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Every Universe Sandbox game, ranked

All 2 Universe Sandbox games we hold, spanning 2011 to 2015: 2 ranked by the GamingPickz Score and plotted below, the rest listed in release order so nothing in the series is missing. Together they carry 35,059 Steam reviews.

Where to start

  • For the best-reviewed: Universe Sandbox (GamingPickz Score 8.2), the highest-rated entry we can score.
  • For canon order: begin with Universe Sandbox Legacy (2011) and follow the release-order timeline below.

The Universe Sandbox games on the grid

Compare the whole catalogue

The same 2 games, plotted rather than listed. The two axes below are the ones the ranking is built from, so a game sitting high and right is a game the formula placed near the top. Change either axis to see the field a different way. Where we hold a publisher wordmark, the game is drawn as its mark rather than a dot.

2 games have both

78984269Players →Popularity →Universe SandboxUniverse Sandbox Legacy

Axes are fitted to these 2 games rather than the full 0 to 100 scale, because a filtered list shares a narrow band and would otherwise sit in one corner. End values are marked. A point on the left edge is the lowest of thesegames, not a low score.

Players. The share of Steam reviews marked positive, pulled toward the catalogue average in proportion to how few reviews stand behind it. A game with 200 reviews moves a long way toward the average; one with 200,000 barely moves at all. Without this a title sitting at 100 percent on nine reviews outranks Half-Life 2 at 98 percent on 278,000.

Popularity. A blend of two things that are not the same. Audience is how many people wrote a Steam review, which is a floor on how many played it. Reach is how many language editions of Wikipedia document the game, which is cultural footprint rather than sales. A game can score high on one and low on the other: a huge free-to-play title has audience without reach, and a landmark console exclusive has reach without a Steam audience at all. Where both exist they are averaged; where only one does, that one carries it.

  • PC

Every point links to that game's entry. The value map and the reception map are fixed views of the same data.

How positions are decided

No paid placement, no favouritism, live third-party data
  • Placed by the published method, not by us. Every coordinate is computed from the axis definitions and weights printed on this site. Nobody moves a point. See the axes.
  • Nothing here is paid for. No sponsored placements, no promoted slots, no arrangement of any kind affects a position. If that ever changes it will be labelled and sit outside the ranking.
  • No favouritism, including our own. The 16 games we have written full reviews of are scored by exactly the same formula as the other 1,510, from the same third-party inputs, and they land where it puts them. Our own opinion of a game does not enter its coordinates.
  • A position is not an endorsement. It says how a game was received and what it costs, not that we recommend it. Where we do recommend something, it carries a written review with a name on it.
  • Fetched from live third-party data. Player sentiment from Steam, critic aggregates as published on store pages, prices checked hourly, attention from Wikipedia. Each figure carries its source and the date it was read, and we do not adjust any of them.

2 best Universe Sandbox games, ranked

Ordered by GamingPickz Score. Every figure links back to the source that produced it.

Sort by
  1. 1Universe Sandbox logo

    Universe Sandbox

    Best for: A consistently well-received pick in this category

    8.2GamingPickz Scoremedium confidence
    Universe Sandbox at a glance
    Released2015StudioGiant Army
    Player sentiment96% positive of 32,082CriticsNo aggregate
    Price$20.09Steam Deckplayable
    Install size4 GBAccessibility6 declared features

    Raw 96% shrinks to 95.8 on 32,082 reviews, giving 8.2. No critics data, so that weight was redistributed across the rest rather than counted as zero.

    What the data supports
    • Small install at 4 GB.

    PC

    Full entryGames like thisModsStore page

  2. 2

    Universe Sandbox Legacy

    Best for: A consistently well-received pick in this category

    7.0GamingPickz Scoremedium confidence
    Universe Sandbox Legacy at a glance
    Released2011StudioGiant Army
    Player sentiment80% positive of 2,977Critics83/100
    PriceNot listedSteam Deckunsupported
    Install sizeNot statedAccessibility0 declared features

    Raw 80% shrinks to 80.4 on 2,977 reviews, then blends with the 83 critic aggregate, giving 7.0.

    Worth checking first
    • Valve rates it Unsupported on the Steam Deck.

    PC

    Full entryGames like thisStore page

Best and worst entry

The best-received Universe Sandbox game we can score is Universe Sandbox at 8.2. The lowest is Universe Sandbox Legacy at 7.0, a 1.2-point spread across the series. The GamingPickz Score is a composite of player sentiment, critics and popularity, computed the same way for every game.

Cheapest way in, and best value

  • Cheapest right now: Universe Sandbox at $20.09. Prices are read live from Steam and move.
  • Best value: Universe Sandbox, the most GamingPickz Score per dollar in the series at its current price.

On a Steam Deck

Valve's own Deck compatibility rating for the Universe Sandbox entries on Steam:

  • Playable: Universe Sandbox
  • Unsupported: Universe Sandbox Legacy

Platforms across the series

Where the 2 Universe Sandbox games have landed, counting every entry we hold:

Platform familyEntries
PC2 of 2

The Universe Sandbox series, game by game

Every Universe Sandbox game we hold, in release order. Each description is the game's own, from Steam where it has a listing and Wikipedia for the older entries, never ours.

  1. 2011

    Universe Sandbox Legacy

    7.0

    Giant Army · pc

    Create and destroy on a scale you’ve never imagined! (Steam)

    SimulationSandboxSpacePhysics

    Reception

    Reception Both games have received near-universal acclaim. Duncan Geere of PC Gamer gave it an 84/100 and spoke positively of the game, " Universe Sandbox is not going to change your life. It is not going to make you cry, and it won't sit in the top of your most-played list in Steam for weeks. (Wikipedia)

  2. 2015

    Universe Sandbox

    8.2

    Giant Army · pc

    Create & destroy on an unimaginable scale with a realistic physics-based space simulator. Explore the beauty of our universe and the fragility of our planet. Use science to bend the laws of gravity, collide planets, boil away oceans, fire epic space lasers, and customize your universe. (Steam)

    SandboxSpaceSimulationPhysics

    Reception

    Reception Both games have received near-universal acclaim. Duncan Geere of PC Gamer gave it an 84/100 and spoke positively of the game, " Universe Sandbox is not going to change your life. It is not going to make you cry, and it won't sit in the top of your most-played list in Steam for weeks. (Wikipedia)

Universe Sandbox, head to head

Two entries side by side on score, price, specs and reception:

Universe Sandbox vs Universe Sandbox LegacyScores, price and specs side by side

Universe Sandbox vs other series

How Universe Sandbox stacks up against other series in the same genre, as a whole:

Universe Sandbox vs Total WarTwo series side by sideUniverse Sandbox vs Need for SpeedTwo series side by sideUniverse Sandbox vs Age of EmpiresTwo series side by sideUniverse Sandbox vs FalloutTwo series side by sideUniverse Sandbox vs Farming SimulatorTwo series side by sideUniverse Sandbox vs Grand Theft AutoTwo series side by side

Also: Universe Sandbox vs ARMA, Universe Sandbox vs Just Cause, Universe Sandbox vs Saints Row, Universe Sandbox vs Anno, Universe Sandbox vs Car Mechanic Simulator, Universe Sandbox vs Mafia, Universe Sandbox vs Red Faction, Universe Sandbox vs Sniper Elite, Universe Sandbox vs Tropico, Universe Sandbox vs Age of History, Universe Sandbox vs America's Army, Universe Sandbox vs Burnout Paradise, Universe Sandbox vs Crusader Kings, Universe Sandbox vs eFootball PES, Universe Sandbox vs ENDLESS Space, Universe Sandbox vs Euro Truck Simulator, Universe Sandbox vs Europa Universalis, Universe Sandbox vs Forza Horizon, Universe Sandbox vs Hearts of Iron, Universe Sandbox vs Heaven Island, Universe Sandbox vs Jurassic World Evolution, Universe Sandbox vs Men of War, Universe Sandbox vs Metal Gear, Universe Sandbox vs Project CARS, Universe Sandbox vs Slime Rancher, Universe Sandbox vs Sniper, Universe Sandbox vs Stronghold, Universe Sandbox vs Stronghold Crusader, Universe Sandbox vs Subnautica, Universe Sandbox vs The Escapists, Universe Sandbox vs The Sims, Universe Sandbox vs Transport Fever, Universe Sandbox vs Victoria

Common questions

How many Universe Sandbox games are there?

We hold 2 Universe Sandbox games in the catalogue, released between 2011 and 2015. 2 of them carry enough Steam data to rank; the rest are listed in release order below, including console-only entries with no Steam listing.

Which Universe Sandbox game is best?

By the GamingPickz Score, Universe Sandbox rates highest at 8.2. That is a composite of player sentiment, the critic aggregate and popularity, computed the same way for every game, not our opinion. The full ranking is above.

What order should I play the Universe Sandbox games in?

Release order is listed below, from 2011 to 2015. For most series that is also story order, but we list dates rather than telling you a canon; the timeline is read from Wikidata.

More franchises

Browse every game franchise ranked the same way, or head to the full grid.