The 10 Best Sandbox Video Games (Updated 2022)

1. Minecraft

If you enjoy the freedom of building, exploring, and creating in the best sandbox video games, you can’t overlook the critically acclaimed game frequently cited as the most popular video game of all time — Minecraft by Mojang. Not only is Minecraft available on nearly every gaming platform, but it’s also been a teacher-approved favorite for kids and teens since its initial release in 2011.

Minecraft invites open exploration and creation at will with an infinite world that generates as the player moves, making the game addictively absorbing. Minecraft’s signature look includes blocky graphics since the bedrock of the world consists of blocks of resources for building including dirt, ore, copper, wood, stone, and lava. The graphics feature a purposely pixilated appearance as part of Minecraft’s fan-favorite branding. Despite Minecraft’s updates and improvements over the years, the game remains true to its beloved brand, avoiding changes to the visual appearance of the game’s various biomes, including mountains, plains, caves, and forests. Minecraft has a distinctive look enjoyed by Minecraft gamers old and new.

Minecraft is a sandbox gamer’s wonderland with limitless opportunities for building everything from homes and storage rooms to cities, floating bases, bridges, and Nether portals. You can also craft forts, strongholds, tools, weapons, and helpful items for survival when playing the game in survival mode. The opportunities for building, crafting, and creating are literally endless.

Minecraft is one of the best sandbox video games for children, teens, and adults, with its addictive gameplay, campy graphics, and creative appeal.

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• An adventuresome game with the freedom to create and stock structures and villages
• Players use a pickaxe to mine blocks of different materials and use them to craft tools and weapons and build structures
• Choose the creative mode to explore, craft, and develop at will, or choose survival mode to create and stock buildings while avoiding attacks from clever and dangerous mobs
• create and stock buildings while avoiding attacks from clever and dangerous mobs

• Publisher: Mojang
• Genre: Sandbox
• Platform: Cross-platform
• Rating: E

2. The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild

One of the most captivating open worlds filled with sandbox-style options for creativity is The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. It’s one of the best sandbox video games of all time and also a best seller with over 28 million games sold.

Players improve Link’s stamina and hone the character’s skills while battling the weather and altitudes in the Kingdom of Hyrule. This game’s unique non-linear quest structure makes it a sandbox game more than worth hours of exploration.

Breath of the Wild combines action and adventure with sandbox creativity and open-world exploration. Players battle the elements as Link, a fan-favorite character who returns to Hyrule after a 100-year sleep — one that robbed him of his memory. Link’s task is to save Hyrule and restore peace by ridding the kingdom of Calamity Ganon.

Players hunt wild beasts and solve puzzles to earn special items and rewards. Enticing side quests, compelling storylines, and exhilarating scenery offer many hours of entertainment while players explore a huge variety of terrains from snowy mountains to sheltered garden nooks. Glide across lakes and gorges on a paraglider, or use it to avoid the monsters that spring from the ground while collecting useful plants and other items to protect Link from his most powerful enemy — the random weather events such as lightning and rain as well as other nature’s constant onslaught makes the kingdom of Hyrule more like a character in the game than a landscape.

This is one of the best sandbox video games of all time to enjoy as fan-favorite Link, in the most recent installment of the Legend of Zelda series.

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• 2017 installment of the Legend of Zelda franchise
• Open-ended gameplay in an enthralling open world
• Innovative gameplay with creative freedom and a vast landscape
• Enjoy complex puzzles, hidden treasure, legenday landmarks, and mysteries waiting to be solved

• Publisher: Nintendo
• Genre: Action-Adventure
• Mode: Single Player
• Platform: Nintendo Switch
• Rating: Everyone 10+

3. Stardew Valley

If you play the best sandbox video games because you enjoy the freedom of open creativity and relaxed gaming, you’ll love Stardew Valley. With easy gameplay, dreamy music, and simple but colorful graphics, this game grabs your attention and doesn’t let you go for hours. Developed as a better alternative to the Harvest Moon series, Stardew Valley takes the other game’s simple farming premise to a higher level by letting gamers improve their farming skills over time.

When they enter the magical land of Stardew Valley, players learn they’ve inherited a dilapidated old farm from their grandfather in the mystical country town of Startdew Valley. There the country life awaits like an oasis, and players enjoy mellow music that changes with the seasons as they plant, farm, forage, feed livestock, mine for materials, and craft farming vehicles to make the warm, welcoming country life on the farm easier and more idyllic. 

Whether you’re harvesting pumpkins in the fall or hiding eggs for village children at Easter, the world of planting, growing, tending, and harvesting offers a refreshing escape. But because no world — even a fictional one — can exist completely without conflict, the new owner of the farm in Stardew Valley must decide whether they should help rebuild the community as well as the farm, or support a takeover by the corporate Joja Mart. During the decision-making, players learn about the dreams, goals, challenges, and passions of the many fascinating characters living in Stardew Valley, and may even discover true love…

This is one of the best sandbox video games for sheer escapism, with simple, effective graphics and gameplay that’s entirely satisfying and offers endless rewards every time you enter the captivating world of Stardew Valley.

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• Sandbox, role-playing, simulation video game with open-ended play
• Grow crops, raise livestock, forage, cook, and visit with townspeople in this relaxing world
• Ultimate sandbox game with crafting, cooking, fishing, and interacting with NPCs while restarting an inherited farm
• Replenish health and energy by growing and preparing food

• Publisher: ConcernedApe
• Genre: Sandbox, Simulation, Role-playing
• Mode: Single-Player, multiplayer
• Platform: Windows-PC, PlayStation, Xbox, Nintendo Switch, iOS, Linux, Android
• Rating: E-Everyone

4. Witcher 3: Wild Hunt

The best sandbox video games have open worlds to explore with time for interacting with non-player characters and collecting and customizing inventory to change the outcome of the game. Players find action, roleplaying, creativity, customization, and much more in The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt. While not a block, tile, or resource-based game of construction, The Witcher 3 allows many game-changing choices that impact the lives of characters within the game as well as the landscape of the troubled continent itself.

Released in 2015, The Witcher 3 remains a fan favorite action-adventure-role-playing video game that’s also a legendary sandbox gamer’s paradise. Players enter the Witcher world as Geralt of Rivia, a witcher who uses his otherworldly powers as well as customizable weapons to drop terrifying monsters while scouring the immense open world of the continent in search of the Child of Prophecy needed to save the world.

Not only is The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt one of the most action-packed and enthralling games with a stunningly beautiful open world filled with fascinating side quests, but it’s also a sandbox game with ripples of cause and effect action with every action and decision changing the story’s outcome and the destiny of Geralt the Witcher.

Explore caves, ruins, shipwrecks, mountains, and cities while engaging in combat and battles. This is an addictively immersive gaming experience and one of the best sandbox video games with an unforgettable storyline and memorable characters.

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• Third title in The Witcher series with endless open world exploration
• Role-playing action and adventure game with a third-person perspective
• Explore, locate items, add to an arsenal, and take out powerful enemies
• Customize armor, upgrade your weapons, and enjoy card games, horse races, and NPCs

• Publisher: CD Projekt
• Genre: Action, role-playing, sandbox
• Mode: Single-player
• Platform: Windows-PC, PlayStation, Xbox, Nintendo Switch
• Rating: M-Mature

5. The Sims 4

Who says we only have one life? Thanks to one of today’s best sandbox video games, anyone can enjoy living a second life during their off-hours — and one in which they look exactly the way they want and enjoy exciting careers and relationships. The Sims 4 is the latest in the popular Sims franchise and allows any gamer to unleash their imagination with an alternate life inside the world of The Sims, a completely customizable game of life available on most gaming platforms.

With the Sims 4 game, you can customize your alternate self with powerful personalization features to choose everything from hair color and facial appearance, to body size, shape, and walking style. Choose the perfect personality traits to bring your unique Sims to life with characteristics of your choice, from a studious workaholic to an outrageous, life-of-the-party socialite. Change your Sims’ outfits to reflect the mood of the moment and develop life stories and experiences for your Sim, including choosing and decorating a home, finding a career, making friends, and flirting and dating until you find your ideal significant other. And then you can choose to have your Sims character start a family or focus on a career or party lifestyle.

With many Sims 4 expansion packs available, you can add new layers to your Sims’ life, such as pets, vacations, gardens, hobbies, and much, much more. The possibilities are nearly endless.

The Sims 4 is one of the best sandbox games for self-expression, with customizable characters now including more nuanced personalities with an improved emotions system to add richness to all your Sims’ interactions.

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• Customize and personalize an avatar in a simulated world
• Build the perfect home, choose furnishings, and design landscapes
• Enjoy living an alternate life with your choice in career, friends, and mate
• Play with your Sims’ life, relationship, and career with personalized appearance, personality, emotions, and goals

• Publisher: Electronic Arts
• Genre: Life Simulation
• Mode: Single Player
• Platform: PS4, Xbox One
• Rating: Teen

6. Terraria

If you love action-adventure games but often wish your favorites had more opportunity for sandbox-style creativity, or you enjoy sandbox games like Minecraft for building complex structures, you’ve found one of the best sandbox games to deliver everything you’ve wanted in one game. Terraria is a 2D platform game with a vast open world that’s ripe for exploration. It’s also a combat-heavy action and adventure game with exciting boss battles and challenging goals.

In Terraria, players customize their character and select a name. Then they choose a difficulty level based mainly on terrain size. Beginning with just a few basic tools, players begin crafting items from wood, dirt, gravel, and rock. Gathering resources is a must, and that means exploring forests, caves, and waterways to dig for materials and find critical items. But while you’re busy trying to build a livable world, you’re also busy defending yourself through mortal combat against bosses who get in your way.

With a massive amount of content, an immense map, and vast supplies of building materials and items to gather, Terraria is one of the best sandbox games of all time with a dedicated community of gamers and over 12 million copies sold.

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• 2D sandbox game for exploration, building, mining, crafting and surviving in single or multiplayer mode
• Start out in the procedurally generated game world with basic tools and then enjoy adventure, action, and combat as you construct a city
• Find tile-based building resources found through excavating and spelunking and complete recipes for building
• Thrilling combat with many bosses

• Publisher: 505 Games/ Re-Logic
• Genre: Sandbox, Action-Adventure
• Mode: Single-player, multiplayer
• Platform: Windows-PC, PlayStation, Xbox, Wii, Nintendo Switch
• Rating: T-Teen

7. Don’t Starve

If you want to enjoy the thrill of a fight for survival — but from the comfort of your couch — one of the best sandbox video games where the odds are rarely in your favor is Don’t Starve. Far more than a simple sandbox game of finding resources and building structures, Don’t Starve offers a chance to explore complex, randomly generated worlds as you hunt, build, craft, farm, and fight for survival. Players must keep Wilson alive, fed, and emotionally stable despite dangerous predatory creatures and a world that’s out to get him — literally!

Don’t Starve is an addictive game that invites you in to stay awhile, with many hours spent gathering resources, mining, farming, building, and fortifying a home base, all while fighting the elements through four seasons and combatting frequent onslaughts of unstoppable beasts and supernatural creatures. Plus, you can stretch your creative wings with ample opportunity to build, develop, and create as you set goals beyond simply staying alive, including keeping your sanity meter fully stocked.

Don’t Starve is not only a fun game of survival, creation, research, and development, but it’s also a treat for the eyes with award-winning 2D artwork described as dark, whimsical, and haunting.

This is one of the best survival games offered in a Megapack, with two full games and two expansion packs to add new layers of detail to your game. Play the game alone with the original Don’t Starve, or with a friend in Don’t Starve Together with a split-screen co-op mode. Plus, enjoy the Reign of Giants and Shipwrecked expansion packs for many hours of gaming.

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• Mega Pack includes two complete games and two expansion packs
• Players begin in the wilderness with nothing and must hunt, craft, and build in order to survive
• With randomly generated new worlds for limitless gaming
• Play alone or with split-screen local co-op

• Publisher: Klei Entertainment
• Genre: Survival, Sandbox
• Mode: Single-player, multiplayer
• Platform: Windows-PC, Playstation, Wii U, Xbox, Nintendo Switch, iOS, Android
• Rating: PEGI-12

8. The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim

One of the best sandbox video games for action-packed role-playing and enthralling adventure in a spectacular open world map is The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. The fifth installment in the Elder Scrolls series, this game invites players to roam freely across the mythical land of Skyrim with many hours of non-essential content to explore, manipulate, and interact with for as long as they wish. With mountains, caves, villages, forts, and miles of wilderness, there’s something worth exploring over every horizon in all directions. 

Not only does this game offer stunning graphics and immersive details, but players can also choose to play in first or third-person perspective.

The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim welcomes players into an ancient world where dragons still soar overhead and magic rules the kingdom. Players level up by gaining experience and skills in the arenas of combat, stealth, and magical powers. The game also offers fascinating sandbox-style fun in character customization with plentiful options to personalize appearance including sex, race, and fantasy creatures including elves and orcs. Customizable features and intricately detailed clothing and armor make character creating a big part of the game’s appeal — but that’s just the beginning. 

The compelling storyline, thrilling side quests, and fascinating creatures and characters make this one of the best sandbox video games not only for open-world exploration and interaction but also for the gameplay content. In the legendary land of Skyrim, the player escapes execution during the melee following a dragon attack, only to learn that they are Dragonborn, and must defeat Alduin, a Nordic God planning the destruction of Skyrim.

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• Single-player role-playing game with open-world sandbox features in many hours of non-essential content
• 5th and most popular installment in the Elder Scrolls series
• Diverse open world gaming and extensive options for character customization
• Escape the chopping block during a dragon attack in the ancient mythological world of Skyrim and embark on an epic adventure

• Publisher: Bethesda Softworks
• Genre: Action, Role-Playing, Sandbox
• Platform: Microsoft-PC, Playstation, Xbox, Nintendo Switch
• Rating: M

9. Astroneer

Astroneer is one of the best sandbox video games you can play for the sheer love of crafting, base-building, and exploration in a game with little plot and only casual survival elements. Instead of complex storylines, quests, and combat, 7 unique planets await exploration, development, and settlement, and you — as the astroneer — use a special terrain tool to gather resources, reshape the landscapes on each planet, and increase an inventory to craft items.

In Astroneer, you’ll play from the third-person perspective to perform terraforming on each of seven planets, increasing in difficulty as you level up. 

While carefully conserving oxygen, you’ll navigate planets, first on foot, and later in crafted vehicles suitable to the terrain type. Use mined materials to build storage shelters, research centers, and soil refineries as well as your main base. Establish oxygen and power sources to further your ability to explore and collect items and resources. You’ll research various ores and print tools for refining raw materials — but remember, the larger you build your home base, the more complex the power structures become.

This is one of the best sandbox games to enjoy without combat, violence, or dangerous, night-stalking creatures. Instead, you’ll find dreamy, otherworldly graphics, soothing landscapes, calm music, and time to put your most creative energy to work as you explore one planet after another as an astroneer in this spectacular alternate universe.

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• Sandbox adventure game for hours of creative fun gathering resources, reshaping landscapes, terraforming open world planets, and crafting items and structures
• Connect components and objects to craft vehicles and build bases for planetary exploration
• Seven planets, each with unique looks and procedurally generated landscapes to explore
• Expand a homestead by adding new structures, vehicles and equipment as you learn to survive on each planet

• Publisher: System Era Softworks
• Genre: Sandbox, Adventure
• Mode: Single-player, Multiplayer
• Platform: Windows-PC, Xbox, PlayStation, Nintendo Switch
• Rating: E-Everyone

10. Subnautica + Subnautica: Below Zero Double Pack

Enjoy the mysterious underwater world of planet 4546b after a spectacular crash landing through two of the best sandbox video games available today. This dual pack deal includes both the original Subnautica game and Subnautica: Below Zero, set a year after the original. Both games offer rich opportunities for building, crafting, and gathering resources as well as for open-world exploration in both aquatic and terrain biomes in a strange, far-away world.

Survival is the name of the game as you explore luminous underwater worlds to gather the resources needed to make repairs and craft gear to extend the life expectancy of the wrecked escape pod deep below the waves in an inhospitable ocean, all while maintaining your health. But the serene, glowing beauty of the underwater world hides monstrous lurking creatures truly worthy of your worst nightmares.

Besides the sheer sandbox fun of exploration, resource gathering, and equipment building, the radio in the escape pod slowly reveals truths about the underwater world and your new place in it.

When you’ve had your fill of exploring the world of Subnautica and all of its mysteries and side-quests, move on to Subnautica: Below Zero and explore the same aquatic planet during the harsh, frozen winter as more truths reveal themselves about the hostile planet.

These are the best sandbox video games for multiple mode options. Choose the creative mode to craft away at will, or survival mode with respawning capability, or choose the hardcore mode with permadeath resulting in a deleted save file — if you dare.

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• Survival isn’t easy as the lone survivor trapped on an aquatic planet known as 4546B
• Explore an alien ocean world in survival, creative, freedom, or hardcore modes
• Two-game package including Subnautica, and Subnautica: Below Zero, a new adventure set a year later
• Survive and complete your objectives by collecting raw materials, crafting equipment, and building bases and submersible vehicles

• Publisher: Unknown Worlds
• Genre: Sandbox, Survival, Action-Adventure
• Mode: Single-player
• Platform: Windows-PC, Xbox, PlayStation, Nintendo Switch, MacOS
• Rating: PEGI-12