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Universe Sandbox
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.
What players say
Steam review score and the most-helpful voices, which may include critical ones. Data as of 2026-05-20.
What reviewers agree on
91 of the 103 reviews raise this.
“Very fun game with plenty of content and amazing graphics”
“Good game, solid performance. I really liked it, just not what I was looking for. If you are looking for a simulator of planet collisions you saw on YouTube, check out SpaceSim”
“I could play with game for hours. Anything you can imagine you can put to use in this universe game.”
6 of the 103 reviews raise this.
“Very fun game with plenty of content and amazing graphics”
“It is a very very good game, the physics are awesome, the graphics are unreal, and overall it is a very good game.”
“beautiful game but my crappy ahh mac is bloated asf so its laggy as hell when i open the objects menu but still this game is a masterpiece”
5 of the 103 reviews raise this.
“Very fun game with plenty of content and amazing graphics”
“I love space and this is very realistic to what happens and theres a lot to do!”
“one of the best games for space lovers. so much to make, do, and much more.”
4 of the 103 reviews raise this.
“I could play with game for hours. Anything you can imagine you can put to use in this universe game.”
“This game is insane, how? Well this game is a space game and what you do is, that can you can mess around with planets terraform mars, or even build your own solar system. You can also download mods and see what the…”
“I love this app for the experience of scaling the cosmos.. that feeling of being smaller than small in an infinite space, and to then travel at unimaginable speeds and time frames to witness the real and imagined…”
3 of the 103 reviews raise this.
“Good game, solid performance. I really liked it, just not what I was looking for. If you are looking for a simulator of planet collisions you saw on YouTube, check out SpaceSim”
“good engine - great optimisation - realistic simulation”
12 of the 103 reviews raise this · 11 of them still recommend the game.
“Would recommend it if you have a beefy PC otherwise absolutely not. It is a cpu hogger”
“really good but laggy on low end computers”
“This is the only game I own that can't manage at least 30fps @ 3840x2160 on my M1 Max MacBook Pro. In fact it struggles to get 1 FPS. Even at 1920x1080 I'm getting single digit FPS. Its process is using < 30% CPU on a…”
5 of the 103 reviews raise this · 4 of them still recommend the game.
“(Sorry for bad english) Really great game honestly. The game is like that one universe sim but if you could actually interact with it. It may not have like ten trillion planets but you can make ten trillion yourself. As…”
“Very fun, especially for the physics student. Note that you may need to install an older version in order for it to work on you computer based on your device settings - I personally am stuck on update 34.1.1 in order…”
“This is great I do wish their was something like a lock on planets so they can't glitch and change while your away from them simulating another planet in the system. also ringworlds.”
Counted across 103 English reviews, sampled to match this game's 96.4% positive rating · as of 2026-05-20
“- Loaded solar system - Went to jupiter - Spun jupiter at millions of RPM - Jupiter explodes - Jupiter fragments expand to hundreds of times the width of solar system - Reload solar system - Attempt to terraform jupiter by adding water - Realise I've added too much water, and…”
— a player, Steam review · 21 hrs played“Destroy planets, make planets, more physics based wacky shenanigans. If You like space you will enjoy this game.”
— a player, Steam review · 22 hrs played“I haven't "played" with this too much but I love how they tend to the simulator. And when something new happens in science, they add it as soon as possible. So if you can, please support this wonderful project.”
— a player, Steam review · 8 hrs playedPlayer activity
Monthly average concurrent players. Live count fetched 2026-07-11 11:14 UTC · history via SteamCharts.
Price tracking
US-region pricing (USD), sampled twice daily by our own tracker since 2026-07-11. Steam prices vary by region — always confirm your local price on Steam.
Regional prices at last sample, in local currency — Steam sets each region's price independently.
Cheapest → most expensive, converted to USD at ECB reference rates (2026-07-24). Relative comparison only.
Latest official news
Developer announcements via the Steam news API — links go to the original posts. More across all games on the news hub.
Winds of Change | Update 36.2
Watch winds spread gases across planetary atmospheres, see the unique shape of any selected object with new stylized outlines, and adjust object compositions by percentage. We’ve also focused on elimi
Back to the Moon! | Update 36.1
Artemis II MissionThe recent Artemis II mission swept around the far side of the Moon, taking humanity farther than they’ve ever been from Earth. Experience it yourself in our new simulation, Artemis
Pale Blue DOTS | Update 36
Blast apart rings with lasers, deform moons as they become tidally locked, vaporize meteors, and more! We’ve reconstructed the physics simulation architecture of Universe Sandbox to provide a new base
Universe Sandbox Roadmap: 2026 & Beyond
Our first planned major release of 2026 is our physics architecture overhaul that will simulate meteors (atmospheric drag) and improve lasers. We’re also continuing development on life simulation, bri
Pale Blue DOTS Preview Now Available | Physics Simulation Overhaul
For the last four years, we’ve been working on a major overhaul of Universe Sandbox to utilize the Data-Oriented Technology Stack (DOTS) from Unity, the game engine we use to build Universe Sandbox, t
Games like Universe Sandbox
From our knowledge graph — ranked by shared traits, not a black box. Each card says why it's here.
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Screenshots
Official Steam store screenshots — click any shot to enlarge.
Facts & details
From the Steam store record, snapshot 2026-05-20.
| Genres | Casual, Indie, Simulation, Early Access |
| Player tags | Sandbox · Space · Simulation · Physics · Science · Destruction · Realistic · God Game · Education · Singleplayer · Early Access · Relaxing (SteamSpy community voting) |
| Features | Single-player · Steam Workshop · Adjustable Text Size · Custom Volume Controls · Mouse Only Option · Playable without Timed Input · Save Anytime · Touch Only Option |
| Languages | English, French, Italian, German, Spanish - Spain, Czech, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, Hungarian, Japanese, Korean, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese - Portugal, Russian, Swedish, Thai, Turkish, Simplified Chinese, Traditional Ch… |
| Estimated owners | 1,000,000 – 2,000,000 (SteamSpy) |
| Official site | http://universesandbox.com/ |
Minimum system requirements (PC)
Minimum: OS: Windows 10 21H1+ (64-bit, x86) Processor: 1.6 GHz dual-core Memory: 4 GB RAM Graphics: 4 GB Video Memory†, Shader Model 6.0 DirectX: Version 12 Storage: 4 GB available space Additional Notes: † Laptops or other computers that use integrated graphics (rather than dedicated graphics hardware) may see issues with Universe Sandbox even if they meet the video memory requirement. Dedicated video hardware is recommended.