Essential Buyers' Guide
The best survival games on PS4 and PS5
Experience hostile worlds where your resourcefulness, instincts and craftiness mean the difference between life and death.
Myth and legend
Brave the fantastical in worlds filled with mythic creatures, legendary gods and ancient arcana.
Conan: Exiles | Funcom
Set in Robert E. Howard’s brutal fantasy realm, this sandbox action survival game can be enjoyed alone or online. Your warrior must build a home and craft weapons of war to survive a vicious and vast open world.
Tribes of Midgard | Norsfell Games
It’s Ragnarök, the Gods are gone, and dark beings are hunting for the sacred Seed of Yggdrasil that your Viking clan is sworn to protect. Explore the land, craft weapons and defend your home from Giants.
Worlds unknown
Strive against environments both hostile and unfamiliar - uncharted locations filled with uncertainty and peril.
RUST: Console Edition | Double Eleven Limited
Rust brings you into its world naked and leaves you to fend for yourself. Build yourself up from nothing while struggling to survive against the elements, animals and other ruthless players.
ARK: Survival Evolved | Wild Card Games
You are one of hundreds of players trapped on ARK, a hostile island designed to test your survival instincts. Tame over 100 prehistoric creatures as you plot your escape from this vast sandbox environment.
Subnautica: Below Zero | Unknown Worlds Entertainment
Submerge yourself in an all-new, sub-zero expedition in an arctic region of Planet 4546B. Arriving with little more than your wits and some survival equipment, you must set out to investigate what has happened to your sister.
Stylish settings
Not all survival games need to be gritty to be tense - some of PlayStation's most enduring survival games are surprisingly colorful and family friendly.
Minecraft | Mojang AB
In addition to its incredible creative mode, this cube-centric classic boasts a deep survival mode where you mine resources, build shelters and craft weapons by day to prepare for the horrors at night.
Terraria | Re-Logic
Descend into dangerous, resource-rich caverns and gather the materials you need to craft your own cities and build the gear necessary to keep you alive. This 2D sandbox game has just celebrated its 10-year anniversary – and is still an essential for all action and survival fans.
Don't Starve: Console Edition | Klei Interactive
Keep hunger, monsters and even madness at bay in an oppressive, randomly generated sandbox world. The stakes are high in this challenging roguelike where death is frequent--and always permanent.
When order breaks down
Fight for your existence in worlds brought to the brink - where normality has vanished and only a savage struggle for existence remains.
Vigor | Bohemia Interactive
Nuclear war has left Europe devastated. All that remains is a tiny slice of post-apocalyptic Norway. The result? Outlanders fighting each other for valuable resources to build their Shelters. You’ll need to venture out into 'Encounters' to improve your safe haven. But be careful: these Encounters are dangerous!
This War of Mine | 11 bit studios
Experience the realities of war from the perspective of a small group of civilians struggling to survive amid the chaos. Scavenge supplies under cover of night, and make tough decisions for the greater good.
Frostpunk: Console Edition | 11 bit studios
Frostpunk puts you in charge of an entire society as it struggles to adapt to a new ice age. Your decisions will shape the growth, the technologies and even the laws that govern the last city on Earth.
Lost in the wilderness
Far from civilisation and beset by harsh environments and savage wildlife, your only means for survival is your ability to adapt.
The Forest | Endnight Games
You’re the only survivor of a plane crash and somehow that’s the least of your worries. Now trapped in a remote woodland, you’re next on the menu for its population of cannibalistic mutants. Can you survive The Forest?
The Long Dark | Hinterland Studio
Authenticity is at the heart of this intelligent sandbox survival experience. Every second--and calorie--counts while you explore the dynamic Northern Canadian wilderness in punishing sub-zero temperatures.
Stranded Deep | Beam Team
As a castaway left marooned on an island somewhere in the vastness of the Pacific Ocean, you’ll hunt for resources on land and at sea to craft tools, develop skills and build your new home. You might even befriend a volleyball...
Green Hell | Creepy Jar
The Amazonian rainforest becomes your personal hell. Lost in this dense, enormous jungle, you must take care of both mind and body if you are to endure isolation in an uncompromising environment.
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