities.

Why similar: City Builder 39.5%, Simulation 15.4%, Management 15.2%, Sandbox 8.4%, Strategy 7.3%

Why You'll Like It: From the same studio, it zooms in on designing transit networks to solve the commuter and traffic problems many Cities: Skylines players love.

In this city-building strategy game, you control a group of exiled travelers who decide to restart their lives in a new land. They have only the clothes on their backs and a cart filled with supplies from their homeland. The townspeople of Banished are your primary resource.

Why similar: City Builder 64.6%, Simulation 7.9%, Sandbox 6.2%, Strategy 5.8%, Building 4.6%

Why You'll Like It: It is more survival-focused, yet its resource chains, town expansion, and careful building placement strongly overlap with the management side of Cities: Skylines.

Humans are long gone. In a world struck by droughts and toxic waste, will your lumberpunk beavers do any better? A sandbox city-building game featuring ingenious animals, vertical architecture, water physics, and terraforming. Contains high amounts of wood.

Why similar: City Builder 53%, Building 15.1%, Management 11.6%, Sandbox 9.9%, Simulation 6.1%

Why You'll Like It: It trades cars for beavers, but its water engineering, district planning, and layered infrastructure make it a superb systems-first city builder.

Create your own Nation, build cities and bring prosperity to your people. Citystate II is a unique city-builder featuring realistic economics and complex political options. Slums or skyscrapers, experiment and bring about your vision of the ideal society.

Why similar: City Builder 42.5%, Building 13.5%, Economy 11.6%, Management 9.8%, Sandbox 7.5%

Why You'll Like It: It offers a more policy-and-economy-driven take on modern city building, with zoning and urban planning at the center.

Return to the remote island nation of Tropico and expand your Dynasty’s reign from the early colonial period to beyond the 21st Century, facing new challenges including advanced trading mechanics, technology and scientific research, as well as cooperative and competitive MULTIPLAYER.

Why similar: City Builder 56.6%, Simulation 9.5%, Sandbox 8.3%, Strategy 8.1%, Economy 7.3%

Why You'll Like It: It shares the same city-builder backbone as Tropico 6, with strong emphasis on infrastructure, economy, and civic development.

Build your society of the future, colonize islands, and create sprawling megacities with multitudes of buildings, vehicles, and resources to manage.

Why similar: City Builder 60.2%, Strategy 8%, Economy 7.1%, Simulation 6.4%, Building 5.3%

Why You'll Like It: Its futuristic setting and efficient city layouts will appeal if you enjoy balancing utilities, production, and urban growth.

Planet Coaster® - the future of coaster park simulation games has arrived! Surprise, delight and thrill incredible crowds as you build your coaster park empire - let your imagination run wild, and share your success with the world.

Why similar: Building 22.3%, City Builder 17.5%, Management 14.5%, Simulation 11.4%, Sandbox 11.4%

Why You'll Like It: It is more about park design than city simulation, but if you love building attractive spaces and managing movement in a sandbox, it fits well.

Project Highrise is a skyscraper construction and management sim...

Why similar: Building 25.3%, Management 23.3%, Simulation 14.3%, City Builder 13.7%, Strategy 7.7%

Why You'll Like It: It compresses city planning into a skyscraper, but the same design challenge of flow, services, and occupant satisfaction remains.

Build a world for wildlife in Planet Zoo. From the developers of Planet Coaster and Zoo Tycoon comes the ultimate zoo sim. Construct detailed habitats, manage your zoo, and meet authentic living animals who think, feel and explore the world you create around them.

Why similar: City Builder 29.8%, Building 15.6%, Management 14.8%, Sandbox 9.1%, Simulation 8.7%

Why You'll Like It: It replaces a city with a zoo, but its pathing, guest flow, utilities, and detailed management appeal to the same creative planner mindset.

Only the world’s most ruthless Warden can contain the world’s most ruthless inmates. Design and develop your personalized penitentiary in Prison Architect.

Why similar: City Builder 31.8%, Building 14.9%, Management 10.5%, Moddable 9.7% ★, Sandbox 9.3%

Why You'll Like It: It shares the same top-down sandbox appeal of designing infrastructure, flow, and public services, just within a prison instead of a city.

Manor Lords is a medieval strategy game featuring in-depth city building, large-scale tactical battles, and complex economic and social simulations. Rule your lands as a medieval lord – the seasons pass, the weather changes, and cities rise and fall.

Why similar: City Builder 31.5%, Moddable 13.9% ★, Building 11.9%, Economy 9.2%, Management 9.2%

Why You'll Like It: It puts more weight on medieval life sim, yet its road layout, plot zoning, and organic town growth feel wonderfully city-builder-like.

Frostpunk is the first society survival game. As the ruler of the last city on Earth, it is your duty to manage both its citizens and infrastructure. What decisions will you make to ensure your society's survival? What will you do when pushed to breaking point? Who will you become in the process?

Why similar: City Builder 56.9%, Building 10.8%, Resource Management 8.9%, Strategy 5.9%, Management 5.6%

Why You'll Like It: It is much harsher and more survival-driven, but building a compact city around heat, resources, and citizen needs offers similarly tense planning.

The Regional City Builder: Let's Build Something New.

Why similar: City Builder 45.8%, Building 12.4%, Management 11.5%, Simulation 9.4%, Moddable 6.6% ★

Why You'll Like It: It is a straightforward modern city sim focused on roads, zoning, traffic, and utilities, making it a very direct alternative.

In this city-building game, you will lead a group of survivors in their search for a new home. Manipulate the landscape, manage limited supplies, plant crops, hunt wildlife, gather resources, and develop trade routes to build a bustling and unique town.

Why similar: City Builder 46.7%, Building 15.5%, Management 10.6%, Sandbox 7.1%, Economy 6.5%

Why You'll Like It: It sits between Banished and a classic city builder, emphasizing layout, logistics, and steady population growth.

A dark fantasy city builder where you must rebuild civilization in the face of apocalyptic rains. As the Queen’s Viceroy, lead humans, beavers, lizards, foxes, and harpies to reclaim the wilderness and secure a future for civilization's last survivors.

Why similar: City Builder 32%, Moddable 13.2% ★, Building 12.1%, Management 9.4%, Economy 8.8%

Why You'll Like It: It is more roguelite and settlement-based, but its constant focus on housing, production chains, and urban planning should click with city-builder fans.

Manage transportation for commuters in four of the world's greatest cities - Vienna, Helsinki, Berlin, and Amsterdam

Why similar: City Builder 36.4%, Simulation 19.5%, Management 18.3%, Economy 9%, Sandbox 5.8%

Why You'll Like It: It strips away zoning and focuses on public transport management, which still overlaps strongly with the transit side of Cities: Skylines.

Endzone is a post-apocalyptic survival city builder, where you start a new civilization with a group of people after an ecological disaster. Build them a new home and ensure their survival in a shattered world, threatened by constant radiation, toxic rain, sandstorms and droughts.

Why similar: City Builder 60.8%, Building 8.7%, Simulation 6.7%, Strategy 6.2%, Management 5.1%

Why You'll Like It: It blends city building with survival systems, rewarding the same careful balancing of services, logistics, and expansion.

Build a new home for humanity in Aven Colony. Discover Aven Prime - an alien planet of deserts, tundras, and wetlands light years from earth. Build your colonies into massive, sprawling cities whilst dealing with the challenges faced when settling on a new world.

Why similar: City Builder 72.8%, Simulation 9.7%, Strategy 8%, Management 3.7%, Resource Management 2.6%

Why You'll Like It: This sci-fi colony builder echoes Cities: Skylines through utility networks, service coverage, and expansion planning under pressure.

The world is changing and Tropico is moving with the times - geographical powers rise and fall and the world market is dominated by new players with new demands and offers - and you, as El Presidente, face a whole new set of challenges.

Why similar: City Builder 55.9%, Management 10.2%, Simulation 8%, Sandbox 5.2%, Strategy 5.2%

Build the park of a lifetime and rediscover the critically acclaimed rollercoaster simulation bestseller. Feel the thrill of a genre-defining classic, complete with two huge expansion packs.

Why similar: City Builder 37.9%, Building 17.2%, Management 15.1%, Sandbox 8.9%, Simulation 7.6%

Rollercoaster Tycoon 3 Platinum combines the excitement of rollercoasters with the fun of a great strategy simulation. RCT3 Platinum combines the roller coaster theme park fun of the Roller Coaster Tycoon 3 with included expansion packs Soaked! and Wild! Now enjoy more options than ever.

Why similar: Management 20.6%, Building 19.6%, Simulation 14.3%, Sandbox 13.5%, City Builder 8.2%

Build and customise thrilling roller coasters and incredible water slides, manage the ultimate theme park experience, and share your epic creations. Are you ready to ride the wave?

Why similar: City Builder 36.2%, Building 16.5%, Sandbox 11.2%, Simulation 10.2%, Economy 9.1%

Smart City Plan is a modern old-school style city builder game: Plan zones, roads, public transport like trains, trams, buses, subways and even the hypertube. Set taxes and policies and implement smart city technologies.

Why similar: City Builder 32.3%, Building 11.5%, Simulation 9.6%, Management 7.6%, Economy 7.3%

Design, build, and manage the world’s largest and most diverse cities in Cities XXL. Bigger and better than ever before with a more powerful game engine and new interface, become the mayor of your very own sprawling metropolis.

Why similar: City Builder 44.2%, Building 12.5%, Economy 9%, Management 8.1%, Simulation 7.2%

Expand your empire, advance your culture and go head-to-head against history’s greatest leaders. Will your civilization stand the test of time?

Why similar: City Builder 44.5%, Strategy 17.3%, Building 9.8%, Moddable 8.9% ★, Simulation 7.9%

Mini Motorways is a strategy simulation game about designing the road map for a growing city. Build a traffic network, one road at a time, to create a bustling metropolis. Redesign your roads and place your motorways to get everyone where they need to go. How long can you keep the city moving?

Why similar: City Builder 29.3%, Management 19%, Simulation 15.6%, Building 14.8%, Strategy 12.1%

Build cities, shape a world.Cities XL Platinum lets you design, build and link up cities of all shapes and sizes around the Cities XL planet!Build more impressive cities than ever before! Cities XL Platinum offers a huge variety of over 1,000 buildings and constructions (including 50 brand new structures), that you can freely place on...

Why similar: City Builder 62.1%, Simulation 12.8%, Management 7.7%, Sandbox 6.5%, Strategy 4.1%

Create a 21st century micro-nation and experiment with economic and political ideals. Futuristic skyscrapers or spreading slums, the Nation relies on your economic and city planning skills.

Why similar: City Builder 44.6%, Building 10.2%, Simulation 8.3%, Economy 8.3%, Management 7%

Transport Fever is a railroad-focused tycoon game. Players start in 1850 and build up a thriving transport company. As an emerging transport tycoon, the player constructs stations, airports, harbors and makes money by connecting areas requiring transport services. Build up your own Empire!

Why similar: City Builder 35.2%, Building 13.5%, Economy 10.3%, Management 10.1%, Sandbox 8.9%

Build an idyllic 19th century Mediterranean town and help it flourish into a prosperous city. Freely place and customise each element to create the perfect home for your growing population in this cozy city builder from the creators of Station to Station.

Why similar: City Builder 57%, Building 13.8%, Economy 8.4%, Management 8%, Simulation 5.3%

Build & Manage Your Airport. An International Hub or a Regional Masterpiece -- it's up to you. Buy more land to scale out, or escalators to scale up with MULTIPLE FLOORS. You're in full control in this modern business management tycoon!

Why similar: City Builder 38.9%, Building 14.2%, Management 11.5%, Economy 11.3%, Sandbox 8.8%

From barren land to towering metropolis, every decision you make shapes the destiny of your city. Industrial flow, global trade, surging land values, and growing wealth, offers deep management gameplay, perfect for players who love strategic city-building and economic simulation.

Why similar: City Builder 45.3%, Building 16.2%, Economy 12.4%, Sandbox 9.9%, Simulation 9.1%

Place yourself at the heart of the Jurassic franchise and build your own Jurassic World. Bioengineer dinosaurs that think, feel and react intelligently to the world around them and face threats posed by espionage, breakouts and devastating tropical storms in an uncertain world where life always finds a way.

Why similar: City Builder 24.5%, Building 23.7%, Management 15.2%, Simulation 10%, Sandbox 9.7%

Curate and manage incredible museums! Explore to discover amazing artifacts. Design and refine the layout, keep staff happy, guests entertained, donations plentiful… and children off the exhibits

Why similar: City Builder 39.4%, Building 16.5%, Simulation 9.3%, Sandbox 9.2%, Management 9.2%

Build and manage an international airport!

Why similar: City Builder 25.3%, Moddable 16.3% ★, Building 12%, Management 10.2%, Economy 8.3%

A city-building game with a unique twist—step inside and experience your city firsthand! Plan roads, zones, and infrastructure while growing your economy, managing resources, and unlocking special buildings. Host events, build mega projects, and watch your city thrive in a dynamic world.

Why similar: City Builder 50.1%, Economy 12.5%, Sandbox 11.7%, Building 9.6%, Strategy 6.6%

An exciting new city-management/puzzle game about buildings and the city they inhabit. You must grow your city to a bustling metropolitan centre with an array of shops, offices, entertainment facilities and amenities, to help your buildings thrive; or risk them being demolished forever.

Why similar: City Builder 45.2%, Building 14.6%, Management 14%, Economy 12.9%, Strategy 6.1%

One of the best games from acclaimed Tycoon series, with well designed gameplay mechanics, appealing graphics, and really high re-playability value. There’s no limit to what you can create so design and build the most thrilling roller coaster the world has ever seen!

Why similar: Management 24.8%, Simulation 17.8%, Building 16.1%, Sandbox 14.2%, City Builder 11.9%

Block’hood is a neighborhood-building simulator that celebrates the diversity and experimentation of cities and the unique ecosystems within them. Budding city planners will have access to 200+ building blocks to combine and to create unique neighborhoods and discover the implications of their designs.

Why similar: City Builder 58.9%, Building 11.1%, Sandbox 10.9%, Simulation 10.6%, Strategy 5%

SimCity 3000 Unlimited brings you the classic strategy gaming of SimCity 3000 with all-new scenarios that open up a whole world of city planning and building possibilities! The thrills of the classic SimCity 3000 are here again!

Why similar: City Builder 69.7%, Simulation 17.8%, Strategy 9.6%, Singleplayer 1.6%, Casual 1.2%

Road to your City is a city building and management game with a heavy emphasis on football. Slipping into the role of mayor, you are tasked with establishing a successful football club and developing it from grassroots to world class powerhouse.

Why similar: City Builder 49.4%, Simulation 11.7%, Building 9.9%, Management 8.1%, Sandbox 6.9%

Shape the Roman Empire in this genre-defining strategic builder game. Build cities while expanding your influence through Roman provinces. Govern using your economic prowess, diplomatic skills, or military might.

Why similar: City Builder 43.1%, Building 12.7%, Economy 9.6%, Sandbox 8.9%, Simulation 8%

Modern Casino Tycoon Simulation in full 3D glory. Build the casino. Set the odds. Expand into a luxury hotel/casino or go cheap & extract max profits. Keep the vault secure at all times, and beware of criminals & cheaters!!

Why similar: City Builder 35.4%, Building 13%, Management 9.5%, Moddable 9.3% ★, Economy 9.1%

Become an ace doctor, an aspiring architect and a successful manager at the same time. Design your very own hospital, tweak every detail or choose one of the prebuilt scenarios and just jump to the doctor’s duty.

Why similar: City Builder 38.7%, Management 12%, Building 11.2%, Moddable 8.6% ★, Sandbox 7.5%

TROPICO RELOADED is the ultimate game compilation for hobby-dictators and those dreaming of their own Caribbean island. Tropico combines real-time strategy and simulation elements with a healthy dose of political intrigue and Caribbean flair to create a unique and critically acclaimed game experience.

Why similar: City Builder 60.6%, Simulation 11.3%, Management 10.2%, Strategy 6.6%, Sandbox 5.6%

Build, manage, and expand your own lucrative parking enterprise in this management sim. Parking World puts the power to build your perfect parking garage at your fingertips while solving everybody else's parking problems in unique narrative scenarios or without any objectives in freeplay mode.

Why similar: City Builder 39.7%, Building 12.1%, Moddable 10% ★, Simulation 8.6%, Management 8.3%

Civitatem is a medieval city builder where you help your villagers raise a new settlement in dangerous lands by making use of their skills and available world resources.

Why similar: City Builder 50.4%, Simulation 10.2%, Building 8.9%, Strategy 7.6%, Management 6.9%

Factorio is a game about building and creating automated factories to produce items of increasing complexity, within an infinite 2D world. Use your imagination to design your factory, combine simple elements into ingenious structures, and finally protect it from the creatures who don't really like you.

Why similar: City Builder 23.9%, Sandbox 15.4%, Resource Management 13.7%, Building 12.6%, Moddable 12.2% ★