14 sandbox games fans of The Sims 4 should try next
If you love The Sims 4 for its freedom, creativity, and life-slice chaos, these sandbox games offer similar “make your own fun” energy. Whether you enjoy building worlds, shaping stories, or tinkering with systems, these titles give you control without pressure.
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Each one invites you to play at your own pace and craft your own kind of drama, comfort, or creativity.
Cities: Skylines
A city-builder with endless freedom, letting you design detailed urban layouts and watch your choices ripple across your population. It scratches the same “god-mode” itch as The Sims, but on a grand scale.
Planet Zoo
Design habitats, care for animals, and sculpt landscapes in a rich sandbox. It’s perfect for builders who love detail and expressive creativity.
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Animal Crossing: New Horizons
Island life becomes your playground—decorate, design, rearrange, repeat. The cozy, open-ended structure mirrors sandbox storytelling from a softer angle.
Two Point Hospital
Run a quirky hospital filled with cartoonish illnesses and charming chaos. Management is accessible, humorous, and endlessly sandboxy.
House Flipper
Renovate, redesign, and restore homes with total freedom. It delivers the building and decorating side of The Sims without the life-sim stress.
My Time at Portia
A warm, open-ended world where crafting, building, relationships, and exploration blend into a cozy sandbox experience.
Disney Dreamlight Valley
A life-sim adventure where you customize your village, befriend Disney characters, decorate endlessly, and shape your own stories.
Project Zomboid
A bit darker, but one of the deepest sandbox simulations out there. Every system—skills, needs, world events—responds to your choices, offering emergent storytelling similar to Sims chaos.
Terraria
A pixel sandbox with endless building, exploring, and tinkering. It’s less structured and more “do whatever you want,” ideal for players who love open systems.
The Universim
Play as a god guiding a growing civilization, influencing everything from weather to society. It shares the macro-sandbox spirit of shaping lives from above.
Spirittea
Run a spirit bathhouse, build friendships, decorate spaces, and shape routines. It’s cozy, creative, and very sandbox-friendly.
Yonder: The Cloud Catcher Chronicles
A relaxed open-world adventure where crafting, farming, and exploring happen without combat or pressure. It’s a chill, creative sandbox playground.
Kenshi
A sprawling, story-generating sandbox where systems collide to create wild, emergent narratives. For players who enjoy Sims-style chaos taken to an extreme, this one is endlessly replayable.
Avorion
A space-based sandbox where you build your own ships, explore galaxies, and shape economies. Like The Sims 4, it emphasizes player freedom and creativity, letting you experiment, plan, and tell your own emergent stories—only this time in the vastness of space.
