2020 was a pretty good year for management games, but nothing released in the past 12 months has impressed us enough to squeeze its way into our best management games list. Don’t worry, though – it’s only because there are already so many classics to choose from. If you’re looking for something to sink into over the holidays, check out our picks below.

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Alright, listen. The 2018 Mortal Engines adaptation might’ve been largely forgettable, but it did a damn fine job of bringing the book series’ ridiculous towns-turned-monster-trucks to life. Now, one Planet Coaster architect has crafted their own version of London-Upon-Wheels, wrapping their fantasy amusement park around a multi-tiered truck of a city. It’s just a shame there’s no way it’ll ever move. Unfortunately, Planet Coaster just wasn’t built for that.

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‘Building’ is a pretty broad theme. There are a lot of games where you build things, after all, and they can be very different. Helpfully, then, I’ve split this list of the 20 best building games on PC into four sections, each covering a sub-category of this big, messy genre.

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Management games have been enjoying a bit of a renaissance in recent years, meaning there are now even better, more efficient ways to direct trains, corral visitors, lay down conveyor belts and profit, profit, profit than ever before. To that end, we’ve put on our builder hats and constructed a list of the best management games you can play on PC in 2020. Whether you want to be a budding city planner, wannabe farm herd or survive against the elements, there’s a game for you below.

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A lot of genres have had a resurgence over the past five years, but none more successfully than management games. There are now more ways to direct trains, lay conveyor belts, coral visitors and profit, profit, profit than you could play in a lifetime. The question is: which of these famous timesinks is worth your time, and which of the whipsmart new hires can compete against the hagard, seen-it-all old dogs?

That’s what this list is for. These are 20 best management games you can play right now on PC, in no particular order, and updated for 2019.

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If there’s something strange in you neighbourhood, who you gonna call? The local news, maybe you can get on the telly. An invisible man sleeping in your bed? There’s a unique feature sure to draw attention when you Airbnb your flat! If you’ve had a dose of a freaky ghost baby? That can bootstrap a new career as an influencer. So if ghosts are haunting your theme park, hell, advertise it as a feature. Planet Coaster today launched its Ghostbusters expansion, adding a new story campaign with ghosts to bust, spooky new rides, and even Dan Akroyd reprising the role of Ray Stantz.

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They say you should never ask how the sausage is made, but in the case of Frontier’s Planet Zoo, knowing how the game’s creatures were created makes all the difference. Specifically, it’s the difference between two kinds of game. On the one hand, a handsome, top-down management sim in which players breed and nurture pleasingly unruly animals for the delight and education of a rosy-cheeked NPC horde. And on the other, a wrenching Lynchian allegory for the ways in which animals are warped, faked, duplicated and optimised within systems of capital. All of which is quite a lot to swallow just before dinner time, I know. So let’s start with something relatively easygoing: the humble hippo.

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My body betrayed me last month, trapping me in my bed when it wasn t sending me rushing to my poor, overworked loo. I couldn t sleep, I couldn t work and so I turned to management games to take my mind off the virus squatting inside me. Juggling budgets, disasters and production chains might not sound particularly relaxing, but there s also a swathe of low-pressure sims that serve as a brilliant panacea for stress.

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Ahhh management games. Aaahh building games. Ahhh roller coasters. Planet Coaster is easily one of my favourite games in which to waste about 300 hours at a time. I m only slightly exaggerating. I was a bit late to the party with Planet Coaster, but once you finally buy your ticket, there s no going back. It s so easy to get lost in the worlds you can create, with the tools you ve been kindly gifted by Frontier.

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Hello! Goodness me, it’s good to have you with us. If you’re reading this sentence on Steam, then I simply implore you to click through to the site to read what has been described by Simon Pulitzer as “the greatest games journalism the world has ever been blessed to receive.” (more…)