The best farming games to help you reap what you sow

The best farming games let you live out your agricultural dreams in so many different setups and environments. With a range of different RPGs and sims out there to choose from, there’s nothing quite like seeing you crops thrive as you tend to your land throughout the changing seasons. From planting down seeds, to crafting useful tools, and looking cows, chickens, sheep, and more, many of the best farming games share similar mechanics and features, while others do something a little bit different to offer something a less traditional. 

Whether it be farming slimes in your very own ranch to looking after a graveyard or moving to cozy town, you’re sure to find something that speaks to you. And with some of these picks also counted among our pick of the best crafting games out there, they offer a satisfying sense of progression as you work towards building up your own plot of land. So if you’re ready to put on your straw hat and grab your watering can, join us as we take you through the best farming games you can play right now. 

12. Graveyard Keeper 

(Image credit: Lazy Bear Games)

Developer: Lazy Bear Games
Platform: PS4, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, PC, Nintendo Switch, iOS, Android

If you’re more Wednesday Addams than the rest of this list, that’s ok, we understand you. And so does Graveyard Keeper. It understands that instead of handing over wholesome bottles of milk or duck egg mayonnaise to your townspeople, you want to deliver ‘mystery meat’ to the local tavern that may or may not have been on your mortuary table. There aren’t many medieval cemetery sims out there, but this is definitely our favourite as you accept corpses from a dutiful bell-ringing donkey, make friends with a bouncing skull, and fix up a cemetery. Unlocking new crafting methods is initially a little fiddly, but once you’ve got to grips with all the grim tasks necessary to fulfil your duties, the ‘sunshine’ and ‘happiness’ of all of the rest of the games on this list will become a distant memory. 

11. Staxel

(Image credit: Plukit)

Developer: Plukit
Platform: PC

Minecraft has a lot to answer for but don’t judge Staxel too much on its blocky similarities to Mojang’s world beater. This is a gentle farming and village sim with a charming heart and there’s not an exploding green cactus monster in sight. Like a very square Animal Crossing, you’ll make friends with villagers and head out on bug-catching duties as well as building your farm and growing crops from giant pixelated seeds. It’s all delightfully sedate and quirky as you chat with the locals, wander around on miniature fetch quests and get yourself a pet. Like all farm sims, on paper it sounds a little dull but there’s a satisfying peace in the complete lack of combat and the focus on just making your blocky world as nice a place as possible to live. Thinking about it, there’s probably a lot that humanity could learn from Staxel.

10. The Sims 4: Cottage Living

(Image credit: EA)

Developer: Maxis
Platform: PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X

The Sims 4: Cottage Living is one of the most recent expansions to hit the simming world, and it lets you live out your farming, cottagecore dreams. With a slice of village life, you can grow and harvest your own fresh ingredients and see your garden flourish to truly live off the land. With all manner of new items and clothing to really add to the lifestyle and aesthetic of life on your very own farm fantasy, you also get to do it in style. Not only that, but you can have your own cows and chickens to look after and bond with as well as llamas… Yes, that’s right. Llamas. Along with woodland animals, Cottage Living really does bring a whole helping of cuteness. The Sims 4 expansion is a fantastic option for any Sims fans with a green thumb who wants to experience a virtual life in the countryside.  

9. Story of Seasons: Pioneers of Olive Town

(Image credit: XSEED)

Developer: Marvelous
Platform(s): PS4, PC, Nintendo Switch

Story of Seasons: Pioneers of Olive Town is a gloriously vast farming sim that works to improve its classic formula the series (Harvest Moon originally) is known for with a new crafting system and other little tweaks. It’s still a fantastic farming sim filled with cute animals, interesting people, and plenty of farming to be done. In fact, the entire game is pretty adorable, and there’s plenty to do outside of working the land too. You can’t really go wrong with this series in general.

8. My Time at Portia

(Image credit: Pathea)

Developer: Pathea
Platform: PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, PC, Nintendo Switch

If Stardew’s top down nature has always left you feeling a little disconnected then fret not, My Time at Portia brings you fully into the wholesome farming and village-y action in beautiful 3D. As you might expect, moving into a rickety old shack is a little sad at first, but head into the town of Portia and suddenly you’ll have all kinds of new friends and probably a strange obsession with playing a game called Cross Five with a chap named Isaac. Again, more than just a farming game but with plenty of growing and watering, My Time At Portia initially feels intimidating as you get to grips with its sprawling resource options but it doesn’t stay that way for long. Desperate rock smashing and tree chopping quickly transforms into elegant workshop creations and a cosy sense of farming pride. 

N.B – My Time at Sandrock has now been released as the sequel to My Time at Portia. However, while it’s definitely worth playing, because you play as a builder rather than a farmer, we still think Portia is the better fit for our best farming games list.

7. Slime Rancher 2

(Image credit: Monomi Park)

Developer: Monomi Park
Platform: PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, PC

Sometimes cows and sheep just don’t cut it. You need springy, smiling blobs that can be sucked and fired from a custom piece of technology known as a Vacpack. Welcome to life on the Far, Far Range, where you’re going to become obsessed with feeding different colours of squishy creatures their favourite foods and selling their faeces on the ever-changing *ahem* Plort Market. There’s something unquantifiably glorious about Slime Rancher. Whether you’re adventuring out into the world to find new types of slimes to ensnare, or just making sure that no rogue creatures have escaped their enclosures and are eating poo, this is the kind of dangerously happy world that it’s easy to lose hours in. Just prepare for the guilt if you’ve not fed anyone in a while and your Tabby Slimes little hungry faces make you die a little inside. 

6. Kynseed

(Image credit: PixelCount Studios)

Developer: PixelCount Studios
Platform(s): PC

Kynseed is a sandbox life sim that’s been in Early Access since 2018, and has grown significantly since then. It’s being made by a team of developers who previously worked on the Fable series for Lionhead, and you can totally tell that by the humor that Kynseed itself has. It’s a stunning pixelart title that certainly stands apart from the other titles on this list, particularly because everyone in the game will live and die while you play. You’ll control the titular and mystical Kynseed and grow your family legacy over generations by passing skills and powers down to your children and grandchildren. You can run businesses, go adventuring, develop relationships, and obviously farm too. Through farming, you’ll create various ingredients that you – and the town – will come to rely upon, including beer and cures for illnesses. It’s still in development, but there’s so much to explore already. 

5. Sakuna: Of Rice and Ruin 

(Image credit: XSeed Games)

Developer: Edelweiss
Platform(s): PC, PS4, Nintendo Switch

Sakuna: Of Rice and Ruin is a farming game that’s doing things a little differently. You play as a harvest goddess called Sakuna – as the title suggests – but the gameplay sees you spend as much time enjoying hack ‘n’ slash action as it does farming. It’s really quite unique and it’s actually really gorgeous. Not to mention that the farming is seriously involved, where you’ll have to think about how much you water your rice, what you put into your fertiziler and other elements that make this much more realistic than you may expect. What’s more, what rice you grow and subsequently eat also then impacts Sakuna’s fighting style.  

4. Minecraft 

(Image credit: Mojang)

Developer: Mojang
Platform(s): Everything

Minecraft isn’t technically a farming game, but the joy of Mojang’s blocky creation is that it can be whatever game you want it to be. Its primary focus is crafting and exploration, but if you just want to farm and raise animals you can absolutely do that. It’s possible to build quite the operation, planting and harvesting alongside raising livestock. Plus if you want to dive into the world of downloading some of the best Minecraft mods, then you can go the extra step with your farm ambitions.  

3. Coral Island

(Image credit: Stairway Games)

Developer: Stairway Games
Platform(s): PC

If you’re looking for a game like Stardew Valley, you really need to check out Coral Island because it’s essentially the best clone yet. Seasonal events, mining, an entire town of people to befriend and romance, animal rearing, shrines to donate resources too, and of course farming too. There’s so much that’s directly inspired by Stardew Valley, but with its own little tweaks and Indonesian influences. There are hints of Animal Crossing too, with a museum to build out, and Coral Island also does things its own way with elements like deep-sea diving and a mystery involving mermaids to unravel. All of that is coupled with a narrative that explores themes of pollution and spirituality. It’s currently in Early Access, but there’s a full year of content to enjoy already.

2. Farming Simulator 22

(Image credit: Giants Software)

Developer: Giants Software
Platform(s): PC, PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch

We say that all of the games on this list are about farming but let’s face it, that’s not really the case. They’re about pressing A to crop, B to milk, or smudging your finger across a screen to make all your animals magically happy. Sure it’s in the title but Farming Simulator 22 is actually about farming. It’s about fixing the right bits to the back of your tractor, lowering them perfectly to the ground with a satisfying clonk, and feeling a slow, trickling sense of true achievement as you painstakingly manage to cultivate one tiny strip of acres of land. If the various attachments on your vacuum cleaner of choice get you excited – easy… – then you’re going to love this. As the latest entry in the series, Farming Simulator 22 brings in new maps, crops, machinery, and so much more. 

1. Stardew Valley

(Image credit: ConcernedApe)

Developer: ConcernedApe
Platform(s): PS4, PS5 Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, PC, Nintendo Switch, iOS, Android

Being fully transparent, you’ve arrived at this list for 10 of the best farming games to play right now, but you might as well stop after this first entry. Here, in the sweet embrace of Stardew Valley, available on a now dangerous number of platforms, you will lose hundreds of hours painstakingly fixing up your grandfather’s old farm, naming your animals, selling your wares, mining, collecting, flirting… You get the idea. It’s all here in colorful top-down form. With a host of delightful updates since it first launched, there have been plenty of new additions to keep the pixelated farming sim feeling fresh and keep you coming back for more. 

If you’re looking for more farming goodness, check out these games like Stardew Valley or our pick of the best sim games you can play right now.