Unveiling the Future of Strategy: The 25 Most Wishlisted Games of 2025
The world of strategy gaming on PC is constantly evolving, with a vibrant community eagerly anticipating the next big title, and 2025 isn’t any different. Steam, as the leading digital storefront on PC, offers a unique window into these desires through its robust wishlist feature. From intricate city builders and grand historical simulations to real-time strategy (RTS) and tactical combat and deep space sagas, players are hungry for experiences that challenge their minds and strategic prowess. This article dives into the 25 most wishlisted strategy games of 2025, offering a small but insightful glimpse into the most anticipated releases of 2025.
For once, if you disagree with this list, remember that you guys are the ones wishlisting all these games, and not me!
25 – D.O.R.F. Real-Time Strategic Conflict
I’m excited to see that my fellow real-time strategy (RTS) players also see the potential in D.O.R.F. Real-Time Strategic Conflict. This game plunges players into a twisted, futuristic world, offering a classic real-time strategy experience reminiscent of 90s hits, both in gameplay sense and its beautiful art style, which resembles a mix between Red Alert 2 and the classic Fallout titles. Aspiring commanders will choose from three distinct factions, each with its very own unique units and technologies, to construct expansive bases and secure vital resources. Like other classical real-time strategy (RTS) games, D.O.R.F. emphasizes base building and resource management. After that is done, it’s time to start pumping out military units and engage in dynamic land, air, and sea battles, commanding a diverse roster of powerful units, from massive double-zeppelin bombers to multi-turreted tanks, because for some reason, in the 90s, whenever you wanted to make something look cool, you just added more of it. And I love it. If D.O.R.F. does everything right, and I’m pretty sure it will, then fans of traditional RTS gameplay will find a lot to love here.
24 – Mars Tactics
Mars Tactics is the kind of game I know I’ll either love or hate. After playing the demo of it, I love the dynamic terrain and the complexity it wants to bring into the turn-based strategy genre, but it also needs to streamline that experience quite a lot by making decision-making a lot easier. However, the developer team is aiming to deliver a compelling blend of turn-based tactical combat and grand-scale strategic operations set against the backdrop of a war-torn Red Planet, and I can get on board with that. Players are thrust into a bitter conflict between two asymmetric factions: the resource-strapped Labor revolutionaries and the well-funded Capital army. What sets Mars Tactics apart from other turn-based strategies is the fully destructible environments, allowing for creative tactical solutions like blasting new entry points or creating cover on the fly by using explosives and bombs. If you’re a fan of XCOM or Xenonauts 2, then Mars Tactics might be the kind of game you’re looking for and one you might have on your radar.
23 – Ascent of Ashes
A colony sim set in a post-apocalyptic world, Ascent of Ashes first came onto my radar because of Joe, my lovely American co-host on the Critical Moves Podcast, and it’s coming out in July 2025. Combining deep simulation elements with robust real-time-with-pause tactical combat, it challenges players to establish and defend a thriving survivor colony very much in the way of games like RimWorld and Dwarf Fortress. The main gameplay is set to happen while you’re building up your base, managing resources, and ensuring your folk get to survive another day. But the elements aren’t your only foes, as raiders, aliens, and the enigmatic Remnant soldiers will strike out. A key feature is the emphasis on detailed tactical combat, where factors like hit simulation and suppression are crucial for victory, as well as unit modular damage, meaning that if a soldier gets damaged in one arm, for example, he might not die, but become incapacitated and unable to continue fighting. It’s going to be interesting to see how these combat mechanics work together with the management ones, and what kind of impacts these will have. Maybe you can design combat strategies that aim to incapacitate your enemies instead of killing them, to try and make them work for you, for example. The game also promises a vast, procedurally generated world to explore, complete with discoverable ruins and diverse biomes, and the ability to restore and utilize various vehicles for travel and combat.
22 – Capital Command
There’s a demo available for Capital Command, by the way. This Hellride Games and Hooded Horse sci-fi strategy title thrusts players into the captain’s chair of a powerful capital ship, delivering an immersive space-sim experience with a strong emphasis on real-time and realistic space tactical combat (their words, not mine). Set in a distant frontier outpost where the local defense AI has gone rogue, it’s up to you to restore order through a sandbox campaign. This title stands out with its realistic space physics, offering six degrees of freedom for precise maneuvering in the vacuum of space, demanding that players master both intricate flight controls and weapon systems. You’ll command a diverse crew, issuing orders to navigators, gunners, repair teams, and engineers to manage your massive vessel and its extensive arsenal. Key strategic elements include managing damage control, upgrading your ship with salvaged resources, and even the possibility of commandeering enemy capital ships.
21 – Metropolisim
I hadn’t heard about Metropolisim until I started putting this list together, but I was immediately drawn in by its beautiful, sleek, and aesthetically pleasing graphics. Still in active development, Metropolisim promises to be a highly detailed and complex city-building simulation, designed for players who crave intricate management and deep systemic interactions to the utmost level of detail. It’s an ambitious title, for sure, and one that aims to let players build and oversee a modern metropolis with a population of up to 10 million people, where every single citizen is fully simulated, each with their own job, education, and daily life. I’m interested to see how that’s going to pan out, but one thing is for certain, the game certainly managed to garner quite a lot of attention, being the 20th most wishlisted strategy game on Steam. Key features include comprehensive zoning, construction of essential city services, budget management, and the crucial planning of transit and traffic networks a la Cities: Skylines. Metropolisim is set to appeal to those who enjoy getting lost in the nuances of urban planning and resource allocation.
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