5 Fun PC Games Like Animal Crossing
Do you want to play Animal Crossing without a Switch? Click here for a list of fun games for PC that fans of Animal Crossing will love.
Animal Crossing: New Horizons is one of the most popular games on the Nintendo Switch. The game took the world by storm when it came out in March 2020, and it was immediately a hit with the cozy gamer community. Animal Crossing got many of us through those long pandemic months with adorable characters, fun projects, and cute sounds.
But one of the biggest bummers about the game is that it’s only available on the Nintendo Switch. If you’re a PC player, you’re fresh out of luck if you want to enjoy the pleasures of building a community on your island — or so you thought. The fact is, there are plenty of other fun games with Animal Crossing energy that aren’t Switch exclusive.
If you want to enjoy the cozy feel of Animal Crossing on PC, here are five PC games that you can enjoy all day long.
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What Makes Animal Crossing So Popular?
To find the best cozy games out there that still feel like Animal Crossing, let’s first identify what makes this game so amazingly addicting.
The Adorability Factor
For most Animal Crossing fans, the big appeal is that it’s one of the most adorable games of all time. From the character designs to the different buildings and rooms you can create, even right down to the sound effects, the game is cuter than you can imagine.
Because of this, Animal Crossing is a great escape for a lot of gamers. It feels so good to disappear into a world where everything makes you smile, and even the angry islanders are so cute you could squeeze them. But cuteness is just one of the factors we kept in mind as we made this list.
Build Your Own Everything
Of course, another big appeal to the game is that you get to completely customize your entire island and community from the ground up. The game has dozens of different building styles that you can try, and the developers went to painstaking lengths to let you express your creativity as much as possible.
There are also hundreds of outfits to try, many interior design styles to examine, and infinite ways to lay out your island. That’s why our list also features games you can customize to truly make your own.
Keep It Chill
Many gamers love to get sweaty in shooters or big MMOs. It feels good to compete in high-stakes environments. But sometimes, you need to step away from the tilted chat members, crazy techs, and fast-paced gameplay.
Animal Crossing offers a much slower, chiller game alternative that’s still incredibly well-made. The stakes aren’t crazy high, and there are no ragers who are going to flame you when you mess up. We’re looking for games that are a pleasant, slow, and stress-free escape from real life (and maybe even from other games).
5 Games To Try if You Love Animal Crossing
Now that we have a good idea of what we’re looking for, let’s get into the real reason you’re here. Here’s our list of PC games that are guaranteed to melt the hearts of any Animal Crossing fan.
Stardew Valley
The first game we have to mention is, of course, Stardew Valley. This game is a masterpiece from top to bottom.
As the woes of corporate life bog you down, you find that your grandfather, who passed away, left you his farm in Stardew Valley as an inheritance. You use the opportunity to leave the corporate hellscape and find your true calling as a farmer in the charming village.
You can customize your farm, grow crops, raise animals, fight your way through the mines, and build relationships with the local villagers. It’s up to you to choose how you want to proceed in the world.
Maybe you want to prioritize crops overall, or maybe you want to set your farm up to become a master fisherman. You can even create a farm with your IRL friends and take care of it together.
The plot is fantastic, the characters are charming, the gameplay is satisfying, and the music is incredible. Also, similarly to Animal Crossing, the days pass with actual time.
But in Stardew, one in-game day is about 15 minutes long. Make sure you get to bed before 2:00 am — otherwise, you’ll fall asleep and get robbed in the middle of the night!
Sims 4
Sims is a classic series that has been around forever, and Sims 4 is a fantastic culmination of the incredible life simulator. The game provides you with a true sandbox experience, allowing you to play the game however you’d like to play it.
In this game, you take care of your Sim by providing for their needs: Bladder, Fun, Hunger, Social, Energy, and Hygiene. You can choose a job for them and help them grow a family — or don’t. The choice is yours. The beauty of Sims 4 is that you can choose whatever type of life you want for your Sim.
Sims 4 also gives you that “build your own” feel that Animal Crossing does so well, except in Sims 4, you get to customize a whole life instead of an island. Sims 4 also has a ton of different DLCs and mods you can use to completely change the game.
With so many to choose from, there are seemingly infinite ways you can spice up your Sim’s life. You can make the game totally your own and enjoy building a life for your adorable little Sim.
Castaway Paradise
If you’re looking for a game that will feel almost exactly like Animal Crossing, Castaway Paradise is for you. It shares a lot of similar themes with Animal Crossing. For instance, your character is placed on a desert island and you get to explore, interact with villagers, customize your character, build up the island, and even collect bugs.
As you build your life on the island, you can grow crops to help your neighbors out. There are also different seasons and events that give you new content to enjoy all the time.
Minecraft
We all know and love Minecraft. After all, it’s one of the best-selling games of all time — a world of limitless possibilities and endless things to create and explore.
For many of us, Minecraft just never gets old. In Survival mode, you must try and stay alive as monsters try to tear down what you create. In Creative mode, you can get as creative as you’d like and build up whatever your mind can come up with.
While Minecraft doesn’t quite have the cute aspect that is so inherent in Animal Crossing, it leans into and perfects the customization aspect. If you find yourself enjoying Animal Crossing because you love building up a town and civilization, then you’ll really enjoy Minecraft. This aspect also makes it a great game to make and share content for.
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Terraria
Terraria is another fantastic adventure sandbox game that cozy gamers will love to get their hands on. This game is a lot like Animal Crossing in that it’s super charming and has many ways to customize your home, community, and the world at large. But Terraria is far more focused on adventure than Animal Crossing, which makes for exciting and engaging gameplay.
In Terraria, you start in a procedurally generated world where you’re guided by an NPC who shows you how to progress through the world. As you build up your arsenal of tools, explore different parts of the world, and build better houses, you can unlock different cosmetic items, explore new caves, beat bosses, and get more materials to build new things.
This game is much bigger than you might think, and it gets progressively more difficult in a satisfying way. It’s also a lot like Animal Crossing in how you interact with NPCs. There are many friendly allies to encounter across the world, each with their own personality, problems, and quests.
Find New Cozy Games
So there you have it. There are so many fantastic games to choose from, all of which will give you hours of cozy content to enjoy bundled up under a blanket. Whether you need a game to play while you’re sick or you have a long staycation coming up, these games have got your back.
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