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Some games are made to make you feel relaxed and chill. In this list, we will explore the best 5 sandbox games you can play in 2025.
The sandbox genre is versatile. Many games of this genre are vastly different from one another but fall into the same category. The primary focus of these games is to make the player feel relaxed and have fun with friends or on their own. The genre is known for the freedom it offers to the players and the space for creativity that it allows.
From No Mane’s Sky to Rust, the games let the players explore their world without many restrictions or linear story threads. The sandbox genre evolves constantly with every new technological advancement in the gaming industry. These games getting bigger and more ambitious with time. So, let’s take a look at the best of this genre.
Top 5 Sandbox Games You Should Try in 2025
As we discussed, the sandbox genre is massive, and it is quite difficult to choose only five games from such a vast pool. However, we have tried our best to make a list of games that are the best examples of the sandbox genre and will have something for everyone. We will take you through the fantastical lands of Valheim to the blocky wholesomeness of Minecraft in our list of the best five games you can play in 2025. Here we go.
5. Rust
Facepunch Studio’s Rust is a survival sandbox game. The developers released the game on February 8, 2017, for PC and on May 21, 2021, for Xbox and PlayStation. The game was originally considered to be a DayZ clone, which is a mod for Arma 2. However, Rust became its own game and garnered a strong fanbase in the gaming community. Now, we cannot talk about sandbox games or survival games without mentioning Rust.
The game does receive some complaints regarding its performance sometimes, but that does not hurt its reputation at all. Finding resources, building, and surviving in the chaos of a server of over a hundred players is the heart of Rust. The game’s servers also get reset every week.
So, there is no chance of getting complacent. It encourages players not to take anything for granted. Moreover, players keep coming back to grind every week and get ahead of their peers. You can enjoy this game with friends or log in for a solo adventure and get lost in the beautiful anarchy of Rust.
4. Manor Lords
Manor Lords is a city builder set in medieval times and also a real-time tactics game. It was the most anticipated game on Steam before its release, with over three million wishlists. Players were eager to see what the solo developer from Slavic Magic was creating, and he did not disappoint. It is meticulously crafted, and the game mechanics goes in depth. The game came out in early access on April 24, 2024.
The spectacular city builder gives you the simple yet heavy responsibility of being in charge of a medieval village, and you will have to build it up. You can assign your civilians to any duty you want, and you have an ox at the start of the game that will carry logs to your planned buildings. Yes, your villagers do everything manually. From carrying resources to working on a farm or a tavern, you can see your civilians going to their everyday tasks. This level of detail made Manor Lords special in the first place.
It dives into realism like no other game has before. The goal of the game is for you to build a functional and happy society. However, the game also has a real-time warfare aspect, and you will have to train your soldiers accordingly. But if you don’t want bloodshed and only want to build, the Rise to Prosperity mode will disable the combat for you.
3. No Man’s Sky
No Man’s Sky is an action-adventure survival sandbox game. Hello Games developed it and published it in 2016. This game received criticism on release because it could not deliver on what it promised the gamers. The gameplay experience was also hampered by many bugs and glitches, while its procedurally generated world lets players down constantly. However, it is a completely different story in 2025.
This game is now considered to be one of the best sandbox games, and it is in a better state than before. Its world is full of life and opportunities for you to explore. The game is built around four gameplay loops—survival, trading, exploration, and combat. There are countless planets in the game, each with their procedurally made ecosystem and objectives.
You will find many alien species, some peaceful while some will challenge your existence. The game also has an overarching narrative, which can give you a fun quest to do. Overall, No Man’s Sky is a fascinating comeback story and in the undiscovered planets in the game, there is always something to explore. It is a heavy contended if you are looking for the best sandbox games in 2025.
2. Minecraft
Minecraft needs no introduction. It is a household name in the gaming community and rightfully so. The game gives us a wholesome world made of blocks. Minecraft might not look like much at first glance but it is considered to be one of the best sandbox games ever made. Notch aka Markus Persson is the original creator of the game. Mojang Studios developed the complete version of the game on November 18, 2011, which was more than a decade ago, and the game is still going strong.
This block-based game has experienced ups and downs in its long tenure. However, most importantly, it never failed to encourage its players to show their creativity, experiment, and explore the world. At the start of the game, you drop into a procedurally created world, and your task is quite simple—gather resources, build, and survive. Players will have to go out during the day to mine and look for other resources because the game takes a different turn at night. Many enemies e.g., skeletons with bows and creepers who explode, come out at night to give you a challenge.
In the end, the game has gone through many changes since its release, with the developers adding many new things, e.g., new biomes and animals. However, Minecraft’s core remains the same to this day. It strives to give its players the freedom to show their creativity and create anything they want in the game’s world.
1. Valheim
Valheim is a survival sandbox game. A five-member team from the Swedish Developer Iron Gate Studios made this game as a side project. And Coffee Stain Studios released the game in early access on February 2, 2021. The game is still not fully released yet, but that does not take away anything from the gameplay. And it is already considered to be one of the best sandbox games to play in 2025.
You and your friends play as fallen Vikings in the game. Your purpose is to survive, build, and fight. The game allows Co-Op up to ten players, and optional PvP is also included. The open world of Valheim is the highlight of the game. There are many different biomes, and each of them has its resources, enemies, and bosses. Yes, in order to progress in the game, you must gather resources while crafting weapons and gears to fight the boss in each biome. The game has many weapons, tools, building options, and even magic.
It takes inspiration from Scandinavian mythology heavily with its world and enemies as well as the main objective. The combat is also fun and engaging, with blocking and parrying added to the mix. Valheim takes the number one spot in this list for its beautifully crafted world, innovative combat, and stylistic approach. The game is still yet to see a full release, but many would agree that it is one of the best sandbox games you can try in 2025.
Conclusion
That is the end of our list of the best five sandbox games you can try in 2025. We understand that the term “Sandbox Games” defines a huge pool of video games, and it can be really difficult to find something you like. So, we hope that we were successful in simplifying the process for you and that there is a game in this list that caught your attention.
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