Games Like Kerbal Space Program 2

In Kerbal Space Program, take charge of the space program for the alien race known as the Kerbals. You have access to an array of parts to assemble fully-functional spacecraft that flies (or doesn’t) based on realistic aerodynamic and orbital physics.

Why similar: Science 18.7%, Space 15.6%, Space Sim 13.7%, Sandbox 10.7%, Physics 8.6%

Why You'll Like It: The original remains the closest match, with deep rocket construction, orbital mechanics, science progression, and the same trial-and-error comedy of catastrophic launches.

Bring to life anything you can imagine from rockets and airplanes to cars and more. Automate them with a visual programming language. Explore 3D planets and make your own. Share your creations online. Complete contracts, conquer milestones, and unlock technology in the newly added Career Mode.

Why similar: Science 20.4%, Space Sim 15.7%, Moddable 10.9% ★, Building 10.6%, Space 9%

Why You'll Like It: It offers KSP-style vehicle design and spaceflight with robust part-based construction, realistic physics, and a polished sandbox for rockets, aircraft, and spacecraft.

In Spaceflight Simulator, you will get to build your rockets, plan launches and flights, attempt landings, deploy payloads and explore new worlds.

Why similar: Space Sim 20.4%, Science 19%, Space 13.6%, Sandbox 13.1%, Building 5.7%

Why You'll Like It: This captures the iterative build-launch-crash-improve loop of KSP in a simpler 2D format that still emphasizes staging, orbital planning, and engineering efficiency.

Space Engineers is a sandbox engineering game where you design and build ships, stations, and planetary bases in a fully destructible environment. Explore planets and space, mine resources, survive hazards, and engage in combat alone or with friends in Creative or Survival modes.

Why similar: Space Sim 17%, Moddable 14.3% ★, Space 11.8%, Building 11.1%, Sandbox 10.5%

Why You'll Like It: Its voxel ship building and physics-driven sandbox let you design, test, and pilot spacecraft in a similarly experimental way, just with more survival and construction focus.

Take On Mars places you right in the middle of mankind’s most exciting undertaking. Start out in the seat of a rover operator, finish as the first human to have ever set foot on the Red Planet.

Why similar: Science 20%, Space 18.2%, Space Sim 14.3%, Building 9.7%, Sandbox 8.2%

Why You'll Like It: This combines realistic Mars mission themes, rover and lander operation, and aerospace simulation in a way that strongly overlaps with KSP's science-and-exploration appeal.

Stationeers puts you in control of the construction and management of a space station to run by yourself or online with your friends. Complex atmospheric, electrical, manufacturing, agriculture, and gravitational systems require your thought and management at all times!

Why similar: Science 25.2%, Moddable 16.1% ★, Space 13.3%, Building 13%, Sandbox 12.1%

Why You'll Like It: For players who enjoy the engineering side of KSP, this turns space survival into a dense systems sandbox of construction, automation, life support, and problem solving.

Create & destroy on an unimaginable scale with a realistic physics-based space simulator. Explore the beauty of our universe and the fragility of our planet. Use science to bend the laws of gravity, collide planets, boil away oceans, fire epic space lasers, and customize your universe.

Why similar: Science 20.1%, Space Sim 17.8%, Space 13.8%, Sandbox 13%, Physics 9.4%

Why You'll Like It: It shares KSP's fascination with astrophysics and emergent space simulation, even if the focus is celestial-scale experimentation rather than vehicle building.

Build and fly realistic aircraft. Use free-form fuselage and wing editor tools and tune your engines to recreate aircraft from any era or design your own.

Why similar: Science 24.7%, Sandbox 23.1%, Building 19.8%, Physics 15.6%, Simulation 10.7%

Why You'll Like It: Although centered on aircraft, it scratches a very similar itch with realistic aero engineering, custom craft building, and lots of iterative testing.

The most scientifically accurate space warfare simulator ever made. Now with Steam Workshop!

Why similar: Science 27.8%, Space 22%, Space Sim 12.4%, Realistic 10.5%, Simulation 8.9%

Why You'll Like It: It leans into hard science and realistic spacecraft design, rewarding the same kind of obsessive tweaking and physics-minded experimentation as KSP.

The world's first science-based photorealistic interactive 3D planetarium that models the entire Universe, using procedural generation for uncharted areas.

Why similar: Science 21.9%, Space Sim 18.3%, Space 14.6%, Sandbox 13.5%, Open World 11%

Why You'll Like It: If your favorite part of KSP is the wonder of space itself, this offers breathtaking, simulation-heavy exploration of the universe.

Build airplanes by snapping parts together, designing wing sections, and attaching engines. At any time, you can strap yourself into the cockpit and see how it flies with realistic physics. If you're not in the mood for building, over 100,000 airplanes are available to download for free.

Why similar: Moddable 19.6% ★, Building 18.8%, Sandbox 18.2%, Physics 15.7%, Open World 11.3%

Why You'll Like It: Its modular craft builder, accessible physics, and constant test-refine loop feel very KSP-adjacent, just focused on atmospheric flight instead of space programs.

Join a world where you design, create and pilot your own air sea rescue service. Release your inner hero as you battle fierce storms out at sea to rescue those in need.

Why similar: Sandbox 28%, Building 25.6%, Physics 19.3%, Open World 17.4%, Exploration 9.8%

Why You'll Like It: This is another brilliant vehicle sandbox where building functional machines, troubleshooting physics, and refining designs is the core fun.

Design and simulate the starships of your dreams! Command your ship or fleet in epic battles and manage your crew while exploring a dangerous galaxy. Play alone or with friends, test your ships in online PvP, and let your imagination reach for the stars!

Why similar: Space Sim 21.9%, Space 16.9%, Building 16%, Difficult 12.1%, Sci-fi 10.1%

Why You'll Like It: Designing ships room-by-room and iterating on how they fly and fight taps into the same builder mindset as KSP.

Mine and craft your way to orbit, build your own starship and explore a vast, dangerous galaxy alongside your crew. For players who love a meaningful survival progression, a unique and elegant building system, and epic space-opera scale.

Why similar: Space 20.2%, Building 19.4%, Sandbox 15%, Space Sim 14.8%, Simulation 7.1%

Why You'll Like It: It offers freeform spaceship construction and hands-on piloting in a sandboxy sci-fi setting that will appeal to craft tinkerers.

Build physically simulated rovers to transport awkwardly shaped cargo across the rugged terrain of Mars. Earn funds, unlock new parts, and use your ingenuity to help the Martians establish a new home. Playable solo or in online co-op!

Why similar: Science 23%, Space Sim 17.4%, Building 12.2%, Sandbox 11.4%, Physics 9.8%

Why You'll Like It: Its goofy-but-clever vehicle building on Mars captures KSP's mix of engineering challenge, physics chaos, and humor.

Build the ultimate vehicle and explore a vast open world filled with challenges and adventure. Play solo or team up with friends in multiplayer to conquer the toughest obstacles. With a thrilling campaign mode and endless creative possibilities, Trailmakers is the ultimate sandbox for adventurers.

Why similar: Space 27.6%, Building 16.1%, Sandbox 15.2%, Physics 13.4%, Open World 10.7%

Why You'll Like It: It delivers a more playful take on modular vehicle building, with satisfying experimentation, physics mishaps, and exploration.

Command the Nimbatus and craft drones out of hundreds of different parts. Survive unknown threats in a fully destructible, procedural universe, compete against other players in different arenas or enjoy complete creative freedom in the sandbox.

Why similar: Space Sim 24.5%, Space 15.7%, Building 11.9%, Sandbox 11.2%, Physics 9.6%

Why You'll Like It: Building programmable drones in a physics-driven space sandbox gives it a similar engineering-heavy creativity to KSP.

Equipped with cutting-edge salvaging tech, carve & slice spaceships to recover valuable materials. Upgrade your gear to take on more lucrative contracts and pay your billion credits debt to LYNX Corp!

Why similar: Space 23.8%, Space Sim 17.4%, Physics 15.4%, Sandbox 14.4%, Sci-fi 9.6%

Why You'll Like It: Its tactile zero-g work and believable industrial space tech make it a good fit if you enjoy the hands-on physics side of space simulation.

Besiege is a physics building game about constructing medieval machines to annihilate armies, obliterate castles and overcome challenging obstacles. Conquer the campaign or skirmish with friends in Multiplayer!

Why similar: Moddable 27.4% ★, Building 21.3%, Sandbox 20.5%, Physics 17.8%, Simulation 7.5%

Why You'll Like It: Like KSP, it's about assembling contraptions from parts and learning through hilarious structural failures, only in a medieval destruction sandbox.

A single-developer passion project. A seamless full scale solar system. Thrilling action. Be part of an incredible journey as a Universe is built from the ground up!

Why similar: Space 29.5%, Space Sim 15.1%, Sandbox 14.9%, Open World 14.6%, Exploration 10.6%

Why You'll Like It: This indie space sandbox emphasizes flying between planets and poking around a handcrafted solar system, appealing to KSP's exploration side.

A physics-based mining sim, set in the thickest debris field in Sol. Every action has a reaction, lasers are invisible without a medium, and your thrust is a potent weapon. Find trade, adapt your equipment to your playstyle, hire a crew to help. Unravel the mysteries of the rings, or just get rich.

Why similar: Science 18.6%, Space Sim 15.7%, Space 13.6%, Physics 9.4%, Difficult 8.1%

Why You'll Like It: Its grounded near-future space sim, inertia-heavy flight, and meticulous ship outfitting echo KSP's hard-SF side.

Over 1000 unique components allow you to build and command voxel vehicles from the deep ocean to outer space! Forge strategies, allegiances and fleets strong enough to destroy eight deadly factions of the planet and reign supreme. A genre-defying mashup of simulation, building, RTS and RPG.

Why similar: Building 25.6%, Sandbox 22.9%, Space 19.6%, Physics 19.1%, Simulation 6.7%

Why You'll Like It: This is a deep design sandbox for complex vehicles and weapons systems, ideal if you love spending hours making machines actually work.

Starbase is a hybrid voxel/vertex-based space MMO with a fully destructible and infinitely expanding universe, with a focus on building and designing spaceships and stations, exploration, resource gathering, crafting, trading, and combat.

Why similar: Space Sim 25%, Building 17.2%, Space 15%, Sandbox 13.5%, Open World 11.9%

Why You'll Like It: Its detailed ship construction and space engineering systems are appealing if what you want most is assembling functioning spacecraft.

Survive and colonize Mars in a highly technical, open-world sandbox game. Build and upgrade your base, discover new regions, conduct mining operations, retrieve water, generate oxygen, grow crops, and fix broken parts.

Why similar: Space 20.2%, Sandbox 19.2%, Building 18.4%, Open World 14.3%, Exploration 8.3%

Why You'll Like It: Colonizing Mars with realistic tools, vehicles, and survival systems makes it a strong pick for the practical aerospace fantasy around KSP.

A procedural co-op space sandbox where players can build their own space ships out of dynamically scalable blocks. Fight epic space battles, explore, mine, trade, wage wars and build your own empire to save your galaxy from being torn apart by an unknown enemy.

Why similar: Space Sim 24.7%, Space 16.2%, Building 15.6%, Sandbox 15.1%, Open World 10.2%

Why You'll Like It: Building and iterating on your own ships in an open-ended galaxy gives it a lighter but still satisfying spacecraft sandbox feel.

Build and explore in a true space sandbox survival adventure. Construct mighty capital vessels, sprawling planetary settlements, and vast space stations in your galactic journey to discover the mysteries of Empyrion!

Why similar: Space Sim 19.3%, Space 15.1%, Building 13.8%, Sandbox 11.5%, Physics 9.7%

Why You'll Like It: This blends base building, ship construction, and planetary and space exploration into a broader but still KSP-adjacent sci-fi sandbox.

Build and fly your own airplane! Complete missions to earn money, upgrade your plane, and discover new locations in an open world.

Why similar: Science 21.9%, Building 21.6%, Sandbox 16.9%, Physics 15.7%, Open World 8.8%

Named Game of the Year 2019 by Giant Bomb, Polygon, Eurogamer, and The Guardian, Outer Wilds is a critically-acclaimed and award-winning open world mystery about a solar system trapped in an endless time loop.

Why similar: Space 37.4%, Exploration 18.6%, Open World 16.3%, Sci-fi 9.3%, Atmospheric 7.2%

Why You'll Like It: It doesn't share the construction systems, but its solar-system exploration, curiosity-driven discovery, and light physics make it a natural thematic companion.

Lead a major space agency as you guide humanity to Mars in this strategy simulation game. Construct a base, design and build rockets, conduct missions throughout the Solar System, and write your own history of Space exploration. Created with support from the European Space Agency.

Why similar: Science 28.4%, Space Sim 22%, Space 16.8%, Building 13.4%, Physics 8.3%

Why You'll Like It: While more strategic than hands-on, it captures the fantasy of running missions, managing technology, and building a space program.

Do you have what it takes to become an astronaut? Reentry is a realistic space flight simulator inspired by the early NASA space programs, from orbiting Earth in Mercury and Gemini, to the moon landing in project Apollo. Learn the procedures. Operate the spacecraft. Complete the mission.

Why similar: Science 21.6%, Space Sim 20%, Space 14.8%, Physics 8.3%, Difficult 8.2%

Space Engineers 2 is a playable Early Access Alpha sandbox focused on engineering, exploration, and colonization in a fully destructible universe. Design and build ships, stations, and planetary bases while uncovering the story of Miro and Ivan Sokol. Help shape the future of the Almagest system.

Why similar: Science 16.3%, Moddable 11.9% ★, Space Sim 10.8%, Space 10.3%, Building 10.1%

Enter the creative paradise of Scrap Mechanic! Build fantastic machines, go on adventures with your friends and defend against waves of evil Farmbots in this imaginative multiplayer survival sandbox. With Scrap Mechanic’s powerful creation tools you can engineer your own adventures!

Why similar: Building 23.6%, Sandbox 19%, Physics 15.7%, Open World 13.5%, Moddable 9.3% ★

Why You'll Like It: This is a great sandbox for players who mainly love KSP's build-test-break-rebuild engineering loop.

Explore the Solar System. Mine and drop asteroids. Colonize and terraform. Lead the space race and compete with other corporations on your way to profit. Watch the expansion of human race over the centuries.

Why similar: Science 23.4%, Space Sim 15.7%, Space 14%, Sandbox 11.2%, Physics 9.7%

SimplePlanes is back! Build planes, cars, or anything else using powerful procedural parts! Explore detailed environments with friends in multiplayer, cause chaos, or download 1,000,000 community crafts for free.

Why similar: Building 26.6%, Sandbox 25.5%, Open World 18.2%, Exploration 10.5%, Simulation 9.6%

Explore the world with our largest fleet of aircraft and take simulation to new heights while pursuing your aviation career within Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024.

Why similar: Sandbox 19.9%, Realistic 18.3%, Simulation 15%, Open World 13.7%, Exploration 9.5%

Your journey to building a vast space empire begins behind the controls of a single ship. Explore, trade, fight, and build as you rise to command fleets, stations, and entire economies in a living, fully simulated universe that reacts to every decision.

Why similar: Space Sim 19.2%, Moddable 15.6% ★, Space 14.2%, Sandbox 11.5%, Building 11.3%

Take part in a space program. Design spacecrafts and send them off to explore the vast expanses of space. Experience the real scale of the Solar system and the size of its celestial bodies.

Why similar: Science 19.3%, Space Sim 14.5%, Space 11.6%, Building 10.2%, Sandbox 9.8%

The Last Starship is a 2D space construction game where you design and upgrade your starship. Choose your path: pirate hunter, miner, engineer, spacebus driver, and more, whilst exploring vibrant star systems. Enjoy a growing sandbox world, with regular free updates. Your cosmic adventure awaits!

Why similar: Space Sim 21.3%, Science 18.8%, Space 15%, Building 13.5%, Sandbox 13.5%

The future of flight simulation is now! X-Plane 11 is the detailed, realistic, and modern simulator you’ve been waiting for. Intuitive user interface, 3-D cockpits, new effects, 3-D sound, living airports and world-wide scenery.

Why similar: Simulation 22.4%, Open World 20.9%, Realistic 20.5%, Physics 12.3%, Sandbox 9.3%

Mine asteroids, salvage space debris, design your own small or massive spacecraft using individual functional components, complete missions, and engage in battles against enemies in a vast galaxy with realistic physics based on orbital mechanics or in a classic physics mode.

Why similar: Space 30.1%, Sandbox 17.3%, Space Sim 17%, Building 11.4%, Simulation 9.4%

Haul cargo, trade salvage and keep your space suit close as you search for fame and fortune among the stars in a game that puts an interstellar twist on the truck sim genre.

Why similar: Space Sim 20.1%, Space 13.7%, Moddable 13.5% ★, Physics 10.4%, Sandbox 9.2%

The ultimate space sandbox. Participate in epic fleet battles, form alliances, strive to dominate entire galaxies and harness the universe’s resources for your industrious empire or the destruction of others. Customise your experience, the universe is yours!

Why similar: Space 25.1%, Sandbox 19.5%, Building 14.5%, Open World 11.5%, Space Sim 9.9%

Starfield is the first new universe in 25 years from Bethesda Game Studios, the award-winning creators of The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim and Fallout 4.

Why similar: Space 27.3%, Open World 16%, Space Sim 15.7%, Moddable 13.1% ★, Sci-fi 9.5%

Embark on a journey to greatness. Get ready for adrenaline-fueled battles and a chance to claim your place in the galaxy. Grab the controls of your ship, gear up for the fight, and unleash your ambition to conquer and build a new empire in the vastness of space.

Why similar: Space Sim 31.1%, Science 29.1%, Space 16.1%, Open World 12%, Building 11.7%

Take control of your own starship and blaze your trail in an ever-changing galaxy. Master the arts of combat, mining and trade or venture out into the unknown across a 1:1 scale universe.

Why similar: Space Sim 32.7%, Space 21.4%, Open World 12.2%, Sandbox 7%, Exploration 6.7%

The acclaimed bridge-building indie-hit is back! More levels, more features, more physics fun!

Why similar: Building 29.2%, Physics 19.3%, Sandbox 18.2%, Difficult 17.5%, Simulation 7.8%

EVERSPACE 2 is a fast-paced single-player spaceship shooter with exploration in space and on planets, tons of loot, RPG elements, mining, and crafting. Experience an exciting sci-fi story set in a vivid, handcrafted open world full of secrets, puzzles, and perils.

Why similar: Space 37%, Open World 21.9%, Exploration 14.4%, Sci-fi 11.4%, Simulation 8.6%

Embark on a space voyage with your ragtag crew of civilians in search of a new home. Build spaceships tile by tile, create optimal gas conditions, manage the needs and moods of their crew, encounter other space-faring groups, and explore the universe in this spaceship colony simulation.

Why similar: Space Sim 21.2%, Space 16.5%, Building 15.1%, Sandbox 14.4%, Open World 9.3%

Navigate your scrappy ship through the boneyard in search of valuable parts in abandoned vessels. Use salvage to upgrade your ship, or sell it for cash to pay down your mounting debt, or restock fuel, air, or food. Fly and role-play aboard your dream spaceship in this hardcore noir space-sim.

Why similar: Space Sim 21.2%, Difficult 20.5%, Space 15.2%, Sandbox 13.2%, Exploration 10.5%

Flight of Nova is a simulator based on newtonian mechanics in which you control spacecraft in the Noren star system. You fly multiple types of spacecraft doing transport and search missions in an environment with realistic aerodynamics and orbital physics.

Why similar: Space Sim 26.8%, Physics 11.5%, Sandbox 11.2%, Space 9.8%, Open World 9.5%

Build the most efficient intergalactic factory in space simulation strategy game Dyson Sphere Program! Harness the power of stars, collect resources, plan and design production lines and develop your interstellar factory from a small space workshop to a galaxy-wide industrial empire.

Why similar: Space 25.8%, Building 18.8%, Sandbox 14.2%, Space Sim 13.9%, Open World 12.4%

From gliders and helicopters to wide-body jets, fly highly detailed and accurate aircraft in the Microsoft Flight Simulator 40th Anniversary Edition. The world is at your fingertips.

Why similar: Open World 24%, Realistic 18.6%, Physics 18.1%, Simulation 18%, Multiplayer 9.9%

Interstellar Rift is an open world starship simulator with an emphasis on ship construction and multi-player interaction. Survive in a hostile galaxy with your own custom designed and constructed starship. Invite other players to join your crew or fight them across the galaxy!

Why similar: Space Sim 25%, Building 15.5%, Sandbox 13.7%, Space 13.7%, Open World 10.7%

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: Building 28.7%, Sandbox 23.1%, Moddable 17.6% ★, Simulation 12.3%, Realistic 8.9%

Gather resources, craft components, build vehicles, and code their logic in a physics-driven engineering sandbox and full scale space sim.

Why similar: Science 19.8%, Space Sim 14.8%, Building 10.5%, Space 10.4%, Sandbox 10.1%

Kinetic Void is a 3D space adventure with a focus on customization and enjoyable space simulation. The shipyard allows players to construct their ship piece by piece. Ships can be as simplistic as a cockpit, a hull, a engine and a gun, or as complex as a player wants.

Why similar: Space 37%, Sandbox 17.5%, Space Sim 11.4%, Building 9.6%, Simulation 9.5%

Operate the Starship space launch system and learn how to catch a rocket to understand what it takes to colonize Mars in this ever-evolving simulation of SpaceX Starbase Texas.

Why similar: Space Sim 33.4%, Sandbox 20.8%, Space 12.6%, Simulation 8.8%, Realistic 8.8%

The Outer Worlds 2 is the sequel to the award-winning first-person sci-fi RPG from Obsidian Entertainment.

Why similar: Open World 36.1%, Exploration 23.4%, Sci-fi 16.8%, Space 13%, Adventure 5.5%

Take to the skies in the World’s favourite flight simulator! The multi award winning Microsoft Flight Simulator X lands on Steam for the first time. Take off from anywhere in the world, flying some of the world’s most iconic aircraft to any one of 24,000 destinations.

Why similar: Simulation 20%, Open World 19.8%, Realistic 16.8%, Moddable 16.8% ★, Multiplayer 8.2%