No Man’s Sky turns the universe into your playground. You land on a planet, scan its creatures, mine its resources, build a base, then climb back into your ship and do it all again somewhere new. Years of free updates have turned it from a rocky launch into one of the most complete exploration games around, and that loop of discovery, crafting, and travel is hard to shake once it gets its hooks in you.
If you want more of that feeling, whether it is the wonder of a new planet or the satisfaction of a growing base, these 15 games deliver it from different angles. Some are grounded on a single world, some span entire galaxies, and some trade spaceships for submarines. All are worth exploring in 2026.
Quick Comparison: Top 5 Picks
| # | Game | Focus | Price | Platforms |
| 1 | Astroneer | Planet exploration | $29.99 | PC, PlayStation, Xbox, Switch |
| 2 | Starfield | Space RPG | $69.99 | PC, Xbox |
| 3 | Elite Dangerous | Space simulation | $29.99 | PC, PlayStation, Xbox |
| 4 | Subnautica | Underwater survival | $29.99 | PC, PlayStation, Xbox, Switch |
| 5 | Outer Wilds | Mystery exploration | $24.99 | PC, PlayStation, Xbox, Switch |
1. Astroneer
Why it’s similar
Astroneer shares No Man’s Sky’s core loop of landing on colorful planets, gathering resources, and building up your technology. The sense of peaceful discovery is nearly identical.
What makes it unique
Terrain deformation is the star feature. You dig, mold, and reshape the ground itself as you build, giving construction a tactile freedom No Man’s Sky doesn’t offer.
Key features
- Multi-planet exploration and terrain deformation
- Base building with automation
- Colorful, low-stakes sci-fi tone
- Drop-in co-op play
Price: $29.99 Platforms: PC, PlayStation, Xbox, Nintendo Switch
Where to Buy
Available on Green Man Gaming and Steam.
2. Starfield
Why it’s similar
Starfield shares No Man’s Sky’s love of visiting planet after planet and outfitting your own ship. Both games hand you a galaxy and ask you to make your own adventure in it.
What makes it unique
It is a full Bethesda RPG. Companions, faction questlines, and dialogue-driven storytelling sit alongside the exploration, giving the universe a narrative backbone No Man’s Sky lacks.
Key features
- Bethesda-style RPG questing
- Ship building and customization
- Companion relationships
- Hundreds of explorable planets
Price: $69.99 Platforms: PC, Xbox
Where to Buy
Available on Green Man Gaming and Steam.
3. Elite Dangerous
Why it’s similar
Elite Dangerous shares No Man’s Sky’s scale and freedom. You pilot your own ship through a vast galaxy, trading, exploring, and fighting at your own pace.
What makes it unique
The galaxy is modeled at true 1:1 scale based on real astronomical data. It leans harder into simulation, with deep ship systems and a slower, more deliberate feel than No Man’s Sky.
Key features
- Full 1:1 scale Milky Way galaxy
- Deep ship customization and combat
- Trading, mining, and exploration careers
- Massively multiplayer galaxy
Price: $29.99 Platforms: PC, PlayStation, Xbox
Where to Buy
Available on Green Man Gaming and Steam.
4. Subnautica
Why it’s similar
Subnautica trades the stars for the sea but keeps No Man’s Sky’s core thrill: dropping into an unknown world, scanning what you find, and upgrading your gear to survive.
What makes it unique
The entire game unfolds underwater on a single alien ocean planet. The claustrophobic tension of diving deeper into the dark gives it a mood No Man’s Sky never reaches.
Key features
- Underwater alien world exploration
- Crafting and base building beneath the waves
- Tense survival against deep-sea creatures
- Story told through exploration
Price: $29.99 Platforms: PC, PlayStation, Xbox, Nintendo Switch
Where to Buy
Available on Green Man Gaming and Steam.
5. Outer Wilds
Why it’s similar
Outer Wilds shares No Man’s Sky’s spirit of curiosity-driven exploration. There is no combat and no crafting, just a small solar system full of secrets waiting to be pieced together.
What makes it unique
It is built entirely around a time loop. Every 22 minutes the sun goes supernova and resets your journey, turning knowledge itself into your only lasting progression.
Key features
- Time-loop structure with no combat
- A tightly designed solar system of mysteries
- Discovery-driven, puzzle-like storytelling
- A beloved, widely praised narrative
Price: $24.99 Platforms: PC, PlayStation, Xbox, Nintendo Switch
Where to Buy
Available on Green Man Gaming and Steam.
6. Empyrion: Galactic Survival
Why it’s similar
Empyrion shares No Man’s Sky’s mix of planetary exploration and base construction, adding survival pressure and combat as you gather resources across a solar system.
What makes it unique
It leans harder into building. You construct not just bases but full flyable ships and space stations block by block, closer to a voxel construction game than a pure explorer.
Key features
- Block-by-block ship and base building
- Planetary and space exploration
- Survival mechanics and combat
- Multiplayer servers and co-op
Price: $24.99 Platforms: PC
Where to Buy
Available on Steam and GOG.
7. Space Engineers
Why it’s similar
Space Engineers matches No Man’s Sky’s love of building and flying your own creations through space, with a stronger focus on the engineering behind every ship.
What makes it unique
Physics-driven construction is the whole point. Every ship you design has to actually hold together and fly, turning the game into a sandbox for real engineering creativity.
Key features
- Physics-based ship and station building
- Survival and creative modes
- Multiplayer construction servers
- Deep engineering systems
Price: $19.99 Platforms: PC, Xbox
Where to Buy
Available on Green Man Gaming and Steam.
8. The Planet Crafter
Why it’s similar
The Planet Crafter shares No Man’s Sky’s loop of gathering resources and slowly transforming a planet, with each machine you build changing the world around you.
What makes it unique
Terraforming is the entire goal. You generate oxygen, heat, and pressure to turn a dead planet into a living biosphere, watching the environment change as you play.
Key features
- Terraform a hostile alien planet
- Machine-driven atmosphere building
- Survival and base construction
- Solo or up to 10-player co-op
Price: $23.99 Platforms: PC, PlayStation, Xbox
Where to Buy
Available on Steam.
9. Starbound
Why it’s similar
Starbound keeps No Man’s Sky’s planet-hopping exploration but flattens it into 2D. You visit procedurally generated worlds, build bases, and meet strange creatures along the way.
What makes it unique
It leans into sandbox creativity and RPG questing more than No Man’s Sky, with a stronger crafting tech tree and a colorful pixel-art universe to explore.
Key features
- 2D procedural universe exploration
- Deep crafting and building systems
- Quests and story missions
- Strong modding community
Price: $14.99 Platforms: PC
Where to Buy
Available on Steam and GOG.
10. EVE Online
Why it’s similar
EVE Online shares No Man’s Sky’s sense of a living, massive universe. Both let you explore, trade, and build a place for yourself among the stars at your own pace.
What makes it unique
Nearly everything is player-driven. Economy, wars, and alliances are shaped entirely by real players, creating stakes and stories no scripted game can replicate.
Key features
- Player-driven galactic economy
- Massive alliance warfare
- Deep ship and skill progression
- One persistent shared universe
Price: Free to play Platforms: PC
Where to Buy
Free to play on Steam.
11. Kerbal Space Program
Why it’s similar
Kerbal Space Program shares No Man’s Sky’s spirit of curiosity and discovery in space, built around designing your own rockets and exploring a solar system of moons and planets.
What makes it unique
Realistic orbital physics are the whole appeal. Building a ship that actually reaches orbit, let alone another planet, becomes its own deeply satisfying puzzle.
Key features
- Physics-based rocket and spacecraft building
- Full solar system to explore
- Science, career, and sandbox modes
- Huge modding community
Price: $39.99 Platforms: PC
Where to Buy
Available on Steam and GOG.
12. Breathedge
Why it’s similar
Breathedge shares No Man’s Sky’s survival-in-space crafting loop. You scavenge wreckage, manage oxygen, and build your way toward rescue after a disaster strands you.
What makes it unique
It leans hard into dark comedy. Absurd humor runs through the story and dialogue, giving space survival a much lighter tone than most games in the genre.
Key features
- Comedic space survival story
- Wreckage scavenging and crafting
- Oxygen and resource management
- Story-driven progression
Price: $19.99 Platforms: PC
Where to Buy
Available on Steam.
13. Journey to the Savage Planet
Why it’s similar
Journey to the Savage Planet shares No Man’s Sky’s joy of scanning alien life and exploring colorful, unfamiliar terrain as a lone explorer far from home.
What makes it unique
It plays more like a tight, first-person platforming adventure than an open sandbox. A single vibrant planet is packed with secrets, upgrades, and goofy corporate satire.
Key features
- Single densely packed alien planet
- Scanning and cataloging alien creatures
- Platforming-focused exploration
- Comedic corporate satire tone
Price: $29.99 Platforms: PC, PlayStation, Xbox, Nintendo Switch
Where to Buy
Available on Steam.
14. Surviving Mars
Why it’s similar
Surviving Mars shares No Man’s Sky’s fantasy of establishing a foothold on another world, focused on the practical challenge of keeping a colony alive under domes.
What makes it unique
It is a colony management sim rather than an action-adventure. Oxygen, dust storms, and dome placement become your central puzzle instead of combat or exploration.
Key features
- Colony planning under Martian conditions
- Domes that shelter your colonists
- Research tree for survival tech
- Random mystery events per playthrough
Price: $29.99 Platforms: PC, PlayStation, Xbox
Where to Buy
Available on Green Man Gaming and Steam.
15. Icarus
Why it’s similar
Icarus shares No Man’s Sky’s drop-onto-a-hostile-world premise, sending you down to a dangerous planet’s surface to gather resources and survive before returning to orbit.
What makes it unique
Sessions are structured as timed drops. You descend for a mission with real stakes, and permadeath on a drop means losing everything you brought down with you.
Key features
- Session-based planetary drops
- High-stakes survival crafting
- Open-world and mission-based modes
- Co-op play with friends
Price: $29.99 Platforms: PC
Where to Buy
Available on Steam.
Full Comparison Table
| # | Game | Focus | Price | Platforms |
| 1 | Astroneer | Planet exploration | $29.99 | PC, PlayStation, Xbox, Switch |
| 2 | Starfield | Space RPG | $69.99 | PC, Xbox |
| 3 | Elite Dangerous | Space simulation | $29.99 | PC, PlayStation, Xbox |
| 4 | Subnautica | Underwater survival | $29.99 | PC, PlayStation, Xbox, Switch |
| 5 | Outer Wilds | Mystery exploration | $24.99 | PC, PlayStation, Xbox, Switch |
| 6 | Empyrion: Galactic Survival | Base building | $24.99 | PC |
| 7 | Space Engineers | Ship engineering | $19.99 | PC, Xbox |
| 8 | The Planet Crafter | Terraforming | $23.99 | PC, PlayStation, Xbox |
| 9 | Starbound | 2D exploration | $14.99 | PC |
| 10 | EVE Online | MMO universe | Free to play | PC |
| 11 | Kerbal Space Program | Rocket building | $39.99 | PC |
| 12 | Breathedge | Comedic survival | $19.99 | PC |
| 13 | Journey to the Savage Planet | Platforming exploration | $29.99 | PC, PlayStation, Xbox, Switch |
| 14 | Surviving Mars | Colony sim | $29.99 | PC, PlayStation, Xbox |
| 15 | Icarus | Session survival | $29.99 | PC |
Conclusion
If it was the planet-hopping discovery that hooked you, start with Astroneer, Starbound, and Journey to the Savage Planet. They keep that same colorful, curious spirit alive.
If you wanted more scale and simulation, Elite Dangerous, EVE Online, and Kerbal Space Program reward patience and ambition. And if survival pressure is what you are after, Subnautica, Icarus, and The Planet Crafter turn exploration into a fight to stay alive. Any of these 15 will keep your sense of wonder going well into 2026.
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