Games Like Melvor Idle on Steam: Free, Paid and Multiplayer
What are the best games like Melvor Idle?
Idle Clans is the closest game to Melvor Idle on Steam and the one we would start with. It has the same RuneScape-style gathering, crafting and combat skills, it keeps training them while the game is closed, and it adds the clans and player shops Melvor never had. It is also free. IdleOn is the bigger, combat-first alternative. If what you miss is RuneScape itself, play Old School RuneScape or Brighter Shores.
Updated October 2026.
What makes a game feel like Melvor Idle?
Melvor Idle is RuneScape’s skill grind with the walking cut out, published by Jagex, the studio behind RuneScape. Its Steam page lists 15 non-combat skills, among them Woodcutting, Farming, Smithing and Cooking, plus 8 combat skills for fighting 100+ monsters, each trained “with just a click or a tap”. It lists at $9.99 and has 16,278 Steam reviews, 90.0% positive (as of October 2026).
What makes it Melvor is what happens after you close it. The Melvor wiki’s offline progression page explains that when you come back, the game simulates up to 24 hours of the skill you were training. Combat and Thieving only run offline once you turn on a setting for them, because your character can die while you are away.
Melvor is an incremental game. 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. Our explainer on incremental games covers how idle, clicker and incremental differ. In Melvor that loop runs through three kinds of skill:
- Gathering. Woodcutting, fishing, mining: raw materials out of nothing.
- Crafting. Smithing and cooking turn those materials into gear, food and potions.
- Combat. The gear and food go into fights, and the fights drop more materials.
Every game below keeps at least one of those three loops and is on Steam. We grouped them by how much of Melvor they keep: the whole skill grind, combat first, or RuneScape itself. Five of them keep Melvor’s idle side. The last two drop it and give you the RuneScape feel back instead.
Which Steam games are most like Melvor Idle?
Idle Clans stays the first pick, and the others each answer one need. Scapewatch has the longest skill list here, but it costs money and is the newest game on the page. IdleOn is the combat-first pick. Soda Dungeon 2 is the highest-rated game in the table and the one pick with no skill sheet at all, just a party and a dungeon.
| Game | Skills on its Steam page (Melvor: 23) | Progress while you are away | Multiplayer | Price (as of October 2026) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Idle Clans | Almost 20 | Yes, offline | Yes: clans, player shops | Free · In-App Purchases label |
| Scapewatch: Idle MMO | 30 | Yes, your task queue keeps running | Yes: clans, raids of up to 5 | $14.99 |
| Idle Skilling | 21 | Yes, offline | No | Free · In-App Purchases label |
| IdleOn - The Incremental MMO | 20, behind combat | Yes, AFK gains | Yes, an MMO | Free · In-App Purchases label |
| Soda Dungeon 2 | None: party combat and crafting | Yes, Battle Credits while AFK | No | Free · In-App Purchases label |
| Brighter Shores | Professions, added by episode | None listed | Yes, an MMO | Free · Premium Pass for more episodes |
| Old School RuneScape | 24, 8 of them for members | None listed | Yes, an MMO | Free · membership $14.99 a month |
“None listed” means the store page describes no offline or AFK progress. Both of those games are played by hand.
Review counts below are Steam’s all-language totals, and the positive share is computed from Steam’s all-language, all-purchase review totals, both as of October 2026.
| Game | Steam reviews (as of October 2026) | Positive | Mac build | Status on Steam |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Idle Clans | 1,689 | 74.5% | Yes | Early Access |
| Scapewatch: Idle MMO | 364 | 87.6% | No | Released |
| Idle Skilling | 2,398 | 70.2% | No | Released |
| IdleOn - The Incremental MMO | 29,917 | 77.1% | No | Released |
| Soda Dungeon 2 | 5,684 | 94.1% | Yes | Released |
| Brighter Shores | 9,407 | 67.2% | Yes | Early Access |
| Old School RuneScape | 20,877 | 82.8% | Yes | Released |
Melvor itself runs on Mac, so if that is your machine, four of the seven carry over. Our list of idle games for Mac has more.
Which games keep Melvor’s whole skill grind?
Idle Clans
Idle Clans is the best free game like Melvor Idle, and the idle pick that does the most with other players. Its Steam page promises “almost 20 skills”, and the Idle Clans wiki sorts them the way Melvor would: gathering skills such as Fishing, Woodcutting and Mining feed processing skills such as Cooking, Smithing and Crafting, and the combat skills are for monsters. You click a task and your character keeps at it “even when you go offline”. The rest is what Melvor lacks: clans that level up from a share of every member’s experience, a shared clan vault, and shops where you sell to other players. It is free with in-app purchases, and the wiki notes that without a Premium Membership Token, Agility, Farming and Enchanting stop at level 30. It is in Early Access, with 1,689 reviews and 74.5% positive (as of October 2026).
Scapewatch: Idle MMO
Scapewatch is the newest game here and has the longest skill list. Its store page lists 30 skills split into combat, gathering (Fish, Mine, Forage and Farm among them) and processing (Cook, Smith, Craft, Brew), along with 62 skill capes to earn. You set up a queue of tasks, log off, and the queue keeps running. It is online only, with clans, hiscores and raids for up to 5 players. Steam dates its release to 25 September 2026 (as of October 2026), a week before we checked, so its 364 reviews (87.6% positive, as of October 2026) are an early read. It is the only paid pick in the main table at $14.99 (as of October 2026), it was discounted on the check date, and it has no Mac build. Its store text still mentions a playtest, but Steam lists it as released and on sale.
Idle Skilling
Idle Skilling is the light version, built for short check-ins. Its store page says it is meant to be played for 5 to 10 minutes a day and lists 21 skills that keep levelling offline, from mining and fishing to potion-making and construction. You start with 3 of them and unlock the rest by pushing through fighting zones. Steam lists Lavaflame2 as its developer, the same name as on IdleOn. It is free with in-app purchases, Windows only, and the lowest-rated of the five idle picks at 70.2% positive from 2,398 reviews (as of October 2026).
Which games put combat first?
IdleOn - The Incremental MMO
IdleOn is the pick if Melvor’s dungeons were what kept you playing. Its store page puts fighting first: your heroes “keep fighting while you’re gone”, you build up to 11 characters with one of each class, and each one plays its own role in your account. Around the fighting sit 20 skills, among them Woodcutting, Cooking, Alchemy, Construction, Farming and Sailing. The developer calls it “a long-term idler game, made for those seeking out a multi-year long experience”. It is free, and its page says every class, map and skill is available without paying, with boosts and pets for sale. It has the most reviews of the seven picks, 29,917, with 77.1% positive (as of October 2026).
Soda Dungeon 2
Soda Dungeon 2 is Melvor’s dungeon loop without the skill sheet. You hire adventurers in a tavern, send them into the Dark Lord’s castle, and spend their loot on your town, your armory and crafted gear, as its store page describes. You can script how your party fights, and it earns Battle Credits while you are AFK. Nobody dies for good: everyone comes home with the loot. The page says everything can be bought with in-game currency and there are no loot boxes, though it still carries the In-App Purchases label. There are no gathering skills, so you trade Melvor’s breadth for one tighter loop. It has the highest positive share here, 94.1% from 5,684 reviews (as of October 2026), and runs on Mac.
What if you want RuneScape back instead of an idle game?
Some people who search for games like Melvor Idle are really looking for what Melvor reminded them of. Old School RuneScape and Brighter Shores keep the skills and the shared world and drop the background progress.
Old School RuneScape
Old School RuneScape is the most direct way back to the skills Melvor borrows: its store page describes it as RuneScape “as it was in 2007”. It lists 24 skills and over 140 quests. It is free to play, but 8 of those skills, among them Farming, Thieving and Slayer, are members only. A month of membership is $14.99 on Steam (as of October 2026). The same account plays on PC and mobile. It has 20,877 Steam reviews, 82.8% positive (as of October 2026).
Brighter Shores
Brighter Shores is the new MMO from RuneScape’s creator. Wikipedia’s Brighter Shores article says Andrew Gower, who created RuneScape, made it at his studio Fen Research after leaving Jagex in 2010. Its store page lists professions such as Fisher, Forager, Woodcutter, Miner, Chef, Alchemist and Blacksmith, released in episodes. The page says hours of content are free, and a Premium Pass opens every released episode. It is in Early Access, and at 67.2% positive from 9,407 reviews (as of October 2026) it is the only Mixed game here, so read the recent reviews first.
Other RuneScape games on Steam
Jagex has two more RuneScape games on Steam. RuneScape, the modern branch of the game, lists 29 skills and calls itself “the perfect second-screen game”. RuneScape: Dragonwilds turns RuneScape’s gathering, building and crafting into a co-op survival game. It costs $29.99 (as of October 2026), is Windows only, and has 32,832 reviews, 80.9% positive (as of October 2026).
Quick answers
Is there a multiplayer game like Melvor Idle? Yes, three idle ones. Idle Clans has clans and player shops, Scapewatch has clans and raids for up to 5 players, and IdleOn is an MMO with online co-op. Idle Clans and IdleOn are free, and Scapewatch costs $14.99 (as of October 2026).
Is there a free game like Melvor Idle? Yes, six of the seven. Idle Clans, Idle Skilling, IdleOn and Soda Dungeon 2 are free with in-app purchases. Old School RuneScape and Brighter Shores are free with paid tiers. If you want no in-app purchases at all, Melvor itself has none, though it sells three paid expansions, and our list of idle games on Steam without microtransactions has more like it.
Is there a game like Melvor Idle on mobile? Yes, on iPhone and Android. Melvor Idle is on the App Store and Google Play under Jagex, and so are Idle Clans, Idle Skilling, IdleOn, Soda Dungeon 2 and Old School RuneScape, checked in October 2026. Soda Dungeon 2 and Old School RuneScape both say on Steam that your progress carries between PC and phone.
Is there a game like IdleOn? Yes. Idle Skilling comes from Lavaflame2, the developer name on IdleOn, and is a smaller, single-player skilling game with 21 skills. If it is the other players you want, Idle Clans and Scapewatch are the two online idle games in the table.
Where our game fits
Our own game, Sam, We Talked About This, sits beside this list rather than on it, and it is the loosest fit on this page: it has no skills to level and nothing from RuneScape. What it shares with Melvor is the incremental shape, a loop that feeds itself and speeds up. You scrape data, train text, image and video models on it, let the models win subscribers, and turn the subscribers into cash for more disks, bigger machines and a bigger crew, all the way to AGI. It is unreleased and due on Steam in Q1 2027, so there is nothing to price or review yet. Its Steam page lists Windows and macOS if you want to follow it.
