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Best train games on PC: 23 titles with their Steam verdict and live price

GOCDKEYS Team Updated 16 min read Prices checked 10 min ago
Best train games on PC: 23 titles with their Steam verdict and live price

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€0.69 Standard · Steam Key · Global · Difmark Digital Keys
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47 offers · 16 stores

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"Train game" covers four hobbies with almost nothing in common. One player wants a cab, a timetable and a signal that refuses to clear. Another wants to draw a network across a continent and make the freight pay for it. A third just wants a puzzle and twenty quiet minutes. And plenty of people simply like trains as a place for a story to happen. Twenty-three PC games below, all with a page and live offers on Gocdkeys, split into those four families.

Each entry says what the game is, gives the Steam verdict with the raw counts behind it, how many offers and shops the page compares, and the cheapest price with its format spelled out. In twenty of the twenty-three the cheapest thing on the page is a real key. In three it is somebody else’s account, and those three are flagged. All of it was read today.

Serious rail simulation: cabs, signals and timetables

Train Sim World 6 is Dovetail’s mainline driving sim: licensed routes, working cabs, add-ons sold one at a time. Mind the first number on its page, though: the €3.29 at Difmark is a Steam Account, which buys access to somebody else’s library rather than a copy of your own. The first real code is a Steam Key at €3.54 from Eneba, and that is the figure to hold up against the €39.99 Steam charges in its own store. Mostly Positive, 1,861 of 2,386, 70 offers across 16 shops. If you have never driven anything, Train Sim World 6 is the way in.

Its predecessor is still on sale and still enormous. Train Simulator Classic is a mountain of paid routes running on an engine that creaks under them, and 14,182 positives out of 19,428 reviews is sample enough to trust that Mostly Positive. Steam Key at €1.86 from Difmark Digital Keys against €29.99 on Steam, across 27 offers in 13 shops.

Signalling is the whole point of SimRail. You can drive, certainly, but you can also work a signal box and route other players’ trains through it. Very Positive, 4,480 of 5,271. Its page is the odd one out: the €20.00 at the top is a Steam Account at Kinguin, and no reseller undercuts Valve on the licence itself, so the first Steam Key is Steam’s own at €35.49. Twelve offers, seven shops, and nothing yet to compare.

SubwaySim 2 is metro driving, doors and platform duties included, and it is liked a great deal more than its modest presentation suggests: Very Positive, 647 of 799. Same trap as before. The €8.49 heading the page is a Steam Account; the first Steam Key is €22.16 at K4G, still comfortably under the €34.99 Steam wants. 20 offers, 12 shops.

Trams rather than trains, and a split crowd: TramSim Munich sits at Mixed, 362 positives from 541. If the city and the rolling stock are what pull you in, a Steam Key at €10.19 from YUPLAY against €34.95 on Steam makes it a cheap gamble. 21 offers in 14 shops.

RAILROADS Online is the sandbox of the group. You lay the track yourself, you haul timber, and almost everyone does it with friends. Mostly Positive, 4,104 of 5,400. Steam Key from €4.28 at Kinguin, €14.99 on Steam, 20 offers across 14 shops.

Building the network: tycoons and logistics

Railway Empire is the best value of the twenty-three, and not by a small margin. Gaming Minds hands you a map of America, a budget and a signalling system that will test your patience, and it has aged well: Very Positive, 5,915 of 7,213. The cheapest offer is a Steam Key at €0.69 (with coupon Gocdkeys) from Kinguin while Steam sells it at €29.99. There are 48 offers across 17 shops, and our price record on it runs to 3,887 measurements. Here is where to buy Railway Empire key.

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The sequel is the better-designed game and much the worse deal. Railway Empire 2 got a cooler reception — Mostly Positive, 1,402 of 1,947 — and its cheapest Steam Key is €15.08 at Eneba against €49.99 on Steam. 47 offers, 18 shops. Played neither? Start with the first one and spend the difference elsewhere on this page.

Transport Fever widens the brief to road, water and air alongside the railway, all of it run as one network that never stops growing. Very Positive, 7,606 of 9,275. Worth knowing before you click: there is a GOG Key on the page as well as the Steam options. Cheapest is a Steam Key at €1.71 from Gamivo against €29.99 on Steam, over 26 offers in 15 shops.

One of the widest gaps in the article belongs to Railroad Corporation: a Steam Key at €0.87 from Eneba while Steam lists it at €35.10. Shares and contracts matter more here than locomotives do, and the reception is decent rather than warm — Mostly Positive, 819 of 1,092, 21 offers in 10 shops.

Mashinky is almost entirely the work of one developer, Jan Zelený, and it looks like nothing else here; the token economy turns every haul into a small optimisation problem. Very Positive, 1,978 of 2,355. In percentage terms it is also the title where shopping around pays least, SimRail aside: cheapest Steam Key €18.70 at Eneba, Steam asks €24.50. Fifteen offers, seven shops.

No roads whatsoever: in Sweet Transit every person and every crate travels by rail, and the town grows around the timetable. Lovely idea, and the most argued-over game in this section — Mixed, 745 positives from 1,112. With a Steam Key at €0.71 from Kinguin and €29.99 on Steam, settling the argument yourself costs less than a bus fare. 25 offers, 15 shops.

Quiet puzzles, one hand on the mouse

Train Valley 2 is the cheapest thing in this whole article, a Steam Key at €0.58 from Kinguin, and one of the best puzzle games of the lot: lay track, route the trains, keep them from meeting. Very Positive, 2,068 of 2,298. In fairness to Valve, Steam is only asking €0.99 for it. 39 offers, 16 shops and six editions floating about, so look at what you are clicking.

The best review ratio in the article belongs to Railbound: 1,699 positives out of 1,807. Hand-drawn, unhurried and far harder than it looks once the carriages have to be linked in the right order. Every offer on its page is a Steam Key, cheapest €1.60 at Kinguin against €7.03 on Steam. 14 offers, 13 shops.

Voxel farms, small hills, one track between them. Station to Station is what you put on when you want to stop thinking, and Very Positive with 1,096 of 1,231 suggests it lands. Steam Key at €0.50 from Gamivo, €7.19 on Steam, 25 offers across 17 shops.

Locomoto is the cosy one. You drive, you meet animal characters, you run errands, and nothing is timing you. Very Positive from a small crowd, 521 of 579. Steam Key from €7.71 at Kinguin, €24.99 on Steam, 13 offers in 12 shops.

Ticket to Ride is the Days of Wonder tabletop game in software, and its page comes with a quirk worth knowing about: Steam does not sell it itself. The €0.93 Steam Key at Kinguin is therefore a discount off nothing in particular; it is simply the way in. Very Positive, 4,645 of 5,465, 16 offers in 10 shops, with a GOG Key among them.

When the train is only the setting

A spider-legged locomotive hunts you across an island while you bolt armour onto your own. Choo Choo Charles has no business working as well as it does: 14,443 positives out of 15,871. Steam Key at €1.08 from Kinguin against €19.50 on Steam, 13 offers in 10 shops.

Last Train Home is the heavyweight here: real-time tactics with an armoured train for a base, the Czechoslovak Legion trying to get home across a continent, and exhausted men measured against a schedule that will not wait for them. Very Positive, 3,860 of 4,488. Its page is one of the busiest in the article — 48 offers across 20 shops — and the cheapest Steam Key is €7.75 at Kinguin against €39.99 on Steam.

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The Final Station gives you a train, a collapsing world and passengers who need feeding between stops. The shooting is the least interesting part of it, deliberately so. Very Positive, 5,914 of 6,720. Every offer is a Steam Key, from €1.69 at Gamivo, with Steam at €14.79. 18 offers, 14 shops.

Sunless Skies puts a locomotive in the sky and then asks you to read. Failbetter wants patience in return, so try a chapter before you commit an evening. Very Positive, 2,230 of 2,655. Steam Key from €2.96 at K4G, €22.99 on Steam, 14 offers in 7 shops.

Beholder Conductor moves the Beholder routine — snoop on the people you live with, then decide who to hand over — into a carriage. Alawar keeps it short and mean. Very Positive, 4,041 of 4,441, and no page here is spread across more shops: 26 offers from 21 of them, Steam Key at €1.21 from Kinguin, €13.79 on Steam.

If there are four of you, buy Unrailed. Chop, mine, lay track, shout, derail, start again. Very Positive with 12,786 of 13,748, 25 offers in 15 shops, Steam Key from €1.58 at Kinguin against €19.99 on Steam.

Thirteen of the twenty-three are under two euros

Thirteen of them cost less than a coffee. Everything in the table is a Steam Key, and every figure in it was live when we published; by tomorrow some of them will have moved.

GameSteam Key, live price
Train Valley 2€0.36
Station to Station€0.50
Railway Empire€0.69
Sweet Transit€0.71
Railroad Corporation€0.87
Ticket to Ride€0.93
Choo Choo Charles€1.08
Beholder Conductor€1.21
Unrailed€1.58
Railbound€1.60
The Final Station€1.69
Transport Fever€1.71
Train Simulator Classic€1.86

Three pages where the top number is not a licence

Before you pay: on Train Sim World 6, SimRail and SubwaySim 2 the cheapest offer is a Steam Account — access to somebody else’s library, not a copy in your name. The first genuine codes are €3.54 (Steam Key, Train Sim World 6), €35.49 (Steam Key, SimRail) and €22.16 (Steam Key, SubwaySim 2).

The distinction matters more than the euros involved. A shared account can be taken back off you; a key is a code you redeem once and keep for good. On Train Sim World 6 twenty-five cents separate the two, so there is nothing to weigh up. On the other two it is real money, and you should know what you are choosing.

The four we would put money on today

For network building, Railway Empire, and at that price it is not a contest. Take the Steam Key at €0.69 (with coupon Gocdkeys), leave the sequel until it comes down, and if you want to know whether today is a good day to buy, the history sits on our Railway Empire price page.

For driving, Train Sim World 6 at €3.54 as a Steam Key, on the understanding that the routes are where your money will actually go. SimRail is the better simulator of the two and its honest price is €35.49, a Steam Key sold by Steam itself, so wait for a sale if that stings.

For an evening with people on the sofa, Unrailed at €1.86. And for the one nobody expects to enjoy, Beholder Conductor at €1.21 as a Steam Key.

GOCDKEYS
GOCDKEYS Team

Buying guides and price comparisons written alongside live prices from the stores verified by GOCDKEYS.

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