Games Like Cell to Singularity, by What the Ladder Climbs
The short answer
The games most like Cell to Singularity are incremental games that climb a ladder you can name: evolution, the history of technology, outer space or a lab. The best single pick is SPACEPLAN, a science joke about potatoes in orbit that HowLongToBeat players finish in about 6 hours. If you want the same tech tree for free, on your phone too, play CivIdle: its research runs from hunting and gathering to artificial intelligence.
None of the eight reaches a singularity. Four of them finish, one has a final layer still to come, and three keep growing with no end announced. The table puts the ones that finish first.
Updated October 2026.
The eight games, by what the ladder climbs
| Game | What the ladder climbs | How far it gets | Price (as of October 2026) | Steam reviews (as of October 2026) | On phones |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| SPACEPLAN | Potato probes, out across five planets in two realities | Finishes, about 6 hours on HowLongToBeat | $2.99 | 3,439 (Very Positive) | iOS, Android |
| Idle Evolution | Atoms, through ages and aeons, to a “final evolution” | Finishes, 10 hours of active play by its store page | $4.99 | 198 (Mostly Positive) | None found |
| A Game About Feeding A Black Hole | Asteroids, then planets, then stars | Finishes, about 2 hours on HowLongToBeat | $6.99 | 3,552 (Very Positive) | None found |
| Learning Factory | A cat factory on Mars, plus real machine-learning models | A goal: rebuild the Monument, reach Catopia | $14.99 | 523 (Very Positive) | None found |
| Idle Research | Flasks, then Tubes, in a lab | 2 of 3 planned layers, Early Access | Free, with in-app purchases | 1,909 (Very Positive) | Android |
| CivIdle | 100+ technologies, from hunting and gathering to artificial intelligence | No end announced; prestige brings Great People | Free, with paid expansion packs | 1,133 (Mostly Positive) | iOS, Android |
| Unnamed Space Idle | Over 10 systems that unfold as you progress | No end announced, still in Early Access | Free, with in-app purchases | 4,494 (Very Positive) | iOS, Android |
| Swarm Simulator: Evolution | Larvae and drones up to hive Overminds | No end announced; you Ascend onto a new world | Free, with in-app purchases | 559 (Mostly Positive) | iOS, Android |
The 6 and 2 hours are HowLongToBeat main-story averages (as of October 2026). Idle Evolution’s 10 hours is its developer’s own figure. “None found” means I found no listing for it on the App Store or Google Play (as of October 2026).
What makes Cell to Singularity work?
An incremental game is a game built around numbers that grow faster than you can spend them: you buy something that makes more of the resource, which buys more of that thing, until the scale changes and new systems appear. There is a longer version of that in what an incremental game is.
Cell to Singularity is that loop with a history book attached. You tap for Entropy to evolve a single cell into fish, reptiles, mammals and humans, then spend Ideas on a Tech Tree that passes fire and the Industrial Revolution on its way toward what the store page calls “the mystery of the technological singularity”. So every upgrade is a step in a story you already know, and the number you are growing has a date on it. It is free to play on Steam with in-app purchases, has 28,243 Steam reviews, 89% positive (as of October 2026), and is also on iOS and Android.
Which games like Cell to Singularity have an ending?
SPACEPLAN
I would start here. SPACEPLAN is Cell to Singularity’s science pitch played for laughs, “an experimental piece of interaction based partly on a total misunderstanding of Stephen Hawking’s A Brief History of Time”, in the words of its Steam page. You sit on a satellite above a planet, click, wait, and launch potato-based probes. There are fifteen items to unlock, five planets across two realities, and a silly story on top.
Where Cell to Singularity travels through time, SPACEPLAN travels through distance, and it gets to the end: HowLongToBeat’s main-story average is 6 hours from 52 submissions (as of October 2026). It costs $2.99 on Steam (as of October 2026), runs on Windows and macOS, and is also on iOS and Android.
Idle Evolution
Idle Evolution is my pick for the first half of Cell to Singularity, the part before anyone has an Idea. Your currency is atoms. You combine them until your piece of rock has passed “through periods, ages and aeons” and new chemical elements turn up, all to bring an entity to “its final evolution”, as its store page puts it. On top sit more than 200 missions, a quiz and minigames, and the developer files it partly under educational.
Know one thing before you buy it: the same page says its idle base was “transformed to make it fully active”, and gives the playtime as 10 hours of active time. It costs $4.99 at full price (as of October 2026), on Windows, macOS and Linux, and it is the least-reviewed game here, at 198 reviews, Mostly Positive (as of October 2026).
A Game About Feeding A Black Hole
This is the one I would play tonight. Its Steam page is a single line: “A short incremental game about feeding a Black Hole matter by destroying Asteroids, Planets, and Stars.” The scale is the size of what you break, and you watch it change.
It came out on 15 December 2025 and costs $6.99 (both as of October 2026), on Windows, macOS and Linux. HowLongToBeat puts the main story at 2 hours from 50 submissions (as of October 2026), and the store page lists extra game modes after that. If the zoom from one cell to a planet is what you liked, this is that zoom in a single evening.
Which one teaches you something real?
Learning Factory
Learning Factory is the odd one here, an automation game rather than an idler. I put it in for Cell to Singularity’s other promise, that you come away knowing something. You restore a factory on Mars and serve its pickiest customers, cats, with conveyor belts, underground lines and air transport. You also “experiment with real machine-learning models that analyze store sales data”, says its Steam page, with an in-game wiki and educational videos behind the ideas.
It has a finish line: rebuild the ancient Monument and establish Catopia. There are no enemies. It left Early Access on 27 January 2025, almost four years after it entered, and costs $14.99 (both as of October 2026), on Windows, macOS and Linux, with 523 reviews, 86% positive (as of October 2026).
Which games like Cell to Singularity are free and still growing?
Idle Research
Idle Research swaps the evolution tree for a lab bench. You research and craft Flasks, then Tubes, to earn three kinds of Energy, with prestige layers, 7 zones of up to 500 stages, 70 skills and potion brewing on top. Its Steam page says there are two content layers so far and a third and final one planned, larger than the first two combined.
Of the free four, it is the one with an end announced, though not yet built. The same page says a single developer made all of it. It is free with in-app purchases, on Windows, macOS and Linux, and on Android, with 1,909 reviews, Very Positive (as of October 2026). HowLongToBeat shows a main-story time of about 31 hours, but from only 2 submissions (as of October 2026), so take that as a rough size.
CivIdle
CivIdle is the closest match to Cell to Singularity’s second half, the Tech Tree. CivIdle’s Steam page lists 100+ technologies “from hunting and gathering, through writing and math, all the way to virtual reality and artificial intelligence”, and each era opens new systems and world wonders. When you prestige you collect Great People, historical figures whose bonuses carry into the next run on a fresh, procedurally generated map.
The base game is free on Windows, macOS and Linux, with no microtransactions by its developer’s account and optional paid expansion packs. It also has a global market where you trade with other players. It sits at 1,133 reviews, Mostly Positive, 73% (as of October 2026), and it is on iOS and Android too.
Unnamed Space Idle
Unnamed Space Idle is the best-reviewed free pick, and I include it for Cell to Singularity’s shape more than its theme: free, on your phone too, and built to keep opening up. You fly one ship against alien waves that, in its Steam page’s words, “have all but wiped out humanity”. Progress comes from “over 10 distinct systems”, among them Core, Compute, Synth, a Void Device, Prestige, a Reactor, Research and Warp, which unfold as you go.
It has the most reviews and the highest share of positive ones of the eight: 4,157 of 4,494 (as of October 2026). It is free with in-app purchases, on Windows and Linux with no macOS build on Steam, and it is still in Early Access. The iOS and Android versions are listed under its publisher, Jdog Corp.
Swarm Simulator: Evolution
Swarm Simulator: Evolution is the evolution theme without the history. You start with larvae and drones and hatch your way up to hive Overminds, conquering territory with Stingers and Locusts. The goal, per its Steam page, is “universe spanning conquest”, and the reset is called Ascend: you start again on a new world with powerful new Mutations.
I am keeping it for the theme, though its 559 reviews are only Mostly Positive (as of October 2026). It is free with in-app purchases, on Windows and macOS, and on iOS and Android, and its store page says it keeps progressing while the game is closed.
Does any of them reach a singularity?
No. CivIdle comes closest: the last technologies its store page names are virtual reality and artificial intelligence, which is where Cell to Singularity’s tree is heading too. A Game About Feeding A Black Hole has a singularity of a kind, but it is the thing you feed.
If the machine at the end is the part you want, two other lists fit better. Games like Universal Paperclips covers idlers that turn into a different game as they grow, and games where you play as the AI covers the machine’s point of view. If you want the classic clicker side of Cell to Singularity, the tapping and the upgrade columns, games like Cookie Clicker is the list for that. And if an ending matters more than theme, idle games that actually end sorts the genre by that alone.
Where our game fits
Our own game, Sam, We Talked About This, sits beside this list. It is an idle incremental game: you scrape whatever the internet has, train text, image and video models on it, rack the models to win subscribers, and put the cash into more disks, bigger machines and a bigger crew. Its theme sits nearest to where Cell to Singularity’s tree points, a civilization on the brink of a technological singularity, because AGI is waiting at the end of Sam’s loop. The difference is what grows: Cell to Singularity moves through the history of life and science, and Sam scales its own models until the loop feeds itself and speeds up. It is unreleased, coming to Steam in Q1 2027, so there is nothing to play or point at yet. The Steam page for Sam, We Talked About This is where it will land.
Quick answers
Are there games like Cell to Singularity on mobile? Yes, five of the eight. SPACEPLAN, CivIdle, Unnamed Space Idle and Swarm Simulator: Evolution are on both iOS and Android, and Idle Research is on Android (as of October 2026). Cell to Singularity itself is on both phone stores as well as Steam.
Is Cell to Singularity free? Yes. It is free to play on Steam, iOS and Android, and Steam lists in-app purchases for it (as of October 2026). Four of the eight games here are free on Steam too: Idle Research, Unnamed Space Idle and Swarm Simulator: Evolution with in-app purchases, and CivIdle with optional paid packs.
Is SPACEPLAN the closest game to Cell to Singularity? Yes, if you mean the science climb told as a story; HowLongToBeat players finish it in about 6 hours (as of October 2026). If you mean the Tech Tree itself, CivIdle is closer, and it is free.
How long does Cell to Singularity take? About 7 hours for the main story on HowLongToBeat, from 15 submissions, and about 107 hours across all play styles from 58 (both as of October 2026). Most of that gap is people who keep playing long after the main story.
Key takeaways
- Cell to Singularity’s hook is a ladder you recognise, the history of life and science, so judge the follow-ups on what they climb and whether they finish.
- SPACEPLAN is the best single pick; A Game About Feeding A Black Hole is the one you finish in an evening.
- CivIdle is the closest tech tree, free and on phones, running from hunting and gathering to artificial intelligence.
- Unnamed Space Idle, Swarm Simulator: Evolution and Idle Research are free, still growing, and on phones like Cell to Singularity.
- Learning Factory is the one that teaches, with real machine-learning models inside a factory game.
- For why a growing chain of unlocks feels good, see the most satisfying progression systems.
