Survival games can have a huge variety of themes and game mechanics, from post-apocalyptic—the most common one in the gaming industry—to fantasy, horror, and even cozy when you consider the likes of Minecraft. 2024 is set to be a great year for the survival genre with a wide range of themes.
We’ve selected only the games confirmed to be released in 2024, so Dune: Awakening, Rooted, Under a Rock, and other highly anticipated games didn’t make the list because most of them are still entering the alpha or closed beta phase and are likely not releasing in 2024, not even in early access.
Top 5 survival games due to release in 2024
Once Human
Once Human is set in a post-apocalyptic future and resembles your classic survival shooter where you have to build your base, explore the world, and fight against monsters—but you won’t have only guns at your disposal. As the name suggests, you are no longer human and can now use powers to conquer the hostile world.
You become a Meta-Human after an alien creature called Stardust invades Earth and plunges the world into chaos, making food, soil, and water toxic, and transforming humans and animals into other creatures. You’ll also face beings from another dimension while surviving the chaos.
Once Human doesn’t have a release date yet, but it’s confirmed to launch in Q3 of 2024 on PC through Steam.
ARK 2
ARK 2 puts the player in the Jurassic period to live an epic adventure while surviving dinosaurs alongside Santiago (voiced by Vin Diesel) and his daughter Meeka (voiced by Moana’s Auli’i Cravalho). This game has all the survival mechanics such as crafting, exploring an unknown world, and fighting enemies, but with a souls-like melee combat.
Studio Wildcard promises exciting features such as world events, a hostile group that hunts and attacks the player, and sensory-based creature AI that will track you using sight, sound, and smell. Creatures will be able to use a dynamic pathfinding mechanic to deal with obstacles.
ARK 2 had to delay the game in March 2023 and moved the release date to the end of 2024, with no specific date yet. It will be released on PC through Steam and will be coming exclusively to consoles via the Xbox.
S.T.A.L.K.E.R 2: Heart of Chornobyl
S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl is a highly anticipated sequel to the STALKER series. Players will have to survive in a post-apocalyptic setting but instead of aliens like in Once Human, they travel through the Chornobyl exclusion zone, a place full of mutations, anomalies, and factions.
This game has horror elements, a story with several endings, realistic survival mechanics like hunger, sleeping, bleeding, and radiation, and mutants with different behavior models to scare to death. But you don’t have to face Chornobyl alone. There will be a multiplayer mode as a free update after launch.
STALKER 2 will be available on PC on Steam and Xbox Series X/S. There is no certain release date yet but the game will come out in Q1 2024.
Nightingale
Nightingale looks very different from the survival games mentioned before. It’s set in a fantasy world where there is magic but mixed with a steampunk aesthetic with old guns, oil lanterns, fancy hats, and even an umbrella to glide through the air.
You’ll have to survive in a land with fantastical monsters and beasts. It’s a PvE open-world game you can play solo or with friends in which you can build shelter while traveling, prepare meals, and craft weapons and gear.
Nightingale is currently in the playtest phase, which you can request to join on the Steam page, but will launch on Feb. 22 on PC only.
Enshrouded
Enshrouded puts the player with nothing in a magical world called Embervale. With a medieval and fantastical setting, players can assume the role of a mage, a ranger, a knight, or experiment with weapons and armor to create a unique character.
Keen Games GmbH released a demo for a limited time in 2023 and was well received by the public. Players complained about bugs, but considering it was an early access version, many were able to look past the problems and had a lot of fun playing it.
It supports up to 16 players in a co-op mode to build, craft, and battle across an open world with different biomes from mountains to deserts while exploring and unveiling an epic story. Enshrouded releases on Jan 24 only on PC.
Honorable mentions
There are some games worth mentioning that didn’t cut the top five survival games coming out in 2024 but are still interesting to keep an eye on. Here are survival games releasing this year or that have a high probability of launching in 2024:
- Palworld
- Frostpunk 2
- Bellwright
- Dune: Awakening
- Rooted
- Under a Rock
