As Steam continues to become the gravitational hub for online gamers everywhere in 2023, it's worth keeping a pulse on which games continue to top the popularity charts. In of city-building simulation games, many fresh, genre-pushing titles have risen to rival such all-time beloved classic titans as Civilization, and others, giving plenty of options for every type of metropolitan visionary.
From tropical jungles and medieval ruins to urban landscapes and distant planets in galaxies far beyond, the most impressive city-building games on Steam feature excellent gameplay and unforgettable environments at once, allowing unlimited options to create the most jaw-dropping worlds on record.
10 Northgard
While Game of Thrones: Winter is Coming is a decent recommendation, those who want the fully immersive medieval Viking experience ought to try Northgard, a beautifully rendered and highly-acclaimed real-time strategy game built around Norse mythology that prioritizes city-building as a way to fortify an army, control an army, and protect the settlements at all costs.
Boasting a 9/10 Steam rating for its engaging RTS mechanics, gorgeous graphics, and balance of strategy and simulation gameplay, many favorably compare the game to The Settlers for the way it challenges players to work together in multiplayer teams and for its high replay value. Alas, the game has been criticized for its dull one-note story, leaving much to be desired on the narrative level.
9 Anno 1800
For gamers who always wished they could be a trailblazing architect during the Industrial Revolution, Anno 1800 is the place to be. The acclaimed RTS sim game tasks players with growing their company empire by bartering, farming, and moving from rural outposts to sprawling metropolitan landscapes bustling with economic opportunity.
Unlike its contemporary rivals, Anno 1800 forces players to invent and innovate with the limited resources of the Industrial Age, ultimately erecting a tourist-attracting cityscape replete with investors, rival builders, newspaper circulation, and more. Hailed for its addictive gameplay loop, historical intrigue, and unique period-based challenges, Anno 1800 even garnered a 9/10 rating from Screen Rant when it came out in 2019.
8 Tropico 6
The most recent installment in the mega-popular franchise, Tropico 6 currently boasts a 9/10 Steam rating, with many echoing how big, bold, beautiful, and highly replayable the city-building sim is. Players work tirelessly to mount a thriving island utopia as a peaceful politician or an oppressive tyrant ruling its citizens, adding sociopolitical intrigue to the story most feel is an improvement to the previous iteration.
With new gameplay elements such as building bridges, managing archipelagoes, using transportation to bolster infrastructure, and stealing landmarks from rival architects, Tropico 6 also tasks players with dealing with the consequences of political elections directly relating to how effectively their city has been constructed. While the stakes have been raised dramatically, Tropico 6 hasn't the emotional heft of the more consequential city builders on Steam.
7 Concrete Jungle
For those who favor using card decks to build cities, Concrete Jungle is hard to beat. Players act as city planners who place buildings using cards in the deck while new ones are earned as the game advances. The unique deckbuilding city-planner sim has drawn stellar Steam ratings (9/10), for its addictive, lightning-quick rounds of play and extremely navigable interface for experts and beginners alike.
Also praised for its fresh characters, engaging story, and for being a clear upgrade over its predecessor MegaCity, Concrete Jungle separates itself through its unique puzzle-like approach that challenges players to plan first, build second, and strategically maintain their cityscape for long-term success. While Concrete Jungle is a wonderful blend of different genres, it's best reserved for deckbuilding enthusiasts and cerebral puzzle solvers rather than straight-up city builders.
6 SimCity 4 Deluxe Edition
It's hard to compile a city-building litany without including the almighty Sims franchise, the industry leader for quite some time. And while SimCity 5 is not available on Steam, the next best option includes its ultra-popular predecessor. The SimCity 4 Deluxe Edition includes the bestselling SimCity 4 and the awesome Rush Hour expansion pack, which expands its world-building reach to include farming towns, bedroom communes, high-tech commercial pavilions, and more.
Boasting a 9/10 Steam rating and 84 Metascore, SimCity 4 is recommended by countless Steam curators for its intricate detail, innovative gameplay, stunning graphics, heartening nostalgic appeal, and for withstanding the test of time as the most definitive and comprehensive city-building franchise in history. Without the architectural blueprint of SimCity, there'd be no cottage industry of city-building games to speak of.
5 Frostpunk
When it comes to the most acclaimed society survival city-builder available on Steam, Fusing distinct steampunk video game elements, the game is set in a frigid Arctic outpost where players must build a city around a giant heating source to keep the citizens safe. Morally fraught, highly immersive, and featuring life or death stakes, Frostpunk transcends various genres to become an unforgettable whole.
With a current 84 Metascore and 9/10 Steam rating, Frostpunk forces players to consider ethical quandaries to ensure the survival of an entire society, including delicately appeasing workers and citizens to keep the city thriving. More than just a simple aesthetic-building exercise, Frostpunk is an intelligent and cerebrally challenging game that ensures that each difficult decision has dramatic consequences.
4 Cities: Skylines
Much like SimCity 4, is an entertaining simulation game that tasks players with the simple goal of creating a dream city from scratch. However, most favor it over the classic city-builder for its size and scope, intricate details, endless customizations, and the importance of laying a sound infrastructure for long-term economic success. Whether clearing the roadways and sewer systems or erecting gaudy new tourist attractions, Cities: Skylines does everything right that SimCity got wrong two years earlier.
As a result of its overwhelming popularity, Cities: Skyline is currently the 4th most-played city-builder on Steam, with over 20,000 players consistently playing the game at any given time and a peak performance of 60,386 players at one time. With a 9/10 Steam rating and 85 Metascore to boot, Cities: Skylines towers above the competition indeed.
3 Age Of Empires II: Definitive Edition
Considered the best in franchise history, The excellent medieval video game includes a remastered version of the original RTS game with all new graphics, music, and UI and comes with three new campaigns and four new civilizations, making it ideal for repeat or new players who want to build the most epic cities over 1,000 years of human history and 200 hours of playable content.
With a new multiplayer co-op mode, Battle Royale game mode, and incredible AI pathfinding, Age of Empires II is a reminder of how far ahead of its time the original was and how much gaming has evolved for the better over the next 25 years. Whether playing alone or bonding with parents, Age of Empires II has mass appeal for the whole family.
2 RimWorld
RimWorld is a universally beloved sci-fi colony simulator that focuses on top-down management gameplay and boasts hundreds of hours of alterable story-based playthroughs thanks to its intelligent AI storyteller, leading to nary a dull moment. Players begin with a shipwrecked crew of three
With an all-time peak of 60,789 players at one time, RimWorld is currently the second-most played city-builder on Steam. Between its massive platform popularity, 10/10 Steam rating, and 87 Metascore, RimWorld is easily one of the most dominant city-builders around thanks to its endless hours of content, diverse biome builds (jungle, desert, tundra, beach, etc.), an array of crafting materials, the detailed responsibility of micro-controlling every part of a survivor's personality from their mood to their desires.
1 Civilization VI
With roughly 50,000 players at any given time, Civilization VI is by far the most popular city-builder played on Steam. Its popularity is matched by its critical acclaim (9/10 Steam rating and 87 Metascore), fusing essential architectural knowledge with immersive history lessons from which any real-life city planner would derive immense value. Best of all, it only costs $5.99.
The latest iteration of the award-winning franchise continues to improve its 4X turn-based gameplay system to function perfectly on PC or consoles, allowing players to build entire planets from small tribes over a rewarding process of development that takes time, thoughtful strategy, and long-game planning to achieve.