What are the best farming games on PC? There’s something about the repetitive nature of tilling and planting a field. Witnessing the slow payoff of your crops growing makes you feel in tune with nature – even if you are still sitting in front of your computer screen. The best farming games on PC can vary a lot in genre and gameplay, but all eventually come down to getting your hands dirty.
Some of the best PC games that include farming are meant to be experienced alone and focus on the relationships between your protagonist and a cast of local characters. Others, like multiplayer games Staxel and Farm Together, are all about building something with friends and the fun of creating something together that’s more than a prewritten story, so the genre is still full of variation. Whether they’re cute and casual town games like Stardew Valley or more realistic business ventures like the Farming Simulator series, we’ve found a mix of the best farming games that should hit every quadrant of the agricultural games graph.
Here are the best farming games in 2024:
Farming Simulator 25
Farming Simulator is the most realistic farming simulation of the bunch and the best option for players who want to tackle the business side of farming. You’ll spend time managing your balance sheet for the year when deciding what equipment to buy, which livestock to purchase, and how much seed you’ll need for the season.
If you’ve played a Farming Sim before, there’s of course plenty of new content to keep you busy with the latest installment. Alternatively, don’t worry if you’re jumping into the series with 25, as each new game is still incredibly approachable for newbies.
In Farming Simulator 25, you can man equipment yourself, hire NPC workers to assist you, or enlist friends for multiplayer farms with up to 16 players. You can start your farm almost anywhere in the world, from Asia, to America, to Central Europe – the world is your oyster. New crop additions take the total variety of crops to (appropriately) 25 in the latest game, and new livestock including buffalo and goats have been added to the roster as well. This new content still keeps players coming back to the series after so many years, further cementing the Farming Simulator series among the best simulation games on PC, and it’s not stopping any time soon.
Fields of Mistria
Of all the children of Stardew Valley, Fields of Mistria might be the best of the best and is still riding high following an incredibly successful early access release in August 2024. You can see the inspiration clearly in the image above, but you can also see how the aesthetic differs in the pretty, pastel Fields of Mistria. Like Stardew, Fields of Mistria has a cast of romanceable NPCs, but there’s more of an anime game, visual novel influence here.
Rusty’s Retirement
Rusty’s Retirement takes a leaf out of ‘90s pet simulation games and brings farming straight to your PC desktop. Dino robot Rusty is looking, well, pretty rusty – but he’s not ready to put his feet up in front of the TV just yet. Instead, this idle game sits at the bottom of your screen, letting you plant crops for Rusty to nurture while you work or browse.
Once your farm is up and running, you can convert your crops into biofuel that you can sell, giving you enough cash to expand your farm even further. It won’t be long before Rusty’s Retirement is a sprawling pastoral scene, with a ton of automation at your disposal to make routine tasks like watering your planets even easier. This virtual pocket farming game even comes with a “focus mode” that slows down crop production, so you have fewer distractions from Rusty when you want to get your own work done. If you thrive on multitasking and spend your workday wishing for a Stardew-style pastoral escape, Rusty’s Retirement might be for you.
Bandle Tale
Bandle Tale is a farming game, a cooking game, and an adventure game. It covers a lot of ground and looks super cute doing it. You play as a Yordle; a small, furry creature with a penchant for knitting and delicious food. There’s been a bit of a whoopsie with the Yordle portal network and now you’re stuck. You’ll need to grow crops to cook magical meals for your townsfolk, harvesting their happiness to fix the aforementioned network, reuniting the Yordles once more.
Disney Dreamlight Valley
If you like your farming to come with a little nostalgia, then there’s always Disney Dreamlight Valley. In this Disney game, you find yourself in Dreamlight Valley, and it’s up to you to bring this troubled village back to normal by helping an ever-increasing number of Disney and Pixar characters get home.
Disney Dreamlight Valley has a genuine, warm story (naturally, it’s Disney, after all), centered around friendship and kindness, but so much of the game’s narrative is driven by food. Many character quests are hinged on arranging dinners, dates, and picnics; new expansions and areas introduce more ingredients and Dreamlight Valley recipes; and your own energy is boosted by a good meal.
Like Stardew Valley or Coral Island, you can also gift items to your friends, and, most of the time, the way to their heart is through their stomach. Of course, this means farming is pivotal to progression in Dreamlight Valley, but what sets it apart from other games in this list is that different ingredients grow faster in different biomes, so it’s up to you whether you want one big farm or little patches in each area.
Moonstone Island
Like an adorable cross between Stardew Valley and Pokemon, Moonstone Island is the latest hit sim in which you farm, adventure, and romance NPCs across 100 different islands, all while collecting cute creatures. The farming elements in this game are much like anything else of a similar ilk as you grow crops and flowers to eat and craft with. You can also use them in potion-brewing, thanks to the magical elements also included in the Moonstone Island story.
If you thought that was enough, Moonstone Island doesn’t stop there as there are even deckbuilding elements, dungeon-crawling, and almost any other genre you can think of. It might sound like Moonstone Island is a Jack of all trades, but truly, it’s a master of them all.
The world is absolutely stunning, and rather than being limited like some other farming and life sims, you can set up your home on any of the 100 procedurally generated islands in the life game. Once you’ve set up home, head out into the world to start taming monsters: from ghosts, and dinosaurs, to mushrooms and robots.
Coral Island
Coral Island is a great newer game for fans of Stardew Valley who might want to move on to something different after all the years. Heavily influenced by Stardew, with a hidden easter egg even dedicated to Concerned Ape, fans of the pixel life game will be familiar with most of the Coral Island mechanics, from growing crops, to building and crafting, mining, and farming livestock.
However, there are some new features with Coral Island. Aside from just looking more up-to-date thanks to more modern graphics, a huge part of Coral Island is based in the ocean. The running story of the farming game is about the environmental impact of oil, trash, and capitalism on a small town, and one of your first jobs is to clean garbage from the sea. While the farming mechanics are much the same as Stardew, and the mining aspect to boot, this addition of farming materials from the ocean floor allows the spin on a classic farming life sim to blossom.
Doraemon Story of Seasons
In an unlikely combination, Doraemon Story of Seasons blends a classic farming series that had never previously been released on PC with a popular Manga character from the ’70s. Doraemon – no stranger to licensed game spinoffs – joins Story of Seasons in a beautiful watercolor-style farming game.
Doraemon brings a bit of Japanese culture to the genre that even other games developed in Japan like the Harvest Moon series abandon for more Western-feeling versions of rural life. Doraemon will plant crops, raise animals, and help out around the town of Natura making friends with villagers and attending local festivals. As many a fan will tell you, the Story of Seasons is the ‘true’ Harvest Moon series, having undergone a rebrand after losing the rights to the Harvest Moon name.
Kynseed
Kynseed is the first game from a group of former Fable series developers and was fully rolled out in December 2022 having received plenty of updates during a long early access period. Its dense pixel art style and a large world to explore give it a distinct vibe from some of the other games on the list.
Although it still revolves around planting crops, befriending townsfolk, and exploring the world, the intentionally groan-worthy humor inherited from the Fable series gives Kynseed a very different flavor from something like Stardew Valley or My Time At Portia.
Farm Together
Farm Together is another agricultural game with multiplayer in mind. It has options for customizing your clothing, your cat or dog companion, your house, and your tractor to differentiate yourself from other players on the farm. One of Farm Together’s standout features is that time progresses on the farm even while you aren’t playing. Friends or strangers can access your farm while you’re away depending on what permission settings you go with. Even if you manage to exhaust the possibilities on your farm (you probably won’t) you’ll still be able to visit a friend or stranger’s farm to help them out with theirs.
Staxel
At first glance, Staxel looks like a colorful Minecraft clone. Instead, it’s an even blend of Minecraft’s blocky style and Stardew Valley’s casual farming, with no combat to speak of. Staxel is a good farming game for tuning out after a long day.
Its systems are shallower and less demanding than other farming-type games, with a broader list of tasks to choose from. It dabbles in bug-catching, fishing, and NPC relationships without making too much of either one. Ultimately, Staxel was built to be enjoyed as a multiplayer game and is best played while chatting idly with friends.
Farmer’s Dynasty
Farmer’s Dynasty is another more realistic farming game with 3D characters and equipment. Like the more stylized 2D games on this list though, Farmer’s Dynasty focuses on quests and relationships with characters more than the business-focused Farming Simulator series. You’ll split time between running your farm operation, doing construction tasks by hand, and doing favors for fellow townsfolk.
Farmer’s Dynasty allows players to choose between antique farming equipment and more modern options in a way that makes it less than realistic for simulation-focused farmers. Instead, it’s a bit more about dabbling in rural life with fewer deep business concerns.
Harvest Moon: Light of Hope
Harvest Moon: Light of Hope is the first of the long-standing series to come to PC. It follows the formula that those who have played other farming town simulations will recognize: the protagonist arrives as a newcomer to a floundering town and by running a successful farm and making friends hopes to breathe life back into the community.
In Light of Hope, a shipwreck strands you in a coastal town where you’ll help to rebuild the lighthouse. Although Light of Hope wasn’t quite as well-received as Stardew Valley, it has the same balance of farming and social life as previous Harvest Moon games and still boasts plenty of charm from the historic series.
Stardew Valley
Many years after its release, Stardew Valley is still at the top of the list for many people seeking a well-balanced farming game. With each update adding more polish and features, it will likely stay a favorite for many growing seasons. Stardew Valley is all about inheriting a family farm from your late grandfather and moving to the small rural village of Pelican Town. You’ll spend your seasons grooming your family farm into a profitable operation, making friends (and maybe spouses) with the local villagers, and revitalizing the town itself with the help of the magical little creatures.
Although Stardew is a life and town sim following in the footsteps of the Harvest Moon series which – at the time – had never arrived on PC, there’s also a sturdy community of farmers obsessed with optimizing their operations. You won’t have to look for inspiration if you want to design the most profitable or prettiest farm, plus there are countless Stardew Valley mods so you can drastically change the experience to suit your tastes.
Minecraft
Although Minecraft is primarily a crafting and exploration game, its years of updates have continued to expand the crops you can grow and their uses. If you don’t care to adventure much at all, it’s not out of the question for you to spend all of your time in Minecraft designing and tending to an expansive farm operation.
Whether you plant and harvest everything by hand in vanilla Minecraft, install a bunch of Minecraft mods that add additional crops and animals, or learn a lot about Redstone devices to create a partially automated field, you’ll spend plenty of hours building your ideal Minecraft farm. Just be sure to equip one of the best Minecraft shaders so your crops look extra pastoral.
And there you have it, our rundown of the best farming games on PC. Picks so good you can bet the, er, farm on them. Nothing to do now except to watch all those crops grow, or you could check out some of our other great lists like the best building games or best free PC games. Now if you’ll excuse us, we have animals to herd, seeds to sow, and hay to make.