10 Best Tycoon Games: Top Titles to Enjoy in 2025
When it comes to the best tycoon games, titles like Rollercoaster Tycoon, Theme Hospital, and the Simcity series quickly come to mind. Thanks to their wide and/or deep dives into the many systems that require thorough understanding, tycoon games are a great way to challenge players.
Many of the best tycoon games are business sims where you’ll need to manage the different processes required to keep things running. From resource allocation to budget management and task prioritization, these games offer a massive, multi-faceted challenge sure to delight strategic minds.
Our Top Picks for Tycoon Games
If you love building, managing, and watching your empire grow, tycoon games are where it’s at. Whether you’re running a theme park, hospital, or even a prison, these games let you flex your strategic muscles while having a blast. These are our top choices:
- Game Dev Tycoon (2012) – a “simple” yet addictive title about making games.
- Two Point Hospital (2018) – a worthy spiritual successor to the classic Theme Hospital that keeps the charm and quirkiness.
- Planet Coaster (2016) – a modernized Rollercoaster Tycoon.
- Zoo Tycoon: Ultimate Animal Collection (2017) – this simple take on the Zoo Tycoon formula makes it a solid choice for beginners and casual players.
- Prison Architect (2015) – incarceration was never more profitable.
But while not every title on this list is on the top five, all of them are definitely worth a look!
10 Best Tycoon Games to Play Right Now
What makes tycoon games especially great is the amount of strategy required to beat them. Whether it’s via resource allocation, budget reviews, or optimization, tycoon games offer tough challenges that require a lot of careful management to overcome.
Because there are so many ways to approach tycoon games, one can almost think of them as a type of puzzle. Think of it this way: you’re given a problem (an ailing business, for example) and it’s up to you to use your tools to overcome that challenge.
Whether you’re managing a hospital, a theme park, a zoo, or a farm, you’ll need the right mindset and a strategic approach to build a successful business. Here’s our list of 10 tycoon games sure to tickle your brain.
1. Game Dev Tycoon
| Platforms | Release Year |
| PC, Mac OS, Linux, Switch, iOS, Android | 2012 |
If you’ve ever wanted to prove you could do better than modern gaming companies, Game Dev Tycoon lets you put your money where your mouth is.
Things start simple – make a good game, and folks will buy it. But as with real life, video game development grows ever more complex as time and tech march on. Licenses need to be bought, audience tastes need to be catered to, and hardware must be built. Depending on how you play it out, your tiny garage studio will either grow into an industrial behemoth…or just stay indie.
This simple yet deep gameplay loop easily earns this title a spot in my list of great simulation games. As if that wasn’t enough, Game Dev Tycoon also has a very robust modding scene!
Get your copy of Game Dev Tycoon >
2. Two Point Hospital
| Platforms | Release Year |
| PC, Mac OS, Linux, Switch, PS4, Xbox 1 | 2018 |
This spiritual successor to Theme Hospital (I had that on the PS1) isn’t just a great tycoon game, it’s also one of the better Mac games you can get today.
To build a successful hospital, you’ll need to spread your limited resources to build facilities and hire staff, who will research diseases and cure people. Not that any of this is serious, mind you. With diseases such as Jest Infections and Night Fever, as well as doctors with traits that range from hygienic to straight-up evil, Two Point Hospital celebrates the zany charm of its forerunner.
Two Point Hospital is comical, yes, but you’ll find that it does play the business aspect quite straight. Delicate management is required, lest you find your hospital closing down!
Nab a copy of Two Point Hospital >
3. Planet Coaster
| Platforms | Release Year |
| PC, Mac OS, PS4/5, Xbox 1, Xbox Series X/S | 2016 |
No new Rollercoaster Tycoon games in years? No worries. Planet Coaster has everything that the RCT series offers, and more.
As a theme park manager, you’ll need to carefully build each turn, each loop, and each drop on your death-defying roller coasters. Watch out though: too much g-force or too scary/nauseating of a ride, and only the most hardcore of guests will drop by. Not that will stop you as you can ride your own coaster in first-person POV so you can experience your creation firsthand. And if you’re in a creative mood, sandbox mode allows you to literally go off the rails with your designs!
Coasters are the main attraction, sure, but you’ll need to keep your guests happy to keep them paying. Set up other rides and attractions, build restaurants and places for them to rest, and even put up hotels in case they decide to stay overnight. All of which, coincidentally, leads to more money to build more coasters.
Get a great deal on Planet Coaster >
4. Zoo Tycoon: Ultimate Animal Collection
| Platforms | Release Year |
| PC, Xbox 360, Xbox 1 | 2013 (base game), 2017 (Ultimate Animal Collection remaster) |
Zoo Tycoon: Ultimate Animal Collection is a good, simple starting point for casual gamers looking to get their feet wet.
As with the other Zoo Tycoon games, you’ll be in charge of running a zoo in this title. Management is surprisingly easy in this one, with pre-built exhibits, restricted animal placement, and less need to tend to guest needs. All of this leads to a rather peaceful experience where you can take all the time you need to design the zoo of your dreams. Once you’re done, you can even walk through the place!
Get your copy of Zoo Tycoon: Ultimate Animal Collection >
5. Prison Architect
| Platforms | Release Year |
| PC, OS X, Linux, Switch, PS4, Xbox 360, Xbox 1, iOS, Android | 2015 |
Prison life is tough, no question. But maintaining a prison is just as tough, as you’ll learn in Prison Architect.
Each inmate you hold adds to your daily stipend, but be warned – these are human beings and you’ll need to satisfy their many needs to keep them happy and cooperative. However, some of them can and will stir up trouble whenever they can. These hardened convicts require special attention, from separate cell blocks, solitary confinement rooms, or even a cadre of heavily-armed guards. You do get paid more for troublemakers, so it’s a risk-reward kind of thing.
The complexity of planning for different prisoner types makes Prison Architect not just a fantastic tycoon game, but also a great strategy game. And if you’re looking for more customization, you can also tweak several settings for a more realistic experience, or even dive into the utterly gigantic mod library!
Get a great deal on Prison Architect >
6. Factorio
| Platforms | Release Year |
| PC, Linux, Mac OS, Switch | 2020 |
Factorio is hands down the best tycoon game for those obsessed with building and optimizing. I promise: you will never run out of things to do in this game.
Eternal expansion and optimization is the core of Factorio. As a stranded engineer on the uncivilized world of Nauvis, you’ll need to harvest natural resources, process them, and use these products to build space infrastructure to return home. You will, however, soon forget about your original goal as you immerse yourself in the various processes required to run your factory.
The factory must always grow.
Factorio also has multiplayer, allowing for exponential factory growth with the help of your friends. There’s also a very active mod scene, allowing you to tweak the complexity and add even more content.
7. Stardew Valley
| Platforms | Release Year |
| PC, Mac OS, Linux, Switch, PS Vita, PS4, Xbox 1, iOS, Android | 2016 |
I’m a 90s kid, so I have very fond memories of the Harvest Moon series. But as I grew up and my tastes became more refined, the games’ shortcomings became more evident. Thankfully, games like Stardew Valley came along. This is a simple, addictive tycoon game that’s also on of my personal top games of all time.
Your life as an office peon in Zuzu City comes to an abrupt end as you get sudden inheritance from your grandpa, in the form of a farm in Pelican Town. Once you claim your land, you’re free to play as you wish. Most players will dive straight into farm management: planting crops, nurturing them, raising livestock, and processing resources will quickly make you a very rich farmer.
But Stardew Valley is also a life sim, so be sure to socialize around town. Who knows, you might find friends…or maybe more than friends.
If you’re hungry for more content, you’ll be happy to know that Stardew Valley supports multiplayer and also has a massive modding scene!
Get a copy of Stardew Valley >
8. Idol Manager
| Platforms | Release Year |
| PC, Switch, PS4/5 | 2021 |
Most of us are familiar with idol culture by now. But Idol Manager strips back the glamor and glitz and shows you just how dang hard the business is. To keep your business afloat, you’ll need to sell your idols’ talents, whether it’s via music, radio ads, TV shows, publications, or live events.
A ton of hard work goes into each and every endeavor – most of your starter idols have little talent, stress breakdowns are very common, scandal scenarios are always looming over the horizon, office rent is oppressively high, and the public’s mind is mercilessly fickle. Make no mistake: this tycoon game is brutal.
But while the difficulty never lets up, there’s fun in finding the right combination of what works for you. Staying in the green at the end of the month has never been so satisfying!
9. Cities: Skylines
| Platforms | Release Year |
| PC, OS X, Linux, Switch, PS4/5, Xbox 1, Xbox Series X/S | 2015 |
Simcity was undoubtedly one of the best tycoon games, but thanks to its disastrous 2013 reboot, its time has passed. Luckily, Cities: Skylines is here to show that the city sim genre is still very much alive.
As with Simcity, you’ll play as the mayor of a new metropolis. Off the bat, you’ll need to provide housing, commercial zones, industry, power, water, and reasonable transportation (yeah, you need to plan for traffic) for your citizens.
As the years pass and your populace grows, you’ll gain access to more facilities. Schools, for instance, provide education, which leads to higher-paying jobs as well as less pollution. It’s not an exaggeration to say that almost everything in Cities: Skylines lies in a massive, interconnected web, and mastery requires you to do well at every level.
Get a great deal on Cities: Skylines >
10. Rimworld
| Platforms | Release Year |
| PC, Mac OS, Linux, PS4, Xbox 1 | 2018 |
Calling Rimworld one of the best tycoon games is accurate – you need to manage food, energy, optionally money, and more things – but it’s way more than that. Developer Tynan Sylvester calls it a “story generator”, while I call it “one of the best games ever”.
To put it simply, anything goes in Rimworld. You can play things perfectly straight by farming and hunting for food, building homes and equipment for your colonists, harvesting resources and manufacturing products for export…or you could go full sociopath, attack other settlements, then use their people for food and authentic human skin hats and armchairs.
You’re free to go as far off the rails as you want in Rimworld; the only limit is your imagination.
There’s a wealth of content just waiting to be discovered in Rimworld…but it’s also worth mentioning that the modding scene is absolutely bonkers!
FAQs
What is a tycoon style game?
Tycoon games are games that focus on the management of the processes that keep something running – usually a business.
What is the best tycoon game?
It’s hard to pick just one! I’d highly recommend Game Dev Tycoon, Prison Architect, Stardew Valley, Rimworld, and Factorio. If you’re looking for retro tycoon games, give OpenTTD, Fast Food Tycoon/Pizza Syndicate, and the Rollercoaster Tycoon series a shot.
Are there any multiplayer tycoon games?
Yes! Some, such as Two Point Hospital feature competitive multiplayer, while others like Stardew Valley and Factorio support co-op play!
