Simulation games for switching your brain off

There's a whole genre of games designed to do nothing more than relax you, and offline simulators are the best of the bunch. No leaderboards, no online timers, no rush — just a small world you slowly improve.

Tiny Orchard Co is our current favourite. It grows while you play instead of forcing you to wait for real-world hours, which is exactly how a phone sim should work. Seasonal changes give you just enough to think about without stress.

The trick with these games is finding ones that don't hide progress behind connection-locked features. We test for that specifically, because nothing kills the calm like a 'please connect' popup.

Play these before bed, on a train, or whenever you need to decompress. They're not exciting, and that's the entire appeal.