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What you will learn: The 10 Best Space Games to Play Right Now (Ranked)
I Spent Over 400 Hours in Space and I Regret Nothing
I have loved space games since I was a kid. My first was Space Invaders on a hand-me-down Game Boy in 2002, but the obsession really took off when I played Mass Effect 2 in 2011. I was sixteen years old, and I stayed up until 4 AM on a school night just to finish the suicide mission. The next morning I fell asleep in history class. The teacher woke me up. I told him I was saving the galaxy. He did not laugh. Totally worth it.
Over the past fourteen years, I have played dozens of space games across PC, console, and even a few on my phone. Some were incredible. Some were complete garbage. I bought No Man’s Sky on launch day in August 2016 for $60 and was so disappointed that I did not touch it again until 2020. That costly mistake taught me one lesson: never pre-order a space game, no matter how good the trailers look. This list is everything I have genuinely enjoyed over the years, ranked from good to absolute must-play.
The Ranking
10. Everspace 2
I picked this up in early access in 2021 for $40. It is a looter-shooter set in space with gorgeous graphics and deeply satisfying combat. The controls on mouse and keyboard feel tight and responsive. The story is forgettable and I skipped most of the dialogue, but the gameplay loop of upgrading your ship, finding better loot, and blowing up enemy fighters is rock solid. I put about 30 hours into it before I felt like I had seen everything. The exploration is good but not great — the handcrafted zones look nice but feel smaller than I expected.
9. Starsector
This is an indie gem that almost nobody talks about in mainstream gaming circles. I found it through a Reddit post on r/spacesim in 2022 and bought it for $15. It looks like a flash game from 2005 with its 2D top-down graphics, but underneath the simple visuals is a deep space trading and combat sim with colony management, faction relations, and a dynamic economy. I have over 80 hours in it. The modding community is incredible — there are total conversion mods that add entire new factions and ship systems. If you can get past the dated graphics, it is one of the deepest space games ever made.
8. No Man’s Sky (2024 version)
I hated this game at launch. I paid $60 and got a broken, empty universe with boring planets, tedious resource gathering, and zero direction. But the developers at Hello Games kept updating it for free for eight years. I came back in 2024 and could not believe how much had changed. There is full base building with hundreds of parts, starship customization, living frigates that you grow from eggs, settlements that generate passive income, and a complete story with actual narrative. I started a new save and put 50 hours into it in two weeks. They fixed the game. I am genuinely glad I gave it another chance instead of staying bitter.
7. Space Engineers
I bought this in 2019 for $20 during a Steam sale. It is essentially Minecraft in space with realistic physics and engineering mechanics. I built a massive battleship over three weeks in creative mode — full interior, conveyor systems, turret defenses. Then I crashed it into a planet by accident and spent four hours trying to salvage the wreckage with a small repair ship. The learning curve is brutal. I watched about six hours of tutorials on YouTube before I could build anything that flew in a straight line. But the freedom to design and pilot your own ships is unmatched by any other game.
6. FTL: Faster Than Light
Ten dollars. Bought it in 2013 during a Steam flash sale. I have over 300 hours in this game according to Steam. It is a roguelike where you manage a small spaceship crew, fight off pirates and rebels, and try to outrun an advancing fleet. Every run is procedurally generated and completely different. I have never beaten it on hard mode — I think I have attempted it about 80 times. The soundtrack by Ben Prunty is absolutely incredible and I still listen to it while working. If you own a PC and do not own FTL, fix that problem immediately.
5. Mass Effect Legendary Edition
The trilogy that made me fall in love with space games as a storytelling medium. I replayed the entire Legendary Edition in 2022 and it holds up beautifully. The story, the characters, the choices that actually affect the ending — it all works. I cried at the end of Mass Effect 3. Again. For the third time. The Legendary Edition includes all DLC for $60, which is about 150 hours of content. That is roughly $0.40 per hour of entertainment. The best value in gaming, period.
4. Outer Wilds
This is not a space combat game. This is not a space trading game. This is a space exploration mystery where you have exactly 22 minutes before the sun goes supernova and resets the timeline. You fly around a handcrafted solar system in a wooden ship and piece together what is happening through translated alien writings and environmental clues. I went in completely blind in 2023 and it was the single best gaming experience I have had in ten years. Do not read anything about it. Do not watch a review. Just download it and play it with no prior knowledge. Trust me.
3. Elite Dangerous
I have about 200 hours in Elite Dangerous and I still consider myself a beginner. The Milky Way galaxy is rendered at 1:1 scale with over 400 billion star systems. I once spent three real hours flying to a star system just to see a black hole up close. The game can be incredibly boring during those long travel times. There is a lot of empty, repetitive space. But when you pull off a perfect landing on a high-gravity planet with 2.5 Gs, or scan an undiscovered Earth-like world that nobody has ever seen before, it feels genuinely amazing. I use an Xbox controller for flight and a keyboard for menus — the best setup I found.
2. Kerbal Space Program
I bought KSP in 2015 for $20 on sale. It taught me actual rocket science without me even realizing it. I learned what delta-v means, how to calculate transfer windows, why gravity turns work, and what happens when your staging order is wrong. I landed on the Mun after about 30 hours of failed attempts, and my landing site is now surrounded by debris from all those earlier crashes. The first time I successfully got a rover to Duna, I shouted so loudly my roommate came running into my room thinking something was wrong. If you want to understand how space travel actually works, play KSP.
1. Kerbal Space Program 2
I wrote a full review on KSP 2, so I will keep this brief. It is not as polished as the original — performance issues, missing features, a worse tutorial. But the new interstellar travel and colony building add a layer of depth that the first game never had. Sending a probe to another star system and seeing a binary star for the first time was a genuine wow moment. I have 60 hours in it and I am still not bored. The physics are improved, the visuals are gorgeous, and the explosions are spectacularly satisfying. Check my full review for an honest breakdown.
TL;DR
- Outer Wilds is the best space experience ever made — go in completely blind
- KSP taught me real orbital mechanics better than any textbook or class ever could
- No Man’s Sky redeemed itself after eight years of free updates — respect to Hello Games
- FTL costs $10 and gives you 300+ hours of gameplay — best value on this entire list
- Mass Effect Legendary Edition is essential if you care about story-driven gaming
- Elite Dangerous rewards patience like nothing else — finding an undiscovered world hits different
- Starsector is the hidden gem: $15, 80 hours, and a thriving modding community
— Rand, SpaceGA Space Games