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Squirrel's Pick Squirrel's PickThe best game on this page. If you only try one, try this. Closest Match Closest MatchThe most similar game to the anchor, by what players say.
City BuilderEconomyResource Management
Strong Mods Strong ModsA deep, active modding scene extends it past its base content.
$29.99 ~69.3 hr median no co-op complexity: moderate 92.9% of 290k
The Squirrel's verdictSame core loop as TheoTown: zone, build infrastructure, manage a growing city. Cities: Skylines trades pixel-art scale-model charm for realistic simulation depth, deeper transit and disaster tools, and no mobile-style gated currencies for regions. No co-op, and reviewers note a steep DLC list ($120+) built on a 2015 base.
Not for you if you want TheoTown's beginner-friendly onboarding without confronting a much deeper simulation and a long paid-DLC list.
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Budget Pick Budget PickThe best game here for the least money.
City BuilderImmersive SimBase-Building
$19.99 ~33.7 hr median no co-op complexity: moderate 82.2% of 10k
The Squirrel's verdictBoth are single-player city builders with disaster tools and heavy community mod support driving long-term replay. SimCity 4 drops TheoTown's mobile-style UI and gold-coin gating entirely: one flat price, no online account prompts, no region-slot currency. Extensive mod ecosystem via Simtropolis replaces TheoTown's plugin marketplace, for players who want deeper regional and terrain simulation.
Not for you if you want a smooth modern install rather than one requiring community-sourced patches and manual tweaking to run stably.
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Hidden Gem Hidden GemLoved by the players who found it, but still under the radar.
City Builder2.5DCartoon
$2.99 ~7.9 hr median no co-op complexity: light 92.4% of 275
The Squirrel's verdictSame mobile-to-PC city builder formula: zoom-and-place construction, zoning, milestones and unlocks instead of deep simulation. Pocket City drops TheoTown's plugin ecosystem and region-hosting currency gate entirely, running as a single-player, no-account experience. Suits players who want the quick, beginner-friendly building loop without TheoTown's online-service prompts and coin-gated features.
Not for you if you relied on TheoTown's community plugins for variety, since Pocket City has no equivalent mod ecosystem and reviews note limited building variety.
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City BuilderColony SimImmersive Sim
$29.99 ~22.1 hr median no co-op complexity: moderate 77.5% of 1k
The Squirrel's verdictBoth are city builders about managing a growing town, but Highrise City drops TheoTown's pixel-art simplicity for production-chain depth closer to Anno: you balance mining, manufacturing, and citizen needs instead of just zoning. No mobile-port UI or coin-gated regions here, but no community plugins either. For players who want the genre with real supply-chain complexity.
Not for you if you want TheoTown's pick-up-and-play simplicity rather than tracking resource and production chains, or crashes are a dealbreaker.
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City BuilderEconomyPolitical Sim
$24.99 ~18.2 hr median no co-op complexity: moderate 73.6% of 1k
The Squirrel's verdictBoth are city builders with zoning and citizen reactions driving growth, but Citystate II drops TheoTown's pixel-art charm and mobile-style monetization for macroeconomic sliders: immigration, inflation, public debt, policy choices. This suits players who want the politics behind the skyline more than the skyline itself, and don't mind rougher edges getting there.
Not for you if you want TheoTown's plugin-driven visual variety and smooth infrastructure play rather than sliders, policy menus, and reported crashes with no autosave.
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City BuilderTime ManagementFuturistic
$4.99 ~6.5 hr median no co-op complexity: light 74.2% of 163
The Squirrel's verdictBoth share a mobile-derived city-building base with touchscreen-first UI, but Megapolis trades TheoTown's open-ended sandbox and plugin community for fixed timed scenarios on small, capped grids with no free-building sandbox. It suits players who want short, structured city-planning puzzles rather than a persistent, moddable city to grow indefinitely.
Not for you if you want an open sandbox to build and expand freely rather than replaying small, timed scenario grids.
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City BuilderEconomyResource Management
$1.49 ~12.3 hr median no co-op complexity: moderate 58.5% of 2k
The Squirrel's verdictBoth are city builders with zoning, utilities, and supply-demand economics rather than TheoTown's pixel-art region management. Cities XL trades TheoTown's mobile-first UI and plugin community for large-scale maps, inter-city trade, and a steeper difficulty curve once utilities and budgets kick in. Best for players who want more simulation depth and don't mind rougher performance as cities grow.
Not for you if you need stable performance at scale, since reviews report lag and framerate drops once cities grow large.
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City BuilderDesign & IllustrationLife Sim
$9.99 ~25.9 hr median no co-op complexity: moderate 57.7% of 477
The Squirrel's verdictBoth are city builders where you zone and grow a city rather than manage a scripted campaign. TheoTown gives you full utility and service micromanagement plus a plugin-fed community; NewCity strips out trash, water, and power management to focus on budget, growth curves, and huge no-agent-limit maps instead. Suits players who want scale and realism over infrastructure busywork.
Not for you if you want the granular utility and service management TheoTown offers, or a game reviewers describe as stable rather than laggy and crash-prone.