Games Like Kerbal Space Program

Kerbal Space Program 2 is the sequel to the acclaimed space-flight simulation game Kerbal Space Program. Enter the next generation of space adventure with exciting new parts, stunning visuals, fully revamped UI and Map View, and rich new environments to explore.

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

Why You'll Like It: It is the closest match by far, built around the same core loop of assembling rockets and aircraft, then flying them with orbital and aerodynamic physics.

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 18.7%, Space Sim 17.2%, Space 12.5%, Moddable 10.7% ★, Sandbox 8.7%

Why You'll Like It: This is the strongest non-KSP substitute for players who want detailed craft building, realistic flight and orbital mechanics, and lots of engineering freedom.

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 22.8%, Space 19.2%, Science 17.8%, Sandbox 14.4%, Simulation 6.1%

Why You'll Like It: It delivers the same staging, launch, orbit, and mission-planning satisfaction as KSP in a streamlined 2D format.

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 20.3%, Space 17.8%, Moddable 15.4% ★, Sandbox 12.4%, Physics 10.2%

Why You'll Like It: Its block-based ship construction, testing, and piloting in a physics-driven space sandbox hit a very similar creative engineering itch.

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: Sandbox 23.4%, Moddable 23% ★, Physics 19%, Building 16.3%, Open World 7.6%

Why You'll Like It: It captures KSP's build-fly-crash-improve loop through customizable aircraft and physics-heavy aerodynamic experimentation.

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 36.5%, Physics 23.7%, Building 22.6%, Open World 11.8%, Exploration 5.4%

Why You'll Like It: Like KSP, it is all about assembling vehicles from parts and learning through hands-on physics testing when your design fails.

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: Space 24.9%, Science 18.2%, Space Sim 15.4%, Simulation 9.7%, Sandbox 8.7%

Why You'll Like It: It shares KSP's space-program feel through landers, rovers, launches, and a grounded approach to planetary exploration.

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 24.4%, Space Sim 22.1%, Sandbox 14.2%, Physics 11.6%, Building 10.2%

Why You'll Like It: Its janky-but-clever rover construction on Mars feels a lot like KSP's joyful process of engineering strange machines and making them somehow work.

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: Space Sim 18.6%, Space 18.2%, Science 17.6%, Sandbox 13.4%, Physics 9.2%

Why You'll Like It: It lacks vehicle building, but its emphasis on gravity, orbital mechanics, and playful space-science experimentation overlaps strongly with KSP's educational appeal.

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: Sandbox 26.3%, Science 23.8%, Physics 16.7%, Simulation 16.1%, Building 15.2%

Why You'll Like It: It focuses on realistic aircraft design and aerodynamics, making it a great pick for players who especially enjoyed KSP's plane-building side.

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

Why similar: Space 31.6%, Science 26.6%, Space Sim 14.1%, Simulation 13.2%, Sandbox 6.2%

Why You'll Like It: Few games match KSP's hard-science mindset as well, with realistic spacecraft design and orbital thinking at the center of play.

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 24.7%, Space 19.7%, Moddable 16.9% ★, Sandbox 14%, Physics 12%

Why You'll Like It: Its deep systems simulation and unforgiving technical problem-solving appeal to the same players who love KSP's more hardcore engineering side.

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%, Space 15.4%, Space Sim 12.9%, Moddable 12.8% ★, Sandbox 11.4%

Why You'll Like It: If your favorite part of KSP is freeform shipbuilding in a big sandbox, this is a promising next step with a similar creative focus.

You’re the designer, engineer and architect if you can imagine it you can create it! Construct robots of any shape or size from eight-legged spider bots to eerie UFO contraptions.

Why similar: Science 33.3%, Sandbox 19.2%, Physics 15.3%, Building 13.7%, Simulation 9.1%

Why You'll Like It: This is another strong engineering toybox where you build machines, test them in physics-driven scenarios, and iterate toward better designs.

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 28.3% ★, Sandbox 23.2%, Physics 19%, Building 16.2%, Simulation 11.1%

Why You'll Like It: Even without the space theme, it delivers the same addictive cycle of designing contraptions, testing physics, and refining your build after each failure.

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: Space 21.9%, Space Sim 19.9%, Science 19.9%, Physics 11.1%, Sandbox 8.9%

Why You'll Like It: Its grounded Newtonian spaceflight and careful ship handling make it a natural fit for fans of KSP's realistic space operations.

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: Space 26.7%, Sandbox 24.3%, Physics 19.1%, Building 18.3%, Simulation 9.4%

Why You'll Like It: Its extremely detailed vehicle construction rewards the same tinkering mindset and systems thinking that make KSP so compelling.

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 28.4%, Space 22.9%, Sandbox 12.8%, Physics 10.3%, Building 9.2%

Why You'll Like It: Building modular spacecraft and watching your ideas succeed or catastrophically fail gives it a very KSP-like experimental rhythm.

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 28.3%, Space Sim 16.4%, Sandbox 16.4%, Building 14.4%, Simulation 10.2%

Why You'll Like It: It scratches the same sandbox-building urge by letting you prototype and fly custom spacecraft in an open-ended environment.

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 22.4%, Space 22.1%, Sandbox 13.1%, Building 10.7%, Physics 10.5%

Why You'll Like It: It is less realistic than KSP, but combining ship construction, planetary exploration, and survival makes it a solid broader alternative.

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 41.4%, Sandbox 17.8%, Physics 14.8%, Building 12.8%, Open World 6.6%

Why You'll Like It: Its modular vehicle builder and physics-based experimentation make it an approachable cousin to KSP's construction-first gameplay.

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 33.8%, Space 15.6%, Sandbox 13.9%, Physics 13.5%, Simulation 9.7%

Why You'll Like It: It offers believable atmospheric and near-orbital flight handling for players who mainly want the piloting challenge without the full construction layer.

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 28.3%, Space 23.5%, Sandbox 17.1%, Building 11.9%, Simulation 6.9%

Why You'll Like It: Designing, iterating, and upgrading your own ships in a large space sandbox taps into KSP's creative engineering appeal.

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 22.8%, Space Sim 21.1%, Space 20.3%, Education 10.2%, Building 8.5%

Why You'll Like It: It captures the fantasy of running a space program and advancing through missions and technology, even if it approaches it from a strategy angle.

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 36.7%, Sandbox 22.2%, Space Sim 11.4%, Building 11.2%, Open World 6.8%

Why You'll Like It: Voxel spaceship construction and open-ended experimentation make it relevant for anyone who primarily wants to design things and see them fly.

Interact with strange new worlds in a unique and tactile way, molding the environment itself as if it were clay in your hands. Build your base, master resource management, automate your production lines, and more as you unravel the mysteries of the universe, alone or with friends.

Why similar: Space 41.2%, Sandbox 20.8%, Building 12.5%, Open World 11%, Exploration 4.9%

Why You'll Like It: It is much lighter and more survival-craft focused, but its off-world exploration and base-building still overlap with KSP's playful space sandbox feel.

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: Sandbox 25.4%, Building 21.3%, Physics 19.8%, Moddable 11.4% ★, Open World 9.4%

Why You'll Like It: While not space-themed, its emphasis on building vehicles and solving problems through physics makes it a good fit for KSP tinkerers.

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 23.4%, Sandbox 21.1%, Physics 18.6%, Building 18.2%, Simulation 6.7%

You've barely managed to escape your exploding spaceship. Now in an old escape pod, you hurtle through space at the mercy of the cosmos. With no knowledge of the pod’s complex systems, your life depends on a technical manual and your own wits. How long can you survive?

Why similar: Space 30.1%, Space Sim 23.4%, Science 20.3%, Simulation 10.7%, Physics 7.6%

Why You'll Like It: This spacecraft survival sim focuses on managing life support and onboard systems, appealing to players who enjoy the nuts-and-bolts side of space simulation.

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: Space Sim 23.4%, Space 22%, Science 21.3%, Physics 9.1%, Simulation 7.1%

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

Why similar: Space 20.5%, Science 20.4%, Space Sim 20.3%, Sandbox 14.7%, Education 8.2%

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 30.8%, Space Sim 17.9%, Physics 14.7%, Sandbox 14.6%, Simulation 9.2%

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 37.9%, Space 31.3%, Sandbox 8%, Open World 7.3%, Simulation 6.7%

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 21.1%, Space 19%, Space Sim 16.9%, Sandbox 11.9%, Physics 9.7%

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 17.7%, Space 16%, Space Sim 15.8%, Sandbox 10.5%, Physics 8.5%

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 35.5%, Sandbox 15.3%, Space Sim 15.2%, Building 13.7%, Simulation 8.1%

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 22.2%, Space 20.7%, Moddable 16.3% ★, Sandbox 13.1%, Building 8.7%

Satisfactory is a first-person open-world factory building game with a dash of exploration and combat. Play alone or with friends, explore an alien planet, create multi-story factories, and enter conveyor belt heaven!

Why similar: Sandbox 33.8%, Building 27.2%, Open World 17.1%, Simulation 8.6%, Exploration 5.6%

Oxygen Not Included is a space-colony simulation game. Deep inside an alien space rock your industrious crew will need to master science, overcome strange new lifeforms, and harness incredible space tech to survive, and possibly, thrive.

Why similar: Space 22.6%, Sandbox 20.4%, Building 20.3%, Space Sim 10.9%, Simulation 9.6%

This "spaceship simulation roguelike-like" allows you to take your ship and crew on an adventure through a randomly generated galaxy filled with glory and bitter defeat.

Why similar: Space 51.5%, Space Sim 23.6%, Simulation 6.5%, Sci-fi 5.6%, Difficult 4.9%

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 37.6%, Sandbox 16.9%, Space Sim 16.8%, Simulation 12.1%, Building 7.5%

A dynamic soft-body physics vehicle simulator capable of doing just about anything.

Why similar: Moddable 25.2% ★, Sandbox 23.6%, Physics 23.1%, Simulation 14.4%, Open World 8.9%

Make your dream cars a reality with Automation’s unparalleled car and engine design tools. Gain a competitive edge through smart engineering and business decisions to help you build an automotive empire. Will you become an industry leader, or just a footnote in automotive history?

Why similar: Science 19.4%, Sandbox 18%, Building 14.9%, Moddable 14.7% ★, Simulation 12.7%

Take Your Creature From Zero To Galactic HeroGet out of your starship and turn your Spore creatures into legendary Space Captains. For the first time, beam down with your allies to take on action-packed, planetside adventures. Complete quests, collect rewards, and even create your own missions.

Why similar: Space 38.2%, Sandbox 20.5%, Simulation 17.4%, Open World 8.6%, Exploration 4.6%

Developed by the creator of the original Kerbal Space Program, KitHack Model Club is a physics-based model building sandbox that offers limitless freedom for you and your friends. Design, build, battle, fly (and crash!) your very own RC vehicles, or experiment with over 2,400 ready-made vehicles!

Why similar: Moddable 24.2% ★, Sandbox 16.8%, Physics 14%, Education 12.6%, Building 11.8%

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: Sandbox 40.1%, Moddable 22% ★, Building 15.5%, Open World 9.1%, Simulation 7.9%

Be the architect of your own universe with Spore, an exciting single-player adventure. From Single Cell to Galactic God, evolve your creature in a universe of your own creations.

Why similar: Science 29.8%, Space 24.8%, Sandbox 17.9%, Simulation 8.4%, Open World 7%

Use the Nimbatus Drone Creator to construct physically simulated drones and try them out in a virtual testing environment. Do you have what it takes to become a drone engineer?

Why similar: Science 17.9%, Space Sim 17%, Simulation 14.2%, Space 13.4%, Sandbox 12.2%

Dynamic abstract sandbox universe. Changes and evolves as you do.

Why similar: Space 38.8%, Sandbox 19.9%, Space Sim 15%, Physics 8.8%, Simulation 6.7%

Become a Space Mechanic! Get your hands dirty, explore the depths of space and repair broken machinery. Diagnose problems using diagrams and tools, perform repairs, manage your resources and watch the simulated machinery come alive. Or just gaze upon the beauty of the Solar System.

Why similar: Space Sim 24.4%, Science 22.6%, Space 21.6%, Physics 8.7%, Building 8.2%

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: Sandbox 35.8%, Building 25.2%, Simulation 17.8%, Open World 13.3%, Exploration 6.2%

Build your spaceship from scratch, earn funds and invest them into building a bigger, better spaceship as you try and fly your way up to space!

Why similar: Space 30.5%, Sandbox 26%, Physics 23.2%, Simulation 13.4%, Strategy 2.7%

Guide a group of space settlers trying to establish a base on a remote planet. Grow food, collect energy, mine resources, survive disasters and build a self-sufficient colony in a harsh and unforgiving environment.

Why similar: Space 47%, Space Sim 12.3%, Building 10.5%, Sandbox 9.7%, Simulation 8.6%

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 24%, Space 20.6%, Moddable 14.5% ★, Physics 11.5%, Sandbox 10.8%

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 24.5%, Space 24.1%, Sandbox 16.5%, Building 11.7%, Simulation 7.8%

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 45.9%, Sandbox 17%, Simulation 12.2%, Space Sim 11.2%, Building 6.3%

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

Why similar: Science 19.5%, Space Sim 17.4%, Space 15.4%, Sandbox 11.7%, Moddable 10.2% ★

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: Sandbox 30.3%, Building 22.8%, Moddable 21.9% ★, Simulation 15.9%, Funny 3.6%