Imagine Earth similar games & best alternatives

Imagine Earth - Trailer
Imagine Earth - imagine-earth_1.avif
Imagine Earth - imagine-earth_2.avif
Imagine Earth - imagine-earth_3.avif
Imagine Earth - imagine-earth_4.avif
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Imagine Earth - imagine-earth_6.avif

Imagine Earth

Xbox Series X|S, PlayStation 4, Linux, PC (Microsoft Windows), PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch • 2021

Should you play it?

Build your own global colonies on distant worlds. Manage energy and resource supplies and produce goods for space trade. Form economic and diplomatic alliances or take over competing corporations. Conduct research to protect your colonists from disasters and avoid a climate crisis.

What works

  • Unique blend of city building and ecological simulation
  • Frequent developer updates and community engagement
  • Challenging yet accessible gameplay
  • Multiple game modes including campaign and sandbox
  • Engaging environmental and economic balance mechanics

Things to keep in mind

  • Lack of multiplayer or cooperative modes
  • Some ui and control clunkiness reported
  • Graphics and animations could be improved
  • Campaign length and replayability limited
  • Ai can be simplistic and unchallenging

What to play next

Top picks

Games that feels the closest overall

  • Evolution Board Game

  • Creeper World 3: Arc Eternal

  • Offworld Trading Company

  • ENDLESS Legend™

  • Driftland: The Magic Revival

  • Galactic Civilizations III

More violent

Games that feels like Imagine Earth but with more combat and destruction

  • Submarine Titans

  • RimWorld

  • Gladiator Guild Manager

  • Interstellar Space: Genesis

  • Heroes of Science and Fiction

  • Elemental: Reforged

Less competitive

Games that feels like Imagine Earth but with less competition against others

  • IXION

  • The Mims Beginning

  • Before We Leave

  • Synergy

  • Terra Nil

  • DarkSwitch

Less dominating

Games that feels like Imagine Earth but with less domination over others

  • Reus 2

  • Terraformers

  • As Far As The Eye

  • Roots of Yggdrasil

  • Nordhold

  • The Colonists

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 Imagine Earth. 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 Imagine Earth. These titles are not in What to play next.

Imagine Earth: Broadly representative of its motivational profile, with a few distinct shifts. Motivations that often define this kind of title include Competition, Status, Fellowship, Domination. It leans lower than usual among comparable games on Violence, Fellowship, Cooperation.

Last update: 21/08/2026