What is it about simulation games that draw us in? Most of us would grimace at the thought of working a 12-hour shift at the grocery store, but Supermarket Simulator boasts more than 43,000 positive reviews on Steam. Moving and unpacking is something we’d rather hire professionals to handle for us off-screen, but similarly, Unpacking has more than 29,000 positive reviews.
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Simulation games put us in the driver’s seat of experiences, ranging from the everyday to the imaginary, and it seems like there’s a simulator for everything these days: working at a supermarket, driving a truck, running a zoo, being a professional athlete. With more than 35,000 games categorized under “simulation” on Steam, there’s bound to be one that’s a good match for you.
While these games are organized by average OpenCritic score, this is not meant to say that one game is “better” than another. Because different simulation games appeal to different people, we suggest giving each game on this list equal consideration!
10Gas Station Simulator
Starting a Business from the Ground Up
Release Date:
Sept. 15, 2021
OpenCritic Score:
If you’re reading this and thinking “never have I felt the desire to work at a gas station,” Gas Station Simulator –which currently boasts more than 19,000 positive reviews on Steam– is here to prove you wrong. The premise of this game is exactly what it sounds like: After buying an abandoned gas station in the middle of nowhere, you’re charged with restoring it to its former glory.
You’ll be responsible for cleaning the place up and for keeping the shelves stocked and the fuel tanks filled. For the first half of the game, it’ll also be your job to serve customers inside the gas station as well as outside at the fuel pump. You can hire employees eventually, but remember to account for those paychecks – you won’t have employees for long if you don’t pay them.
9PowerWash Simulator
Cleaning Your Way to Success
July 31, 2025
In this game, it’s just you and your power-washer vs. all the dirt and grime out there waiting for you. As you clean your way through everyone else’s muck, you’ll earn new tools to work with and other upgrades. you’re able to lean back and take your time with cleaning missions in single-player mode or join up with friends in online co-op mode for a “deep cleaning” experience.
Best of all: it’s not just random sheds and playgrounds you’ll be power-washing, though those levels are plenty of fun too. PowerWash Simulator offers 11 total DLC packages, including aWarhammer 40,000 DLC where you’ll power-washimperial vehicles and machinery like the Ultramarines Land Raider and Dark Angels Deathwing Redemptor Dreadnought; anda Back to the Future DLCwhere Doc Brown’s Van and the Time Machine are in need of some cleaning TLC.
8Contraband Police
Papers, Please… With Violence
In Contraband Police,a game reminiscent of 2013’s Papers, Please,you play a border patrol officer working in the fictional region of Karikatka. Your job is relatively straightforward: stop cars trying to pass the border, check papers and search for contraband. Every visitor must have a certain set of valid documents, and as you progress, the number of documents will increase, making it harder to spot errors. You’ll also be equipped with tools like a UV flashlight to check for smuggled goods in a stopped car.
What sets Contraband Police apart from Papers, Please, is that here, sometimes you’ll be forced to chase criminals down in a high-speed car chase or engage in a dangerous shootout.
7House Flipper 2
Now, You Can Be an Architect
Aug 08, 2025
The only thing better than House Flipper, the original home remodeling sim that came out in 2018, is its successor, 2023’s House Flipper 2. While both games share the same concept, House Flipper 2 brings quality-of-life improvements to a familiar old toolkit: the hammer, paint roller and mop. There are new tools to unlock, including a terrain sculpting tool to make basement or a wiring tool to connect lights to switches.
Best of all is the new game mode introduced in House Flipper 2. In sandbox mode, you can construct houses from the ground up and make them uniquely your own. The developer, Frozen District, is also currently play-testing a co-op mode.You can request access to co-op testing on the game’s Steam page, where the developers also regularly post updates.
6F1 Manager 24
August 25, 2025
In F1 Manager 24, you are in the driver’s seat of a Formula 1 team as they prepare for and compete in a new season. you may build and manage your team, using one of 10 official F1 teams or, for the first time in F1 gaming history, create your own team – from your logo to your racing suits.
Here, decisions matter both on and off the track. F1 Manager 24 brings a new “mentality system,” where you can manage the needs of your staff and drivers throughout the season. A personal situation indicator will tell you if someone is feeling “negative” or “pessimistic,” and since this can improve their performance on the track, you’ll want to handle that before race day – and before rival teams try to poach any of your unhappy drivers.
5Planet Zoo
Live Out Your Biggest Biologist Dreams
Aug 21, 2025
For those of us that spent many a day in grade school playing Zoo Tycoon, Frontier Development’s modern take on the zoo sim – Planet Zoo – is everything we hoped for after the days our game CDs stopped working. The premise is the same: you’re tasked with building a zoo, which means you’ll have to construct appropriate habitats for different animals. Each animal has its own “happiness chart” and you’ll have to ensure your animals stay happy and healthy, all while making sure that your zoo is attracting visitors and bringing in a profit.
Review: Planet Zoo
While there are myriad rough edges that need to be sanded down in the upcoming weeks and months, Planet Zoo is the superior version of Zoo Tycoon.
The graphics are, of course, infinitely better than its predecessor, and Planet Zoo is a much more immersive sim overall, with 72 unique animals available in the base game and a total of 180 animals through DLC (19 packages in total), ranging from crepuscular to oceanic species.
4Crime Scene Cleaner
Nothing to See Here… (By The Time You’re Done)
Aug 04, 2025
N/A (at the time of this article)
For true crime and horror fanatics out there, there’s a simulation game for you too. Crime Scene Cleaner is a new player in the simulation game universe, and despite being released only a few weeks ago, it’s already garnered more than 3,000 positive reviews on Steam. In Crime Scene Cleaner, you play an average guy who also works as a janitor (did we mention that you work for the mob, cleaning up crime scene after crime scene?)
You might not be the bad guy here, but youarethe guy who has to get his hands dirty cleaning up blood and other evidence. If you’re squeamish, you may toggle the intensity of the blood effect, and tone it down into a “safe mode,” but keep in mind that you’re still dealing with cleaning crime scenes, and that means dead bodies, blood and acts of violence. Proceed with caution.
3Supermarket Simulator
Stock Shelves, Attract Customers, Profit
Jun 10, 2025
OK, maybe the grimy and dirty world of running a gas station isn’t for you…maybe working in a grocery store sounds a little more hygenic and more air-conditioned. Enter Supermarket Simulator, released earlier this year, a game where you go through the ins-and-outs of owning and running your own supermarket. Design your store, stock shelves with products and create a shopping experience that keeps customers coming back.
This game is still in early access, but the developers have been keeping things fresh. The most recent update (at the time of this article) on August 20 brought new customization options for inside and outside your store and a long-awaited self-checkout scanner.
2Unpacking
It’s Up To You to Make This House ‘Home’
Jun 11, 2025
There’s something so soothing about taking an empty room with a pile of boxes and organizing that room to your heart’s content. In fact, what may be the greatest appeal of Unpacking is that it’s so easy to spend hours putting away every little trinket in this fictional character’s house that you’ll forget packing is on your real-life to-do list.
Review: Unpacking
Unpacking is a delightful and charming puzzle game, one that perfectly takes a chore such as moving.
Unpacking is half puzzle solver, half home decorator. Over the course of eight house moves, you’ll decorate bedrooms, living spaces, kitchens and bathrooms, filling every cabinet and shelf to your liking. Although there’s not much of a storyline here, you’ll see that with each house move, items get left behind or change altogether as the character grows up. But enough of the sappy talk about growing older: Unpacking is, at its heart, a relaxing zen game. There are no timers on the “levels” here, so you may really take your time and decide what makes each room perfect for you.
1Potion Craft: Alchemist Simulator
A Hard, Medieval Day’s Work
Jul 06, 2025
If playing your fair share of fantasy RPGs and MMOs has ever left you wondering about the ins-and-outs of potion-making, then Potion Craft might be for you. This game is visually unique, with everything you see inspired by medieval manuscripts and books. As a fledgling alchemist, you learn the ropes while going through the motions of creating potions, from gathering the ingredients to the brewing process and finally, bottling.
Basic potions aren’t so hard, but those won’t keep the townspeople content forever. Through the in-game Alchemy Map, you’re able to combine different powers and effects to create newer and stronger potions. There’s freedom in customizing your potions: you can change the bottle shape, label, icon and colors to make certain potions stand out in your shop. And remember, with great (alchemist) power comes great (alchemist) responsibility.
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