Games like Hades' Star

Most space games punish you for closing the tab. Hades' Star doesn't. You queue up miners and battleships, send them off, and the galaxy carries on until you come back to collect. That slow rhythm is the appeal, and if you are hunting for more games with it, you already know the feeling.

Below: what Hades' Star nails, what changed when it became Dark Nebula, four other games worth a look, and a slower browser game built on the same idea.

What are the best games like Hades' Star?#

Look for space strategy in a shared, persistent world that carries on while you are logged off. Pixel Starships is the closest on a phone, with a ship you design room by room and a galaxy full of other players. The Infinite Black 2 puts every player on one shared server, and EVE Echoes brings the EVE sandbox to phones. Star Traders: Frontiers is the pick if you want the depth without other players. Old Light keeps the slow shared galaxy and skips the live events, free in a browser.

What Hades' Star gets right#

Platform: phones and PC on Steam. Price: free, with Crystals and paid packs. Launched: 2017, reworked in the DARK NEBULA update of November 2023. Best for: corporation players who enjoy timed co-op runs.

Hades' Star is a real-time space strategy game from Parallel Space where you grow your own solar system, mine hydrogen, research upgrades, and then venture out into shared event stars. Red Stars are timed co-op runs where a corporation fights off NPCs and grabs loot before the system goes supernova. White Stars are corporation battles that run over several days, and Blue Stars are quick free-for-alls. The universe is persistent and full of real players, and the best of it is cooperative.

There is a lot under the hood: a big research tree, ship roles that actually matter, and co-op runs that test coordination at the top end. For a game that started on phones, the ceiling is high.

Hades' Star and Dark Nebula#

In November 2023 Parallel Space launched Hades' Star: DARK NEBULA, a reworked version of the game that also came out on PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. Its App Store listing invites players to carry on the empire they started in the original, and it is the version the studio keeps updating. Long-time players on the Steam forums are split on it. Some praise the better Red Stars and combat, while others say ships left behind in a Red Star are now lost for good and that the player count fell back after the launch.

The console versions did not last. Parallel Space closed them on 1 October 2025, saying they were a significant drain on a small team, and kept the PC and mobile versions running.

Where it asks more than it looks#

The catch is the same one most successful async games eventually hit: the deeper you go, the more the clock owns you. Red Stars are timed, so they reward being online at the right moment. The hardest tier, the Dark Red Star, even carries permadeath for the ships you commit to it. Crystals, the premium currency, sit alongside the free game, and while you can play without paying, the smoothest version of Hades' Star is not the free one.

It is still a good game, one that starts gentle and ends up demanding. That arc is what sends a lot of players looking for an alternative.

More games like Hades' Star#

Pixel Starships#

Platform: browser, phones and PC on Steam. Price: free, with optional purchases. Launched: January 2016. Best for: players who like building and crewing one ship in detail.

Pixel Starships is SavySoda's 8-bit ship management MMO. You lay out a starship room by room and program your crew's orders for battles that play out on their own. Other players are all around you in alliances and PvP, and the game was still running crossover events in 2026. It is one of the few games here you can also open in a browser. A sequel, Pixel Starships 2, entered early access on phones and PC in August 2025, and the original carries on alongside it.

The Infinite Black 2#

Platform: phones, Mac, Windows and Linux. Price: free on phones, a one-off price on Steam. Launched: June 2023, after early access from October 2022. Best for: corporation players who want one server for everyone.

The Infinite Black 2 is Spellbook's sequel to The Infinite Black. You captain a small fleet that hunts aliens for loot, and the long game is corporations building shipyards and fighting a war that never ends. Every player on every device shares one server, which is the part that will feel most familiar from Hades' Star.

Star Traders: Frontiers#

Platform: Windows, Mac, Linux, iOS and Android. Price: one-off purchase. Launched: July 2018 on PC, January 2019 on mobile. Best for: players who want depth without other players.

Star Traders: Frontiers by Trese Brothers is single-player, which makes it the odd one out here. You captain one ship in a procedurally generated galaxy and choose a career for it, from honest trade to piracy, while faction politics shift around you and your crew grows with you. There is no shared galaxy, and the game waits for you, so there are no events to attend. Its Steam reviews are Very Positive overall.

EVE Echoes#

Platform: iOS and Android. Price: free, with in-app purchases. Launched: August 2020. Best for: players who want the EVE sandbox on a phone.

EVE Echoes is the mobile EVE from NetEase and CCP Games. You fly one ship at a time through a huge shared universe and join corporations that fight over space. It is still updated, with a patch and maintenance window in September 2026. Like Hades' Star, it has mining and corporations. There is more on the EVE side of things in what to play when EVE Online is too much.

Where VEGA Conflict went#

VEGA Conflict from KIXEYE shut down on 15 May 2026 and is no longer playable, so it is left out here.

What "a slower galaxy" means#

A different kind of shared-galaxy game runs purely on build timers and lazy accrual. Your economy ticks over with the tab shut, and there are no live events to attend. You drop in, make a few calls, and the galaxy gets on without you.

These are the games worth searching for if you loved the shared-world feel of Hades' Star but not the part where it started scheduling your evenings.

Where Old Light fits#

Platform: browser. Price: free, with optional Premium for convenience and cosmetics. Launched: June 2026. Best for: players who want a shared galaxy they can check twice a day.

Old Light runs on that slower model, in your browser with nothing to install. Where Hades' Star sends you mining hydrogen and running co-op raids in shared event stars, Old Light keeps the persistent galaxy and drops the live runs. You hold systems and project borders you can read across the whole map. Rival composition stays hidden until you scout it with probes, and fleets go out to defend or conquer. Builds take minutes to hours and the early game is forgiving. Premium buys bigger queues and cosmetics, and no payment buys power. If you try it, the how to play guide walks you through your first sessions.

Old Light has nothing like Hades' Star's research depth or its live co-op raids, and the galaxy is younger and thinner than a game that has run for years. What it shares with Hades' Star is the async core: every empire runs on one clock in one galaxy, and spending money does not decide the winner.

How they compare#

Which one to pick#

If you want the deep co-op runs and the live events and premium layer don't bother you, stay with Hades' Star on Dark Nebula, which does timed co-op better than the rest of this list. For ship building on a phone with other players around you, try Pixel Starships. EVE Echoes suits you if you would rather fly in a big sandbox than run a system. If what you really miss is a galaxy that ticks along on its own, with no alarm clock and nothing to buy your way ahead, Old Light is the closer fit.

Common questions#

What are the best games like Hades' Star?#

Async space strategy in a persistent shared galaxy is what to search for. Pixel Starships is the closest on a phone. Astro Empires is the long-running browser version, written up in games like Astro Empires and Anacreon. Old Light is the newer one, free in a browser and without the timed event stars. If the slow clock is what you like most, the round-up of games like Neptune's Pride covers the real-time side of the genre.

What are some mobile games like Hades' Star?#

Pixel Starships, The Infinite Black 2 and EVE Echoes all run on iOS and Android with a shared online world. Star Traders: Frontiers is on phones too, as a single-player game you buy once. Old Light has no app, but it plays in a phone browser.

Is Hades' Star still active?#

Yes. Parallel Space reworked it in the DARK NEBULA update of November 2023 and still updates it on phones and Steam. The console versions closed on 1 October 2025.

Does Hades' Star run in a browser?#

No. It started on phones and runs as an installed app, with a PC version on Steam. If a browser tab is what you want, Old Light and Astro Empires both play with nothing to install, and so does Pixel Starships, which also makes them the easy route on a Chromebook.

Is there a space game like Hades' Star without timed events?#

Yes. Red Stars and White Stars are what make Hades' Star reward being online at set moments. A game running purely on build and travel timers has nothing to show up for, and Old Light is built that way.

Is Old Light free to play?#

Yes, and nothing on sale makes an empire stronger. A fight comes down to the size and position of your fleets, so there is no pay-for-power in it.