Best Games Like Subnautica

Created by Unknown Worlds, Subnautica is a fantastic survival crafting game with open-ended gameplay that rewards you for exploring and taking risks.

The game presents a sprawling underwater open world filled with valuable resources and countless challenges to overcome as you build bases, submersibles, and unique tools.

In this list, we’ll highlight the best games like Subnautica to play in 2025, including the best PC games like Subnautica and best survival games like Subnautica.

We’ll be updating this list in the future with new titles, so make sure to check back and let us know if we missed any of your favorite games similar to Subnautica!

Related:Best Base Building Games 2025Best Sandbox PC Games 2025Best Offline Games For PC 2025

Our principal suggestion for individuals who like Subnautica is Raft, a similar first-person open-world survival game set in an endless ocean.

You start with a tiny raft that’s essentially a few planks of wood and a metal hook attached to a rope that can be used to reel in junk and other objects in the water.

Like Subnautica, the game allows you to set your own goals and combine crafting materials gathered to create new furniture, tools, weapons, and power sources.

The challenge comes from trying to maintain and expand your floating base while being hunted by a voracious shark that’s inclined to biting off chunks of your raft.

Stranded Deep is a superb alternative to Subnautica that has you taking on the role of a character who survives a deadly plane crash in the middle of the Pacific Ocean.

Fighting for survival, you’ll have to scavenge any resources you can find on small islands and abandoned shipwrecks while making sure to avoid sea monsters.

Each world in Stranded Deep is procedurally generated, meaning no two are identical; however, you’ll have no shortage of fascinating locations to explore, including reefs, islands, and underwater trenches.

Like Subnautica, you’re tasked with overseeing your character’s hunger and thirst as you collect materials and craft diverse rafts, bases, tools, etc.

Grounded offers a challenging survival sandbox experience similar to Subnautica, only set within the confines of a suburban backyard.

You play as a child who accidentally gets shrunk down to the size of an ant, navigating a living ecosystem where just about everything wants to eliminate you.

Like Subnautica, one of your primary objectives getting started is to find a safe place to rest your head each night, a task that’s easier said than done.

The backyard is a treasure trove of valuable ingredients that can help keep you alive but beware of enormous spiders that roam the map and effectively serve as Grounded’s own Leviathan monsters.

Next up, The Long Dark is a first-person open-world survival game that takes place during an unforgiving Canadian winter on Big Bear Island.

In it, you take on the role of Will Mackenzie, a bush pilot assigned to escort a medical doctor to the island when suddenly the plane crashes and the pair become separated.

Will must venture out to try and locate the doctor while braving the icy wilderness that surrounds him, overcoming exhaustion, hunger, and thirst along with animal predators such as wolves.

While its story may not be as influential as Subnautica, both do a great job of providing players with just enough narrative breadcrumbs to push forward and make discoveries.

Minecraft has evolved quite a bit since its alpha release in 2010, but at its core, remains one of the greatest survival crafting games around today.

It’s also responsible for influencing countless other titles in the genre, including Subnautica, with the pair sharing many comparable features, namely an open-ended approach to exploration and progression.

Your goal is simply to survive the game’s dangerous world while exploring various villages, temples, and mines in search of natural resources.

Lacking any authentic story, it’s the perfect Subnautica alternative for anyone who likes to carve out their own adventures and build to their heart’s content.

Created by aptly named indie developer Giant Squid, Abzu is a tranquil and peaceful adventure game that casts you as a scuba diver that awakes floating on the ocean’s surface.

It’s not long before you find yourself traversing picturesque and ethereal underwater environments brimming with flora and fauna while encountering ancient ruins from a bygone time.

While there aren’t any survival or base-building elements to speak of, there’s a deep sense of mystery and wonder in Abzu’s exploration that feels reminiscent of Subnautica.

The entire game will take you roughly 3-4 hours to complete, so once you’ve had your enjoyment, consider moving on to one of the other games featured in this list.

Billed as a story-driven survival horror game with some minor underwater exploration, SOMA is ideal for anyone who enjoys the more terrifying aspects of Subnautica’s world.

In it, you play as an AI clone named Simon who awakes to find himself confined in a deep-sea research facility under enigmatic circumstances.

Desperate for answers, he sets out to explore the facility and uncovers the truth behind the base’s origins, sinister experiments, and missing employees all while trying to slip past mechanized creatures.

Although it doesn’t feature any hunger, thirst, or even base-building mechanics, SOMA’s engrossing first-person perspective makes for tense stealth and chase sequences that play out similarly to Subnautica.

Alien: Isolation is another superb survival horror game that blends stealth and action with plenty of jumpscares as you sneak around enormous space stations while hunted by a deadly alien.

You play as Amanda Ripley, the daughter of series’ protagonist Ellen Ripley and an engineer who’s given a chance to investigate her mother’s disappearance after her ship’s flight recorder is recovered.

Things quickly take a turn for the worse when you learn that the crew and androids aboard the Sevastopol distant space station have been corrupted, and a frightening Xenomorph has climbed aboard.

Just like in Subnautica, you must use accessible resources to create traps and tools to level the chances; however, at times, running and hiding until it’s safe remains the most appropriate choice.

Best described as Subnautica in outer space, Breathedge takes a comical approach to storytelling while still offering a challenging survival crafting experience.

You play as a simple guy called “the Man” who’s on his way to a galactic funeral with his grandfather’s ashes when he’s suddenly plunged into a universal conspiracy aboard an enormous space frigate.

To survive, he’ll have to navigate the frigate’s wreckage and scavenge for precious resources and blueprints to craft new vital equipment.

Like Subnautica, a considerable portion of the game is spent monitoring your oxygen levels as you search through abandoned ruins and ship-wreckage in search of materials.

No Man’s Sky is another space-faring survival game that drops you in an enormous sandbox infinitely larger than Subnautica’s underwater open-world.

Gameplay revolves around exploring various planets with unique ecosystems and resources that can assist you in your mission to get to the center of the galaxy.

Like Subnautica, the game features a base-building element as well as several vehicles to make navigating vast planets a lot easier.

Additionally, it’s a lot less structured and more open-ended, allowing you to focus on the activities you enjoy most, whether that’s exploration, base-building, trading, etc.

If you appreciate the crafting aspects of Subnautica’s gameplay most, then you’ll fall in love with Satisfactory‘s comprehensive upgrade tree that sees you building the ultimate factory.

In it, you take on the role of a Ficsit employee assigned to harvest an alien planet’s natural resources and use them to investigate new technologies.

Doing so allows you to craft new gear ranging from weapons, gadgets, and tools to jetpacks, cargo vehicles, trains, and everything in between.

It’s not as focused on combat and survival, instead emphasizing automation and organization as you try to build the most efficient and aesthetically pleasing production facilities you can dream of.

Considering how many of the creatures in Subnautica look like they could have come from the Jurassic period, fans should have no trouble taking on dinosaurs in Ark: Survival Evolved.

In it, you explore a vast sandbox world dominated by futuristic technology and dinosaurs that can be hunted and tamed as companions, providing you with transportation, extra storage, and protection.

There are also abundant resources to gather, such as wood and stone, that allow you to build simple huts before moving on to more advanced materials.

Like Subnautica, Ark’s world is filled with numerous threats, including several aquatic behemoths such as giant megalodon sharks, anglerfish, and manta rays.

Green Hell is a first-person open-world survival crafting game that sees you navigating a perilous Amazonian rainforest ripe with danger and dread.

Instead of combating hostile sea life, you’ll have to deal with the rainforest’s indigenous tribes, who aren’t too keen on welcoming outsiders.

The only way to survive is to craft weapons and build a shelter from the surrounding resources while hunting for your next meal.

Like Subnautica, Green Hell nurtures curiosity and risk-taking by rewarding you with additional materials, upgrades, and lore for exploring novel areas.

The Forest is another open-world survival game that takes place on a secluded island filled with an assortment of horrors, namely grotesque cannibalistic mutants.

You play as a father whose son is abducted after their plane crash-lands and must overcome every hurdle or challenge the island throws his way.

This includes building shelter, crafting improvised tools, and arming yourself with weapons to ward off potential threats as you search for your son.

Similar to games like Subnautica, The Forest features a flexible building system that lets you construct bases wherever and however you want along with a path of narrative clues to follow.

After managing to survive in Subnautica’s harsh ocean, why not put your skills to the ultimate test and try to endure Rust‘s infernal open world.

Billed as a brutal online survival sandbox, the game has you spawning into its world as a defenseless “naked,” with nothing but a single rock to your name.

Armed with this simple tool and your wits, you’ll have to scavenge for supplies, kill wild animals for food and clothing, and construct shelter away from prying eyes.

This is all while monitoring your character’s hunger, thirst, and body temperature, as well as establishing alliances with friendly players and avoiding antagonistic ones until you’re properly armed.

Astroneer is an open-world sandbox game set in a charming and vibrant alien setting where oxygen is hard to come by and natural resources are aplenty.

What sets it apart from other games in the genre is its Terrain Tool, which lets you mold environments to your will by terraforming any natural surface while gathering any nearby resources.

Similar to Subnautica, the game features a unique crafting system that relies on creating networks of stations, vehicles, and tethered oxygen sources to keep you alive as you explore.

While there’s no combat to speak of, traversing Astroneer’s procedurally generated worlds and their numerous hazards is a challenge in itself.