Cities: Skylines similar games & best alternatives

Cities: Skylines - Trailer
Cities: Skylines - cities-skylines_1.avif
Cities: Skylines - cities-skylines_2.avif
Cities: Skylines - cities-skylines_3.avif
Cities: Skylines - cities-skylines_4.avif
Cities: Skylines - cities-skylines_5.avif
Cities: Skylines - cities-skylines_6.avif

Cities: Skylines

Linux, PC (Microsoft Windows), Mac • 2015

Should you play it?

Cities: Skylines is a modern take on the classic city simulation. The game introduces new game play elements to realize the thrill and hardships of creating and maintaining a real city whilst expanding on some well-established tropes of the city building experience.

What works

  • Extensive mod support and customization
  • Large, expandable maps
  • Deep and realistic city simulation
  • Addictive and long-lasting gameplay
  • Active developer and community engagement

Things to keep in mind

  • Expensive dlcs
  • Traffic management can be frustrating
  • Performance issues with large cities and many mods
  • Lack of multiplayer or cooperative modes
  • No narrative or story mode

What to play next

Top picks

Games that feels the closest overall

  • Airport CEO

  • City Bus Manager

  • SimCity™ 3000 Unlimited

  • Workers & Resources: Soviet Republic

  • Settlement Survival

  • SimCity™ 4 Deluxe Edition

More story-driven

Games that feels like Cities: Skylines but with deeper narrative immersion

  • Pharaoh™: A New Era

  • Thriving City: Song

  • Pharaoh + Cleopatra

  • Pompeii: The Legacy

  • City of Gangsters

  • Citystate

Less leadership-focused

Games that feels like Cities: Skylines but with less leadership over others

  • Highrise City

  • Urbek City Builder: Prologue

  • InfraSpace

  • Urbek City Builder

  • Voxel Tycoon

  • RollerCoaster Tycoon® Classic

Choose your own criteria ->

Similarity map

How to compare these games

Compare nearby games

Each card is a nearby game on the similarity map, compared with Cities: Skylines. Swipe sideways to move between games. Titles already listed in What to play next are left out.

  • Cover and title: open that game’s page.
  • What works / keep in mind: the same highlights as the desktop comparison panel.
  • Bars: the main motivational differences versus this game.
How to use the graph

Similarity map

Each dot is a game placed from its motivation profile relative to this page’s game. Direction shows which motivation differs most; distance along that axis shows how large the gap is.

  • Purple star: this page’s game at the centre — everything is relative to it.
  • Direction: each axis is a main motivational difference vs this game (e.g. more / less competitive).
  • Distance on an axis: how large that difference is (ring scales show +/− points).
  • Coloured chips: click to highlight games that mainly differ on that motivation; click again to reset.
  • Dotted line: link between this page’s game and the one selected for comparison.
  • Hover a dot to preview that game in the panel on the right; click to keep that comparison.
  • Scroll or double-click the chart to zoom.

How to read the map This is a polar difference map: direction = which motivation differs, and distance = how much (same units as the sidebar deltas).

Swipe to compare nearby games with Cities: Skylines. These titles are not in What to play next.

Cities: Skylines: Less representative of its motivational profile, with noticeable differences. Motivations that often define this kind of title include Violence, Fantasy, Thrill, Story. Here, the score leans higher than usual among comparable games on Leadership, Expression, Survival.

Last update: 21/08/2026