Games like Dear Esther
Closest overall match: Thirty Flights of Loving (★ 3.5). Highest rated: The Beginner's Guide at ★ 4.4. Quickest to finish: Thirty Flights of Loving at about 1 hours.
We compared Dear Esther against every game in our catalog on shared tags, genre, rating, playtime and release era, and these 12 came closest. What ties them together most: Walking Simulator, Short and Exploration. Updated Oct 16, 2026.
-
69%
1. Thirty Flights of Loving
Shares Experience, Experimental, Walking Simulator, Short and Exploration and 3 more tags; same release year.
- Year
- 2012
- Rating
- ★ 3.5
- Metacritic
- 88
- Playtime
- 1h
- Finish rate
- 93%
- Shared genres
- 3, Casual, Indie
-
65%
2. Everybody's Gone to the Rapture
Shares Walking Simulator, Mystery, Exploration, First-Person and Open World and 3 more tags; same developer.
- Year
- 2015
- Rating
- ★ 3.4
- Metacritic
- 76
- Playtime
- 2h
- Finish rate
- 67%
- Shared genres
- 3, Casual, Indie
-
62%
3. Proteus
Shares Experimental, Walking Simulator, Short, Exploration and First-Person and 3 more tags; rated 0.4 lower; released within 1 year.
- Year
- 2013
- Rating
- ★ 3.0
- Metacritic
- 80
- Playtime
- 1h
- Finish rate
- 60%
- Shared genres
- 3, Casual, Indie
-
61%
4. Nephise Begins
Shares Narration, Walking Simulator, Short, Mystery and Exploration and 4 more tags; rated 1.3 lower.
- Year
- 2017
- Rating
- ★ 2.2
- Playtime
- 1h
- Finish rate
- 67%
- Shared genres
- 3, Casual, Indie
-
60%
5. Dear Esther: Landmark Edition
Shares Walking Simulator, Exploration, First-Person, Great Soundtrack and Steam Cloud and 1 more tags; same developer.
- Year
- 2017
- Rating
- ★ 3.3
- Playtime
- 1h
- Finish rate
- 85%
- Shared genres
- 3, Casual, Indie
-
58%
6. TRAUMA
Shares Experimental, Short, First-Person and Singleplayer; rated 1.2 lower; released within 1 year.
- Year
- 2011
- Rating
- ★ 2.3
- Metacritic
- 62
- Playtime
- 1h
- Finish rate
- 63%
- Shared genres
- 3, Casual, Indie
-
58%
7. The Beginner's Guide
Shares Experience, Experimental, Narration, Walking Simulator and Short and 4 more tags; rated 0.9 higher.
- Year
- 2015
- Rating
- ★ 4.4
- Playtime
- 2h
- Finish rate
- 96%
- Shared genres
- 3, Indie
-
56%
8. The Dream Machine: Chapter 1 & 2
Shares Mystery, Exploration, Great Soundtrack, Steam Cloud and Singleplayer; rated 0.7 lower; same release year.
- Year
- 2012
- Rating
- ★ 2.7
- Metacritic
- 75
- Playtime
- 3h
- Finish rate
- 71%
- Shared genres
- 3, Casual, Indie
-
56%
9. The Plan
Shares Experimental, Walking Simulator, Short, Exploration and Partial Controller Support and 2 more tags; released within 2 years.
- Year
- 2014
- Rating
- ★ 3.2
- Metacritic
- 50
- Playtime
- 1h
- Finish rate
- 92%
- Shared genres
- Casual, Indie
-
56%
10. Grow Home
Shares Short, Exploration, Open World, Great Soundtrack and Steam Cloud and 1 more tags; released within 2 years.
- Year
- 2014
- Rating
- ★ 3.5
- Metacritic
- 75
- Playtime
- 3h
- Finish rate
- 57%
- Shared genres
- 3, Casual, Indie
-
56%
11. Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs
Shares Linear, Walking Simulator, Short, First-Person and Great Soundtrack and 2 more tags; same developer; released within 1 year.
- Year
- 2013
- Rating
- ★ 3.2
- Metacritic
- 72
- Playtime
- 2h
- Finish rate
- 67%
- Shared genres
- 3, Indie
-
56%
12. Gone Home
Shares Interactive Fiction, Narration, Walking Simulator, Short and Mystery and 4 more tags; released within 1 year.
- Year
- 2013
- Rating
- ★ 3.7
- Metacritic
- 86
- Playtime
- 3h
- Finish rate
- 90%
- Shared genres
- 3, Indie
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Questions people ask
What is the best game like Dear Esther?
On our similarity model, Thirty Flights of Loving is the closest match to Dear Esther — shares Experience, Experimental, Walking Simulator, Short and Exploration and 3 more tags; same release year.
Which game like Dear Esther is rated highest?
The Beginner's Guide holds the highest player rating in this list at 4.4/5 from 470 players.
How this list is built
Every game in our catalog is scored against Dear Esther on five signals: weighted tag overlap (rare tags count more), genre overlap, platform family overlap, rating and playtime proximity, and release era. The list is recomputed nightly as ratings and new releases change.
Base game data via RAWG.