The 16 Best Heist Games To Play Right Now (2026)
- Niels Gys
- 4 days ago
- 7 min read
CRIMENET Popularity Index: Q3 2026
Every heist game promises you'll become the next criminal mastermind.
Reality usually involves one teammate forgetting the drill, another accidentally shooting a security guard through a window, and somebody asking where the getaway van is after parking it three postcodes away.
Welcome to the first-ever CRIMENET Popularity Index, our quarterly ranking of the heist games attracting the biggest audiences right now.
This isn't a list of our favourite games.
It's a snapshot of the biggest names in the genre today.
Some of these games are masterpieces. Others are still recovering from launches rough enough to qualify as crime scenes. Popularity doesn't automatically mean quality, but it does tell us where the world's virtual criminals are currently spending their time.
Every game in this inaugural edition begins as NEW.
Next quarter the chart comes alive. Some games will climb. Others will fall. A few will disappear entirely after their player counts become lonely enough to hold meetings inside a telephone box.
Chart key:
▲ climbed
▼ dropped
▬ unchanged
NEW first appearance
RE re-entry
Popularity checked: August 2026
The Q3 2026 Chart
Rank | Move | Game |
1 | NEW | PAYDAY 2 |
2 | NEW | GTA Online |
3 | NEW | Teardown |
4 | NEW | PAYDAY 3 |
5 | NEW | One-Armed Robber |
6 | NEW | Crime Simulator |
7 | NEW | Thief Simulator |
8 | NEW | Crime Boss: Rockay City |
9 | NEW | Thief Simulator 2 |
10 | NEW | Perfect Heist 2 |
11 | NEW | Thief |
12 | NEW | Rubber Bandits |
13 | NEW | Burglin' Gnomes |
14 | NEW | Robbery Bob |
15 | NEW | Robbery Bob 2 |
16 | NEW | Robbery Madness 2 |
PAYDAY 2 may still wear the crown, but if you're planning your next payday instead of admiring someone else's, head to the GTA Online Weekly Grind. We cut through Rockstar's weekly chaos and point straight at the jobs actually worth stealing. Your bank account will thank you. The NPCs won't.
#16 NEW Robbery Madness 2
Platforms: Android
If you grew up wanting to rob houses but preferred your victims to possess the awareness of ornamental garden furniture, Robbery Madness 2 has you covered. Sneak inside, avoid the owner, grab everything that isn't nailed down and leave before someone calls the police.
Why it ranks: One of the biggest burglary games on mobile, backed by millions of downloads.
→ Robbery Madness 2 Review
#15 NEW Robbery Bob 2
Platforms: Android
Bob somehow survived the first game and immediately decided the correct career move was more burglary. New gadgets, bigger locations and more elaborate security make this the stronger sequel.
Why it ranks: Massive worldwide reach and one of mobile gaming's best-known burglary franchises.
→ Robbery Bob 2 Review
#14 NEW Robbery Bob
Platforms: Android
Sometimes simple works. Robbery Bob is built around sneaking into houses, avoiding homeowners and escaping with whatever fits into your imaginary backpack. It has introduced millions of players to burglary without any of the awkward prison sentences.
Why it ranks: One of the biggest stealth-crime games ever released on mobile.
→ Robbery Bob Review
#13 NEW Burglin' Gnomes
Platforms: PC
The newest game on this list also happens to be one of the fastest-growing. Burglin' Gnomes turns tiny fantasy thieves loose inside oversized homes, proving that stealing someone's silverware somehow becomes even funnier when you're knee-high.
Why it ranks: One of 2026's breakout burglary hits.
#12 NEW Rubber Bandits
Platforms: PC • PlayStation • Xbox • Nintendo Switch
Forget Ocean's Eleven. Rubber Bandits is Ocean's Eleven after someone replaced the professional thieves with inflatable idiots armed with frying pans. Every match descends into glorious betrayal as players steal cash, knock each other unconscious and desperately waddle towards the getaway vehicle.
The Getaway: A chaotic party game that proves robbery is much funnier when absolutely nobody knows what they're doing.
→ Rubber Bandits Review
#11 NEW Thief (2014)
Platforms: PC • PlayStation • Xbox
Garrett has been stealing valuables since before many modern heist games existed. While the 2014 reboot divided fans, it still delivers the fantasy of slipping through shadows, lifting priceless treasures and disappearing before anyone realises the silverware has developed legs.
The Getaway: A modern classic that continues attracting stealth fans more than a decade later.
#10 NEW Perfect Heist 2
Platforms: PC
Most heist games ask you to fight the police.
Perfect Heist 2 asks you to outsmart them.
One team disguises themselves, blends into the crowd and quietly empties the bank while player-controlled cops search for suspicious behaviour. The result is half robbery, half detective game, and entirely dependent on whether your friend can act like a normal human being for longer than eight seconds.
The Getaway: One of the most unique multiplayer heist games available today.
→ Perfect Heist 2 Review
#9 NEW Thief Simulator 2
Platforms: PC • PlayStation • Xbox
Thief Simulator 2 takes everything that worked in the original and scales it up. Better tools. Bigger neighbourhoods. Smarter security. Richer targets.
The fantasy remains wonderfully simple: watch the house, wait for the owners to leave, rob them blind and vanish before they discover their television is enjoying a new life somewhere else.
The Getaway: Bigger, smoother and more ambitious than its predecessor, with a loyal player base to match.
#8 NEW Crime Boss: Rockay City
Platforms: PC • PlayStation • Xbox
Crime Boss launched with enough problems to fill a police evidence locker, but years of updates have transformed it into a surprisingly solid co-op shooter backed by an outrageous cast of Hollywood veterans who all appear to have accepted payment in cigars.
It still isn't PAYDAY 2.
Fortunately, it no longer needs to apologise for existing.
The Getaway: A redemption story that continues attracting players looking for another cooperative crime spree.
#7 NEW Thief Simulator
Platforms: PC • PlayStation • Xbox • Nintendo Switch
Few games commit to burglary as completely as Thief Simulator. You scout neighbourhoods, study routines, disable alarms and gradually evolve from stealing microwaves to cleaning out luxury mansions.
It isn't glamorous.
It isn't fast.
It is, however, one of the purest burglary simulators ever made.
The Getaway: Still the benchmark for anyone whose criminal ambitions involve detached housing and expensive electronics.
#6 NEW Crime Simulator
Platforms: PC
Crime Simulator is the newest heavyweight climbing the criminal ladder. It trades the slower pace of Thief Simulator for faster cooperative jobs, more improvisation and enough lockpicks to make locksmiths question their career choices.
Unlike many recent releases, its momentum is pointing firmly upward, making it one of the biggest stories in this inaugural chart.
The Getaway: The fastest-rising dedicated robbery game of 2026.
#5 NEW One-Armed Robber
Platforms: PC
One-Armed Robber answers a question nobody asked.
What if bank robbers only had one arm?
The answer is absolute chaos.
Every interaction becomes a miniature puzzle. Doors fight back. Loot refuses to cooperate. Bags develop the weight of collapsed stars. Yet somehow it all works brilliantly, helped by a huge community and the unbeatable price tag of free.
The Getaway: Proof that a ridiculous idea executed well can become one of the biggest heist games on Steam.
#4 NEW PAYDAY 3
Platforms: PC • PlayStation • Xbox
Few launches crashed harder than PAYDAY 3.
Few games have spent longer trying to earn players back.
While it still lives in the enormous shadow cast by PAYDAY 2, years of updates have slowly rebuilt confidence. Thousands have returned, curiosity remains high and the game finally resembles the sequel fans expected in the first place.
The comeback isn't complete.
But it is real.
The Getaway: Still chasing its predecessor, but no longer running in the wrong direction.
#3 NEW Teardown
Platforms: PC • PlayStation • Xbox
Most heist games ask you to plan the perfect escape.
Teardown lets you demolish the building until escaping becomes inevitable.
Its fully destructible environments transformed robbery into a sandbox where preparation is everything. Knock down the right wall, build the perfect route and leave before the alarm turns your masterpiece into an expensive insurance claim.
The Getaway: One of gaming's most original takes on planning the perfect heist.
→ Teardown Review
#2 NEW GTA Online
Platforms: PC • PlayStation • Xbox
GTA Online isn't purely about heists anymore.
It's about businesses, races, flying motorcycles, questionable financial decisions and occasionally remembering there's a casino full of money waiting to be robbed.
Yet despite everything Rockstar has added over the years, the heists remain some of the game's biggest attractions. Few games capture the feeling of assembling a crew, planning a job and watching the entire operation collapse because someone forgot how the hacking device works.
The Getaway: The biggest crime sandbox on the planet, with some of the greatest heists ever designed.
→ GTA Online Review
#1 NEW PAYDAY 2
Platforms: PC • PlayStation • Xbox
Some games refuse to die.
PAYDAY 2 refused to retire.
More than a decade after launch, it's still the undisputed king of dedicated heist games. Thousands of players continue robbing banks, casinos, jewellery stores and anything else that isn't bolted to the floor, while an absurd amount of content keeps veterans returning for "one more job."
Its greatest achievement isn't surviving.
It's making its own sequel spend years trying to catch up.
If the CRIMENET Popularity Index had existed in 2013, PAYDAY 2 would probably have debuted at number one.
The remarkable part is that, thirteen years later, it's still there.
The Getaway: The gold standard of cooperative heist games, and the game every challenger is still trying to overthrow.
Biggest Story This Quarter
There are no climbers or fallers yet because every game begins life as a NEW entry.
Instead, all eyes are on Crime Simulator. It has quickly built a healthy player base, strong community buzz and genuine momentum. If one game looks capable of breaking into the top five next quarter, it's this one.
Outside the Vault
These games narrowly missed the inaugural chart but remain worth watching:
PAYDAY: The Heist - Historically important, but now overshadowed by its legendary sequel.
Monaco: What's Yours Is Mine - A co-op classic whose active audience has faded with time.
The Break-In - Great burglary mechanics, but not enough current players.
American Theft 80s - Still a fun theft simulator, though its popularity has cooled.
Hood: Outlaws & Legends - A clever medieval heist concept that never found the audience it deserved.
The Verdict
The first CRIMENET Popularity Index tells an interesting story.
The old king, PAYDAY 2, refuses to surrender the crown. GTA Online continues attracting millions of aspiring criminals through sheer scale. Teardown proves innovation still matters. And beneath them, a new generation led by Crime Simulator, One-Armed Robber and PAYDAY 3 is fighting for position.
Next quarter, the arrows arrive.
Some games will climb.
Some will disappear.
And somewhere, a developer is probably hoping their next update is enough to rob a place in the Top 10.
The underworld doesn't stand still, and neither does This Week in CRIME. Every week we round up the GTA money worth stealing, the new crime, villain and horror games actually worth your attention, the industry's funniest disasters, and our latest investigations into gaming's criminal underbelly. If you enjoy the briefing and want to help keep the getaway car fuelled, you can always buy us a coffee on Ko-fi afterwards.
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