The Best Space Trading And Combat Simulation Games of All Time

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Updated October 13, 2019 1.4k votes 455 voters 26.1k views
Voting Rules
Vote up the best video games in the space trading and combat simulation games genre.

This is a list of the best space trading and combat simulation games of all time for any console or system, including cover art pictures when available. These highly rated space trading and combat simulation games are ordered by popularity, so only the greatest space trading and combat simulation games are at the top of the list. Spanning the entire history of the genre, these space trading and combat simulation games are considered the best in the genre. This list includes all challenging space trading and combat simulation games that have ever hit the shelves, so it doesn't necessarily have all the more obscure or new space trading and combat simulation games.

Games here include everything from Cool Spot to Elite and more.

This list answers the questions, "What are the best space trading and combat simulation games?" and "What is the greatest space trading and combat simulation games game of all time?

Photo: flickr / CC0
Ranked by
  • Freelancer
    1

    Freelancer

    2003
    168 votes
    • Developer: Digital Anvil
    Freelancer is a space trading and combat simulation video game developed by Digital Anvil and published by Microsoft Game Studios. It is a chronological sequel to Digital Anvil's Starlancer, a combat ...more
  • Escape Velocity Nova
    2

    Escape Velocity Nova

    Mar 18 2002
    29 votes
    • Developer: Ambrosia Software, ATMOS Software
    Escape Velocity Nova is a video game by Ambrosia Software, in collaboration with ATMOS. It is the third game in the Escape Velocity series of space trading & combat games.
  • Wing Commander: Privateer
    3
    • Developer: Origin Systems
    Wing Commander: Privateer is an adventure space flight simulation computer game released by Origin Systems in 1993. Privateer and its storyline is part of the Wing Commander series. Privateer had an ...more
  • Privateer 2: The Darkening
    4
    • Developer: Origin Systems
    In this video game/interactive movie, you see the world through the eyes of Lev Arris. Arris wakes up in a hospital after surviving the crash of the space-ship Canera. He has partial amnesia and ...more
  • Elite: Dangerous
    5

    Elite: Dangerous

    2014
    83 votes
    • Developer: Frontier Developments
    Elite: Dangerous is a space adventure, trading, and combat simulator that is the fourth release in the Elite video game series. Piloting a spaceship, the player explores a realistic 1:1 scale open ...more
  • Elite
    6

    Elite

    1984
    49 votes
    • Developer: Ian Bell, David Braben
    Elite is a seminal space trading video game, written and developed by David Braben and Ian Bell and originally published by Acornsoft for the BBC Micro and Acorn Electron computers in September 1984. ...more