Simulation games let you live out entirely different lives, from running cozy shops to managing chaos at every scale. In this list, you’ll find some of the best simulation games, whether you want to relax, optimize systems, roleplay wildly, or completely lose track of time.
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Schedule 1
If you ever wanted to live out your own Breaking Bad fantasy in a game, Schedule 1 lets you do just that, with total freedom. You arrive in the grimy city of Hyland Point with nothing to your name, then slowly build a full-blown drug empire from the ground up. You manufacture various products, each with its own production process, experiment with special recipes, and ensure your supply reaches customers across the city.
You can walk, skate, or drive deliveries yourself, or hire dealers to do the dirty work. The gameplay loop is incredibly smooth and addictive. The tutorials are quick and intuitive, so you spend more time playing and less time stuck in menus. As your operation grows, you buy properties, hire employees, and automate production while dealing with law enforcement and rival cartels. It’s easy to get into, hard to put down, and perfect for long sessions where hours quietly slip by.
Supermarket Simulator
Running a supermarket sounds simple until you’re the one juggling everything at once. In Supermarket Simulator, you build your store from the ground up, stocking shelves, setting prices, paying staff, and keeping customers happy. You order goods through an in-game computer, unpack boxes, organize storage, and decide exactly where each product goes. At the checkout, you scan items yourself and handle cash and card payments, making even quiet moments feel hands-on.
What really makes this game shine is how much you can manage at once. You might be delivering online orders, restocking fridges, cleaning the floor, and watching out for shoplifters all in one game day. There’s a great sense of pacing, too. Early progress is quick, then you hit that satisfying phase where you plan growth, weigh loans, vehicles, and innovative buying strategies. If you enjoy chill simulation games that reward multitasking and experimentation, this is a great pick.
F1 Manager 2024
F1 Manager 2024 puts you right on the pit wall and finally lets you feel what it’s like to run a modern Formula 1 team. You’re not just calling pit stops. You’re managing drivers, staff, car development, facilities, and long-term strategy across multiple seasons. Race days are tense and dramatic as you react to weather, mechanical failures, and rivals’ mistakes while watching everything unfold in broadcast-quality races.
For the first time, you can build your own team and shape every detail, from branding to engine suppliers and affiliate drivers. The new Mentality System gives your staff and drivers real personality, making morale and management style genuinely matter. Reliability issues force a smarter strategy, and season customization keeps long saves feeling fresh. This is easily the most complete F1 management sim yet. It delivers deep systems, long-term planning, and the celebration of that first hard-earned win.
Disney Dreamlight Valley
Disney Dreamlight Valley is the kind of simulation game you can sink into for hundreds of hours without noticing time pass. You step into a once-magical world overrun by the Forgetting, and it’s up to you to restore the Valley, unlock new areas, and bring Disney and Pixar characters back together. You farm, fish, cook, craft, decorate, and explore while slowly uncovering a surprisingly heartfelt main story.
You can focus on quests and character stories, or simply turn your brain off and garden with WALL•E or fish with Goofy. The Valley is fully customizable, letting you design neighborhoods, landscapes, outfits, and even custom patterns. Regular updates, events, and the DreamSnaps photo challenges give you a reason to return without requiring daily logins. It strikes the perfect balance between cozy and engaging. Whether you want structure or pure relaxation, this game lets you play entirely at your own pace.
RimWorld
The colony simulation RimWorld is a full-on story generator where everything that goes right or wrong becomes part of your colony’s legend. You start with a handful of crash-landed survivors on a hostile planet and try to keep them alive while managing moods, injuries, relationships, food, shelter, and constant disasters. Every colonist feels like a real person, with backgrounds that shape what they can and can’t do and personalities that clash in messy, very human ways.
One standout feature is the AI storyteller. Instead of scripted missions, the game throws events at you like a twisted dungeon master. Pirate raids, heat waves, mental breakdowns, and unexpected visitors all shape your run. No two colonies ever play out the same. Add biomes, deep systems, and a massive modding scene, and the replayability is endless. You can roleplay almost anything, from peaceful farmers to unhinged cannibal vampires. RimWorld thrives on chaos, creativity, and unforgettable stories you’ll be talking about long after your colony burns down.
theHunter: Call of the Wild
theHunter: Call of the Wild is a simulation game built on patience, immersion, and respect for nature. You’re dropped into vast open-world reserves and given the freedom to explore at your own pace. There are no flashing objectives pushing you forward. Instead, you track animals by their footprints, sounds, and disturbed foliage, while paying close attention to wind direction, time of day, and weather. Every decision matters, and rushing almost always leads to failure.
The environments are stunning, with realistic lighting, dynamic weather, and ambient sounds that make each reserve feel alive. Animals behave naturally, react to your presence, and require the right equipment and approach to hunt successfully. When a plan finally comes together, the payoff is incredibly rewarding. Progression is steady, new gear unlocks over time, and regular updates keep things fresh. If you enjoy immersive worlds and methodical gameplay, this is an easy recommendation.
TCG Card Shop Simulator
TCG Card Shop Simulator lets you live out the dream of running your own local game store, and it absolutely nails that cozy chaos. You stock shelves with booster packs, set prices, watch trends, and decide whether to sell sealed products or rip packs yourself, chasing that one absurdly valuable card. Every choice feels personal, especially when you are torn between profit and finishing your own collection.
What makes this game so fun is the freedom. You design your shop layout, host card game events, keep the place clean, hire staff, and eventually automate the boring parts so you can focus on what you enjoy most. Trends shift randomly, so you’re constantly adjusting inventory and strategy. Progression feels great, with new card sets, upgrades, and expansions unlocking as you level up. Add in active development, regular updates, a surprisingly deep card grading system, and a huge modding scene, and it becomes dangerously addictive.
Two Point Museum
Have you always wanted to run your own museum? Two Point Museum lets you step into the role of a curator and turns museum management into something genuinely fun and funny. You design your own museums, send experts on wild expeditions to uncover rare artifacts, and proudly display their finds to impress a steady stream of guests. At the same time, you’re juggling staff happiness, exhibit maintenance, security, and the eternal struggle to keep children away from priceless displays.
Every museum has a unique theme with its own mechanics, ranging from dinosaurs and fantasy adventures to spooky exhibits and alien chaos. You have plenty of creative freedom in layout and decoration, and guided tours add another layer of strategy to maximize buzz and donations. The background commentary, radio shows, and announcements are consistently hilarious and never get old. Two Point Museum strikes a perfect balance between depth and accessibility. Progression feels rewarding, variety remains high, and it’s easy to lose hours building the perfect museum.
PowerWash Simulator
PowerWash Simulator turns one of the most mundane jobs imaginable into one of the most relaxing simulation games you can play. You grab a power washer, point it at something filthy, and slowly erase every last bit of grime, while satisfying sound design and clean visual feedback do the heavy lifting. There is no rush, no fail state, and no pressure. Just you, water, and dirt that desperately needs to be gone.
What makes it so addictive is how calm it feels. You can build a small power-wash business in Career Mode, replay jobs in Free Play, or team up with friends to clean together in co-op. Every surface reacts differently, so choosing the correct nozzle and angle matters, but never in a stressful way. It’s the kind of game you can play while watching a video or winding down before bed. It’s pure, brain-off satisfaction, and it works incredibly well.
Oxygen Not Included
In Oxygen Not Included, you’re managing a group of tiny duplicants trapped inside an asteroid, and the real enemies are oxygen shortages, plumbing failures, rising temperatures, and your own bad decisions. Every system matters. Airflow, power, water, heat, food, and waste are all interconnected, and ignoring any of them will absolutely come back to haunt you.
The system feels astonishingly real. Gases move and settle, liquids flow where you least expect, and heat spreads through your base like a slow disaster. Small mistakes snowball into complete colony meltdowns, but that’s also where the fun lives. When you finally stabilize oxygen, automate power, or stop your farms from cooking themselves, it feels genuinely earned. The game isn’t chill, but if you love problem-solving, optimization, and learning from failure, it will hook you hard.
Euro Truck Simulator 2
Euro Truck Simulator 2 is one of those simulation games that sneaks up on you. You load it up thinking it’s about driving trucks, then realize it’s really about the vibe. The low engine rumble, the click of the indicators, rain streaking across the windshield, and surprisingly great radio stations turn long hauls into something almost meditative.
You deliver cargo across dozens of European cities, follow traffic laws, refuel, rest, and slowly build your own trucking company. The progression feels exciting and satisfying. One delivery can lead to buying a better truck, upgrading the garage, hiring drivers, and expanding across the map. Hours pass without you noticing. Despite its age, the game still feels alive thanks to constant updates and an incredibly dedicated modding community. As a simulation game, Euro Truck Simulator 2 remains an all-time great.
Tiny Bookshop
The cozy management sim Tiny Bookshop feels like taking a deep breath after a long day. You leave everything behind to run a small second-hand bookshop by the sea, setting up shop in scenic spots around the charming town of Bookstonbury. Your days are spent stocking shelves, decorating your tiny space, and recommending the right book to the right person while slowly getting to know the locals.
Every decoration changes your shop’s vibe and even influences how customers behave, whether you go all in on plants, maritime charm, or spooky candlelit corners. Recommending books is more than a menu choice. You’re matching tastes, nudging readers out of their comfort zones, and sometimes discovering books you want to read yourself. The art style is soft and beautiful, the music is calming, and the storylines gently pull you in. It’s low-stress, thoughtful, and wonderfully cozy.
Goat Simulator 3
In Goat Simulator 3, you play as Pilgor the goat, dropped into a vast open world with one simple goal: cause as much chaos as possible. You lick things, headbutt people into the sky, break physics regularly, and generally turn the island of San Angora into your personal disaster zone. There is no correct way to play, and that’s exactly the point.
It’s unapologetically stupid. You can play solo or bring friends for co-op to multiply the chaos, compete in mini-games, or just ruin friendships. There are tons of goats, ridiculous outfits, wild abilities, secrets, and events to discover, and the game keeps adding more through updates. Goat Simulator 3 works because it refuses to take itself seriously. It’s pure nonsense, endlessly replayable, and surprisingly comforting. When you want to turn your brain off and laugh at something completely unhinged, this game delivers every time.
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