Conan Exiles is an open world survival game set in the prehistoric age in which the player has to pit their wits against dangerous lands, NPC enemies and other human opponents.
The game allows you to team up with your friends or play single player and affords you many character customization options such as gender, voice and physical attributes.
If you loved this game and are looking for similar game play, read on as we pick our top 16 similar games.
Conan Exiles Game Features
 Release Date: | 8 May 2018 |
 Developer: | Funcom |
 Publisher: | Funcom |
 Platforms: | Microsoft Windows PlayStation 4 Xbox One Xbox Series X/S |
 Genre: | Action-adventure, survival |
 Setting: | The World of Conan the Barbarian |
 Game Modes: | Single-player, multiplayer |
1. Rust
Rust is a survival multiplayer game set in a brutal world where anything could try to kill you at any time. This thrilling game was first released in 2013 and continues to get new content updates to this day.
Players need to find food, water, and shelter to survive, not to mention the right weapons.
The dynamic world of Rust features never-ending threats, as players can and will kill each other, loot bodies, and steal from their enemies (or unsuspecting passers-by).
The main goal of Rust is to survive the incredibly violent world, but other than that, players can also engage in many other activities that make the world truly immersive.
These include farming, building, joining factions, raiding other players, exploring an entire train network, and securing vehicles.
Rust quickly gained in popularity after Twitch streamers dove into this world in 2020, and the game even gives big streamers the ability to reward their viewers with unique drops.
Any player who’s a fan combat, forming factions, and surviving in a brutal world is bound to fall in love with Rust.
- Developer: Facepunch Studios
- Publisher: Facepunch Studios
- Release Date: December 2013
- Platform: Microsoft Windows, MacOS, Xbox One, PlayStation 4
2. Valheim
Valheim is a sandbox action survival game that’s currently in early access but has already managed to attract a devoted player base. Set in a world where would-be heroes prove they’re good enough to enter the Viking paradise of Valhalla, players start off with nothing as they explore from a third-person PoV.
Your procedurally-generated world has a lot to discover — but enemies lurk everywhere. Forage for new resources and then try your hand at farming and fishing as you create better and better shelters. You’ll level your skills up over time, but you’ll have to keep an eye on your hunger and stamina as you defend yourself against all your foes.
The game’s terrain is impressive, but the combat and crafting systems are even better. There’s a lot to like,, so dive straight in!
- Developer: Iron Gate Studio
- Publisher: Coffee Stain Publishing
- Release Date: February 2021 (early access — full release scheduled for 2023)
- Platform: Microsoft Windows, Linux (and, soon, for Xbox too!)
3. ARK: Survival Evolved
ARK: Survival Evolved is a multiplayer survival game set in a terrifying world and created by Studio Wildcard. This game was first released on Steam in 2017, after being available through early access for around two years.
Players spawn stranded, and freezing cold, on an island called ARK, where they’ll have to survive among over 100 different dinosaurs and other mysterious but definitely deadly creatures.
They can choose to kill these dinosaurs, but taming them may be the better choice, making it possible to ride the creatures. The player can also breed many different dinosaurs, and even raise babies.
Dinosaurs aren’t the only key to success in the world of ARK: Survival Evolved. The multiplayer game allows players to fight or team with hundreds of other players.
The game’s tribe system allows players to team up effortlessly and attack other tribes to achieve total domination. Other mechanics of ARK include farming, tools with durability limits, exploring the vast world, and even building your own structures and shelters.
ARK: Survival Evolved is perfect for Conan Exiles players who are looking for a challenging survival experience where they can team up with their friends to fight powerful creatures. ARK is popular for its unique world, which players can explore endlessly.
- Developer: Studio Wildcard, Instinct Games, Efecto Studios, Virtual Basement LLC.
- Publisher: Studio Wildcard
- Release Date: August 2017
- Platform: Microsoft Windows, MacOS, Linux, Xbox, One PlayStation 4, Android
4. The Forest
Conan Exiles fans who would like to explore the horror genre might enjoy The Forest, a survival game set in a thick forest dominated by terrifying, human-eating, creatures. Though the level of gore is more than a few notches higher, you’ll find the open world exploration mechanics you know and love from Conan Exiles.
The player character has the task of exploring, crafting, building shelters, and fighting off bloodthirsty cannibals after surviving a plane crash. From there, you’ll discover that the creatures you encounter at first are just the tip of the iceberg. Can you survive this brutal world?
The Forest offers a multiplayer option, but single player will keep you busy for hours, too.
- Developer: Endnight Games
- Publisher: Endnight Games
- Release Date: April 2018
- Platform: Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4
5. Subnautica
This famous action survival game offers a vast open world to explore, with plenty of terrifying creatures that will jump scare you and threaten your life.
There are four unique game modes to explore, but Conan Exiles players who are in it to survive will likely want to stick with survival mode or hardcore mode. You’ll be stuck on a remote ocean planet with a complex ecosystem and limited resources. Dive to explore everything the world has to offer, but make sure that your oxygen doesn’t run out as you discover the teeming wildlife and advance your skills.
Subnautica is great for players who love survival and exploration, but who quickly get bored and need quests and a plot to stay interested. Unfortunately, this game doesn’t have a multiplayer mode, but you’ll have some well-written NPCs to keep you company.
- Developer: Unknown Worlds Entertainment
- Publisher: Unknown Worlds Entertainment
- Release Date: January 2018
- Platform: Microsoft Windows, MacOS, PlayStation 4 & 5, Xbox One, Xbox X/S, Nintendo Switch
6. Scum
Another popular sandbox, open-world survival adventure game is Scum. It was both developed and published by Gamepires, and it was released in 2018 on Windows. You’ll play as a prisoner who is trapped on an island, who is unwittingly playing part in a brutal reality show.
Other players, who are also prisoners, reside on the island with you, and they will compete with you to acquire loot, as well as fame.
There are three groups of enemies that you’ll need to confront, protect yourself from, and defeat: other players, mutated beasts, and robotic monsters. In addition to that, you’ll need to figure out how to manage your hunger, your thirst, and your health.
When you consider your challenges, surviving Scum is a task that requires quite a bit of hard work, dedication, wit, and grit. Oh, you also have a complicated metabolic system to figure out and manage, too.
The mechanics of your metabolism keeps tabs on your health, as well as your intake and levels of vitamins, minerals, and nutrients. This results in unique mechanics, such as weight gain, depleted stamina, and increasing speed. There are a lot of details that you’ll need to attend to in regard to combat, too.
To illustrate, you will play in either the first- or third-person, with a ton of guns at your disposal. All in all, Scum is a base building game, which, if we’re honest, can be quite addictive.
To add to the appeal – and to further entice you to keep on playing – the developers of Scum continue to add more and more elements to builds, as well as more and more features, performance upgrades, and weapons.
7. Grounded
Freshly released in 2022, Grounded is a sweet survival game in which the player is faced with the challenge of surviving in the backyard — after shrinking to the size of an ant. Pesky insect pests are suddenly giant monsters, and you still need to eat and drink.
The graphics are beautiful, and the concept plays out amazingly well as you use everyday garden materials to build expansive bases and fight spiders and other creatures. If you manage to stay alive, you’ll get access to brand new areas, and come face to face with new threats.
Grounded has a complex crafting system that allows you to make the tools and weapons that will allow you to stay alive, and this unique game has a multiplayer mode, too.
- Developer: Obsidian Entertainment
- Publisher: Xbox Game Studios
- Release Date: September 2022
- Platform: Microsoft Windows, Xbox One, Xbox X/S
8. Minecraft
This famous open-world game, with its procedurally-generated terrain (and ever-expanding biomes) is a sandbox, so it can be whatever you want it to be.
Conan Exiles players might like to start up a new multiplayer world with their friends in Realms, or join a survival server. If the base game isn’t challenging enough for you, try hardcore mode, where dying means losing your world and the difficulty is hard.
Gamers who last played Minecraft years ago might scoff at the idea of revisiting this now classic game, but Mojang offers exciting new updates every single year — including challenging and exciting new bosses, like the Warden that emerges from the deep.
- Developer: Mojang
- Publisher: Mojang
- Release Date: November 2011
- Platform: Microsoft Windows, MacOS, Linux, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch
9. theHunter: Call of the Wild
theHunter is a series of survival simulation games, which can be played solo or with friends, and in which tracking and hunting wild animals in a realistic manner is the primary goal. theHunter: Call of the Wild is set in a beautiful wild forest, with ultra-realistic graphics, where you and your friends will be able to enjoy the ultimate hunting campaign.
- Developer: Expansive Worlds
- Publisher: Expansive Worlds
- Release Date: February 2017
- Platform: Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4, Xbox One
10. The Wild Eight
In the open-world survival simulation game The Wild Eight, each player spawns in as one of eight survivors of a plane crash, stuck in the the punishingly cold outer regions of Alaska. Survival is, of course, their top priority, and they will have to make a choice.
Will they go it alone or team up with other players, who may later betray them? This game requires players to always be on the alert for danger, and to survive they’ll need to gather resources and avoid mutated wolves.
The Wild Eight is about more than survival, though. Those who are skilled enough to keep going in the frightening world also need to try to uncover the mystery behind the plane crash that got them there in the first place.
Players will be able to loot abandoned buildings, set up camp, and try to survive the unforgiving blizzards of Alaska as they discover why they crashed.
The Wild Eight is reminiscent of Conan Exiles in some ways, but it’s also bound to challenge players in a new and exciting way while they try to find out exactly what is going on.
- Developer: FNTASTIC
- Publisher: HypeTrain Digital
- Release Date: October 2019
- Platform: Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4
11. Green Hell
Green Hell is a first-person survival game Set in the jungle. You take on the role of anthropologist Mike Higgins, who starts the game at the edge of the Amazon jungle. Reminiscent of The Forest, you won’t just have to do your best to survive, but you’re also desperately trying to find your missing wife Mia, who was lost after venturing into a tribal village.
Gathering resources and crafting new survival items is a critical part of the gameplay, but you can’t just keep moving all the time — players will also need to build themselves shelters and keep healthy by learning about traditional medicine.
Green Hell’s advanced PvE elements mean that the open world you play in will always throw you new challenges — surviving is tough enough on its own; try it while you’re hallucinating! The combat mechanics are a little tricky, which might stop some players from getting very far in Green Hell, but it’s a great survival game.
- Developer: Creepy Jar
- Publisher: Creepy Jar, Forever Entertainment
- Release Date: February 2018
- Platform: Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch
12. Escape From Tarkov
Some Conan Exiles fans might be excited to jump into a cooperative survival game with their friends. Those who crave competition should check out Escape From Tarkov, a brutal first-person shooter set in a massive world.
Escape From Tarkov features a slew of survival elements that really place this game beyond the FPS genre. Players can engage in quests, and trade away items they don’t need in flea markets.
Each match lasts less than an hour, and if you die, you’ll lose everything you’d gathered. Escape From Tarkov is a great option for Conan Exiles players who want more action but who also appreciate the built-in ending that comes when the match ends.
- Developer: Battlestate Games
- Publisher: Battlestate Games
- Release Date: July 2017
- Platform: Microsoft Windows
13. DayZ
Developed and published by Bohemia Interactive, and released in December of 2018 on Windows, PS4, and Xbox.
The game includes zombies, which later on, become adversary wildlife, as well as other NPCs. Other elements that you’ll encounter and contend with include crafting, building structures, offline raids, clans, and first-person shootings.
Other than staying alive, there aren’t any rules in this game; as such, you can play solo or against others, or you can join forces with other players. There aren’t any checkpoints or saves, either. When you die, you will lose everything, so you’ll need to restart, which is something that some players might find annoying.
Moreover, the game lacks character progression, so if you lose your loot, you will need to start over again from nothing.
There are three things that can kill you in DayZ: zombies, animals, and other players. You’ll need to defend yourself from these adversaries, and on top of that, you’ll have to contend with severe thirst and hunger, which means you’ll need to hunt for animals, search for water, and manage your resources.
14. Project Zomboid
Many Conan Exiles players will be excited to try wilderness survival games like Green Hell or Rust, but if you’re after a horror game, Project Zomboid is a great option. Played from an isometric perspective, Project Zomboid has a simple goal — survive for as long as you can.
To make that happen, you’ll have to make sure you don’t get too hungry, stressed, or tired… while also, of course, staying ahead of the zombie herds. Project Zomboid is set in a quarantined Louisville, Kentucky, and features a neat skill system where you’ll have to read books to upgrade your knowledge.
The longer you manage to stay alive, the stranger the world becomes, and though Project Zomboid is strictly a zombie game, not all zombies are the same.
Players who are looking for a horror game they can enjoy with their friends don’t need to look any further, because Project Zomboid offers a multiplayer mode.
- Developer: The Indie Stone
- Publisher: The Indie Stone
- Release Date: November 2013
- Platform: Microsoft Windows, MacOS, Linux
15. The Long Dark
The Long Dark is an action survival game in which the player takes on the role of Will, a bush pilot who crash lands in the Canadian wilderness.
Do you have what it takes to survive in this punishingly cold world? It seems easy enough, but The Long Dark has thought of everything. Players will have to watch not just their hunger and stamina, but also thirst, body temperature, the wind chill they’re exposed to, and more.
Eventually, you’ll want to explore each of the map’s unique biomes, as they all offer resources you need to advance.
One cool feature of The Long Dark is that the game offers three game modes to explore. Survival mode speaks for itself, and death is the inevitable outcome. Story mode turns The Long Dark into more of an adventure game, while you can also try the challenge mode.
- Developer: Hinterland Studio
- Publisher: Hinterland Studio
- Release Date: August 2017
- Platform: Microsoft Windows, MacOS, Linux, PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch, Xbox One
