Onsen and bathhouse games: 8 compared by what the store pages say

How we picked

We copied what the Steam store pages, Google Play and the App Store detail pages said on October 19, 2026. Prices are US store prices, and ratings and review counts are the numbers shown that day. We have played only our own game, so we did not judge how fun the others are and only compared facts written on the stores.

We included only games where a bathhouse or onsen is the main subject. Horror and adult games show up for the same searches but are left out of this list. Google Play does not always show an average rating on the page, so cells that use an aggregator's figure are marked as such.

All eight in one table

In Spirittea, the Korean and Japanese support covers the interface and subtitles; full voice acting is English only. Hot Springs Story's Google Play price changed between June and July 2026, so check the store once more before you buy.

How to choose by kind

If you want a story and a life to live, Spirittea is the one. The bathhouse is half of the game and the rest is an RPG about living among the townsfolk. It is also the most expensive on this list.

If you want to learn short rules and keep a loop going, try Bathhouse Creatures. At $4.99 it is the cheapest, with few reviews but almost all positive. It supports English only.

If you want something running while you do other things, Maltese's Fluffy Onsen fits. Its Steam description calls it a game you can enjoy while doing other tasks because it sits at the bottom of your screen. It has over 3,000 reviews and 94% are positive.

If you want to buy once and play for a long time, look at Kairosoft's Hot Springs Story. You grow an inn in pixel art, and it is available on both mobile and Steam.

If you want a light free game on your phone, Kawaii HotSpring and Hyakki Onsen are the ones. Both are idle games with ads or in-app purchases.

How our game differs in this table

Korean Spa Tycoon is about a Korean jjimjilbang, not an onsen or a Japanese bathhouse. Guests follow 13 routes from the shoe locker to lockers, baths, the kiln sauna, sikhye and the sleeping room, and where you place 30 facility types decides whether the line flows or jams. You start in a neighborhood bathhouse and grow it through 7 stages up to a spa land.

On October 19, 2026, searching Steam for "jjimjilbang" and "찜질방" returned 0 results. We have not searched every mobile store, so we will not claim that ours is the only Korean spa game.

Where our game falls short

It launched only days ago, so it has no ratings yet. Google Play installs are in the tens, so it lacks the proven numbers the other games in this table have.

It is not a story RPG like Spirittea but a management game about solving the layout and guest flow of one shop. There are no spirit or animal guests. It is not on Steam, only on mobile stores, and it has ads.

Games we left out, and a search warning

The Bathhouse (地獄銭湯) has strong Steam reviews at 1,243/1,379, but it is a Japanese horror game. Searching "bathhouse game" in English shows its ending guides first. Misty Onsen is horror too.

Searching "onsen" on Steam mixes in adult games. If you want a bathhouse management game, searching by game name or adding the kind, as in "bathhouse management game", works better than "onsen" alone.

Bathhouse, onsen and jjimjilbang: what is the difference?

A Japanese bathhouse (sento) is a city public bath, and an onsen uses naturally heated spring water. A Korean jjimjilbang is a complex that puts baths, kiln saunas, salt rooms, sleeping rooms, a restaurant and play areas in one building.

That changes how a game runs. A game about heating a few baths and a game about designing the walk from the shoe locker to the sleeping room are solving different problems.