The best free PC games in 2022
The quiet start of a new year is always a good fourth dimension to look back on games from the twelvemonth before, or to spend a few weeks exploring the fun, bite-sized games out there that get swallowed up in the busier months. In other words, it's a adept time to play costless games.
Go along some short adventures, get overly attached to some new characters, become hooked on a daily word game—gratis games on the PC run the gamut. You can be a frugal PC gamer and spend years playing gratuitous games without buying new ones, or at least make full in the gaps between those big games with something smaller and quite perchance more satisfying.
Where should yous spend those rare snippets of free fourth dimension, though? We have some ideas, including a ton of free PC classics and our favorite gratuitous games of the concluding few months.
This guide to the best gratis games is updated monthly with suggestions from members of the PC Gamer squad. Below that we have our favorite free-to-play stuff that nosotros're dipping into right now and a boatload more recommendations if y'all're merely looking for the exact right game to play on a lazy Sunday afternoon. It's a collection of timeless free PC games organized by genre.
If you're looking for more gratuitous games to add to your permanent game library, make sure to check in every week on which games yous tin grab at no cost on the Epic Games Shop and also all the temporary freebies right now bachelor on other sites.
The all-time free games: November 2021
The best complimentary PC games right now
- Worlde - A word game sensation at the starting time of the yr, this free daily puzzle challenge you with filling a filigree with five-alphabetic character words, using a few simple clues to hone in on what you got right and wrong before you run out of guesses. Its sudden explosion in popularity has already spawned endless imitators.
- Townscaper - A delightful town-drawing game, where you lot simply place roads and buildings on tiptop of the sea to create an aesthetically pleasing lilliputian city. You can get it on Steam or play a free version of it right in the browser.
- Babble Royale - This is battle royale, but Scrabble. Decimate your enemies by spelling "plankton" or "guts" or "perfidious." Just watch out for PC Gamer EIC Evan Lahti, who'southward patiently waiting to snipe y'all with a perfectly timed Q.
- Blaseball - A massive sports betting simulation that most defies explanation, but we did try. Information technology'south nevertheless an absolute wild mess and we love it.
- NERTS! Online - A competitive solitaire game for up to six players, NERTS! Online is a new version of a long-running multiplayer solitaire from strategy masterminds Zachtronics.
All-time free PC games: Free-to-play
Gratuitous-to-play games
🔫 Apex Legends - All the same our favorite boxing royale, first and foremost considering it'southward a great-feeling first-person shooter. Apex has climbed to 1 of the peak spots on the Steam charts for good reason. It's the shooter nosotros keep coming dorsum to.
⛏ Fortnite - It's Fortnite. Y'know, the massive sandbox boxing royale, a game that'due south hosted concerts, Star Wars characters, Marvel superheroes, and so much more. Right at present is a skillful time to play, every bit Fortnite'southward Chapter 3 launch virtually the end of 2021 made some sweeping changes to the game.
🔮 Path of Exile - This is a crunchy and detailed Diablo-similar with remarkably deep character evolution and progression systems. It's not the most cute activeness-RPG in the world, but it is engaging and rewarding in the long run. The microtransactions aren't too intrusive either, which makes this a must-try for fans of Diablo 2 and its ilk. 2021 is a dandy time to play, as Path of Exile has gotten what is likely its last expansion before sequel Path of Exile 2 lands sometime this year.
🔫 Valorant - Riot's tactical shooter takes a direct shot at Counter-Strike: Global Offensive with a hero-driven spin. It's a fantastic competitive shooter that y'all tin can play for hours. Most heroes come for complimentary out of the box, and the residuum tin can exist unlocked for free if you play plenty.
Best free PC games: Story & Adventure
Best complimentary Story & Take a chance games
Deltarune: Chapters 1&two - This sorta sequel to Undertale is packed with memorable characters, tricky tunes, and emotive dialogue. Chapter 2 released in 2021 and was a Big Deal for Undertale fans.
The Doll Shop - Blending horror with romance, The Doll Store transports you to a pocket-size village, which is being cached nether a relentless snowfall. Information technology tells a sinister story involving creepy handmade dolls. The art is sublime and the ending is especially memorable.
The Supper - The Supper is a dark story of revenge that brings to listen Sweeney Todd. You lot play as a peg-legged tavern possessor, who has to serve iii very special dishes to a trio of horrible pirates, who actually should have checked the Nutrient Standards rating showtime...
Lockheart Indigo - This is a sci-fi detective game that feels a lot like a JRPG. You've arrived at a vast mansion to solve the murder of its quondam owner, but locked doors and suspects stand in your way.
Eternal Dwelling Floristry - The tale of a hitman who gets taken in at a flower store while he recovers from his injuries. The game's ability to tackle tough topics through the act of gentle flower system is remarkable.
The Herbalist - A wordless adventure nigh a traveller searching for a mysterious herb. You wander effectually its strange world trying to interpret symbols, in the promise of discovering the plant you need.
Off-Peak - Stranding you at an otherworldly train station, Off-Peak encourages you to explore, talk to the locals, and luxuriate in its strange atmosphere. It's got an incredible sense of place, despite feeling similar nowhere on World, and as you poke around its nooks and crannies, the truthful nature of its earth is revealed piece past piece.
Haunted Cities - There are three volumes worth of Haunted Cities to relish. Despite the proper name, these aren't really horror games – they've just inherited much of the atmosphere of games such equally Silent Hill.
Emily is Away - Party similar information technology's the early-'00s in this narrative game set in a chat client. You'll get to know fellow high school student Emily through snippets of online conversations about life, dear and indie rock music. If you enjoy this, paid-for sequel Emily is Away Too is worth checking out.
Olav and the Lute - An enigmatic adventure game set in a post-apocalyptic world, with a cracking primal mechanic. Rather than combining objects with other objects, you're affecting the world with a lute by plucking at its colour-coded strings.
Best free PC games: Horror
Complimentary horror games
No Players Online - In the spooky No Players Online, you log onto an sometime FPS server, just where you're the simply player in a futile game of Capture the Flag.
We Are Broken - An interactive visual novel where you must talk your fashion out of beingness eaten past a vampire. We Are Broken conjures a dark and vicious world with cut visuals and music that makes your skin clamber.
Sentient - This 1's a little Saw-esque. You're stuck in a room and forced to obey instructions given through an sometime speaker. Being trapped is horrible plenty, only what cranks up the creepiness factor here is the domestic dog-flap sized pigsty looming in the corner of the room, darkness shrouding whatever, or whoever, is inside.
Bleakshore - This chilling adventure uses the fuzzy, lo-fi aesthetic of PS1-era 3D graphics to create an impressively eerie atmosphere every bit a shadowy effigy stalks y'all across the landscape...
Faith - Faith lures you into feeling secure—if a trivial jumpy—with its retro aesthetic, before it transcends its limitations in one shockingly scary moment.
David Lynch Teaches Typing - What begins equally a friendly typing lesson from film director David Lynch slowly descends into a surreal, disorientating nightmare. At one signal you have to touch a gross twitching issues. Swell piece of work, kiddo!
House of Abandon - This story of a person playing a text gamble takes a sinister plough. Originally standalone, information technology became the first episode of eerie, atmospheric risk Stories Untold.
Chyrza - Chyrza's brand of horror is that unsettling strangeness you get with ruined alien desertscapes and mentions of a strange and terrible pyramid. Only it'due south non simply Chyrza.
All-time complimentary PC games: Action & Platformers
Free activity & platformer games
1Boss1Battle1Button - This challenging rhythm game pits y'all confronting a scary Picasso-faced monster, and your only hopes of survival prevarication with a single button. Pressing information technology in time with certain beats lets y'all jump, hunker, and dodge out of the way of oncoming attacks.
N ii.0 - In this ultra hardcore platformer with simple controls and a minimalist aesthetic, the focus is entirely on quick, precise control. And lots and lots of exercise.
The Terminal Tango - Rhythm espionage survival. You play as two spies, dancing through a variety of mortiferous locations. They'll pirouette by traps, contrivance under attacks, and accept down enemies with an elegant twirl. And a gun.
Eggnogg+ - This is Nidhogg, but free, and with unlike moves, and a bit more tongue-in-cheek. Expect hyperactive duels in a series of arenas.
Cuckoo Curling - A fun four-player game that combines the rules of crimper with Connect 4. An easy game to option up and play with friends, you can play Cuckoo Curling in local or online multiplayer.
Showtime Cut - Flashy fighting games are all well and skilful, but there's something satisfying about the 1-on-1 sword duel, equally evidenced in Foursquare's classic Bushido Blade. Commencement Cutting is that merely in 2d, essentially, offering feudal Japan-themed duels against some truly cute pixel art backdrops.
Best gratis PC games: Strategy
Best free strategy games
Dwarf Fortress - A circuitous game of colony management that'south all the same in evolution 18 years after its original inception. The incredible depth of its simulation doesn't merely add depth and challenge, it allows for emergent stories to ascend as y'all play, giving your dwarves a life of their own.
Tiny Islands - You're drawing maps of little islands in the sea hither, by placing beaches, houses, even waves as random cards are dealt out to you. But placement is everything, as every icon has its own set of rules.
Brogue - ASCII roguelikes have a reputation for beingness impenetrable. Brogue, despite staying true to the genre, works hard to feel approachable. The controls make navigating its dungeons a breeze, and the elegant shading makes its symbols atmospheric and readable.
Terra Nil - Terra Zero begins at the ultimate end of civilization, letting you exhale life dorsum into a mail service-apocalyptic wasteland. In this relaxing, therapeutic anti-builder, y'all construct devices to cleanse the globe, and to regrow light-green plants and trees.
Best gratuitous PC games: Chill and relaxing
Best free arctic games
Toripon - You're stuck within your apartment, thankfully with company. Instead of friends, your companions here are loads and loads of birds. Don't expect a gift parakeet in the rima oris. But sit down back and explore your apartment, examining every nook and every crevice for your feathered friends.
Bernband - Y'all're an alien in an alien city, going for a nice walk. Flying cars BladeRunner past every bit y'all cross a bridge, someone'due south rapping in the corner of the car park, and every crowd hubbubs away. Despite the four-fingered hands and conflicting asylum, it feels like a real metropolis. A real chill city.
Lieve Oma - Lieve Oma takes you on a relaxing jaunt through an autumnal wood on the hunt for mushrooms. Equally you scamper effectually, your granny follows slowly behind, instruction y'all about which mushrooms are okay to eat and teaching you her humble life lessons.
Forest Are For Trees - Walking through the woods is something that takes on new significant in this heed-expanding exploration game, which is pocket-size and possibly infinite all at once. It's a walking sim, sort of, where you traipse around an eerie woodland. But something funny happens when you make contact with a tree. Inside every tree there's another woods full of ghostly trees.
Best complimentary PC games: Puzzle
Free puzzle games
Transmute! - Play every bit a magician who can transform into unlike objects. You might plough into a key to open a lock, or a boat to sail the open up sea. And you lot'll do so to unlock a gorgeous, friendly fantasy world.
Mirror Isles - No listing of puzzle games is really complete without a PuzzleScript game from Alan Hazelden, and Mirror Isles is one of the very best. It'due south a top-down, Sokoban-style puzzler where you have to hop between islands, by using magic mirrors to swap places with your reflection.
Cube Escape - There'south a strange atmosphere to developer Rusty Lake'due south series of locked room puzzle games. Getting out of each one will test your brain, only you'll be even more taxed trying to figure out what's going on in their baroque universe.
Corrypt - What starts every bit a relatively unproblematic block-pushing game ends as 1 where you'll reshape the globe, past using magic to reprogram the state of the environment.
Counterfeit Monkey - Words are great, aren't they? They hold power over the world—literally, even, in this text-based puzzle game. You come equipped with a letter remover, which allows you to change the items around you, past deleting a single letter from their names.
Naya'southward Quest - Naya's Quest was made past VVVVVV and Super Hexagon creator Terry Cavanagh. In example you were wondering: Yes, it is bastard difficult, merely less stressful on your reflexes. It's an isometric puzzle-platformer about a girl and her pilgrimage to the edge of the earth.
The Republia Times - You're the editor of a newspaper in a totalitarian state in this game from the creator of Return of the Obra Dinn. Each mean solar day you must cull which stories to run and how much space to give them, impacting your paper's popularity and the regime's approving with the general populace. Smart and cynical.
All-time gratis PC games: Comedy and Oddity
All-time weird and funny games
Everything Is Going To Be Okay - Vividly animated creatures deal with existential horror and pain—and are alarmingly sanguine about it—in this cathartic collection of minigames, videos, and quizzes. Information technology'southward overwhelming, just equally life can be overwhelming. Merely it's refreshing for a game to deal with that fact.
Pet the Pup at the Political party - You lot've run out of minor talk at a rambunctious business firm party and before anyone notices how bad-mannered you are, you must find a pooch and pet it.
Caput Over Hooves: My Heart Bleats For You - An apocalyptic dating sim where you must make a caprine animal autumn in love with you lot and and then cede it to save the world from eternal damnation.
Alfonso's Bowling Challenge - This sort-of sports game swerves abroad from its premise quickly, building on its strange version of bowling until you lot're making breakfast and chopping pilus with your bowling ball.
Dr. Langeskov, The Tiger, And The Terribly Cursed Emerald: A Cyclone Heist - This team-upwardly of The Stanley Parable creator William Pugh and stand-upwards comedian Simon Amstell takes yous on a hilarious journey behind the scenes of a game falling apart at the seams.
The Book Of Beasts and Buddies - An interactive monster manual filled with curious creatures. Each page throws you into a cursory Pokémon-inspired come across, and through interacting with them you tin can gather your findings for the bestiary.
Cooldog Teaches Typing - There are plenty of educational game parodies, but only 1 features a chihuahua-looking thing as the instructor. If you learned to type past having a instructor shout at you, you'll appreciate the gentler methods of Cooldog.
Stick Shift - As creator Robert Yang says, "Stick Shift is an autoerotic night-driving game about pleasuring a gay automobile." It's function of an album with Hurt Me Plenty and Succulent, roofing eroticism, politics and more. Stick Shift is funny while also offer nutrient for idea.
Skeal - Recommending Skeal is a tough task because the absolute best feel is to go in with cipher idea of what to await. To that cease, it'due south a downhill skiing feel which becomes transcendental the longer yous ski and the more reveals you lot trigger every bit the jape unfurls.
Best free PC games: Classics
Gratis classic games
StarCraft - These days Blizzard sells a shiny remaster, merely if the original's good enough for Southward Korea, information technology's good plenty for us. In that location's a reason that even today information technology's an esports awareness – this iconic RTS remains a triumph of tight strategy and intense contest, with an incredible amount of depth for devotees to get lost in.
The Night Modern - A tribute to the Thief series, this standalone game lets you download a massive variety of user-made stealth levels, from tightly independent ones like Thief's Den to the more open up variety of Return to the City, and plenty of spooky ones similar The Creeps.
The Operative: No One Lives Forever - The classic stealth FPS, never re-released thank you to licensing hell. Its clever humor and charming 1960s setting hold upward nicely, as do the arsenal of goofy, Bail-esque gadgets at your disposal. That includes lipstick bombs, sleeping gas perfume, and a briefcase rocket launcher.
The Elder Scrolls 2: Daggerfall - 1996'south Elder Scrolls sequel was huge and aggressive, letting you explore High Rock and Hammerfell. A lot of series staples, like joining the Mages Guild, started here.
Below a Steel Sky - This signal-and-click risk features art by Watchmen'south Dave Gibbons, a twisty sci-fi story, and a really goofy sense of sense of humour. One of its neatest ideas is how you can stick your AI pal Joey's electronic encephalon into different mechanical robots to solve puzzles.
The MS-DOS Annal.org library - A collection of thousands of classic, free PC games playable in your browser. The MS-DOS collection on Annal.org contains more than 4,000 games, all emulated and like shooting fish in a barrel to play in simply a few seconds. Wolfenstein 3D, Prince of Persia, Jazz Jackrabbit, Carmen Sandiego... you could spend a lifetime of lunch breaks in here. But then you lot might starve.
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