The best games like Rift Fishing are Webfishing, Palia and Tiny Aquarium: Social Fishkeeping: three ways to fish next to other players right now. Rift Fishing itself is not out yet, and its Steam page says Early Access in 2027. For kind strangers, try Sky: Children of the Light, and for painting together, play Draw & Guess. We checked every game on October 31, 2026.
At a glance
| Game | Best for | Length | Platforms |
|---|---|---|---|
| Webfishing | Anyone who wants the Rift Fishing feeling right now | Open-ended | PC |
| Palia | Players who want a whole town around the fishing | Open-ended | PC, Switch, PS5, Xbox Series X |
| Tiny Aquarium: Social Fishkeeping | Players who like to keep a little hangout open while they do other things | Varies | PC, Mac, Linux |
| A Short Sail | Players who want to fish with friends online, with an adventure around it | Not shared yet | PC (Windows), Mac, Web, Steam Deck |
| Sky: Children of the Light | Players who want the gentlest social game there is | Open-ended | PC, iOS, Android, Switch, PS4, PS5 |
| Kind Words (lo fi chill beats to write to) | Players who loved the warm, friendly side of a chatroom | Varies | PC, Mac, Linux |
| Draw & Guess | Friends who want to paint and laugh together online | Varies | PC, Mac, Linux |
| Drawful 2 | A group of 3 to 8 friends on a call or on one couch | Varies | PC, Mac, Linux, Switch, PS4, Xbox One |
| Cast n Chill | Players who want truly chill fishing, with one friend beside them | About 17.5 hours for the main story (HowLongToBeat) | PC, Mac, Switch, Switch 2 |
| Dredge | Players who liked that some Riftlings are cute and some are scary | About 9.5 hours (HowLongToBeat) | PC, Mac, Switch, PS4, PS5, Xbox, iOS, Android |
What makes Rift Fishing special
Rift Fishing is a social fishing game set on a mystical island. Shimmering rifts open in the water into other worlds, and you fish through them for odd creatures called Riftlings and for strange artifacts. Up to 12 players hang out together. You paint canvases by the shore, play guitar and make music at the campfire, skip stones, roll dice and throw paper planes. The Steam page lists more than 80 Riftlings, a Riftpedia to fill, and expeditions to hunt special catches.
The status, plainly: Rift Fishing is not out yet. On October 31, 2026, its Steam page says “Coming Soon To Early Access” with a release date of 2027, and it has no user reviews. Steam and SteamDB list Windows only, in English, and it has no Steam Deck rating yet. SteamDB first saw the game on September 24, 2025.
Developer: glimmerloft | Release: 2027, in Early Access | Platforms: PC (Windows) | Steam page
The Steam page calls it “a multiplayer chatroom-focused fishing game”, the same words Webfishing uses. So it follows Webfishing closely, with more art and music on top. We grouped this list by the part that draws you in: the fishing hangout, kind strangers, painting together, fishing with friends, or the strange catches. We wrote a separate list of games like Webfishing, so here we picked a different mix where we could.
The best games like Rift Fishing
- Closest to Rift Fishing: Webfishing
- Best big online world with fishing: Palia
- Best for kind strangers: Sky: Children of the Light
- Best for painting together: Draw & Guess
- Best for strange catches: Dredge
- Our own game: A Short Sail (fishing, online lobbies and chat, but more of an adventure; not ranked)
If you loved the fishing hangout
Webfishing
Who it is for: anyone who wants the Rift Fishing feeling right now.
Webfishing is a multiplayer chatroom fishing game. You are a cartoon cat or dog at a lakeside camp. You fish, fill your journal with nearly 100 creatures, upgrade your rod and bait, and collect silly cosmetics. But the real point is the people: you host or join a lobby, type nonsense at friends and strangers, draw with chalk, and play a real guitar. It is the game Rift Fishing grew out of.
The downside: there is not much to do once your journal is full, and public lobbies can be rude. Chat is text only. It runs on Windows only.
Developer: lamedeveloper | Year: 2024 | Platforms: PC | Length: open-ended | Steam Deck: Playable | Steam page
Palia
Who it is for: players who want a whole town around the fishing.
Palia is a free-to-play life sim where other players share the world with you. You fish, cook, garden, hunt bugs and build a home in a cozy fantasy valley. Fishing is a full skill with its own rods and bait. You can chat and work on things with the people you meet. For more like it, see games like Palia.
The downside: it is much bigger and busier than a chatroom fishing game, and it sells cosmetics. It is online only, and you play a person, not an animal.
Developer: Singularity 6 | Year: 2024 | Platforms: PC, Switch, PS5, Xbox Series X|S | Length: open-ended | Steam Deck: Playable | Steam page
Tiny Aquarium: Social Fishkeeping
Who it is for: players who like to keep a little hangout open while they do other things.
Tiny Aquarium: Social Fishkeeping is an idle desktop fish game. A small aquarium lives at the bottom of your screen. You hatch fish, sell them, decorate your tank, and the fish keep growing while you are away. A fishing minigame takes you out to sea to find rare breeds, alone, with friends, or with strangers, chatting as you go. You can also visit other players’ tanks and trade fish.
The downside: it is an idle game, so you check in for short sessions. The fishing is a side activity, not the heart of the game.
Developer: Lunheim Studios | Year: 2025 | Platforms: PC, Mac, Linux | Steam Deck: Playable | Steam page
A Short Sail
Who it is for: players who want to fish with friends online, with an adventure around it.
It shares a few things with Rift Fishing, so here they are, plainly.
You are a little tabby cat with a sailboat. You fish by day and by night, and different fish bite in different waters and at different hours, with a few rare shiny ones. Online, you can host a lobby, or join one by its code or from a list of public lobbies. You chat, ride along in a friend’s boat and play flag tag, and in online play you pick your own animal. You can also find instruments and tunes and play music.
But it is not a chatroom game. It is a cozy adventure: you sail between islands, deliver mail, make friends across the islands and fix up an old cottage. There is no painting. There is no fighting on foot, only gentle sea battles against storms and living waves, and those are single-player only. It comes out in Q1 2027, and the full game will also play in a web browser. You can play the free demo at play.ashortsail.com now.
Developer: Yos Riady | Platforms: PC (Windows), Mac, Web, Steam Deck | Length: not shared yet | Free demo at play.ashortsail.com | Play the demo
If you loved meeting kind strangers
Sky: Children of the Light
Who it is for: players who want the gentlest social game there is.
Sky: Children of the Light is a gentle social adventure. You fly through soft, glowing realms with other players. You hold hands to guide each other, light candles and solve small puzzles together. Chat with strangers happens in set places, such as benches, which keeps it calm. You can also play instruments for each other.
The downside: there is no fishing. It is free to play with paid items, and the Steam version is still in Early Access. You are a small caped child of light, not an animal.
Developer: thatgamecompany | Year: 2024 (Steam) | Platforms: PC, iOS, Android, Switch, PS4, PS5 | Length: open-ended | Steam Deck: Verified | Steam page
Kind Words (lo fi chill beats to write to)
Who it is for: players who loved the warm, friendly side of a chatroom.
Kind Words is a cozy letter-writing game. You sit in a room with lo-fi music. Real players write short notes about what is bothering them, and you write back kind letters. Others write back to you. A deer delivers your mail, and you trade stickers that turn into little toys for your room.
The downside: there is no fishing and no live chat, only letters. Notes come from real people, so some deal with heavy feelings. Kind Words 2 is a newer, bigger version, and players of both can write to each other.
Developer: Popcannibal | Year: 2019 | Platforms: PC, Mac, Linux | Steam Deck: Playable | Steam page
If you loved painting together
Draw & Guess
Who it is for: friends who want to paint and laugh together online.
Draw & Guess is an online drawing party game. Up to 16 players draw and guess in many modes. In Whisper, a drawing turns into a guess, then a new drawing, and the chain goes very wrong. Our favorite mode for Rift Fishing fans is Lounge: no rounds and no points, you just hang out in a lobby and draw with friends. You can also save your drawings in artbooks to share.
The downside: most modes are timed and score points, so it is a party game, not a quiet one. Steam reviews are Mostly Positive, lower than the rest of this list.
Developer: Acureus | Year: 2021 | Platforms: PC, Mac, Linux | Steam Deck: Playable | Steam page
Drawful 2
Who it is for: a group of 3 to 8 friends on a call or on one couch.
Drawful 2 is a Jackbox party game about bad drawings. Each player draws a strange prompt on their phone or tablet. Then everyone types what they think the (probably terrible) drawing shows, and votes on the real answer. It is quick, silly and full of in-jokes. You can write your own prompts, too.
The downside: it is a local party game. To play with friends far away, you share your screen on a video call. Everyone needs a phone or tablet with a browser.
Developer: Jackbox Games | Year: 2016 | Platforms: PC, Mac, Linux, Switch, PS4, Xbox One | Steam Deck: Verified | Steam page
If you want to fish with friends, not strangers
Cast n Chill
Who it is for: players who want truly chill fishing, with one friend beside them.
Cast n Chill is a calm pixel-art fishing game. You drift around lakes, rivers and the sea, with your dog in the boat. You catch more than 50 kinds of fish, sell them, and buy better rods and reels. There are 16 quiet spots and 16 legendary fish to chase. You can play actively or let it idle.
The downside: co-op is on one screen (Steam’s Remote Play Together lets a friend join from far away). There is no chat room or crowd of strangers.
Developer: Wombat Brawler | Year: 2025 | Platforms: PC, Mac, Switch, Switch 2 | Length: about 17.5 hours for the main story (HowLongToBeat) | Steam Deck: Verified | Steam page
More calm picks are in our cozy fishing games guide.
If you loved the strange catches
Dredge
Who it is for: players who liked that some Riftlings are cute and some are scary.
Dredge is a fishing adventure with a dark story. You captain a small fishing boat around remote islands. By day, you fish and upgrade your boat. Some of your catches come up twisted and wrong, and at night the fog brings stranger things. It is single-player, with a story that gets darker the further you sail. For calmer games like it, see cozy games like Dredge.
The downside: there is no multiplayer at all, and it can be tense after dark.
Developer: Black Salt Games | Year: 2023 | Platforms: PC, Mac, Switch, PS4, PS5, Xbox, iOS, Android | Length: about 9.5 hours (HowLongToBeat) | Steam Deck: Verified | Steam page
Our own game
We make A Short Sail.
Related guides
- Cozy multiplayer games
- Cozy fishing games
- A Short Sail vs Webfishing
- Games where you play instruments
- Cozy games where you play as an animal
- Cozy games like Dredge
Questions
Is Rift Fishing out?
No, Rift Fishing is not out yet. On October 31, 2026, its Steam page says "Coming Soon To Early Access" with a release date of 2027. It has no user reviews yet, and the store lists Windows only.
Who makes Rift Fishing?
Rift Fishing is made by glimmerloft, a developer who is also the publisher. The Steam page says the game has been in work through 2025 and will grow in Early Access with player feedback.
What is the closest game to Rift Fishing?
Webfishing is the closest game to Rift Fishing. Both call themselves a multiplayer chatroom-focused fishing game: you fish, chat, draw and play guitar with friends and strangers. Webfishing is out now on Steam.
How many players can play Rift Fishing together?
Up to 12 players can hang out together in Rift Fishing, according to its Steam page. They fish, paint by the shore, make music at the campfire, skip stones and throw paper planes.
Is there a calm fishing game with friends and no fighting?
Cast n Chill is the calmest pick: a pixel-art fishing trip with your dog, and couch co-op for one friend.
Is there a cozy fishing game like Rift Fishing on Steam Deck?
Yes: Cast n Chill is Steam Deck Verified, and Webfishing is Playable. Rift Fishing has no Steam Deck rating yet, because it is not out.
Is there a cozy adventure with fishing and online lobbies?
Yes: A Short Sail, our own game, is a cozy sailing adventure with fishing by day and by night, and online lobbies with chat. It is not a chatroom game: you sail between islands and deliver mail. It comes out in Q1 2027, with a free demo now.
