Minecraft is the quintessential sandbox game, and it’s largely responsible for the building game craze. That means you can freely ignore objectives or certain mechanics and just play around with the tools you want. For this guide, we’re talking about games that you can not only play, but play within. To avoid too much crosstalk with our lists of the best survival games and the best open-world games, we had to define what a “sandbox game” is. We rounded up 11 of our favorite titles that give players endless freedom to explore, create, and play. With so many options, though, it’s hard to find the top sandbox games. The genre has morphed over the years, especially as open-world and Minecraft-like games have become more popular, offering unique experiences no matter what type of gamer you are. From the voxel world of Minecraft to the depths of space in Universe Sandbox, there are a lot of different types of sandbox games. The best sandbox games strike at the heart of what makes games fun: Just playing.
