Cozy Game Reviews

Game reviews for all things cozy.

Menu
  • About
  • Blog
  • Contact
  • Transparency Policy
Menu

21 Cozy Games Rated Overwhelmingly Positive on Steam to Play in 2026

Posted on December 20, 2025December 20, 2025 by Carmen

Every game will resonate with someone. I truly believe this. That’s why I end all my cozy game reviews with “Who this game is for/Who this game is not for.” Differences in taste is what allows the video game industry to remain so dynamic and diverse.

But sometimes you just want to play a sure thing. Maybe you have a tight budget and want something you know is good. Or maybe you’ve had a bad luck streak finding a game you love and need an easy win. No matter what brought you here, I present you with: The best cozy games rated Overwhelmingly Positive on Steam!

Note: I am using the “All Time” review score, not “Recent.” In my experience, it tends to be more accurate about the consensus on a game’s quality.

Note’s note: “All Time” score has now been replaced with “[Your Language] Score,” but ultimately functions the same way. All of these cozy games are scored Overwhelmingly Positive on Steam in the “English Score” category.

This list was last updated Dec 20, 2025.

1. Stardew Valley

Stardew Valley is an addictive farming sim with a ton of content.

I mean, duh. You probably already knew this. In case you’re here, Stardew Valley is a charming and addictive farming simulation game that invites players to escape the hustle and bustle of city life and embrace the tranquility of rural living. In this pixel-art world, you inherit a neglected farm and must transform it into a thriving agricultural haven.

Beyond planting crops and raising animals, the game offers a rich tapestry of activities, from mining and fishing to building relationships with the townsfolk. Stardew Valley is known for being packed with content, being inclusive of different life experiences, and being not afraid to get a little dark and real with character stories.

2. Cats Organized Neatly

A cute puzzle game featuring oddly shaped felines.

Cats Organized Neatly is a whimsical and visually delightful indie puzzle game that challenges players to arrange adorable feline characters into precise, symmetrical formations within various constrained spaces. With its simple yet addictive gameplay, the game combines elements of spatial awareness, problem-solving, and a healthy dose of cat-themed charm.

Each level presents increasingly complex arrangements and obstacles, offering a satisfying challenge for puzzle enthusiasts while indulging cat lovers with its cute, meticulously animated characters. Cats Organized Neatly is a purr-fectly charming and soothing gaming experience that’s as cute as it is engaging.

3. Gorogoa

Gorogoa is a unique, hand-drawn puzzle game that is as charming as it is beautiful.

Gorogoa is a unique and visually stunning puzzle game that redefines the boundaries of interactive storytelling. Set within a beautifully hand-drawn world, the game revolves around the manipulation of intricately layered, illustrated panels, each telling a different part of the narrative. Players must ingeniously combine and explore these panels to uncover hidden connections and progress through the enigmatic storyline.

The game’s innovative mechanics and breathtaking artistry create a deeply immersive experience that transcends traditional puzzle-solving, inviting players into a captivating, dreamlike journey where art, imagination, and logic seamlessly merge to craft a truly exceptional gaming masterpiece.

4. Spiritfarer

“A cozy management game about dying” – now that’s a tagline!

Spiritfarer is an emotionally resonant indie game that invites players on a poignant and transformative journey as a “Spiritfarer,” guiding the souls of the departed to the afterlife. Set in a hand-drawn, ethereal world, you explore the seas aboard a cozy, customizable ship, tending to the needs and fulfilling the last wishes of endearing spirit passengers, each representing aspects of human experience and relationships.

The game masterfully combines management, platforming, and heartfelt storytelling, encouraging players to reflect on themes of life, loss, and letting go. Spiritfarer’s lush visuals, evocative music, and meaningful interactions create a captivating and emotionally charged experience that celebrates life’s impermanence while fostering a profound connection with its charming cast of characters.

5. Our Life: Beginnings & Always

A near-fully customizable visual novel about a lonely boy next door.

Our Life: Beginnings and Always is an emotionally resonant and deeply personal visual novel that invites players to immerse themselves in a nostalgic and heartwarming narrative. Set in a picturesque rural town, the game follows the protagonist through key moments in their life, from childhood friendships to young adulthood, exploring themes of love, identity, and self-discovery along the way.

With its beautifully illustrated art style, relatable characters, and player choices that significantly impact the story, Our Life provides a compelling and emotionally engaging experience that allows players to reflect on their own life’s journey, creating a sense of nostalgia and empathy that lingers long after the game concludes.

6. A Space for the Unbound

Fall in love and save the world.

A Space For The Unbound is a captivating slice-of-life adventure, featuring enchanting pixel art, set against the backdrop of late 90s rural Indonesia. It weaves a poignant narrative centered on the journey of conquering anxiety, battling depression, and delving into the extraordinary connection between a boy and a girl endowed with supernatural abilities.

This magical odyssey revolves around two high school sweethearts, unfolding during the twilight of their academic journey—coinciding with the impending apocalypse. As you navigate the decaying townscape, you’ll assist friends in confronting their inner demons, potentially holding the key to halting the unraveling of reality itself. And yes, you can pet the cats!

7. Wobbledogs

Please play with Randy; I would die for Randy.

Wobbledogs is a quirky and whimsical pet simulation game that lets players experiment with genetics and care for a charmingly bizarre collection of wobbly creatures. In this delightfully offbeat world, you can create and customize your wobbledogs, each with their unique genetic traits and endearing quirks.

Watch as they evolve, grow, and form unexpected mutations, all while exploring a vibrant, physics-based environment filled with interactive toys and challenges. The game’s playful and unpredictable nature encourages experimentation and creativity, making it a hilarious and endearing sandbox where you can nurture your own peculiar pack of wobbledogs and revel in their adorably wobbly antics.

8. Volcano Princess

Volcano Princess has multiple ending for extra playtime.

The Volcano Goddess has bestowed her blessings upon the fertile land of her people, ushering prosperity into a medieval realm. But the goddess has perished. Following the loss of your beloved wife, you find yourself as the sole parent to your daughter. Now, the question that lingers is how to nurture her and shape the life that your choices will pave for her.

As you prepare the future monarch, dive into the task of discovering her interests, honing her combat skills, and cultivating friendships among the very citizens she will one day safeguard. Immerse yourself in a unique blend of parenting, simulation, and RPG elements, where each decision you make not only molds your daughter’s destiny but also holds sway over the fate of an entire empire!

9. Sticky Business

Design stickers in this cozy and adorable business sim.

Sticky Business is a cozy business sim where you run your own sticker shop. Design stickers, pack orders, and get to know your customers. This game epitomizes the cozy aesthetic. The color scheme, the cute content, the creative freedom, the meditative simulation genre. Sticky Business is super addictive and the design aspect is fun and satisfying. It’s like being an Etsy store owner, but as a game.

Blend a myriad of elements together to craft your unique assortment, and offer them to kindred spirits in the marketplace. Diverse stickers hold distinct appeal for various customers, ensuring a tailored approach to your creations. Infuse a touch of sparkle or holographic magic to elevate their allure, transforming each piece into something truly exceptional.

10. Gris

One of the most beautiful art styles in a game, ever.

Like Stardew Valley, this is a popular no-brainer for this list. Gris is a breathtakingly artistic and emotionally evocative platformer game that embarks players on a visually stunning odyssey through a world filled with sorrow and beauty. With its mesmerizing hand-drawn aesthetics and a hauntingly beautiful soundtrack, the game unfolds the journey of a young girl named Gris as she navigates a world colored by her own emotional experiences, from grief to hope.

Throughout the game, Gris gains new abilities, each symbolizing a step in her healing process, allowing players to explore a dreamlike landscape, solve puzzles, and discover the deep, wordless narrative woven into the game’s every frame. Gris is a poignant and transcendent gaming experience that demonstrates the power of art and storytelling within the medium.

11. Strange Horticulture

Identify plants, help your garden thrive, and make potions (or poisons).

Strange Horticulture is a captivating and unconventional gardening simulation game that transports players to a whimsical world where they cultivate not just ordinary plants, but extraordinary and otherworldly botanical wonders. As the head gardener, your task is to nurture and tend to a garden filled with bizarre and surreal plants, each with its own unique needs and peculiarities. I’ve heard this one described as “cult cozy,” and let me tell you, I’m a big fan of that turn-of-phrase.

The game challenges players to experiment with crossbreeding, explore mysterious biomes, and solve botanical mysteries to unlock the secrets of this surreal horticultural realm. With its enchanting art style, delightful quirkiness, and a dash of scientific curiosity, Strange Horticulture offers a refreshing and imaginative take on the genre, where creativity and exploration reign supreme.

12. Smushi Come Home

Befriend forest critters, learn about mushrooms, and help Smushi get home.

Embark on an enchanting adventure as a tiny, lost mushroom in the heart of a mysterious forest, desperate to find its way back home. In Smushi Come Home, you’ll freely explore diverse and charming environments, engage in heartwarming conversations with the forest’s amiable inhabitants, and partake in various captivating quests to reunite with your cozy abode.

Guide Smushi, plucked from its home and thrust into this bewildering wilderness, as you navigate through distinct forest realms using newfound abilities like running, gliding, climbing, and swimming. Along the way, strike up quirky exchanges with the forest’s denizens, some of whom may offer invaluable assistance, while others might seek your helping hand. These adventures blend gentle platforming and light puzzle-solving, ensuring an endearing journey to guide Smushi safely back where it belongs.

13. Behind the Frame

Experience a heartfelt story through the eyes of a painter trying to create her masterpiece.

Behind the Frame is a story-driven, explorative puzzle game about guiding a young painter as she tried to develop her masterpiece. As the painting comes to life, you’ll also learn more about hers—about chance, about artistry, and about melancholy. You’ll also meet her nosey neighbor and his sassy feline friend.

The main mechanics are point-and-click puzzles punctuated by entrancing music and a visual style reminiscent of Studio Ghibli films. You play at your own pace, can pursue optional collectables, and can replay any completed chapter at will. This game is short (about 2 hours long) but so memorable it will stay with you for much longer.

14. Please, Touch The Artwork 2

Solve puzzles and be silly with skeletons.

Please, Touch The Artwork 2 is a short, cozy hidden object adventure that feels like wandering through a living museum after closing time. Built entirely from hand-painted works inspired by James Ensor, the game invites you to gently poke, prod, and explore surreal canvases while helping a lost skeleton painter find his way home.

You collect objects for oddball inhabitants, mend cracks in the paintings themselves, and solve simple point-and-click puzzles that value curiosity over challenge. There is no pressure here, just soft music, playful visual humor, and the quiet satisfaction of restoring art one small interaction at a time. It is brief, free, and thoughtfully made, the kind of game that treats art not as something to admire from a distance, but as something warm, strange, and meant to be touched.

15. Chants of Sennaar

Thoughtful words and language puzzles.

Chants of Sennaar is a thoughtful puzzle adventure about language as both barrier and bridge, set inside a towering labyrinth inspired by the myth of Babel. You play as the Traveler, quietly observing gestures, symbols, and rituals as you begin to piece together lost languages one word at a time.

Every puzzle feels like an act of listening, asking you to slow down, take notes, and truly pay attention to how meaning is shared without a common tongue. The Tower’s distinct cultures unfold through color, architecture, and sound, making each floor feel like its own small world shaped by isolation and belief. It is a gentle, cerebral journey about communication, empathy, and the quiet power of understanding one another.

16. Squeakross: Home Squeak Home

Solve nonogram puzzles with a little friend.

Squeakross: Home Squeak Home is a cozy nonogram puzzle game where every solved grid becomes something tangible and charming you can place in a tiny, loving home. You solve logic-number puzzles at your own pace, watching abstract squares transform into furniture, décor, and accessories for your rodent companion.

The game is gentle by design, offering assist options for new puzzlers while still letting veterans turn off the guardrails and savor the logic. Customization runs deep, from hundreds of collectible items to a full rodent editor that lets you shape your companion from snout to tail. It’s the kind of cozy satisfaction that comes from building a space slowly, thoughtfully, and with a lot of squeaks along the way.

17. Slime Rancher

A classic.

Slime Rancher is a bright, joyful adventure about starting over somewhere impossibly far from home. You play as Beatrix LeBeau, tending a ranch on the Far, Far Range where smiling, bouncing slimes are both your livelihood and your daily chaos.

Exploration, farming, and light resource management intertwine as you vacuum up slimes, feed them, sell their plorts, and slowly expand your pastel patch of land. Beneath the cuteness is a quiet, surprisingly tender story about distance, ambition, and what it means to build a life on your own terms. It’s cozy in the way discovery feels cozy, full of color, curiosity, and the gentle pride of watching something you nurtured thrive.

18. Tiny Glade

Just relax and build stuff.

Tiny Glade is a gentle, creative sandbox about making something beautiful simply because you feel like it. You doodle castles, cottages, and ruins into open meadows, and the game quietly fills in the gaps with stonework, ivy, beams, and soft procedural magic.

There are no goals to chase or systems to manage, just the calm pleasure of shaping space and watching it respond to your touch. Sheep wander through your paths, fireflies glow at dusk, and every tiny decision feels like a love letter to slowness. It’s a game about rest, about play without pressure, and about the joy of leaving a place a little lovelier than you found it.

19. In Stars And Time

In Stars and Time gives me light Undertale vibes.

In Stars and Time is a story-rich RPG about being the only person who remembers how everything keeps going wrong. Trapped in a time loop, Siffrin relives the same doomed stretch of days, carrying the growing weight of knowledge while their friends laugh, hope, and forget. Each reset becomes less about winning battles and more about understanding people, learning what to say, and choosing kindness even when it hurts.

The game balances humor and warmth with a slow, devastating unraveling, asking what hope looks like when you have already seen every ending fail. It is a deeply human story about persistence, love, and the quiet bravery it takes to try again when time itself seems tired of you.

20. Catto’s Post Office

He’s me.

Catto’s Post Office is a short, cozy adventure about being small, helpful, and deeply beloved by an entire town of cats. You play as Catto, the local Postcat, padding through colorful streets to deliver mail, meet neighbors, and assist with silly, low-stakes requests.

The joy comes from the little things: pressing the meow button, knocking objects off ledges, and watching each resident light up when their letter arrives. There is no urgency here, only warmth, gentle exploration, and a sense of community built one envelope at a time. It’s a bite-sized experience, but one that understands how powerful kindness can feel when the world is soft and waiting for you.

21. despelote

A Game Awards 2025 nominee.

despelote is a quiet, deeply human adventure that captures childhood not as nostalgia, but as lived experience, messy, curious, and half-understood. Seen through the eyes of an eight-year-old in 2001 Quito, the world unfolds in streets, parks, and passing conversations, all loosely orbiting a soccer ball that seems to pull the city along with it.

Kicking the ball is simple, but the meaning accumulates slowly, shaped by overheard worries, communal hope, and the growing hum of a nation inching toward the World Cup. Real voices, ambient sounds, and photographed textures ground the game in a specific place and time, giving it the weight of memory rather than spectacle. It is a story about sport, yes, but more than that, it is about how a city feels when you are young and everything important is just slightly out of reach.

What Next?

There you have it! I hope you enjoyed my current Overwhelmingly Positive games on Steam: cozy edition! This article was written in December 2025, so the ratings may change over time. I hope you found a new cozy game to love!

Stay cozy, friends!

Carmen

Cozy game fanatic & lover of words.

@cozygamereviews

  • December 21, 2025 by Carmen 10 Best Cozy Cooking Games to Play in 2026
  • December 20, 2025 by Carmen 21 Cozy Games Rated Overwhelmingly Positive on Steam to Play in 2026
  • December 14, 2025 by Carmen My Favorite Cozy Highlights from The Game Awards 2025
  • December 2, 2025 by Carmen 20+ Best Cozy Mobile Games [Free & Paid] to Play in 2026
  • December 1, 2025 by Carmen Best 20 Games that are Like Unpacking for You to Play in 2026

Categories

  • feature
  • humor
  • interview
  • lists
  • news
  • opinion
  • press release
  • products
  • reviews
  • tips
©2025 Cozy Game Reviews | Theme by SuperbThemes
Cozy Game Reviews uses cookies to collect basic demographic data that advertisers and partners ask us for. You can help support the site by consenting to basic data collection. Your data is not sold or used in any other way.
You can revoke your consent any time using the Revoke consent button.