Joe Hindy / Android Authority
Survival games are some of the most popular on mobile. It’s also one of the few where the primary mechanic is in the name. You have to survive. Players usually set up a base, craft various things, create defenses from outside threats, find food, and, sometimes, make friends. There are a lot of different takes on the base gameplay mechanics. Most survival games have a distinctive survival feel but manage to remain reasonably separate from one another. Here are the best survival games for Android.
We also have a full list of the best RPGs and JRPGs games. They aren’t hardcore survival games, but they do have survival elements. We also recommend Out There: Ω Edition (Google Play). It’s excellent, but it hasn’t been updated in a few years. This War of Mine (Google Play) is also good, despite its crash bug issues.
The best survival games for Android
Alien: Isolation
Price: $10.99
Alien: Isolation is a survival-horror game that takes place in the Alien universe. You play as Amanda Ripley, Ellen Ripley’s daughter, as she goes to a space station to solve the mystery of what happened to her mom. You show up underprepared and underequipped, and thus, the survival experience begins. There are a variety of items and resources to find to help you live through everything as you progress through the story. This is an excellent game overall and a faithful port of the original. The price is a bit high, but there are no in-app purchases to muck things up. Some users do complain of the game crashing on their device; be sure to check if your device is compatible.
Ark: Survival Evolved
Price: Free/In-app purchases ($0.99 – $39.99 per item)
Ark: Survival Evolved is a survival adventure game with some city-building elements. Players establish a home base, build up their space, tame dinosaurs, and fend off marauding bandits and other bad things. You start out alone and unarmed and must build yourself up from basically nothing. That includes weapons, buildings, resources, and other stuff. The game is free to play, with some in-app purchases that give players various benefits. There are also social elements to play with friends, a crafting system, and a bunch of land to explore. Plus, it’s one of the most graphically intense games on mobile, so it should look outstanding on high-end screens. The game does have quite a few bugs that are fixed with frequent updates.
Cataclysm: Dark Days Ahead
Price: Free
Cataclysm: Dark Days Ahead is one of those diamonds in the rough survival games. It’s free and open-source, with hundreds of contributors. You start out with nothing and try to survive in a randomly generated world. You have monstrosities to defeat, stuff to collect, and a human to protect. The graphics fit the description of a retro-style game. The menu system is not that great; learning the controls takes some time, but otherwise, it’s a great game. There are also two versions. We linked to the one that is still actively updated. There’s another, older one that isn’t. You can go with either one.
Crashlands has so many different gaming elements that it boggles the mind. You’ll find RPGs, survival, action, adventure, and even monster collecting. The game revolves around an intergalactic trucker who gets stranded on an alien planet. Your job is to fight bad guys, build a base, deliver your lost packages, and save the world from evil. It’s intensely deep, has over 500 items that you can craft, and you can even tame creatures to fight alongside you. You won’t die if you don’t do things like eat, so purists may not enjoy this one as much as others. However, creature hunting, item collecting, home building, and item crafting mechanics are all there and better than most other games. There is also cloud-saving support and an achievement system. It also comes at a decent price and is one of the most unique survival games out there. This one is also free via Google Play Pass, if you have it.
Day R Survival
Price: Free/In-app purchases ($1.49 – $99.99 per item)
Day R Survival is an excellent freemium survival game. This one takes place in the USSR. It includes 2,700 locations on a huge map, tons of items to find, and a relatively decent survival experience. You have to stave off hunger, not get killed by zombies, and avoid radiation where possible. It also boasts an RPG progression system for skills like shelter, mechanics, chemistry, and other such things. The free game by itself is amazing, but there are also in-app purchases to help you progress faster.
Don’t Starve: Pocket Edition and Shipwrecked
Price: $4.99
Don’t Starve: Pocket Edition is one of the more popular survival games. Your job is to survive and succeed in an unrelenting wilderness. Not doing so will result in your quick and untimely death. Like most games in the genre, you’ll have to collect resources, exploit your environment for your own gains, and do whatever it takes to live. The charm of this one involves the little extras and supernatural elements that set it apart from pure wilderness survival games. This one might be a little difficult to play; there’s a bit of a learning curve. The menu can be annoying at times, and the controls might glitch occasionally. Shipwrecked is the second game in the series. It’s just as good as the first one. Most of the mechanics are the same; the only huge difference is the environment. Both games are $4.99 with no in-app purchases.
Doom & Destiny Worlds
Price: $4.99
Doom & Destiny Worlds is a light survival game mixed with an RPG. It takes you back to the SNES days, and the best part is you don’t even need an SNES emulator to run it; it’s available on your Android. The graphics hit the nostalgia button a bit for older gamers. You start out with a party affected by anmesia. From there, you gather resources, craft items, level up your party, and make your way through the game. The survival elements here are pretty light, but you can drown on your way to an island while exploring, so it’s important to manage those types of things. Fans of the first two Doom & Destiny games have quite a few gripes about it not playing like the first two games, but as a standalone survival RPG, it’s pretty good. We also recommend checking out classic combat mode, as it’s a little more traditional than the one you start with in-game.
Dysmantle
Price: $10.99/In-app purchases ($4.49 – $4.99 per item)
Dysmantle is a survival game that follows the standard survival layout. You start with nothing and must gather resources and build your way into safety. This one is nice because you can break almost everything in the game to use as materials. There are also things to fight or run away from, a crafting system, and various tools to make your life easier. In terms of pure premise, this is a pretty standard survival game. However, the presentation is outstanding, and it’s definitely one of the easier recommendations we can make in this genre. This is one of the good ones, no doubt about it.
LOST in BLUE
Price: Free/In-app purchases ($0.99 – $99.99 per item)
Lost in Blue is a free-to-play survival game that has a lot to offer, with pleasing visuals, an appealing soundtrack, and great interactive elements. After surviving a plane crash, you’ve been stranded on an island. Now you need to find resources, build weapons, and create a shelter to survive both the relentless terrain and blood-thirsty zombies, pirates, and animals. The game is single-player, but there’s also a multiplayer option. The downside is that it’s pretty expensive; the material costs are high, and if you’re not paying, it takes a lot of time to grind.
Last Day on Earth: Survival
Price: Free/In-app purchases ($0.99 – $199.99 per item)
Last Day on Earth: Survival is one of the most popular survival games on mobile. You have to gather resources, steal stuff, craft stuff, and fight bad guys in order to stay alive. It also has shooter and zombie apocalypse elements. It also has a decent YouTube community for tips, tricks, and tutorials. This is a free-to-play game, and players can buy advantages. However, and perhaps ironically, not buying anything makes it that much more difficult to survive stuff, and some players like the added challenge. It’s entertaining for what it is, but people who don’t like free-to-play games may not like it as much.
Raft Survival
Price: Free/In-app purchases ($0.99 – $99.99 per item)
Raft Survival is one of the more popular survival games available. A cataclysmic event resulted in sea levels rising, turning most of the world into an endless ocean. You’ve only survived with the help of your raft. With no resources, no place to go, and only a will to live, you need to look for resources, craft essentials, and fight sharks. Be on the lookout; however, you might find other survivors and land. The game has good graphics, it’s easy to learn, and it is primarily a single-player game, but there’s also a multiplayer version available. The annoying part of this game is the ads. For an ad-free experience and to unlock some stuff for your convenience, you have some in-app purchases available.
Minecraft
Price: $6.99/In-app purchases ($0.99 – $49.99 per item)
Minecraft is one of the world’s most popular survival games on any platform. It’s also great for creative people and other stuff. Survival Mode is the epitome of what survival games should be. For those who don’t know, Minecraft puts you in a randomly generated world, and then you do whatever you want. You can build things, mine things, kill things, grow things, and do pretty much whatever you want. Microsoft made some big moves with Minecraft in 2016 and 2017. You can play this game with people on PC and Xbox One now. It’s one of the few cross-platform games for mobile, PC, and Xbox One.
Terraria (Google Play) is also an outstanding game that utilizes some of the same mechanics, albeit in a different way. You can’t go wrong with either one.
Grim Soul
Price: Free/In-app purchases ($0.99 – $299.99 per item)
If you love fantasy medieval settings, you’re going to love Grim Souls. The imperial province, which once burst with the laughter of children, is now covered in fear and darkness. Its inhabitants have mysteriously turned into brainless zombies and endlessly wandering souls. Your goal is to get to the bottom of this mystery, find out what’s causing it, and survive. Infiltrate castles and dungeons, clear hordes of enemies, and look for shelter. Notable features include a multiplayer guild system, a pet system, and tons of events. Unfortunately, as in many other games, you need to grind a lot. You can also watch ads to boost your rewards. In-app purchases are available, which makes the game a lot easier.
Prey Day
Price: Free/In-app purchases ($0.99 – $39.99 per item)
Prey Day is another zombie survival game. You start off in a hospital, stripped of all your equipment, with no place to go as zombies swarm your location. You now need to look for resources, craft equipment, and fight your way through to find survivors. Be careful, though; in a post-apocalyptic world, who knows who your friend is? The game has a huge online world, and you can enjoy surviving with real-life players. The controls are easy, the user interface is neat, and you shouldn’t have too much trouble while playing this game. As a survival game, you need to find a lot of resources, so don’t complain about grinding for stuff. The PVP zones are ruthless. We do wish that they fixed the connection issues.
The Wanderer
Price: Free/In-app purchases ($1.39 – $20.99 per item)
The Wanderer is one of the most interesting survival games on mobile. It doesn’t make heavy use of complicated controls or graphics. Instead, you make decisions that impact how the game goes, and mostly watch how it plays out. You can do things like take in a wild dog to help you find supplies, but it needs food and water like you do, so there is a give and take. The game ramps up in difficulty as you play, but does so in a natural and good-feeling way. There are a ton of different things you can do in the game, down to picking locks and taking on quests to kill bandits. It’s quite good. Definitely a sleeper pick on this list.
