The Best City-building Games for PC Windows

Update, : Terra Nil added at rank #3.
1

Tropico 6 (2019)

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90
Review score
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Mac OS PC Windows Xbox One Playstation 4 Nintendo Switch Playstation 5 Xbox Series X Linux IOS iPhone

Tropico 6 is a city-building game that offers an engaging mix of elements such as ruling your own island dictatorship, sandbox mode with customizable goals, missions, and easy controller support. You can be a big picture person and make decisions that impact the entire island or get into the minute details of urban planning.


Pros:
  • Engaging mix of elements
  • Sandbox mode with customizable goals
  • Missions
  • Easy controller support:No need for mouse and keyboard or touchscreen
Cons:
  • Minor performance issues

  • city-building
  • simulation
  • economy
  • political
  • sandbox
  • management
  • strategy
  • construction
  • military
  • politics

2

Frostpunk (2018)

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93
Review score
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PC Windows Android Playstation 4 Xbox One Mac OS

Frostpunk is the first society survival game. As the ruler of the last city on Earth, it is your duty to manage both its citizens and infrastructure. What decisions will you make to ensure your society's survival? What will you do when pushed to breaking point? Who will you become in the process?


  • city-building
  • survival
  • steampunk

3

Terra Nil (2023)

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82
Review score
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PC Windows IOS iPhone Android

Terra Nil is an intricate environmental strategy game about transforming a barren wasteland into a thriving, balanced ecosystem. Bring life back to a lifeless world by purifying soil, cleaning oceans, planting trees, and reintroducing wildlife, then leave without a trace.


  • city-building
  • relaxing
  • meditative
  • strategy
  • resource-management
  • isometric
  • nature
  • atmospheric

4

Dorfromantik (2021)

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89
Review score
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PC Windows Nintendo Switch

Dorfromantik is a peaceful building strategy and puzzle game where you create a beautiful and ever-growing village landscape by placing tiles. Explore a variety of colorful biomes, discover and unlock new tiles and complete quests to fill your world with life!


  • tile
  • city-building
  • relaxing
  • puzzle
  • strategy
  • tile-matching
  • board-game
  • sandbox
  • turn-based
  • minimalist
  • metroidvania
  • competitive
  • procedural

5

Airborne Kingdom (2020)

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83
Review score
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Xbox One Mac OS PC Windows Xbox Series X Playstation 5 Nintendo Switch Playstation 4

The sky city builder awaits. Create your own flying kingdom and lead it on a quest across an expansive world. Explore the varied landscape, build up a floating metropolis, aid struggling people below, uncover lost secrets and, ultimately, bring back the Airborne Kingdom legend.


  • city-building
  • relaxing
  • steampunk
  • resource

6

Grow: Song of The Evertree (2021)

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87
Review score
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Xbox One PC Windows Nintendo Switch Playstation 4

Grow: Song of the Evertree is an awe-inducing experience firmly planted between an adventure game and a sweet casual farm game. The game is beautiful with opportunities to explore the world around you and keep it casual with the gameplay, whilst feeding you the story. You get to customize your character and go on a journey to save the Evertree and nurture the world back to health from the Withering. You even get your very own sweet dragon companion!


Pros:
  • Beautiful art style & music
  • Customizable character
  • Relaxed gameplay
  • Dragon companion
  • Non-binary characters supported
  • No punishment or rush for doing things wrong
Cons:
  • Slow going
  • Not strictly accessible in terms of customization options

  • farming
  • city-building
  • simulation
  • wholesome
  • exploration
  • sandbox
  • open-world
  • relaxing
  • cute
  • agriculture
  • management
  • colourful
  • life
  • world-crafting
  • adventure

7

Townscaper (2020)

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84
Review score
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Android IOS iPhone Mac OS PC Windows

Instant town building toy


  • city-building
  • experimental
  • sandbox
  • grid
  • cute
  • base-building
  • building
  • minimalist
  • colony

8

Cities: Skylines (2015)

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94
Review score
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PC Windows Xbox Series X Playstation 5 stadia Playstation 4 Xbox One Linux Mac OS

Cities: Skylines is a modern take on the classic city simulation. The game introduces new game play elements to realize the thrill and hardships of creating and maintaining a real city whilst expanding on some well-established tropes of the city building experience.


  • city-building
  • simulation
  • management

9

Paragon Pioneers (2022)

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90
Review score
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Linux Mac OS PC Windows Android IOS iPhone

Paragon Pioneers is a casual island management game where you build and manage a series of island nations. It offers over 100+ buildings to advance through and has an abstract look and mechanics that make it easy to manage on small screens. It's a stress-free game for casual players.

Buy

Pros:
  • Detailed explanations and tutorials
  • No ads or premium currencies
  • Easy to pick up and put down
  • Reminiscent of the Anno series with idle gameplay
  • No inherent time limit
  • Over 100+ buildings to advance through
Cons:
  • Long waiting times
  • Lack of a thrilling narrative
  • Game mechanics become increasingly complex
  • Colonization aspect may be troublesome for some players
  • Combat has a limited army size and isn't very interesting

  • idler
  • city-building
  • colony
  • tutorial
  • management
  • base-building
  • building
  • simulation
  • medieval
  • crafting
  • economy
  • top-down
  • relaxing
  • 2d
  • resource-management

10

Pharaoh: A New Era (2023)

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79
Review score
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PC Windows

The legendary city-builder returns. Lead the creation of one of the greatest civilizations the world has ever seen in this 4K remake with modernized UI. Build monuments, manage your population through hundred of hours of gameplay and explore 4,000 years of history through more than 50 missions.


  • city-building
  • management
  • remake

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