Games like Absolute Drift

What makes Absolute Drift special

Funselektor released Absolute Drift on Steam in 2015, and it later came to consoles. It is a minimalist top-down drift game: clean white worlds, a physics model built around sliding, and events that reward style (angle, linking, smashing through a gymkhana course) as much as speed. What people remember is the feel: the car rotates when you ask it to, and holding a long drift feels like a skill you earned.

So a "game like Absolute Drift" needs three things: a top-down or high camera, a car tuned to slide, and scoring that rewards holding and linking drifts.

1. art of rally (PC, consoles · paid)

The obvious next step: Funselektor's own follow-up from 2020. It trades drifting events for stage rally through the golden era of the sport, from the '60s to Group B. The camera is still high and the handling still loves to slide, but the goal is now a clean, fast stage instead of a score. It has a long career mode, dozens of stylised cars and stages in many countries, and it looks gorgeous.

Play it if: you liked the feel of Absolute Drift and want a long single-player game. Skip it if: you want pure drift scoring.

2. DRIFTIT (browser · free)

Full disclosure: this is our game, and it exists because we love Absolute Drift. DRIFTIT is a top-down drift game that runs in any desktop browser with nothing to install. You get one car, a handbrake built for flicking the tail out, 20 hand-built tracks across five low-poly worlds (a meadow circuit, a red desert, an autumn valley, a snowy pass and a neon harbour at night), plus a free-roam playground with cones.

Every track is a three-lap time attack against a target time, and a drift score with a multiplier that climbs to ×10 the longer you stay sideways. Your best run rides along as a ghost, and each track has an online leaderboard (sign in with X to put your @handle on it).

Play it if: you want the top-down drift feel in 10 seconds, for free, on a work laptop. Skip it if: you want a big career, many cars or gymkhana events: DRIFTIT is small and focused on time attack. It also needs a keyboard or gamepad; there are no touch controls.

Prefer a desktop game? DRIFTIT is out on Steam (Windows, Mac, Linux, $4.99) with Steam leaderboards, cloud saves and full gamepad settings: what the Steam version adds.

Play DRIFTIT free Buy on Steam

3. Drift Hunters (browser · free)

The most popular browser drift game of the last decade, and probably what you found first when you searched for one. It is a 3D drift game played from a chase camera, not from above, with a garage of cars to buy, tune and upgrade from the points you earn drifting on its tracks.

Play it if: you like tuning and collecting cars. Skip it if: the top-down view is the point for you.

4. Drift Boss (browser, mobile · free)

A one-button arcade game: the car drives itself along a path of blocks floating in the air, and you hold to turn at the corners. It is relaxing and very popular on school computers, but it is a timing game more than a drift game.

Play it if: you want something you can play with one finger. Skip it if: you want car control.

5. Absolute Drift itself, again

Seriously: if you only played the main events, the free-roam areas and the harder mountain runs are worth another visit, and chasing a better score on levels you already know is how the game really opens up. On a budget? Cheap drift games on Steam lists eight that cost under $10 at full price.

At a glance

New to top-down drifting? Our keyboard drifting guide covers the handbrake flick, counter-steer and linking corners, and it works for every game on this list.