Games like DayZ and ARK: Survival Evolved
Looking for games like both DayZ and ARK: Survival Evolved? Below are 24 Steam games ranked by imho.run's hybrid recommender for players who enjoy both titles. Both DayZ and ARK: Survival Evolved share Action, Adventure, Massively Multiplayer roots, making the overlapping player base a strong signal for what to play next. Each pick is scored by combining collaborative filtering across millions of Steam libraries — players who own DayZ and ARK: Survival Evolved also tend to own these — with content overlap on genres, categories, and storefront tags, plus review-mined vibe embeddings that catch tonal similarity even when genre labels differ. No Steam login required.
Best matches for fans of both games
Ranked by collaborative filtering, genre overlap, and review-mined vibes — the same signals that power imho.run.
- 1
ARK: Survival Ascended
Top pick for fans of both DayZ and ARK: Survival Evolved. Shares Action and Indie with both games.
ARK is reimagined from the ground-up into the next-generation of video game technology with Unreal Engine 5! Form a tribe, tame & breed hundreds of unique dinosaurs and primeval creatures, explore, craft, build, and fight your way to the top of the food-chain. Your new world awaits!
- 2
Rust
Second pick for fans of both DayZ and ARK: Survival Evolved. Shares Action and Indie with both games.
The only aim in Rust is to survive. Everything wants you to die - the island’s wildlife, other inhabitants, the environment, and other survivors. Do whatever it takes to last another night.
- 3
The Forest
Third pick for fans of both DayZ and ARK: Survival Evolved. Shares Action and Indie with both games.
As the lone survivor of a passenger jet crash, you find yourself in a mysterious forest battling to stay alive against a society of cannibalistic mutants. Build, explore, survive in this terrifying first person survival horror simulator.
- 4
Don't Starve Together
Ranked #4 for fans of both DayZ and ARK: Survival Evolved. Shares Action and Strategy with both games.
Fight, Farm, Build and Explore Together in the standalone multiplayer expansion to the uncompromising wilderness survival game, Don't Starve.
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Grounded
Ranked #6 for fans of both DayZ and ARK: Survival Evolved. Shares Action and Adventure with both games.
The world is a vast, beautiful and dangerous place – especially when you have been shrunk to the size of an ant. Can you thrive alongside the hordes of giant insects, fighting to survive the perils of the backyard?
- 7
7 Days to Die
Ranked #7 for fans of both DayZ and ARK: Survival Evolved. Shares Action and Strategy with both games.
7 Days to Die is an open-world game that is a unique combination of first-person shooter, survival horror, tower defense, and role-playing games. Play the definitive zombie survival sandbox RPG that came first. Navezgane awaits!
- 8
Green Hell
Ranked #8 for fans of both DayZ and ARK: Survival Evolved. Shares Action and Indie with both games.
Plunge into the open-world survival simulation set in the extreme conditions of the uncharted Amazon jungle. Use real-life survival techniques to craft, hunt, fight, and gather resources, set a makeshift shelter, or raise a fortress. Survive alone or team up with your friends and challenge the jungle together.
- 9
XERA: Survival
Ranked #9 for fans of both DayZ and ARK: Survival Evolved. Shares Action and Strategy with both games.
Action-focused, open world survival shooter, PvPvE against fellow mercenaries and lethal XOIDS. Raid for resources alone or with team-mates, build and defend your base, stash your gear and survive against the odds. You are the hunters. You are the hunted. And the robots never sleep…
- 10
Subnautica
Ranked #10 for fans of both DayZ and ARK: Survival Evolved. Shares Indie and Adventure with both games.
Descend into the depths of an alien underwater world filled with wonder and peril. Craft equipment, pilot submarines and out-smart wildlife to explore lush coral reefs, volcanoes, cave systems, and more - all while trying to survive.
- 11
SCUM
Ranked #11 for fans of both DayZ and ARK: Survival Evolved. Shares Action and Indie with both games.
Traverse punishing environments, looting, crafting and evading the constant threats to your life. The unprecedented levels of character customization and progression are your ultimate tools for survival.
- 12
State of Decay 2: Juggernaut Edition
Ranked #12 for fans of both DayZ and ARK: Survival Evolved. Shares Action and Simulation with both games.
The dead have risen and civilization has fallen. Now it's up to you to gather survivors, scavenge for resources and build a community in a post-apocalyptic world – a world where you define what it means to survive in this ultimate zombie survival simulation.
- 13
How to Survive
Ranked #13 for fans of both DayZ and ARK: Survival Evolved. Shares Action and Adventure with both games.
“A real Gem” – Destructoid at E3 “Offers a different experience for zombie game veterans” – Co-Optimus“Has a lot more going for it than smashing brains and gory, red goo ... With a surprisingly deep crafting system” – GamesRadarYou're shipwrecked on an isolated island, a desperate castaway in a total freakshow world. How will you survive?
- 14
Miscreated
Ranked #14 for fans of both DayZ and ARK: Survival Evolved. Shares Action and Strategy with both games.
Miscreated is a multiplayer online hardcore survival game set in a post-apocalyptic future. You will need to survive against mutants, players, and even mother nature herself.
- 15
PolyZ
Ranked #15 for fans of both DayZ and ARK: Survival Evolved. Shares Action and Indie with both games.
Imagine DayZ mixed with Escape From Tarkov, but in Low Poly. A persistent world survival game featuring PvP, PvE, crafting, base-building, and zombies infected with a contagious virus.
- 16
Don't Starve
Ranked #16 for fans of both DayZ and ARK: Survival Evolved. Shares Indie and Adventure with both games.
Don’t Starve is an uncompromising wilderness survival game full of science and magic. Enter a strange and unexplored world full of strange creatures, dangers, and surprises. Gather resources to craft items and structures that match your survival style.
- 17
The Front
Ranked #17 for fans of both DayZ and ARK: Survival Evolved. Shares Action and Indie with both games.
The Front is a survival open-world crafting sandbox game. You are a resistance fighter sent back in time to stop the rise of a tyrannical empire. Collect resources, craft tech, build shelters, and fight monsters to accomplish your mission.
- 18
Nether: Resurrected
Ranked #18 for fans of both DayZ and ARK: Survival Evolved. Shares Action and Indie with both games.
Nether is a unique, first-person, multiplayer urban survival experience. Set in a post-apocalyptic world, Nether forces players to make life-saving decisions in a fast-paced struggle against players and the environment. Join tribes, hold territory, scavenge, craft, trade and loot your way to stay alive.
- 19
Project Zomboid
Ranked #19 for fans of both DayZ and ARK: Survival Evolved. Shares Indie and Simulation with both games.
Project Zomboid is the ultimate in zombie survival. Alone or in MP: you loot, build, craft, fight, farm and fish in a struggle to survive. A hardcore RPG skillset, a vast map, massively customisable sandbox and a cute tutorial raccoon await the unwary. So how will you die? All it takes is a bite..
- 20
Dead District: Survival
Ranked #20 for fans of both DayZ and ARK: Survival Evolved. Shares Action and Indie with both games.
Open-world survival sandbox with base-building, crafting, farming and multiplayer. Explore a dangerous island, fight, build and stay alive.
- 21
Out of Reach
Ranked #21 for fans of both DayZ and ARK: Survival Evolved. Shares Action and Indie with both games.
You’re a castaway stranded in the middle of nowhere. Storm is gone, the worst certainly not. Look for food and resources, craft gear, make shelters. These are the basics, you need much more to stay alive on this cut-off-the-world, yet not desert island. Build & burn, sail & explore, be Out of Reach!
- 22
State of Decay
Ranked #22 for fans of both DayZ and ARK: Survival Evolved. Shares Action and Simulation with both games.
The end is here. Life as you knew it has gone to hell after the mother of all zombie outbreaks. Now you and the few scattered survivors must band together to survive and rebuild in a 3rd-person action game set in a dynamic open world.
- 23
Just Survive
Ranked #23 for fans of both DayZ and ARK: Survival Evolved. Shares Action and Adventure with both games.
Just Survive is a post-apocalyptic survival game that immerses you in a world where humanity is fighting to take back control from the zombie hordes.
- 24
Afterinfection
Ranked #24 for fans of both DayZ and ARK: Survival Evolved. Shares Action and Strategy with both games.
Afterinfection is a brand new zombie survival game designed in Unreal 4 and being developed by a small team from Thailand. After creating your survivor, you’ll start with nothing and have to make your way across a large island searching for food, water, weapons, and crafting supplies.