The best building indie games, ranked by reviews

Data report Assembled from live indielist data on 2026-06-06. Rankings update as data changes.

indielist tracks 134 building indie games on Steam, holding 11,009,910 reviews at an average of 88% positive. This list ranks them by Steam review count, the most reliable public sales proxy, with a white-box sales estimate behind every title. The most reviewed is Terraria with 1,216,936 reviews. Figures are tracked by indielist; sales numbers are modeled estimates that each expand into their full formula.

The ranking

1. Terraria · 1,216,936 reviews · 97% positive · 2011
2. Rust · 1,140,888 reviews · 87% positive · 2018
3. Garry's Mod · 1,070,685 reviews · 97% positive · 2006
4. Stardew Valley · 868,981 reviews · 98% positive · 2016
5. ARK: Survival Evolved · 579,335 reviews · 83% positive · 2017
6. The Forest · 571,186 reviews · 96% positive · 2018
7. Valheim · 452,869 reviews · 94% positive · 2021
8. Palworld · 355,416 reviews · 94% positive · 2024
9. Project Zomboid · 343,332 reviews · 94% positive · 2013
10. Raft · 318,202 reviews · 93% positive · 2022
11. People Playground · 293,233 reviews · 98% positive · 2019
12. Schedule I · 275,473 reviews · 98% positive · 2025
13. Satisfactory · 228,559 reviews · 97% positive · 2024
14. RimWorld · 203,592 reviews · 98% positive · 2018
15. Factorio · 191,670 reviews · 98% positive · 2020
16. Oxygen Not Included · 132,250 reviews · 97% positive · 2019
17. Starbound · 120,579 reviews · 90% positive · 2016
18. ASTRONEER · 117,850 reviews · 92% positive · 2019
19. Kerbal Space Program · 116,136 reviews · 95% positive · 2015
20. Frostpunk · 112,372 reviews · 93% positive · 2018

How this list is built

Games are ranked by Steam review count, the most reliable public proxy for sales when actual figures are private. Each title links to its indielist page, where the white-box sales estimate expands into the full Boxleiter formula, so you can audit the number rather than trust a black box. Review counts come from Steam; sales figures are modeled estimates, not official sales data.

Want the underlying estimate for your own game? Try the sales estimator, or browse the full game directory.