Mars Rally Championship is the free browser pick here, listed first because it is ours, and it is short stage rally on Mars, not a raid. The closest games to Dakar Desert Rally are Dakar 18, the 2018 official game with real roadbook navigation, and Extreme Rally Raid, a small PC rally-raid sim with roadbooks and hour-long stages; Baja: Edge of Control HD covers desert endurance racing. MX vs ATV Legends covers the bikes and quads.
In-game screenshot: Stage 4, Down the Mountain, on the storm board at sunset: red-brown haze closes in on the open descent, and sand streaks past.
What makes Dakar Desert Rally different from other rally games?
Dakar Desert Rally, from Saber Porto and published by Saber Interactive on 4 October 2022, is a rally raid, and four things set that apart from stage rally. Every game below is judged on how many of them it keeps.
- Navigation by roadbook across open ground. The official site promises roadbooks inspired by the real 2020, 2021 and 2022 Dakar editions, plus more arcade roadbooks in Sport mode, in an open world of Saudi Arabia that Steam says "doesn't limit you to tracks and roads".
- Long stages. A rally raid is about endurance, not sprints.
- Sand, desert and weather. Steam lists all four seasons, a full day-night cycle and billowing sandstorms.
- More than cars. Saber lists 150+ vehicles in five categories: cars, bikes, trucks, quads and SSVs.
It runs on PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One and Xbox Series X|S, lists at $29.99 on Steam, and has no split-screen. Our post on what rally racing is explains how a rally differs from a rally raid, so this one skips the definition.
The real event is moving. Dakar 2027, the 49th edition, leaves Saudi Arabia for Portugal and Morocco, with 4,341 km of special stages and most specials between 350 and 500 km a day. It returns to Saudi Arabia in 2028 for its 50th.
Games like Dakar Desert Rally, compared
Mars Rally Championship is first because it is ours; the rest are ordered by how many of Dakar's four traits they keep. Dakar Desert Rally sits in the second row as the yardstick.
| Game | What it keeps of Dakar | Vehicles | Platforms | Price (Steam, USD) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mars Rally Championship Play | Loose ground, a storm board, a cup of back-to-back stages with damage carried; no roadbook | One rover | Browser: desktop, Chromebook, phone | Free |
| Dakar Desert Rally (the yardstick) | Official 2020–2022 Dakar, roadbooks, open world in Saudi Arabia, sandstorms | 150+ in five classes: cars, bikes, trucks, quads, SSVs | PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S | $29.99 |
| Dakar 18 | Official Dakar 2018 roadbooks; 12,000 km² open world in Peru, Bolivia and Argentina | Cars, bikes, quads, trucks, UTVs | PC | $29.99 |
| Extreme Rally Raid | Roadbooks, real-world maps, stages from a few minutes to over an hour | Cars inspired by real ones | PC (Windows, Linux) | $11.99, free demo |
| BAJA: Edge of Control HD | Desert and canyon endurance races up to four hours; damage to repair | 160+ in eight classes, trophy trucks to buggies | PC, PS4, Xbox One | $29.99 |
| MX vs ATV Legends | Bikes and quads on open ground; a Trails mode | Bikes, ATVs, UTVs | PC, PlayStation, Xbox | $39.99 |
| BeamNG.drive | Johnson Valley: scrub, a rocky mountain and tall dunes; soft-body damage | Its full sandbox roster | PC, early access | $24.99 |
| Expeditions: A MudRunner Game | Arizona's deserts, scouting and winch recovery; no racing | Scouts, off-roaders, trucks | PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, Switch | $39.99 |
Each game's Steam listing and its developer's or publisher's pages were checked; prices are US list prices on Steam. Last checked: November 2026.
Only Dakar 18 keeps all four traits. Extreme Rally Raid keeps roadbooks and long stages but only cars. BAJA has endurance but no roadbook. Our game keeps loose ground and a taste of the multi-stage format.
Diagram: our longest stage, 2,676 m, against a Dakar 2027 special of 350 to 500 km and 4,341 km of specials in all, on a log scale.
The best games like Dakar Desert Rally
No single game is best at everything on this list, so each entry says what it is best at and who it suits.
Mars Rally Championship: short stages, a storm and a cup on Mars
Our game, listed first for that reason. This is Mars Rally Championship's own site; everything below it is ranked on how much of a rally raid it keeps.
What it shares with Dakar is loose ground. You drive one pressurized Mars rally rover over regolith (loose dust with the deepest sink), hardpack (lakebed crust with the most grip) and cracked polygon ground, where grip drops and the rover can slip. Four stages are drivable today.
In-game screenshot: a replay of a reversed run on Stage 2, The Long Run, at sunset; the trackside camera catches the dust plume off the loose ground.
Every stage has a storm board, with a moving dust haze at full strength from the start line to the finish. It hides 95% of the view by about 100 m, yet the next gate still shines through. The wind pushes the rover from 0.7 m/s² to gusts of 2.0 m/s², and battery drain rises 50%. That wind is deliberately exaggerated: real Martian air at these speeds would push this rover about 0.003 m/s². The Mars Cup is the nearest thing to a raid's days: back-to-back stages on cumulative time, with damage carried between them. Damage sits in four pools, and the only repair zone is at a stage start. Stage 4, Down the Mountain, drops 124 m in 850 m to the plain.
It does several things badly next to Dakar. Stages run 1,164 m to 2,676 m, which is minutes, not hours. There is no roadbook: gates, a minimap with a next-gate arrow and spoken pace notes on forward runs do the navigating. There is one rover, with no bikes, quads or trucks, and the terrain is invented Martian ground, not a desert on Earth. The game is in development.
It is free, runs in a browser with no download or account, and works on a desktop, a Chromebook or a phone in landscape. It suits a quick loose-surface fix between longer sessions.
Play free — no downloadDakar 18: the official 2018 rally, with real roadbooks
Dakar 18, from Bigmoon Entertainment and Ravenscourt, came out on 25 September 2018 and lists at $29.99 on Steam, for PC. Steam calls it a realistic simulation of the biggest cross-country rally in the world, with an open world of more than 12,000 km² across Peru, Bolivia and Argentina and 14 stages simulated from Lima to Córdoba.
It keeps all four traits. Its "Realistic Road Book Navigation System" simulates the official 2018 roadbooks and asks whether you can reach the finish without getting lost. Cars, motorcycles, quads, trucks and UTVs are all in, there are time and weather settings, and a rescue-and-repair system rewards towing a stuck competitor with extra repair points. It also offers split-screen and online stages against up to seven others.
Two rallies, Desafío Ruta 40 and Desafío Inca, are free DLC on Steam, though the base game is paid. It suits anyone who wants the roadbook idea with a friend on the same couch.
Extreme Rally Raid: roadbooks and hour-long stages on a small budget
Extreme Rally Raid, from Punto Simu Studios, was released on 23 May 2024 for Windows and Linux and lists at $11.99. Its Steam page promises "long and strong stages, in natural environments", with stages "from a few minutes to a one hour or more", and says you "drive with a roadbook like the professional rally drivers".
It uses real-world maps with accurate elevation at real scale, adds AI drivers, dynamic weather and time, and tracks visual and mechanical damage.
The limits: the cars are only "inspired by real ones", it is single-player, and which real locations it uses, or whether any is a desert, is not confirmed. A free demo exists on Steam. It suits a solo player who wants roadbooks and long stages without paying $29.99.
BAJA: Edge of Control HD: desert endurance races up to four hours
BAJA: Edge of Control HD is a 2017 remaster of a 2008 Xbox 360 and PS3 game, from 2XL Games and Blitworks and published by THQ Nordic. It lists at $29.99 on Steam for Windows, with PS4 and Xbox One versions.
It keeps the endurance side of Dakar. Steam describes more than 100 tracks, with races that can last up to four hours, and "the ultimate off-road endurance challenge: the Baja". More than 160 sponsored vehicles in eight classes include Trophy Trucks, 4x4s and buggies, and a damage monitor means repairs matter.
Its store page lists no roadbook. It does offer split-screen and online play, plus Steam leaderboards. It suits a player who wants desert trucks and a long race that punishes sloppy driving.
MX vs ATV Legends: the bikes and quads
MX vs ATV Legends, from Rainbow Studios and THQ Nordic, was released on 28 June 2022 and lists at $39.99 on Steam, with PC, PlayStation and Xbox versions. Steam says you race on "bikes, ATVs and UTVs" in "massive new open environments", with a career mode, 2-player split-screen, 16-player online and a Trails mode for high-intensity outdoor racing.
It keeps the vehicle variety and open ground that Dakar's bikes and quads imply. It does not keep long stages or navigation, and whether it has desert or sand maps is not confirmed. It suits a player who picked Dakar Desert Rally for the bikes and wants shorter, louder races.
BeamNG.drive: the Johnson Valley desert
BeamNG.drive is a soft-body sandbox, not a rally raid. It lists at $24.99 on Steam, for Windows, and the page tags it as early access. Its official documentation describes the Johnson Valley level, biome Desert, as "a parched, rocky valley east of LA" with "scrubby lowland, a rocky mountain and tall dunes".
That gives you real dunes, open ground and damage you can see, but no roadbook, no stage clock and no navigation task. You set your own challenge. It suits a player who wants to wreck, climb and cross dunes at their own pace. The stage-rally picks cover its gravel loop.
Expeditions: A MudRunner Game: the desert without the clock
Expeditions: A MudRunner Game, from Saber Interactive and Focus Entertainment, was released on 5 March 2024 and lists at $39.99 on Steam. It runs on PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S and Nintendo Switch.
There is no racing. It keeps the navigation and survival side: terrain "from arid deserts to rugged forests and steep mountains", a drone and a metal detector to scout, and a winch, jackscrew and echo sounder to recover a stuck vehicle. You manage a camp and crew, and co-op takes up to four players. It suits a player who loves working out a route across hostile ground more than beating a time.
Is there a free game like Dakar Desert Rally?
Partly. Extreme Rally Raid has a free demo on Steam, so you can try its roadbooks before paying. Dakar 18 adds two free rally DLCs, Desafío Ruta 40 and Desafío Inca, but the base game is paid.
Mars Rally Championship is free in a browser, with no account and no ads. It is stage rally, not a raid, so it covers the loose-ground feel and not the roadbook. For more free browser options, see our list of free off-road games online.
Where is the Dakar Rally in 2027?
The 49th Dakar has moved to Portugal and Morocco. The service park opens on 5 January in Loulé-Faro, scrutineering runs 6 to 8 January, the prologue is in Portugal on 9 January and the first special stage follows the next day. An overnight Mediterranean crossing reaches Nador, and the bivouacs run through Bouarfa, Zagora, Agadir (a 24-hour break) and Smara, almost to Dakhla, before the finish in Marrakech. The official route page lists 4,341 km of special stages, most of them between 350 and 500 km a day.
Dakar Desert Rally's open world is Saudi Arabia, where the 2020 to 2022 editions ran. The rally returns there in 2028 for its 50th edition, so the game's setting is a place the real event has left for now.
The shortest of our stages is 1,164 m. A single Dakar special is hundreds of times longer, which is why we call ours stage rally. Stage 4's guide page describes its descent, and you can drive it in the storm.
Screenshot: the Stage 4 guide page on this site describes Down the Mountain's descent, with its route length and its gold, silver and bronze pars.
Where to try this
- Drive the Mars Cup: back-to-back stages, cumulative time, damage carried between them.
- Stage 4 in the storm: the open descent with the dust haze at full strength.
- Stage 4 guide: length, gates and medal times.
- Free off-road games online: browser picks that need no download.
- Mars dust storms explained: what a real storm does and what the game exaggerates.
- What is rally racing?: rally against rally raid.