As a video game player and also a video game developer, I've spent quite a bit of time playing and researching the cozy video game genre, and I've even released my own cozy RPG A Weekend in Puzzleburg.  So I decided to sit down and write out my recommendations for the best cozy video games ever made, as well as the best video games that CAN be cozy if played a certain way, and the LEAST cozy video games ever made (all the better to appreciate the coziness of cozy games).

Last updated: February 2025

The best cozy games

• Harvest Moon & Stardew Valley

No list of cozy video games would be complete without including Stardew Valley.  It's a game about farming, fishing, mining, and performing other activities.  While there is a minimal amount of combat, it's fairly optional and you can have fun growing your farm and building relationships with the residents of Stardew Valley.  There is also a stamina bar, so you can only do so much in the span of one day, and that can impair the game's cozy factor for some players, but Stardew Valley is generally considered the king of the cozy game genre.  It should also be noted that Stardew Valley is based on an earlier series of games called Harvest Moon, so those fit the cozy bill as well

• Animal Crossing series

The Animal Crossing games are generally about decorating your house and outdoors area, then seeing what your friends have done with their own plots (and sharing with them what you have built).  Unlike other games on this list, Animal Crossing games are typically designed around playing a little bit each day, as things progress in real-time and there are seasonal events tied to the real-life calendar

• Endless Ocean series & Abzu (plus Journey)

These are a few cozy games about spending time underwater swimming around and observing sea life.  The Endless Ocean series had two entries back on the Wii and there is a more recent entry on the Switch.  Note that while Abzu is quite a meditative experience, it only lasts a few hours - but it's a great couple of hours.  I'll also throw Journey in with this group since although it takes place largely above ground, the gameplay and vibes are quite similar to Abzu

• Unpacking & A Little to the Left

Another titan of the cozy video game genre, Unpacking is a game about taking items out of moving boxes and placing them in what you feel is just the right place.  If that doesn't sound like much of a game, I should say that everyone ends up with such different arrangements even when given the exact same set of starting items to unpack that you will have your own unique setups for each level.  When playing this game, there were times when I reached the end of a level there would be a few items that the game required me to put someplace else before the level would be considered complete, and that reduced my own coziness with the game, but that doesn't seem to bother many people - and if it does bother you like it did me, that setting can be toggled off.  Also in this category of games about putting things in order is the game A Little to the Left, which is a bit more puzzle-like about having to arrange items in neat order (though there are sometimes multiple possible orders - such as how in real life, some people like to arrange books by author name, others by book size, etc.)

• Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker

This is a platforming game with no jump button.  Each level is a small diorama that you can spin around to view the various path.  Then, you move Captain Toad around trying to navigate to the exit.  Along the way, you can pick up optional diamonds, which increase the replay-ability.  If you finish this game and want more levels, then consider picking up Super Mario 3D World, as Captain Toad started off as side levels in that Mario game before being turned into a full-fledged game on its own

• Professor Layton series

If puzzles are your thing, then the Professor Layton games are a solid pick.  In these games - most of which are on the 3DS, but there is one entry on the Switch, with another called Professor Layton and the New World of Steam on the way - you move around a town, and each resident you talk to asks you to solve a small, self-contained puzzle before they reveal a bit of info that advances the plot.  And the overarching plot is always some mystery that Professor Layton and his assistant Luke have to unravel.  As you play, you can pore over each to screen trying to find hidden hint coins for use on any tough puzzle you may come across.  Just remember - every puzzle has a solution!

• Eastshade & its prequel Leaving Lyndow

If you're the sort of person who plays Skyrim as a cozy game, then Eastshade is just right for you since at its simplest, it's essentially "What if Skyrim but take out the combat and instead put in hand-crafted quests."  This is a game where you are ostensibly a painter (though the actual mechanic is more like a photographer since you're essentially taking screenshots, without any simulation of painting in any way) and you travel around, picking up quests from different people on an island region called Eastshade.  Some of the quests ask you to find a specific vantage point and capture it in a painting, but many of the quests are just about talking to the right character to get some new information.  On the surface, this may not sound like an exhilarating time, but this game is greater than the sum of its parts.  Each quest feels like an interesting, hand-crafted story, and you'll find moments of beauty in the landscape over and over again.   Eastshade is a sizeable length for a cozy game at about 15 hours, but if you find yourself wanting more (or want a shorter and/or cheaper experience), Leaving Lyndow is a one hour game that is a proof of concept for Eastshade

• A Short Hike

One of the earlier entries in the cozy game genre and still one of the best, A Short Hike is a small, simple game about hiking to the top of a mountain.  The basic concept is that you have a phone call to make, but your phone doesn't have reception and you have to climb higher if you want to get a signal.  You will spend your time exploring, which is a delight, and bumping into NPCs who give you fun little quests.  I personally struggled a bit with the default chunky graphics, but there is an option for more crisp graphics if the default art style is a dealbreaker for you

• TOEM

TOEM is a fairly short game where you are a traveler with a camera.   Everywhere you go, some character asks you to find something for you, and you then have to locate it and take a picture.  Each request is a little puzzle, and you sometimes have to do something to trigger an event and make the picture possible - e.g. getting a certain hat that will allow you access to a certain area.  Did I mention this game as a bit of clothing customization?  It's not super in-depth, but it's there and helps increase the cozy factor.  Now, I should mention that this game is in black-and-white, but don't let that put you off from playing it.  Also worth mentioning is that a sequel called TOEM 2 is in development, as announced with a teaser trailer in the December 2024 Wholesome Games Snack.  The sequel is already wishlist-able on Steam and can be expected to arrive on consoles as well, just like the original game

• Alba: A Wildlife Adventure

Here's a cute, cozy game where you actually get to play as a kid.  You're spending the summer with your grandparents and cataloging wildlife all around the island as something of an amateur conservationist.  This is an adorable game, and I just really enjoyed anytime I was asked a yes/no question and responded by either moving the joystick up and down (to simulate nodding) or moving it side-to-side (to simulate shaking my head side-to-side).   That may sound simple and probably not such a great selling point, but it was a small detail amongst many others playing as a kid that brings this whole game together

• Lake

If you've ever yearned for the simplicity of a straightforward job while living that small town life, give Lake a play.  In this game, you play as a woman who is on hiatus from her big-city corporate job and spending a couple of weeks back in her hometown situated on a lake, taking over her father's postal delivery route.  This game basically has two components - driving around delivering mail and branching conversations with town locals.  I will say that for me, the out-of-truck movement speed was so slow that I really dreaded ever stepping foot outside the delivery truck (such as walking up a driveway to deliver a package), but other than that, this was an enjoyable experience.  There's also a Christmas-themed DLC called Season's Greetings that serves as a prequel where you play as the main game's father doing his normal delivery route

• Life is Strange series

The Life is Strange games are definitely not cozy all the way through.  There are moments where bad things happen, and side characters can die (sometimes with nothing you can do to prevent it, such as in Life is Strange: True Colors), but when these games go for a cozy feeling, they really nail it.  This is a game where you can sometimes just have a seat on a swing, a bench, or anything like that and relaxing music will play as the camera cycles through different artistic shots of your environment that would make any cinematographer proud.  And I also got cozy vibes anytime I would just peruse the play area taking note of the well-placed dress setting, with no instance of this better than exploring a dormitory in the first game where each room tells the lived-in experience of a different side character

• Kirby series (especially Epic Yarn)

Kirby is a whimsical platforming series where you inhale enemies and copy their abilities.  That may or may not sound like a recipe for coziness to you, but the Kirby games are generally designed as very beginner-friendly games, especially the Kirby Epic Yarn entry on the Wii which was re-released on the 3DS as Kirby's Extra Epic Yarn.  Also worth considering is Yoshi's Woolly World for the Wii U which retained the same cozy yarn-styled aesthetic and beginner-friendly gameplay

• Monument Valley series

If cozy puzzle games are your sort of thing, then the Monument Valley series is for you.  These are games without any dialog, and they revolve around you manipulating the environment so the character can progress to the level's exit.  The first two games are available on mobile and on Steam, while the third game is mobile only at the moment

• SimCity series (until a natural disaster destroys everything)

If you enjoy building things up and/or keeping a system humming, the SimCity games are a cozy, violence-free builder game.  That is, until a natural disaster comes through and wipes out all your progress.  If you don't mind some randomized mayhem coming through and forcing you to either rebuild or start over, then the SimCity games are a good choice for some cozy city-building gameplay.  As another option, Cities: Skylines is a more recent implementation of this same idea

• The Sims series

Controlling an entire city not doing it for you?  Would you rather control individual people?  Good thing The Sims games exist, then.  Here, you can oversee the lives of virtual characters and even alter their environment, such as by being the architect of their home.  The most recent entry The Sims 4 is free-to-play, so you can hop in without any upfront cost (although there are plenty of add-ons available for purchase if you desire)

• Simulator games (Powerwash Simulator, House Flipper, Supermarket Simulator, Euro Truck Simulator, Farming Simulator, or anything like this)

The simulator genre has grown quite a lot in recent years to become a noteworthy segment of the cozy gaming space.  These types of games are largely focused on performing mundane tasks that in real life could produce boredom, but in the virtual world - free of actual labor and any urgency - become rote activities that you can zone out doing or simply fulfill a desire to live out some idyllic dream job without needing to shell out time and money to do it in real life

• Lil Gator Game

Here we have a cute, playful Zelda-like game.  You play as a child wanting to run around and have adventures, using your imagination to take the ordinary things around you and envisioning them as something more epic.   Worth noting is that although this game released in 2022, DLC was announced in January 2025 which will involve underground exploration - this DLC is called the "In the Dark" DLC, but don't let the name fool you, it's still cozy and wholesome like the main game

• Nancy Drew series

For those who enjoy a nice cozy mystery (especially those who like the Nancy Drew books), check out the Nancy Drew series of games, featuring the popular teenage sleuth.  A quick glance at these point-and-click games on Steam show roughly three dozen games in this series, and you can buy games individually or in packs of five.  If you're not sure where to start, I'd suggest either Secrets Can Kill Remastered (the first Nancy Drew video game) or Secret of the Old Clock (based on the first Nancy Drew book)

• Our Life

Speaking of games with some reading in them (Nancy Drew being based on a series of books), visual novels can be a really good source for cozy gaming, and Our Life: Beginnings and Always is a wonderful example of this type of game.   It's a game about going from childhood to adulthood and how your relationship with the boy next door changes over time.  There is a ton of character customization in the game, and the game is available for free (though you can expand the game with paid DLC if you want).  There is also another game in the series coming up called Our Life: Now and Forever and which has a free demo available to play

• Sable

If you're in the mood for a game about exploration - and gorgeous vistas, give Sable a look.  This is a game with a cel-shaded art style, and it's about exploring a desert and uncovering mysteries.  There are also puzzles for you to solve, and the game even has fishing and bug-collecting, so there's plenty to do in this game even when you're not simply exploring the sand dunes

• Frog Detective

For a short, funny game, check out the Frog Detective series.  There are three games in the series, with the first one taking less than an hour, and the other two games in the 1-2 hour range.  As the name suggests, you play as a frog who is a detective, and the games are packed with plenty of humor

• Tiny Glade

Sometimes you just want to do some free-form creating, and for that, Tiny Glade has you covered.  You can build cottages, castles, or whatever other structure you want, which takes the house-decorating genre to the next level as you design the building and its surrounding area as you see fit.  This game does not have a storyline or even any objectives, so it's up to you to create whatever you want.  For some similar games, see also Summerhouse and Minami Lane

• Jigsaw Puzzle Dreams

If you're a puzzle fan who wants to feel like you're sitting at home putting together a jigsaw puzzle, then Jigsaw Puzzle Dreams can give you that experience.  This isn't a game where there's simply a jigsaw puzzle on your screen - this is a game that puts you in a room with a jigsaw puzzle on the table, and you can move around in three dimensions, inspect the puzzle from different angles, or even get up and walk away from the table with the jigsaw puzzle on it.  The base game is free, and you can buy additional jigsaw puzzles to complete in-game if you like

• Kind Words

There are few cozy games where you interact with other people (somehow online play doesn't lend itself to cozy interactions with others), but this game gets it right.  In Kind Words (and its sequel Kind Words 2), you write an anonymous letter and can optionally attach a sticker to it.  This message gets sent to someone and they can write back.  Kind Words 2 expands the experience with a larger world to explore, character customization options, and more, but Kind Words 1 and Kind Words 2 are cross-compatible, so you can get the message-writing experience with either game

• Earthbound

This is an RPG game from the days of the Super Nintendo, and it does have some turn-based combat in it (combat tends to reduce the coziness factor), but this one still rings true as quite cozy to me.  The reason I'd categorize it as a cozy game is the sense of humor and the fact that you play as school children on a world-saving quest

• Bugsnax (but not the end, of course)

This is a Pokemon-style game about an island with creatures called Bugsnax. There is a gotta-catch-em-all mentality to finding and figuring out how to catch each of the unique critters.  Alongside the creature-collecting gameplay is a story about bringing together a community of people that splintered when the leader went missing.  For 90%+ of this game, things are very cozy.  But be warned that the end of the game veers away from the cozy vibes and toward something else entirely.  However, the game lets you know when you are about to pass the point of no return and enter the endgame, so this is your chance to leave things as-is and walk away feeling cozy or to venture forth and risk a not-cozy ending.  Remember that I warned you the ending isn't cozy like the rest of the game!

• A Weekend in Puzzleburg

What's more cozy than a relaxing vacation?  Here you play as a woman taking a weekend vacation in the fictional resort town of Puzzleburg.  As you explore the town, you'll come across characters who each have some sort of problem you can help them with (having trouble getting a good night's sleep, looking for a healthy snack, etc.), if you can first puzzle out what the person needs and where in town to find it.  You can also choose your character's backstory via what job you have when you're not on vacation (which influences some dialog options), what hair color you have, what book you want to read on vacation (perhaps you prefer a murder mystery vs. a romance novel), and how you want to solve certain situations.  All told, there are over 180,000 ways your weekend vacation can play out based on your choices, so you may find yourself wanting to take multiple trips to Puzzleburg to see everything it has to offer.  Note that I am the developer of this game

Games that CAN be cozy if played in a certain way

• The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim

This is the key game in the "can this be considered a cozy game?" debate.   Yes, it's a game about fighting dragons and other terrifying creatures, but it's such a large open world that you can just focus on the exploration aspect, checking out the towns and landscape of Tamriel.  If you ignore the main quest about you being a "Dragonborn" destined to save the world (and in doing so also ignore the combat systems), you can have yourself a cozy time as an explorer in this game

• Microsoft Flight Simulator (on the simplest settings or just starting in mid-air by not starting at an airport)

Microsoft Flight Simulator sets out to really replicate the experience of flying an airplane, and flying an airplane in real-life is not an easy thing to do.  However, there are ways to make this flight simulator game a cozy experience.  There is something inherently cozy about soaring majestically through the sky and looking down at the world below you - to accomplish this without needing to become an expert pilot yourself, you can go into the settings and set up a generous autopilot that will do most of the heavy lifting for you.  Or if you truly want to make things as easy as can be, here's a pro tip - if you select to start your flight anywhere other than an airport, then you will start at that exact point mid-flight.  What that means is if you want to fly over New York City, you don't actually have to fly out of La Guardia, JFK, or any other airport; you can instead select your starting point to be Central Park, the Hudson River, or wherever else you want, and you'll start from that exact spot already in the air.  Air travel has never been this cozy before!

• Assassin's Creed Discovery Tour mode (Assassin's Creed: Odyssey, Assassin's Creed: Origins, & Assassin's Creed: Valhalla)

The Assassin's Creed games are likely far from your mind when you think of cozy games - what with the word "assassin" right there in the title, but recent entries in the Assassin's Creed series like Odyssey, Origins, and Valhalla have a special mode called "Discovery Tour" that presents a cozy gaming experience.   What this mode does is remove the story and the violence, leaving the wonderfully detailed environments for you to peruse at your leisure and adding in some information about the historical time period.  This allows you to take a trip back in time and do so while relaxing right at home

• The management mode in sports video games like Madden (football), EA FC (soccer), etc.  Also, Football Manager or Head Coach games dedicated specifically to this style of play

Sports are inherently competitive, so how can a sports video game be cozy?   Simple - by not putting you on the field head-to-head against an opponent and a ticking clock, but instead putting you into the role of management.  Many big-time sports video games have a separate mode (usually called "Franchise mode" or something similar) where you manage the team by signing free agents, drafting players, making trades, and choosing which players are starters and which are benchwarmers.  There is no time limit for making decisions, so you can sit there and mull things over as long as you like, and there are usually options for turning off the salary cap and possibly even altering the frequency of injuries if you want to have fewer constraints in how you run your team.   During these modes, you can optionally choose to take the team onto the field and play yourself or you can have the video game simulate the results, almost instantly spitting back the final score and how it came to be.  This style of play, where you are the manager rather than the athlete, has proven popular enough that there have been sports video games where you can't even play the on-field game and can only manage the team through menus - e.g. Football Manager for soccer and NFL Head Coach for American football.  I personally enjoy conducting a fantasy draft to assemble my own unique team or even doing an expansion draft where I create a brand new team in a brand new city.  And let's not forget the joy of taking your favorite sports team who have been in the doldrums and taking their virtual counterparts to the championship due to your shrewd managerial skills.  A special shoutout here to the NBA 2K series which allows you to import past draft classes, making drafting players super overpowered since you already know which players are going to be superstars.   Or even allowing you to do a fantasy draft with all the best players the league has ever seen!

• Spider-Man (just web-slinging around the city, exploring NYC, taking pictures, locating backpack collectibles)

Some games just feel great moving around, and there's no game out there with better traversal than the Spider-Man series on PS4/PS5.  Sure, the game does begin with an action-oriented inciting incident, but pretty quickly after that, the city opens up.  Throughout the main story, you'll find yourself fighting plenty of enemies, but you can alternatively ignore that and just web-sling across the city, going from one end of Manhattan to the other without a single loading screen.   And there some non-violent things you can do like seeing the sights in Times Square, Central Park, or wherever you want to go in the city, taking photos of points of interest, or recovering backpacks scattered all over the place.  There are also Marvel-specific Easter eggs, like perching atop Avengers tower or finding spots such as Alias Investigations (home to Jessica Jones) and the Sanctum Santorum (home to Dr. Strange)

• Fallout series (e.g. Fallout 4)

A nuclear wasteland is not the most likely setting for some cozy gameplay, and there is certainly lots of violence in the free-for-all that is the post-apocalypse, but there is also some cozy gameplay to be found.  In a Fallout game, you never know what interesting settlement you'll stumble across or how a real world location has been transformed to fit the Fallout universe.   In Fallout 3, you can take in the view from the top of a crumbling Washington Monument; in Fallout: New Vegas, you can explore a revamped Vegas strip and play card games or simply collect chips from each casino; in Fallout 4, there's a whole base-building system that allows you to create your own home base.  And above all else, there's just something really cozy about braving a dangerous world and then returning home to Megaton, Tenpenny Tower, Novac, the Lucky 38 presidential suite, or wherever else you hang your hat at the end of the day to drop off your well-earned loot, get a good night's sleep, and return to full health (while also earning a temporary "well rested" perk that grants a multiplier on experience earned for a short while)

• Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild & Tears of the Kingdom (exploration, horseback riding, cooking, and in TotK - building contraptions)

The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom are games full of exploration.  There are no Ubisoft-style map-markers cluttering up your map, only the markers you yourself place after visiting a spot and wanting to remember what's there for later.  There is of course plenty of combat if you seek that out, but these games offer so much more, whether it's completing a lengthy quest to build your own home (and a quest which can continue even after that), riding around on horses, taking advantage of a full cooking system, acquiring clothing that has both form and function, or - as introduced in Tears of the Kingdom, building contraptions limited only by your own imagination

• Red Dead Redemption (e.g. riding around on horseback, playing poker)

Like with the Fallout games, we have ourselves something of a lawless land in the Old West present in the Red Dead Redemption games.  While you can go around getting in gunfights (including pistols-at-dawn-types of encounters), you can opt to spend your time doing other things instead if you want.  That can include cozy activities such as horseback riding through the wilderness, picking herbs, or playing poker

• No Man's Sky

There are games that give you a world you can run around in and make your own fun, and then there is No Man's Sky.  This is a game with essentially an infinite number of procedurally generated worlds (it's not actually infinite, but there's no way you'll spend enough time to see all 18 quintillion planets, so it's essentially infinite), and you can planet hop from one to another to see what each next world has to offer.  It's possible to play as a pilot of a gunship, but you can also choose to be a peaceful trader or explorer

• Celeste, using options to make it much easier

Celeste is of course a tough-as-nails platformer, where the player - when using default settings - can expect to fail over and over again.  But fortunately, there are very generous options settings where you can tweak the game to make it far more forgiving if you like.  The ability to tweak the difficulty to your liking combined with a main story about mental health make this a game that can be a cozy game if you want it to be (though fair warning that if you go around calling this a cozy game, those who played Celeste on the default settings are going to think you're crazy)

The LEAST cozy games ever made (but still good, fun games to play).  Hopefully, knowing these exist will help you appreciate the cozy games above even more

• The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask (the world ends in three days and there's a running clock on screen the entire time)

While I had two Legend of Zelda games on the list above as games that can be played in a cozy fashion, The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask is the complete opposite of a cozy video game.  First off, the entire game takes place in a 3-day cycle with the moon in the process of crashing into the planet and obliterating everyone when it does, so there's that.  You can even look skyward at any point and see the moon as it bears down on you.  Plus, there's a timer constantly on the screen that tells you exactly how close you are to doom.  Doesn't sound very cozy, does it?  It should be said that you can restart the 3-day cycle at any time, and there is a way to make time move more slowly so you can accomplish more in one cycle, but even if you do manage to create a happy moment for someone (for example, completing the long Anju and Kafei quest), all that is reset at the start of a new cycle.  A lingering sense of despair - constantly reinforced by a moon hanging over your head and a running clock - makes this one of the least cozy games ever made.  But it is a great game, nonetheless

• Mega Man series, Super Meat Boy, & any other precision platformer (Celeste can be cozy, though - see above)

Something that makes a game the opposite of cozy is frustration, and incredibly difficult platformers where you have to try over and over again certainly inspire frustration.  The epitome of this type of game to me is the Mega Man series.   Even though you can play any level in any order, every single one of them takes a ton of practice to successfully complete.  There have been plenty of platformer video games that follow in the footsteps of Mega Man by cranking up the difficulty, such as Super Meat Boy and Celeste.  Celeste, however, made it into the "can be cozy" category above based on its generous settings that enable much easier completion of levels

• Battletoads games

Another game series that makes the not-cozy list based on its difficulty is the Battletoads games.  In particular, anybody who has attempted the Turbo Tunnel level probably knows what it's like to rage quit a video game.  But there are some redeeming qualities that make this a worthwhile video game - the side-scrolling beat-em-up gameplay is fun and the music is simply incredible

• Resident Evil series, The Walking Dead series, The Last of Us series, A Plague Tale series, or anything apocalyptic with zombies, rats, or other terrifying enemies where you have little ability to fight them

This category probably goes without saying, but any game that scares you or gets your heart pumping is probably not the most cozy game.  I'll also mention that the early Resident Evil games gave the player a limited number of save opportunities (only at certain places and only a certain number of times), which further ratchets up the intensity and prevents any sense of coziness

• Grand Theft Auto series

In the Grand Theft Auto games, you go around committing crimes, from stealing cars (as the title suggests) to more violent things.  I suppose there is some relaxation to be found in the freedom the game allows, as you can drive anywhere and do things that one would not recommend doing in real life.  But it's hard to call a game built around doing things that make you a wanted criminal who is then chased around with increasing urgency a cozy experience

• Call of Duty or any online shooter (except perhaps Splatoon)

Online competitive play does not lend itself to cozy gameplay.  To begin with, competition is not really consistent with the cozy vibe, and knowing that your teammates are relying on you for team success only further limits any potential coziness.   I will say, though, that playing online games with your friends does provide social interactions that you may not be able to get in person (e.g. if you live in different places), so that can provide some coziness, but in general, competitive online video games are not the best place to go for cozy gameplay.  If you simply must look for a cozy online shooter, then I'd have to say that the Splatoon games are probably your best bet

• Thumper

This is an intense rhythm game.  It's possible for rhythm games to be cozy since getting into a flow state can be a terrific, relaxing feeling, especially if the rhythm game is playing a favorite tune at the time (e.g. rocking out in Guitar Hero or Rock Band).  But that's not what this rhythm game offers.  It instead provides a tough challenge set to some intense music, and at times even has a boss character looming over you as you play.  The VR version in particular will leave you with sweaty palms and likely an elevated heartrate

• Maneater

In this game, you play as a shark, and you can even eat human NPCs.  There is really nothing about this game - or its concept - that could be described as cozy.  It is interesting experiencing life as a shark, but it is certainly not a cozy existence

• The end of Bugsnax

This is one I touched on earlier.  Definitely do not play the end of Bugsnax if you're looking for a cozy gaming experience

There you have it.  The best cozy games ever made, plus some games that can be cozy if played in a certain way, and games that while good games are the LEAST cozy games ever made.

Had your fill of cozy video games?  Are you looking for something a bit more thrilling?  Then see also my similar list of the best spy video games ever made (in addition to making cozy video games, I also make spy video games).