# What is the best survival video game of all time?

> From punching trees in Minecraft to diving into Subnautica's alien oceans, survival games test everything you've got. Which one is the all-time greatest?

*By YPB Team · Published May 1, 2026 · https://youpick.best/ranking/what-is-the-best-survival-video-game-of-all-time*

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## Current results (0 votes)

1. **Minecraft**
   The blueprint for an entire genre: an open-ended sandbox where you craft, build, and survive in procedurally generated worlds that has captivated over 100 million players.
2. **Subnautica**
   An atmospheric underwater survival experience on an alien ocean planet, praised as an unrivalled masterpiece for its hand-crafted world and sense of isolation.
3. **Valheim**
   A 2021 Steam phenomenon set in procedurally generated Norse mythology, combining exquisite building tools with fierce boss encounters and Viking-era exploration.
4. **The Long Dark**
   A haunting first-person wilderness survival set in the frozen Canadian tundra after a geomagnetic disaster, celebrated for its environmental storytelling and brutal realism.
5. **Don't Starve**
   Tim Burton-esque roguelike survival where a scientist named Wilson is thrust into a dark, whimsical wilderness and must outlast starvation, monsters, and his own sanity.
6. **Green Hell**
   An uncompromising Amazon rainforest survival game that tasks players with real-world foraging, wound treatment, and shelter-building to outlast the jungle.
7. **Rust**
   A notoriously brutal multiplayer survival game where players must gather, craft, and build while defending themselves against other players in a ruthless open world.
8. **ARK: Survival Evolved**
   A prehistoric survival epic where players tame and ride over 80 species of dinosaurs and prehistoric creatures while building bases and fighting for dominance.
9. **The Forest**
   A tense horror-survival game where a plane crash survivor must stay alive against a tribe of cannibalistic mutants while unravelling the mystery of a dark island.
10. **Frostpunk**
   A city-builder survival hybrid set in a frozen apocalypse where you govern a coal-heated city, make impossible moral choices, and fight against total societal collapse.
11. **7 Days to Die**
   A zombie survival crafting game blending tower defence mechanics with open-world exploration, where every seventh night brings increasingly overwhelming undead hordes.
12. **Subnautica: Below Zero**
   A standalone sequel exploring Below Zero's icy alien ocean biomes, deepening the atmospheric underwater survival formula of its acclaimed predecessor.
13. **Raft**
   A coop survival adventure where you drift on a tiny ocean raft, hooked debris to expand your platform, and explore mysterious islands while avoiding the circling shark.
14. **This War of Mine**
   A harrowing civilian perspective on survival during a siege, inspired by the Siege of Sarajevo, that forces moral choices rather than celebrating combat.

Tags: games, survival, open world