Best PC and Steam Crafting Games to Try in 2025: A Roundup
In the realm of PC gaming, survival crafting games continue to captivate players with their engaging mix of challenge, player agency, and immersion. Here's a roundup of some of the best titles that offer a satisfying loop of progression and reward, each with distinctive playstyles and crafting depth.
**Valheim** by Iron Gate Studio, available on PC, Xbox One, and Xbox Series, offers an open-world Viking-themed survival experience, featuring procedural generation, cooperative multiplayer, raft and ship building, exploration, crafting weapons, and settlement building.
**7 Days To Die** by The Fun Pimps, playable on PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series, presents a zombie survival crafting game with a dark atmosphere and high challenge. Players build bases, create traps rather than castles, and engage in team strategy. A major 2024 update improved next-gen console performance.
**Enshrouded** by Keen Games, playable on PC, PS5, and Xbox Series, is a modern survival action-RPG with detailed base-building and crafting, exploration, and a story-driven open world. The game continues to receive frequent updates.
**Planet Crafter** by Miju Games, available on PC, allows players to terraform alien planets, craft items, build settlements, and stabilize ecosystems, supporting up to 10 players cooperating on planet terraforming.
Other notable mentions include **Sons of the Forest**, **Palworld**, **Project Zomboid**, **Don't Starve Together**, **Raft**, **Grounded**, and **Satisfactory**. These games offer a variety of themes, from zombie apocalypse to Viking lore, sci-fi terraforming, fantasy action RPG, and more.
**Satisfactory** by Coffee Stain Studios, available on PC, challenges players to solve logistics issues and find the perfect way to automate their workflow, with the goal of creating gigantic factories.
**Ways of Alchemy**, an upcoming card game by an unnamed developer, combines alchemy, crafting, and survival elements, with added layers of strategy and danger.
**Terraria** offers 4-player local and 16-player online co-op, biome-specific crafting sets, and extensive boss fights leading to fun combat and useful tools.
**Atomfall**, set in an alternate 1950s Britain, requires players to search ruined towns, craft radiation gear, and navigate paranoia and tension in a Cold War setting.
**Rust**, **ARK: Survival Evolved**, and 7 Days to Die stand out for their intricate base-building systems, while **The Forest** has realistic crafting that ties closely into survival gameplay.
**Grounded** is a survival adventure game developed by Obsidian Entertainment, where players are shrunk to insect-size and must craft armor and weapons from debris, while learning their environment and crafting loop.
**The Alters** is a narrative survival game where players manage clones of themselves with unique abilities, while balancing morale systems and emotional consequences.
**Unturned** is a free survival crafting game on Steam with base building, exploration, and multiplayer survival in a blocky environment.
Crafting games remain popular due to their engaging mix of challenge, player agency, and immersion, offering a satisfying loop of progression and reward. Whether you're a seasoned gamer or new to the genre, these top survival crafting games for PC and Steam in 2025 provide hours of entertainment and a unique gaming experience.
In the realm of PC gaming, the immerse and engaging world of survival crafting games is not confined to just the terrain of gameplay, extending to players' home-and-garden lifestyle as they dive into food-and-drink themed adventures, much like the process of cooking a meal. As one embarks on these gaming expeditions, they couldn't help but draw parallels between their virtual crafting in games like Valheim, Enshrouded, and Terraria, and the DIY lifestyle exhibited in home-and-garden television shows, in which player agency and skillful execution are key elements to achieving success in both realms. This fusion of food-and-drink, lifestyle, home-and-garden, and cooking elements brightens the entire gaming experience, adding another level of depth and appeal.
