The best games like How to Fish are Ale & Tale Tavern, Sea of Thieves, and WEBFISHING if you want to keep playing with friends. DAVE THE DIVER and DREDGE are the better choices if the catch-sell-upgrade loop matters more than co-op.

That split matters because How to Fish is barely a conventional fishing game. It is a cheap, first-person co-op adventure where a normal cast can end with your friends punching a hostile fish, buying guns, or scrambling through a boss fight. No other game copies that exact pileup of fishing, physics, combat, money, upgrades, and bad group decisions.

These six recommendations each match a specific part of it. Pick the part your group actually wants more of.

Quick picks

1. Ale & Tale Tavern

Ale & Tale Tavern is the closest overall match, even though running an inn replaces escaping an island. Up to four players share a first-person world where fishing feeds into cooking and selling, while hunting, farming, quests, combat, and tavern upgrades keep the evening moving.

The important connection is that fishing has somewhere to go. Your catch becomes part of a larger co-op economy instead of a detached minigame. Jobs also separate naturally: one friend can fish while another cooks or deals with customers. That is useful for a group that enjoyed How to Fish as a shared project, not merely as a collection of physics accidents.

Do not expect the same slapstick. Ale & Tale is a cozy business game with action around the edges, and its chores are more structured than How to Fish's compact campaign.

Best for: Two to four players who want fishing attached to co-op work and visible upgrades.

Skip it if: Running a tavern sounds like a second job or your group only wants the absurd combat.

Players and platform: One to four players; Windows PC.

2. Sea of Thieves

Sea of Thieves is the answer when the boat ride and group chaos were the real attraction. A crew of up to four divides the sailing, repairs, navigation, cannons, and treasure hauling while the shared world adds storms, enemy crews, skeleton ships, megalodons, and the occasional preventable disaster.

You can fish, cook the catch, and build reputation with The Hunter's Call, but fishing is one activity inside a much larger pirate sandbox. The stronger match is the way simple tasks become stories because four people are trying to operate the same vessel at once.

Progression is also different. Gold and reputation unlock goals and cosmetics rather than steadily stronger weapons, so the numbers do not climb the way they do in How to Fish.

Best for: A regular crew that wants boating, monsters, exploration, and unscripted co-op stories.

Skip it if: You want a short campaign with permanent power upgrades, or you dislike sharing the ocean with other players.

Players and platforms: Crews of up to four with cross-platform play; PC, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, and PS5.

3. WEBFISHING

WEBFISHING keeps the multiplayer fishing, creature journal, rare catches, gear upgrades, and low price. It drops the survival problem entirely. This is closer to an online fishing hangout where everyone happens to be a small animal and somebody may stop fishing to play a guitar or draw on the ground.

There is still satisfying accumulation. Nearly 100 creatures fill the journal, catches earn money, and better rods, bait, lures, cosmetics, and props give you reasons to keep casting. What it does not have is a campaign pushing the group toward the next island or a giant pufferfish demanding gunfire.

Best for: Friends who liked standing around and fishing together more than fighting what came out of the water.

Skip it if: Your group needs bosses, danger, or a clear ending to stay interested.

Players and platform: Single-player and online co-op; Windows PC.

4. Schedule I

Schedule I contains no fishing, which makes it look like a terrible recommendation until the business loop starts. You begin with almost nothing, do the work personally, sell the result, buy better equipment and properties, hire help, and gradually turn a scrappy co-op operation into something much larger. That same cash-to-upgrade rhythm is one reason players are already asking for games that feel like both Schedule I and How to Fish.

It also has first-person movement, vehicles, physics-friendly nonsense, firearms, and online co-op. The difference is scale: Schedule I is an open-ended Early Access management game, not a brief island campaign, and its drug-dealing theme is obviously not for every group.

Best for: Friends who want the cooperative money-and-expansion loop to last much longer.

Skip it if: You came for fishing, want a finished game, or would rather avoid the subject matter.

Players and platform: Single-player and online co-op; Windows PC.

5. DAVE THE DIVER

DAVE THE DIVER is the cleanest solo translation of How to Fish's progression. Dive for sea creatures during the day, turn the catch into sushi at night, then spend the money on better gear that lets Dave reach deeper water and handle more dangerous targets. Bosses, weapons, strange side activities, and escalating nonsense prevent it from settling into a serious fishing simulation.

Its structure is busier than How to Fish. Restaurant staffing, recipes, farming, side quests, and a steady stream of new systems can be charming or exhausting depending on how much management you wanted with your fish. It is also entirely single-player.

Best for: Someone who wants fishing, combat, bosses, and an upgrade economy without coordinating a group.

Skip it if: Co-op was essential or you dislike games that keep introducing new management systems.

Players and platforms: One player; PC, macOS, PlayStation, Xbox, and Nintendo Switch.

Find DAVE THE DIVER on Amazon

6. DREDGE

DREDGE takes the most ordinary part of How to Fish and makes it quietly sinister: leave port, catch what you can, sell it, improve the boat, and use those upgrades to reach stranger waters. Its compact cargo grid makes every trip a small planning problem, while quests and an archipelago give the progression a definite direction.

There is no co-op, and combat mostly means surviving or escaping rather than pulling out an SMG. The payoff is a much stronger atmosphere and a catch-sell-upgrade loop with almost no wasted motion. It is the choice for someone who wants to keep the boat and the creeping escalation after the group logs off.

A fishing trawler approaching a rocky island settlement in DREDGE
Official DREDGE screenshot © Black Salt Games and Team17 Digital

Best for: A solo player who wants purposeful fishing progression and a darker mystery.

Skip it if: You need co-op comedy or direct action combat.

Players and platforms: One player; PC, macOS, PlayStation, Xbox, Nintendo Switch, iOS, and Android.

Find DREDGE on Amazon

Which one should you actually pick?

Start with Ale & Tale Tavern if the group wants another shared job with fishing and upgrades. Choose Sea of Thieves if the boat was the best part, or WEBFISHING if everyone would happily remove the violence and just hang out.

For solo play, choose DAVE THE DIVER for combat and constant new systems, or DREDGE for a tighter, moodier trip. If How to Fish mainly worked because physical mistakes made your friends laugh, our list of games like Big Walk has more physics-heavy co-op options.

Still stuck between two? Put the finalists into the game randomizer, or describe the exact mood to the game recommender.

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