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The best games like Animal Crossing

Games like Animal Crossing offer a cozy, laid-back time and are sure to get you Tom (N)hooked on a mobile or Switch game for hours on end.

games like animal crossing - Tom Nook pointing at three characters on a green background

Yearning for the simple island life, or endless gardening? Our list of games like Animal Crossing can help you pick up a new title to sink hours into, or a few minutes each day. Either way, there are plenty of wholesome vibes, friends to meet, and outdoor areas to decorate however you please.

If you’re looking for something a bit more specific, then we recommend the best farm games, indie games, visual novels, and these Steam Deck games to take your gaming on the go – or to curl up in bed with.

Here are the best games like Animal Crossing on Switch and mobile:

games like animal crossing - cozy grove camp spirit - a camp filled with trees and bushes and a small shop

Cozy Grove and Cozy Grove: Camp Spirit – Switch and mobile

Cozy Grove, and its 2024 sequel, are life sims with a likeness to Animal Crossing. In this title you find yourself camping out on a haunted island. While the premise might sound a little spooky, the gameplay and aesthetics are as cozy as the name suggests. You’re a spirit scout, who finds and befriends local ghosts, exploring the surrounding forest, and crafting with items you find along the way. Blissful.

You can play Cozy Grove on Switch and mobile, but Camp Spirit is available on mobile via Netflix games – if you have an account, we highly recommend you play it.

games like animal crossing - hello kitty island adventure characters sat on a beach wearing colorful clothes

Hello Kitty Island Adventure – mobile

Imagine a world, similar to Animal Crossing’s islands, but you play as Hello Kitty. Well, it exists! Hello Kitty Island Adventure is currently available via Apple Arcade on iPhones and iPads and features all of your favorite Sanrio characters.

You can give them gifts, complete quests, decorate, and just have a lovely time. The game is coming to Switch next year, so we can all get our hands on it even if we don’t have an iPhone.

games like Animal Crossing Disney Dreamlight valley: a town center bustling with activity

Disney Dreamlight Valley – Switch

Disney Dreamlight Valley brings together some great aspects; it’s got a house to furnish, crops to plant, a town to revamp, and friends to make! Best of all, it’s filled with our favorite Disney characters. Dreamlight Valley continuously gets updates adding more characters and content, so you won’t run out of things to do.

Check out what’s coming in the next Disney Dreamlight Valley update here, all the active Disney Dreamlight Valley codes for some freebies.

games like animal crossing - a screenshot showing two characters talking in the garden path

The Garden Path – Switch

The Garden Path works similarly to Animal Crossing in that it’s meant to be enjoyed in short bursts, over the course of a few weeks or months – or longer if you feel like it. You find yourself in an overgrown garden where vegetable and animal-shaped villagers wait to greet you.

You can fish, plant plenty of seeds, and decorate your own tent and the surrounding forest. Check out our The Garden Path review for a deeper look at this adorable life sim.

Cult of the Lamb – Switch

Okay, look, I can explain. Do you remember Aika village, the horror-themed Animal Crossing New Leaf town? And plenty of other spooky and strange islands in New Horizons? Well, Cult of the Lamb is like that, but with some combat and murder thrown in. Sorry… I meant sacrifice. 

Look at those little critters, aren’t they adorable? You can fill your cult with any number of animals to follow your religion while building houses and amenities for them and decorating your space. Sure, you have to collect bones and fight demonic beings but its all so cute!

games like Animal Crossing Story of Seasons: some round cows in a barn

Story of Seasons: Pioneers of Olive Town – Switch

The Story of Seasons franchise has plenty of entries, but Pioneers of Olive Town on the Switch is one of the best. Become a farmer and build the farm of your dreams – filled with adorable round cows – and participate in the town’s events.

The game has two difficulty modes, too, and the Sapling setting offers an even more relaxed time for those truly wanting to chill out.

games like Animal Crossing Pocket Love: A look inside a house

Pocket Love – mobile

Available on iOS and Android is HyperBeard’s Pocket Love, a cute little game where you (and your lil chibi partner) can decorate and build up a house, and earn money through minigames.

Each day the store refreshes its offerings, and there are freebies to get every so often. We recommend this game for its decoration aspects!

games like Animal Crossing ooblets: a bunch of Ooblets farming in a garden

Ooblets – Switch

Ooblets on the surface is a creature collection game, but there is much more to it. You can farm, explore new areas, build relationships with local townsfolk, and enter into many dance battles against wild Ooblets and other people to win items, or get that Ooblet on your team.

Mainly, though, you’ll be taking part in dance battles to win new Ooblet seeds, and growing your collection of friends. The game has relaxing vibes and cute things in it, which scratches the Animal Crossing itch for players.

A farmer standing next to his crops

Stardew Valley – Switch and mobile

Another great game for relaxing after a hard day (or just at any moment) is with indie sim, Stardew Valley, from the developer, ConcernedApe. The focus of this game is cultivating your farm while embarking on quests, planting crops, raising animals, and foraging across the map.

It’s a 2D game and the mechanics are simple, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t a lot to do. The pace is luxurious and the day/night cycle plays out alongside the hours you put into the game, leaving the way you schedule your life up to you.

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Floatopia – coming to Switch in 2025

The Floatopia release date is coming up, and it releases on Nintendo Switch. It looks adorable – you play as a small, Animal Crossing-like character in a relaxed, fantasy world.

Details are still a little thin on the ground, but the game promises that you can decorate and dress up as you see fit, fish, farm, and fly through the skies on your own floating world.

That’s it for our list of the best games like Animal Crossing on Switch and mobile. If none of those takes your fancy, go ahead and browse our list of the best RPGs on Switch and mobile.