Games like Cities: Skylines
If Cities: Skylines is your kind of game, the closest matches are Cities: Skylines II, Prison Architect and Planet Zoo — picked from the ranked list below. Reviewers single out its deep public transport systems, modding community extends longevity and challenging. Each pick is ranked by what players of this game also play, shared genres and tags, and review-mined similarity — not a generic popularity list.
Get personalized picks →Cities: Skylines is a city-building strategy and simulation game developed by Colossal Order and published by Paradox Interactive, released in 2015 at a price of $8.99 USD. The game features city-planning, economy-simulation, public-transportation systems, resource-management, and terrain-editing mechanics alongside robust mod-support. Players describe the experience as challenging, contemplative, immersive, and relaxing, with deep-public-transport-systems and satisfying-city-growth-and-rebuilding as major draws. Reviewers highlight endless-creative-freedom-with-terrain and the traffic-simulation-feels-realistic, while the modding-community-extends-longevity significantly. The game holds a 93% positive rating from 99,307 Steam reviews and is playable on Steam Deck.
About Cities: Skylines: 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.
Players who liked Cities: Skylines also play
Steam players who put hours into Cities: Skylines also tend to own these titles — a signal called collaborative filtering. imho.run cross-references millions of library ownership patterns to surface games whose real audiences overlap, regardless of whether their genre tags match.
Cities: Skylines II
WHY THIS
Shares an immersive mood with Cities: Skylines.
Top pick for Cities: Skylines fans by collaborative filtering across millions of Steam libraries. Shares Simulation with Cities: Skylines.
Raise a city from the ground up and transform it into a thriving metropolis with the most realistic city builder ever. Push your creativity and problem-solving to build on a scale you've never experienced. With deep simulation and a living economy, this is world-building without limits.
Prison Architect
WHY THIS
Shares resource management and an immersive mood with Cities: Skylines.
Second-strongest match for Cities: Skylines fans by collaborative filtering across millions of Steam libraries. Shares Strategy and Simulation with Cities: Skylines.
Only the world’s most ruthless Warden can contain the world’s most ruthless inmates. Design and develop your personalized penitentiary in Prison Architect.
Planet Zoo
WHY THIS
Shares a relaxing mood with Cities: Skylines.
Third-strongest match for Cities: Skylines fans by collaborative filtering across millions of Steam libraries. Shares Strategy and Simulation with Cities: Skylines.
Build a world for wildlife in Planet Zoo. From the developers of Planet Coaster and Zoo Tycoon comes the ultimate zoo sim. Construct detailed habitats, manage your zoo, and meet authentic living animals who think, feel and explore the world you create around them.
Smart City Plan
WHY THIS
Shares a relaxing mood with Cities: Skylines.
Ranked #4 for Cities: Skylines fans by collaborative filtering across millions of Steam libraries. Shares Strategy and Simulation with Cities: Skylines.
Smart City Plan is a modern old-school style city builder game: Plan zones, roads, public transport like trains, trams, buses, subways and even the hypertube. Set taxes and policies and implement smart city technologies.
Transport Fever 2
WHY THIS
Ranked #5 for Cities: Skylines fans by collaborative filtering across millions of Steam libraries. Shares Strategy and Simulation with Cities: Skylines.
The classic transport simulation genre has a new gold standard with Transport Fever 2. Discover a whole new world by navigating transport routes through land, water and air. May progress and prosperity find their way!
Banished
WHY THIS
Shares mod support, resource management and a relaxing mood with Cities: Skylines.
Ranked #6 for Cities: Skylines fans by collaborative filtering across millions of Steam libraries. Shares Strategy and Simulation with Cities: Skylines.
In this city-building strategy game, you control a group of exiled travelers who decide to restart their lives in a new land. They have only the clothes on their backs and a cart filled with supplies from their homeland. The townspeople of Banished are your primary resource.
Anno 1800
WHY THIS
Shares an immersive mood with Cities: Skylines.
Ranked #7 for Cities: Skylines fans by collaborative filtering across millions of Steam libraries. Shares Strategy and Simulation with Cities: Skylines.
Anno 1800™ – Lead the Industrial Revolution! Welcome to the dawn of the Industrial Age. The path you choose will define your world. Are you an innovator or an exploiter? A conqueror or a liberator? How the world remembers your name is up to you.
Tropico 4
WHY THIS
Ranked #8 for Cities: Skylines fans by collaborative filtering across millions of Steam libraries. Shares Strategy and Simulation with Cities: Skylines.
The world is changing and Tropico is moving with the times - geographical powers rise and fall and the world market is dominated by new players with new demands and offers - and you, as El Presidente, face a whole new set of challenges.
Reviewers mention these as similar to Cities: Skylines
Surfaced from review text: when other players write 'if you liked X, try Y', we catch the name and resolve it back to a Steam game.
Cities: Skylines II
WHY THIS
Shares an immersive mood with Cities: Skylines.
Reviewers of Cities: Skylines cross-mention this title as a similar play. Shares Simulation with Cities: Skylines.
Raise a city from the ground up and transform it into a thriving metropolis with the most realistic city builder ever. Push your creativity and problem-solving to build on a scale you've never experienced. With deep simulation and a living economy, this is world-building without limits.
SimCity™ 4 Deluxe Edition
WHY THIS
Shares traffic simulation and a contemplative mood with Cities: Skylines.
Reviewers of Cities: Skylines cross-mention this title as a similar play. Shares Strategy and Simulation with Cities: Skylines.
SimCity 4 Deluxe Edition includes the bestselling SimCity 4 and the all-new SimCity 4 Rush Hour Expansion Pack. Create the most massive region of cities ever, with a farming town, bedroom community, high-tech commercial center, and industrial backbone.
Anno 1800
WHY THIS
Shares an immersive mood with Cities: Skylines.
Reviewers of Cities: Skylines cross-mention this title as a similar play. Shares Strategy and Simulation with Cities: Skylines.
Anno 1800™ – Lead the Industrial Revolution! Welcome to the dawn of the Industrial Age. The path you choose will define your world. Are you an innovator or an exploiter? A conqueror or a liberator? How the world remembers your name is up to you.
Manor Lords
WHY THIS
Shares an immersive mood with Cities: Skylines.
Reviewers of Cities: Skylines cross-mention this title as a similar play. Shares Strategy and Simulation with Cities: Skylines.
Manor Lords is a medieval strategy game featuring in-depth city building, large-scale tactical battles, and complex economic and social simulations. Rule your lands as a medieval lord – the seasons pass, the weather changes, and cities rise and fall.
Satisfactory
WHY THIS
Shares an immersive mood with Cities: Skylines.
Reviewers of Cities: Skylines cross-mention this title as a similar play. Shares Strategy and Simulation with Cities: Skylines.
Satisfactory is a first-person open-world factory building game with a dash of exploration and combat. Play alone or with friends, explore an alien planet, create multi-story factories, and enter conveyor belt heaven!
RimWorld
WHY THIS
Shares mod support and an immersive mood with Cities: Skylines.
Reviewers of Cities: Skylines cross-mention this title as a similar play. Shares Strategy and Simulation with Cities: Skylines.
A sci-fi colony sim driven by an intelligent AI storyteller. Generates stories by simulating psychology, ecology, gunplay, melee combat, climate, biomes, diplomacy, interpersonal relationships, art, medicine, trade, and more.
Мухосранск | Russian City Sim
WHY THIS
Reviewers of Cities: Skylines cross-mention this title as a similar play. Shares Simulation with Cities: Skylines.
The atmosphere of the nuclear wasteland.
Timberborn
WHY THIS
Shares mod support and a relaxing mood with Cities: Skylines.
Reviewers of Cities: Skylines cross-mention this title as a similar play. Shares Strategy and Simulation with Cities: Skylines.
Humans are long gone. In a world struck by droughts and toxic waste, will your lumberpunk beavers do any better? A sandbox city-building game featuring ingenious animals, vertical architecture, water physics, and terraforming. Contains high amounts of wood.
Cheaper alternatives
Games in the same vein priced at least 40% below Cities: Skylines at current Steam store prices.
Garry's Mod
WHY THIS
Priced ~44% under Cities: Skylines on Steam right now. Shares Simulation with Cities: Skylines.
Garry's Mod is a physics sandbox. There aren't any predefined aims or goals. We give you the tools and leave you to play.
Cookie Clicker
WHY THIS
Priced ~44% under Cities: Skylines on Steam right now. Shares Strategy and Simulation with Cities: Skylines.
An idle game about making cookies! Originally released in 2013 on the web, and actively developed since then. This is the official version for Steam.
Plants vs. Zombies GOTY Edition
WHY THIS
Priced ~44% under Cities: Skylines on Steam right now. Shares Strategy with Cities: Skylines.
Zombies are invading your home, and the only defense is your arsenal of plants! Armed with an alien nursery-worth of zombie-zapping plants like peashooters and cherry bombs, you'll need to think fast and plant faster to stop dozens of types of zombies dead in their tracks.
Buckshot Roulette
WHY THIS
Priced ~67% under Cities: Skylines on Steam right now. Shares Simulation with Cities: Skylines.
Play Russian roulette with a 12-gauge shotgun. Four enter. One leaves. Roll the dice with your life. Good luck!
Your Only Move Is HUSTLE
WHY THIS
Priced ~44% under Cities: Skylines on Steam right now. Shares Strategy and Simulation with Cities: Skylines.
Master your technique, execute flashy combos, and outsmart opponents across the world, frame-by-frame. Slow down the clock to fine-tune your fighting style in this innovative, turn-based combat simulator. Pulverize your friends and choreograph spectacular fight scenes. No training mode required.
STAR WARS™ Empire at War - Gold Pack
WHY THIS
Priced ~44% under Cities: Skylines on Steam right now. Shares Strategy with Cities: Skylines.
Command or corrupt an entire galaxy in the definitive Star Wars strategy collection. It is a time of galactic civil war. Will you take up the reins of the Rebellion, assume control of the Empire, or rule the Star Wars Underworld?
The Test
WHY THIS
Priced ~78% under Cities: Skylines on Steam right now. Shares Simulation with Cities: Skylines.
You will answer a series of questions that will reveal truths from deep within. These questions may make you uncomfortable, but with great knowledge comes great sacrifice. Can you make it all the way through The Test, and if you do, are you sure you want the answers you seek?
Nubby's Number Factory
WHY THIS
Priced ~44% under Cities: Skylines on Steam right now. Shares Strategy with Cities: Skylines.
A plinko-style roguelike where you work at a number factory. Launch your spherical friend, Nubby, down a pegboard to make bigger and bigger numbers! But beware, if you fail to meet your number quota, the sun will explode.
Free alternatives
Free-to-play games that recommended players of this title also tend to enjoy.
Life is Strange - Episode 1
WHY THIS
Free-to-play pick from the same recommendation pool — no purchase to try it.
Episode 1 now FREE! Life is Strange is an award-winning and critically acclaimed episodic adventure game that allows the player to rewind time and affect the past, present and future.
Ultimate Custom Night
WHY THIS
Free-to-play pick from the same recommendation pool — no purchase to try it.
Welcome to the ultimate FNAF mashup, featuring 50 selectable characters and custom difficulties!
Bongo Cat
WHY THIS
Free-to-play pick from the same recommendation pool — no purchase to try it. Shares Simulation with Cities: Skylines.
Bongo cat needs your help. Bongo cat needz more hatz!!! Every time you press a key, Bongo cat will punch your taskbar. Type, click, play, work to collect more points. Which hats will you find?
The Murder of Sonic the Hedgehog
WHY THIS
Free-to-play pick from the same recommendation pool — no purchase to try it. Shares Simulation with Cities: Skylines.
Sonic the Hedgehog...was murdered!? Get to the bottom of the mystery in this brand-new adventure!
Indigo Park: Chapter 1
WHY THIS
Free-to-play pick from the same recommendation pool — no purchase to try it.
Explore the abandoned childhood wonder of Indigo Park! Guided by Rambley the Raccoon, help restore power to the destroyed amusement park while you run from the reason it shut down.
Our Life: Beginnings & Always
WHY THIS
Free-to-play pick from the same recommendation pool — no purchase to try it.
A twenty-dollar bill, four summers, fifteen years, and a one of a kind life. Create an experience that’s all your own in this near-fully customizable visual novel where you grow from childhood to adulthood with the lonely boy next door.
missed messages.
WHY THIS
Free-to-play pick from the same recommendation pool — no purchase to try it. Shares Simulation with Cities: Skylines.
‘goth gf’s iPhone’ airdrops you - accept or decline? A love/horror story about life, death, & memes.
NGU IDLE
WHY THIS
Free-to-play pick from the same recommendation pool — no purchase to try it. Shares Simulation with Cities: Skylines.
NGU Idle is a Free To Play Idle game that's full of weird humor, tons of upgrades and hundreds of hours of content! Try out NGU Idle today and experience the joy of Numbers Going Up!
Narrow it down
Head-to-head comparisons
More from Colossal Order
Other recommendable Steam games by Colossal Order, ranked by review count so the studio's hits land first.
Cities: Skylines II
WHY THIS
Shares an immersive mood with Cities: Skylines.
Another title from Colossal Order, the studio behind Cities: Skylines. Shares Simulation with Cities: Skylines.
Raise a city from the ground up and transform it into a thriving metropolis with the most realistic city builder ever. Push your creativity and problem-solving to build on a scale you've never experienced. With deep simulation and a living economy, this is world-building without limits.
Cities in Motion 2
WHY THIS
Shares a contemplative mood with Cities: Skylines.
Another title from Colossal Order, the studio behind Cities: Skylines. Shares Strategy and Simulation with Cities: Skylines.
Cities in Motion 2 is the sequel to the popular mass transit simulation game Cities in Motion. Build, manage and lead your transportation network to provide cities with their ever changing needs. CIM2 introduces new features including multiplayer game modes, day and night cycles, timetables and dynamic cities.
Cities in Motion
WHY THIS
Shares a contemplative mood with Cities: Skylines.
Another title from Colossal Order, the studio behind Cities: Skylines. Shares Simulation with Cities: Skylines.
Manage transportation for commuters in four of the world's greatest cities - Vienna, Helsinki, Berlin, and Amsterdam
Frequently asked about Cities: Skylines
- Does Cities: Skylines run on Steam Deck?
- Cities: Skylines is rated Playable on Steam Deck — it runs, but expect some manual adjustments (control remapping, text size, or graphics settings) for the best experience.
- How much does Cities: Skylines cost?
- Cities: Skylines is listed on Steam at 8.99 USD (current store price; Steam sales may reduce this temporarily).
- What games are most similar to Cities: Skylines?
- Based on Steam play patterns and shared genres/tags, the games most often recommended alongside Cities: Skylines are Cities: Skylines II, Prison Architect, Planet Zoo.
- Who developed Cities: Skylines?
- Cities: Skylines was developed by Colossal Order and published by Paradox Interactive.
imho.run ranks Steam game alternatives using a mix of collaborative filtering (ALS / iALS / EASE / LightGCN), content scoring over genres, categories, Steam tags, developers, and publishers, plus AI-extracted vibes mined from review text. The page above is generated in seed mode anchored on Cities: Skylines.
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