In the career mode, players assume the role of a theme park manager and must complete tasks such as constructing unfinished roller coasters or hiring janitors.

In Sandbox mode, players are tasked to construct their own theme park on an empty plot of land.

The title received positive reviews upon release, with critics praising the game's sandbox mode and creation tools.

Similar to its spiritual predecessor, the game allows players to build different theme park rides and roller-coasters.

Similar to Frontier's previous game, RollerCoaster Tycoon 3, the Sandbox Mode enables players to construct their own theme park on an empty plot of land.

In the Career Mode, the player must complete objectives such as constructing roller coasters, achieving park ratings or hiring janitors.

[10] Similar to RollerCoaster Tycoon 3, Career Mode allows players to progress by completing scenarios with objectives in different difficulties.

[citation needed] The console edition has various differences from the PC/Mac version, such as a tutorial, a revamped career mode with voice acting, and a counter that tells the player how much they can place in their park.

[13] Features confirmed for the game include a hybrid spline/piece-by-piece coaster builder, modular structure building, a voxel terrain editor among others detailed through Q&A's and "Dev Diaries.

[24] On 24 September, Frontier announced at EGX 2016 that players who had pre-ordered the "Thrillseeker Edition" would be able to test the game that October.

On 21 July 2017, Frontier launched paid downloadable content for the game featuring props inspired by Back to the Future, Knight Rider, and The Munsters.

[35] In August 2017, Frontier partnered with Cedar Point to provide an in-game version of the park's upcoming Steel Vengeance roller coaster before the ride officially opened in 2018.

Andy Kelly of PC Gamer commented that Frontier was "off to a tremendous start", adding that creating buildings with the creation tools hinted at "immense possibilities".

[66] However, Mark Walton of Ars Technica noted several small flaws including the "hard to navigate" menus and the lack of custom built roller coasters.

[67] On 27 April 2016, about a month after the release of the alpha, Frontier announced that Planet Coaster had grossed nearly two million dollars.

[65] Patrick Hancock of Destructoid noted that the game suffers frame rate issues in larger parks.

[70] Many fans made favourable comparisons to RollerCoaster Tycoon World, which received largely negative reviews.

[73] Despite being released in the later part of the year, Planet Coaster was featured on Steam's "Top 100 Best Sellers of 2016" chart as a "silver tier" game.

[75] In July 2018, a leak in Valve API revealed that over 1.68 million Steam users owned Planet Coaster.