# Top 26 City Builder Games of All Time

> Traffic jams, frozen winters and demanding emperors all turn up here, with nineties box-art classics facing modern indie survival experiments.

*By YPB Team · Published October 25, 2026 · https://youpick.best/ranking/top-26-city-builder-games-of-all-time*

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## Current results (no votes yet)

1. **Cities: Skylines** — score 1000/1000
   Colossal Order's 2015 city builder that took SimCity's crown with traffic AI and endless Workshop mods.
2. **SimCity 4** — score 680/1000
   Maxis's 2003 regional city sim, still modded and played two decades later.
3. **Anno 2070** — score 647/1000
   The 2011 futuristic Anno that split players between eco and industrial factions, with underwater cities.
4. **Workers & Resources: Soviet Republic** — score 624/1000
   3Division's hardcore Soviet-era republic builder where every brick and worker is simulated.
5. **Zeus: Master of Olympus** — score 624/1000
   Impressions' 2000 Greek city builder with gods, heroes and multi-city colonies.
6. **Anno 1800** — score 560/1000
   Ubisoft Mainz's 2019 industrial-age Anno of production chains, newspapers and the New World.
7. **Anno 1404** — score 560/1000
   Related Designs' 2009 trade-and-build game where Occident and Orient settlements depend on each other.
8. **Foundation** — score 560/1000
   Polymorph Games' grid-free medieval builder where villages grow organically.
9. **Farthest Frontier** — score 485/1000
   Crate Entertainment's frontier town survival builder with crop rotation, disease and raiders.
10. **Islanders** — score 485/1000
   Grizzly Games' 2019 minimalist island builder about placing buildings for points.
11. **Pharaoh** — score 485/1000
   Impressions' 1999 Egyptian city builder of Nile floods, monuments and dynasties.
12. **Timberborn** — score 485/1000
   Mechanistry's beaver colony builder of dams, droughts and vertical wooden cities.
13. **SimCity** — score 397/1000
   Will Wright's 1989 original that turned zoning, traffic and tax rates into a genre of its own.
14. **Kingdoms and Castles** — score 397/1000
   Lion Shield's 2017 cosy castle-town builder with dragons and Viking raids.
15. **SimCity 3000** — score 397/1000
   The 1999 SimCity that brought neighbour deals, waste management and a wall of advisers.
16. **Tropico 4** — score 397/1000
   The 2011 banana-republic builder where El Presidente balances factions, elections and tourists.
17. **Tropico 6** — score 397/1000
   The 2019 Tropico of island archipelagos, bridges and heists on world landmarks.
18. **The Settlers II** — score 397/1000
   Blue Byte's 1996 builder of road networks and production chains, loved for its busy little settlers.
19. **Against the Storm** — score 397/1000
   Eremite Games' 2023 roguelite city builder of short settlements under endless rain.
20. **Banished** — score 397/1000
   Shining Rock's 2014 survival city builder where one bad winter can wipe out a village.
21. **SimCity 2000** — score 291/1000
   Maxis's 1993 sequel that added isometric views, underground pipes and arcologies.
22. **Surviving Mars** — score 291/1000
   Haemimont's 2018 Mars colony builder of domes, drones and life-support crises.
23. **Frostpunk** — score 291/1000
   11 bit studios' 2018 society survival builder around a coal generator in a frozen world.
24. **Manor Lords** — score 291/1000
   Slavic Magic's 2024 medieval builder with organic village layouts, acclaimed in early access.
25. **Frostpunk 2** — score 291/1000
   The 2024 sequel that scales the frozen survival up to a city run by quarrelling factions and a council.
26. **Caesar III** — score 0/1000
   Impressions Games' 1998 Roman city builder of walkers, aqueducts and demanding emperors.

Tags: games, simulation, pc games, city builder