Updated June 2026 · data via IGDB
Raft earns its following by doing something deceptively simple: it makes scarcity feel exciting. Floating on a few planks, hooking debris from the water, battling a circling shark, and slowly expanding your home into a sprawling ocean vessel — the game nails a core loop of gather, craft, build, explore that feels endlessly rewarding in solo or co-op.
When players look for games like Raft, they're really chasing that combination of survival tension, creative base building, co-op camaraderie, and exploration-driven progression — not just any survival game, and certainly not any ocean game. The best alternatives either replicate the crafting-and-building loop in a different setting, or share the oceanic survival fantasy with their own twist.
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98%Subnautica is the single closest game to Raft: you survive on an alien ocean planet by diving for resources, crafting equipment, and building underwater bases while managing oxygen and avoiding apex predators.
96%Valheim drops you in a procedurally generated Norse world where you gather materials, craft tools, and build elaborate bases — all playable in co-op. Like Raft, progression is gated behind exploration and boss fights that unlock new crafting tiers.
93%Minecraft is the definitive survival-crafting sandbox: gather resources, build shelters, craft tools, and survive hostile nights — the same loop that Raft refines into a nautical niche. Both reward creative base-building at your own pace.
93%Stranded Deep puts you on a life raft in a procedural Pacific Ocean, forcing you to scavenge debris, craft tools, and explore island chains — it is essentially Raft's direct spiritual sibling.
88%Sea of Thieves puts you and friends on a ship sailing an open ocean, hunting treasure, fighting skeleton forts, and skirmishing with other crews — the closest thing to Raft's oceanic co-op feel with a pirate twist.
87%Don't Starve Together is a co-op survival game built around scavenging resources, crafting gear, and surviving increasingly brutal threats — the same tense resource loop as Raft but in a dark, hand-drawn wilderness.
85%The Forest tasks you with surviving on a cannibal-inhabited island by gathering resources, building shelters, and crafting weapons — sharing Raft's co-op survival building loop in a dense woodland setting.
83%Grounded shrinks you to ant-size in a backyard and tasks you with gathering resources, crafting gear, and building elaborate bases while fending off giant insects — co-op friendly like Raft with the same expanding-home loop.
82%Rust strips survival down to its brutal essentials: gather, craft, and build a base while fending off starvation, wildlife, and hostile players. The resource scavenging and base-expansion loop mirrors Raft's core fantasy.
80%Ark: Survival Evolved has you punch trees, build bases, craft gear, and tame dinosaurs on island maps — sharing Raft's survival-crafting skeleton with far more combat and creature variety.
79%No Man's Sky features resource gathering, base building, and procedural exploration across planets and space — a sci-fi spin on the same loop of expanding your home while surviving environmental threats.
78%Astroneer has you excavating alien planets for resources, crafting modules, and expanding your base — sharing Raft's gentle exploration and base-growth loop in a colorful sci-fi package.
77%Terraria packs Raft's crafting depth and survival tension into a 2D side-scrolling sandbox: gather materials, build shelters, and face escalating threats via boss encounters that unlock new tiers of gear.
71%💎 GemStarbound blends survival, crafting, and exploration across procedurally generated alien planets — you build a ship as your home base and scavenge worlds for materials, closely mirroring Raft's expanding-home structure.
66%💎 GemThis War of Mine focuses on civilian survival: scavenging scarce supplies, managing shelter, and making desperate decisions — sharing Raft's core of improvising safety from whatever you can find.
63%Palworld combines survival crafting, base building, and creature capture in an open world — the gather-build-craft loop is familiar to Raft players, with Pokémon-style monster companions added.
61%7 Days to Die blends survival crafting with zombie horde defense — you scavenge, build fortified bases, and brace for escalating attacks on a set schedule, echoing Raft's constant threat while you build.
| Game | Match | Shared DNA | Biggest difference | Platforms |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Subnautica | 98% | Adventure, Indie | Entirely underwater, first-person perspective with no co-op. | Xbox, PlayStation, Nintendo, Mobile, PC |
| Valheim | 96% | Adventure, Indie | Land-based biomes replace the oceanic setting entirely. | Xbox, PC, Nintendo, PlayStation |
| Minecraft: Java Edition | 93% | Simulator, Adventure | Infinite land world instead of an ocean drift setting. | PC |
| Stranded Deep | 93% | Simulator, Adventure | Smaller scope; no persistent base expansion or story islands. | PlayStation, PC, Xbox, Nintendo |
| Sea of Thieves | 88% | Simulator, Adventure | PvP-focused with no base building or crafting progression. | Xbox, PC, PlayStation |
| Don't Starve Together | 87% | Simulator, Adventure | Top-down 2D world with no ocean or base-building focus. | PC, Nintendo |
| Märchen Forest: Mylne and the Forest Gift | 85% | Adventure, Indie | Horror tone, cannibals instead of sharks, land-based world. | PC |
| Grounded | 83% | Adventure, Survival | Microscale backyard setting; no water traversal or ocean theme. | Xbox, PlayStation, PC, Nintendo |
| Rust | 82% | Adventure, Indie | Hardcore PvP multiplayer dominates — griefing is constant. | PC |
| Ark: Survival Evolved | 80% | Simulator, Adventure | Dinosaur taming is the central mechanic, not water/base expansion. | Xbox, PlayStation, PC, Mobile, Nintendo |
| No Man's Sky | 79% | Simulator, Adventure | Space exploration focus; ocean survival feeling is absent. | Xbox, PlayStation, Nintendo, PC |
| Astroneer | 78% | Simulator, Adventure | Sci-fi planet-hopping; very low threat, minimal combat. | PlayStation, PC, Xbox, Nintendo |
| Terraria | 77% | Simulator, Adventure | 2D side-scroller with combat-heavy boss progression. | PlayStation, PC, Nintendo, Mobile, Xbox |
| Starbound | 71% | Adventure, Indie | 2D pixel art; sci-fi planets replace the ocean. | Xbox, PC |
| This War of Mine | 66% | Simulator, Adventure | Dark wartime drama; no building or exploration, narrative-driven. | PlayStation, PC, Mobile, Xbox |
The magic of Raft rests on three pillars: a persistent home you expand over time, a resource loop that demands constant exploration, and an ever-present threat that keeps you on edge. Not every survival game hits all three. Valheim nails all of them — your longhouse grows with every boss you defeat, biomes demand risky exploration, and the procedural world is full of danger. Stranded Deep (in the additional list) is the most literal ocean twin, while Don't Starve Together captures the same co-op tension in a completely different biome.
Games that only share the "survival" tag without the base-building or exploration progression — like pure shooters or roguelikes — don't scratch the same itch. Focus on titles where your home grows as you do.
Raft shines brightest with friends, and several games here match that energy. Valheim is the top co-op recommendation: up to ten players can share a server, divide crafting labor, and sail the ocean together — yes, it even has ships. Don't Starve Together is a more challenging co-op pick where communication and role division are essential for survival. For a more action-packed ocean experience, Sea of Thieves puts a crew on a ship sailing a shared open world, hunting treasure and fighting skeleton forts together. Finally, Grounded (additional list) supports four-player co-op and replicates Raft's home-building camaraderie almost perfectly.
Raft surprised many players with its island story chapters and lore collectibles. If narrative-driven survival is what you're after, Subnautica (additional list) has one of the most compelling storylines in the genre — pieced together through exploration and audio logs just like Raft. No Man's Sky also weaves a main questline through its survival sandbox, offering a more guided experience than pure sandbox titles. For players who want survival mechanics fused with genuine emotional storytelling, This War of Mine delivers unforgettable civilian-survival drama, though it trades building and exploration for gut-punch narrative choices.
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