By Avni YayinUpdated
Where Park Baron fits
- Lighter, and in the browser. Park Baron runs in a desktop browser tab with nothing to install, and your parks are saved in the cloud, so you can pick them up on any computer. It is not as deep as the desktop games, and it doesn’t try to be a photo-real park designer.
- Free to play, for good. The five-chapter campaign, a sandbox, the core rides and coasters and two decoration themes are free with no time limit. Premium is one optional payment, not a subscription, and there are no ads.
- Online from the start. Parks go on a world globe, every map has a leaderboard, and you can walk a friend’s park in first person and review it.
- Still growing. Park Baron is in early development and updates often; the dev blog shows every change. The classic games are finished, polished and much larger.
- Not on phones yet. It needs a computer with a mouse and keyboard; RollerCoaster Tycoon Classic is the one to try on a phone or tablet.
RollerCoaster Tycoon and RollerCoaster Tycoon 2
The classics of the genre. Chris Sawyer designed and programmed them; the first came out for Windows in March 1999, with two expansion packs (Added Attractions, also sold as Corkscrew Follies, and Loopy Landscapes), and RollerCoaster Tycoon 2 followed in October 2002. RollerCoaster Tycoon 2 was written almost entirely in x86 assembly language, a famous feat of its time. Both are paid, installed Windows games.
RollerCoaster Tycoon on WikipediaRollerCoaster Tycoon 2 on Wikipedia
RollerCoaster Tycoon Classic
A port that combines the first two games and their original expansions into one, developed by Origin8 Technologies and published by Atari: on iOS and Android from December 2016, on Windows and macOS from September 2017, and since then on Nintendo Switch, PlayStation and Xbox. It’s the easiest way to play the originals today, as a paid game or app.
OpenRCT2
A free, open-source re-implementation of RollerCoaster Tycoon 2 (GNU GPLv3), first released in December 2014 and built by a large community of contributors. It runs on Windows, macOS, Linux and more, and adds features such as online multiplayer. To play it, you need the game files of RollerCoaster Tycoon 2 or RollerCoaster Tycoon Classic, which you buy separately. If you own the originals, it’s a great free way to play them on a modern computer.
Planet Coaster and Planet Coaster 2
Frontier Developments’ big 3D park builders. Planet Coaster came out for Windows in November 2016, with a console edition in 2020; Planet Coaster 2 followed in November 2024 on Windows, PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S, adding water parks, new coaster features and cooperative play. They offer very detailed 3D building tools. Both are paid, installed games that want a capable PC or a console.
Planet Coaster 2 websitePlanet Coaster on WikipediaPlanet Coaster 2 on Wikipedia
Parkitect
A park builder from Texel Raptor in the spirit of the classic tycoon games, funded on Kickstarter, in early access from 2016 and released in November 2018 for Windows, macOS and Linux (consoles followed in 2024). It stands out for its management depth: staff-only areas, resource deliveries and a campaign, plus mods and cooperative multiplayer. It’s a paid, installed game.
RollerCoaster Tycoon, Planet Coaster, Parkitect and OpenRCT2 are the names and trademarks of their owners. They are named here only to describe and compare; Park Baron is not affiliated with, endorsed by or a version of any of them. Facts checked on 1 October 2026 against the sources linked above.