With so many amazing games being launched and ported to theNintendo Switch, there are a ton of options in a variety of genres, and no small amount in the ever-growing survival crafting genre.
There are many excellent titles to choose from where you’ll have to fight to survive, scrounge and forage for food, and craft what you need to make it in the stark wilderness where Mother Nature can be more brutal than any monster. We’re not talking about first-person shooters with elements of survival and horror, but these are games where you’ll start with nothing and have to figure out how to stay alive.
Updated June 12, 2025 by Jacob Whaling: We’ve updated this list with even more survival games to play on the Switch.
Like The Oregon Trail, The Red Lantern is about making proper decisions to ensure your survival while you traverse a dangerous landscape. In this game, you play as a Musher who must travel through the isolated wilds of Alaska to reach her new home.
With your five sled dogs by your side, you’ll have to make important choices like which path to follow, when and how to use your limited ammunition, and whether to use medicine to heal yourself or your loyal crew of canines. Wrong decisions can lead to a swift ending for your character, but every time you try again, the knowledge you gained from previous runs will allow you to make better decisions and survive the wilderness.
Enduring the harsh conditions of a tropical island is challenging enough, but making sure your fellow castaways don’t vote you out is the ultimate challenge in this game inspired by the popular reality series. Not only will you have to gather supplies like firewood and food, but you’ll also need to work on your relationships with the other castaways to reach the final three and have a chance to earn the title of sole survivor.
The game plays as a roguelite, as each season you play through will have various outcomes based on your actions. Everything you do matters, whether you’re using all your stamina to improve camp life or creating too many alliances that end with betrayal. There’s definitely room for improvement, but if you still love Survivor or want some social elements in your survival games, you’re in for a good time.
If anything’s going to be tough to survive, it’s a war. This War of Mine is a poignant take on the survival genre, focusing on civilians in the warring fictional city of Pogoren, Graznavia. Using materials and tools that you can find, you’ll need to keep groups of citizens alive until a ceasefire, by managing hunger, health and mood levels.
The game follows a day-and-night cycle, with different objectives depending on the time of day. At night, you can scavenge for items, and during the day, you can craft using what you found. The Complete Edition includes three new stories and The Little Ones DLC, where you play from the harrowing perspective of a child.
There’s not much that needs to be said about Minecraft. We all know it, and we’ve all played it, but the Nintendo Switch edition of the game is a ton of fun because you may take the game anywhere, investing hours in the sandbox game crafting and building the home of your dreams.
With cross-save, you’re able to take your game from the PC to the bed with your Switch, and there’s also a dungeon-crawling Minecraft game (Minecraft Dungeons) if survival is not your go-to genre. But then, what are you doing here?
Sheltered is a post-apocalyptic disaster management game where you’ll have to protect four family members in an underground shelter. As you try to keep them alive and scavenge the desolate wastelands, you’ll soon realize that every choice you make has consequences for the family.
The game is fun and challenging at times, with plenty of customization and perfectly balanced gameplay that makes you want to build the best possible shelter for your characters. With the randomness of its world generation, there is plenty of replayability.
In this sandbox space survival game, you play as an Astroneer, risking your life to explore the frontier of space. You’ll work to build a custom base using the planet’s natural resources either solo or in online co-op with three friends. With its bright and vivid art style, the game itself is gorgeous, and although it lacks any story, the in-depth gameplay found here will enthrall you.
Playing Astroneer with friends is even more fun as you work towards goals, build, craft, and explore to your heart’s content, surviving in space. You’ll definitely get your money’s worth with Astroneer.
Shipwrecked alone on an uncharted island, you play as Kara, a warrior thrown from her boat and tossed onto the shores of this mysterious and beautiful paradise. Windbound is a classic survival game in every sense, where you’ll start with no food, water, tools, or boat.
It’s both equally intense and relaxed in its gameplay, and you can spend hours exploring and crafting only to end up permanently dying and having to start from nothing all over again.
Tribes Of Midgard
WHERE TO PLAY
Tribes Of Midgard is a Diablo-like action RPG mixed with survival crafter. Set in a Norse-inspired world, you must build your home base, and then explore a procedurally generated in search for resources.
Blending rouge-lite, survival, and action RPG, Tribes of Midgard sees you defending your village from hordes of monsters who want to destroy the Seed of Yggdrasil. If you love Viking culture and want something more intense than Valheim, this game is for you.
The game consistently gets new content with seasonal updates and new bosses. To have the best experience, you’ll need to play with friends, as the game can become a chore otherwise.
Arguably the most realistic survival sim game, Green Hell sees you lost in the Amazonian jungle equipped with only your bare hands. You’ll have to survive in this nightmarish environment by learning actual survival techniques and having to battle against the loneliness and despair of being alone in the jungle.
There are various ways you can survive with satisfying crafting and construction systems. If you manage to survive, the story is another strong element here.
Alone on an island in the middle of the ocean, Stranded Deep will require you to scavenge, hunt, and fight for your life.Explore the depths of the sea, craft the means to travel to other islands, and find a way to get yourself home.
While you’ll need to keep yourself fed and rested, you’ll also need to defend yourself. Sharks patrol these waters, and while there is a lot of valuable loot to be found on the ocean floor, there are also constant threats deep below the surface — and perhaps more than you might be ready for.
