This is free time that could be spent walking in nature, sitting in meditation, appreciating flowers, or spending quality time with loved ones.
The lasting appeal of survival games is simple to understand. Fighting to stay alive is hard-coded into our DNA, so it's easy to see why we'd become engrossed in experiencing it in games. The best survival games on PC push players to their limits, presenting them with tough problems and challenging them to find creative solutions. Beyond just a simple health bar, in survival games players need to manage their well being when it comes to elements like hunger, thirst, extreme temperatures, disease, and other threats. Exploring, gathering resources, crafting tools and gear, building shelters, and hunting, fishing, cooking, and farming are other common features in survival games. And some survival games aren't just about taking care of yourself but guiding a colony or settlement safely through extreme circumstances by managing resources, passing laws, and solving societal problems. In such a popular genre, which games provide the best survival experiences? Below you'll find our favorite examples of simulated survival on PC, whether it's among the stars, deep underground, and in other dangerous environments packed with monsters, mutants, zombies, dinosaurs, or the deadliest enemy of all: other players. Here are the best survival games on PC.