In its current state, PC gaming is arguably more popular than ever. Nowadays, most non-Nintendo console games tend to make their way to Microsoft Windows sooner rather than later, allowing PC owners to try out projects that were once exclusive to PlayStation or Xbox. New indie titles are also released on platforms like Steam and Epic Games Store every day, ensuring there is always something new to play. While most projects require cash investment, free PC games are not in short supply either, and some of them are even fantastic.

Despite earning a fairly negative stigma over the decades, the free-to-play market has not only endured but grown. PC players can pick up MMORPGs, multiplayer shooters, battle royales, and indie titles without spending a dime; however, just because a game is free does not mean it is worth playing. Therefore, let's take a look at the best free games on PC.

Updated July 5, 2024 by Mark Sammut: July 2024 has been a huge month for free PC games. Two massive titles have already been released, and they both need to be highlighted.

1 Zenless Zone Zero

Metascore: 81

Whenever miHoYo releases a new project, the gaming world always stops to take notice. Genshin Impact and Honkai: Star Rail are well-established as two of the best free games of the last five years, particularly within the gacha genre. Zenless Zone Zero seems destined to stand alongside those two heavyweights as another HoYoverse triumph, and the 2024 game manages to scratch a few identical itches while still catering to a different experience.

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Unlike the developer's previous releases, ZZZ is a smaller-scale production, in the sense that the campaign is structured around completing short missions rather than exploring expansive open-worlds or Honkai's self-contained but still reasonably large cities. The story revolves around sending Agents into Hollows, which are portals to another dimension that contain enemies and bosses. Players can put together three-member parties, and crafting a complementary team is crucial. The hack and slash combat is fast-paced and satisfying, arguably among miHoYo's best systems to date.

2 The First Descendant

Third-Person Looter Shooter

Nexon's The First Descendant is still in its infancy and shows enough promise to suggest a bright future. That said, the game's launch was a mixed bag, blending fun gunplay with addictive drops and repetitive mission structure. While plenty of free PC games feature loot systems, looter shooters tend to be premium projects, with Warframe being one of the few exceptions (Destiny 2 is not truly free-to-play). Unsurprisingly, The First Descendant seems to take a bit of inspiration from Digital Extremes' long-running IP, which is hardly a bad thing considering Warframe has been among the best shooters on the market for at least half a decade by this point.

The First Descendant arguably nails the most important thing: gameplay. Each weapon type is unique and (mostly) fun to use, and the gunplay feels great. While Descendants are not too plentiful at the moment, they have quirks that allow them to stand out, encouraging players to try out different characters. When moving away from the minute-to-minute action, the game becomes more frustrating. The missions follow a very basic structure that gets old quickly, even if the occasional cutscene can help liven things up (despite a pretty underwhelming story). While the graphics are top-tier for a free title, the art style and designs are fairly conventional. Finally, the microtransactions are aggressive.

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4 Rocket League

Metascore: 86

In September 2020, Rocket League went free-to-play, opening the already popular game to an even wider audience than it had already attracted. On the surface, "soccer meets cars" sounds like too bizarre of a concept to be anything but a novelty; yet, Psyonix's project exploded out of the gate and has only gotten better since then, both commercially and critically.

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Rocket League seems to have become the quintessential game that someone throws on when they have 30 minutes to kill and nothing else to play. Accessible but still skill-based, this is not only one of the best free games but simply one of the greatest releases of the last decade.

5 Counter-Strike 2

Metascore: 82

A free update to CS:GO, Valve's eternal free-to-play shooter, Counter-Strike 2 earns its sequel title by providing the base experience with its biggest overhaul to date. At its core, this is largely still the same game that Steam users have been playing for roughly a decade, which automatically places CS2 among the best FPS games on the market. That said, the September 2023 release brought a few notable additions or changes, such as the introduction of a CS Rating and a revamped loadout.

More importantly, Counter-Strike 2 uses the Source 2 engine, which naturally delivers a significant jump in visual quality over its predecessor's Source engine. While it is frustrating that Global Offensive is no longer available to play, CS2 represents the license's present and future.

6 Genshin Impact

Metascore: 84

In 2020, MiHoYo's action RPG took the world by storm. Initially viewed as a clone of The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, Genshin Impact quickly established its own voice through its anime aesthetic, progression system, and team-based combat. Set in the gorgeous Teyvat, players step into the role of the Traveler, a being who jumps across worlds.

As they explore the game's massive open-world, players unlock more of Genshin Impact's effective lore while building a party of playable characters. Genshin Impact is frequently updated with new heroes, locations, story beats, and unlockable items, and the game has maintained its popularity throughout its entire lifespan. At this point, any newcomers can look forward to hundreds of hours worth of high-quality content.

7 Warframe

Metascore: 69

Metacritic scores reflect a game's launch state, which makes sense since studios should be analyzed on whether they provide a solid experience out of the gate. However, for a service title like Warframe, its critic score of "69" doesn't reflect its current level of quality. Digital Extremes' action RPG has come far since its debut, adding more open worlds to explore along with expanding its lore beautifully.

Warframe's fast-paced gameplay has always been great, and it only got better as the game incorporated new suits, weapons, and ways for players to interact with the world and each other. At this point, Warframe contains so much content that new players could dedicate six months to the game and still not come close to witnessing everything it has to offer.

8 Guild Wars 2

Metascore: 90

Debuting in 2012, Guild Wars 2 has been free-to-play since August 2015. Except for a handful of restrictions, free players have access to the core experience, although they will have to pay if they wish to try the three expansions. While the latter are great in their own right, Guild Wars 2's vanilla campaign is the reason the game is considered one of the best MMORPGs of all time. Unlike some other entries in the genre, ArenaNet's project is quite story-driven, and the primary campaign should keep someone engaged for close to 100 hours.

With nine professions, two character slots, and two Living World seasons, players have a ton of content to work through. Guild Wars 2 also adapts the narrative to fit the user's actions, ensuring that no two playthroughs are exactly alike. Even a decade after its release, this game still has very few peers in the MMORPG scene, making it comfortably one of the best free PC games.

9 Path Of Exile

Metascore: 86

When Path of Exile was released it was immediately compared to Diablo 3. While the graphics aren’t quite as polished as that premium title, Path of Exile might be a better option in some ways. This game truly delivers a near-AAA game experience at no cost to the player.

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One of the best aspects of Path of Exile is the game is completely free of pay-to-win influences – all content in the game is accessible. Path of Exile has more content and replay value than most other free games.

10 Doki Doki Literature Club!

Steam User Rating: 96%

Arguably the best entry-level visual novel of all time, particularly for horror fans, Doki Doki Literature Club! is unbelievably great considering it is free to play. While a run through the routes won't take longer than a few hours, the game is not devoid of content either, and it also offers consistently high-quality writing. By this point, Doki Doki Literature Club!'s twists and shocks are generally well known, which will dull the story's impact on informed newcomers; however, that is a consequence of the game's success and not a criticism.

Doki Doki Literature Club! seems to follow the standard formula of a dating sim, including the introduction of four girls who fit fairly typical archetypes. However, the game gradually becomes unhinged, transforming into a psychological thriller in the process. Even though Doki Doki Literature Club Plus! adds a few side stories that enhance the overall experience, the base version is still phenomenal.

11 HoloCure - Save The Fans!

Steam User Rating: 99%

Although not the first of its ilk, Vampire Survivors' unprecedented success led to the arrival of a slew of similar auto-attack games. On the surface, HoloCure might seem like nothing more than Vampire Survivors with a Vtuber skin; however, while they definitely share a fair few similarities, the former does a pretty good job of setting itself apart from its contemporary. For one, HoloCure knocks its presentation out of the park, delivering impressive special effects for a fan-made project. Even if it is nothing groundbreaking, the game is always visually interesting thanks to its range of creative enemies, powers, and occasional bursts of personality.

For people who never played Vampire Survivors or a similar title, HoloCure's gameplay is not that complicated, at least at a glance. Players pick a Vtuber (+ their unique weapon) from the available roster and are dropped onto a map where they must slaughter everything in the area, and the character attacks automatically. Monsters constantly spawn, and as they are mowed down, players will level up and earn the capability to unlock new items, abilities, or upgrades. The latter options are randomly picked, which not only adds some variety to runs but also incentivizes users to carefully plan out their builds. After a session, players can use their earnings to purchase new characters and other goodies.

12 Fortnite

Metascore: 81

Fortnite exploded in 2017 and has refused to go away ever since. Now, not every part of Epic's monster is free-to-play – the Save the World campaign requires an investment, which could be worth it for people looking for a co-op experience. However, the battle royale mode is comfortably the game's most decorated element, and it is free for everyone. Even though there are roughly 10 billion battle royales on the market, none of them compare to Fortnite in terms of mainstream appeal, and most of the genre's releases only exist due to the game's success.

Unsurprisingly due to its inescapable nature, Fortnite has received quite a bit of backlash over the years, to the point that some people might feel discouraged from giving it a go. While it is probably not going to convince anyone who hates battle royales, Fortnite's gameplay, visual style, and building mechanics help set it apart from the crowd.

In 2023, Epic released two more game options: Lego Fortnite and Rocket Racing. Both modes can be played for free, and they offer wildly different experiences than either the main game or the battle royale. The former is a survival crafting game akin to something like Valheim, albeit more accessible and casual. Rocket Racing is a kart racer with some fairly creative levels.

13 Naraka: Bladepoint

Metascore: 71

Naraka: Bladepoint has been around since 2021 when it launched as a priced product on PC before debuting on Xbox a year later. While reasonably successful compared to most of its contemporaries, the game struggled somewhat to establish itself as a front-runner in an oversaturated battle royale market known for its polished free releases. Consequently, it seemed to be only a matter of time before 24 Entertainment transitioned the project to a free-to-play model, which is what happened in July 2023. Unsurprisingly, this switch coincided with a huge influx of new players, although it remains to be seen whether they stick around for the long run.

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Even if the fad has faded a bit in recent years, battle royales are still inescapable, largely thanks to heavy hitters like Fortnite and Warzone. A more niche title than either of those releases, Naraka: Bladepoint sets itself apart from the crowd by focusing on melee rather than ranged action. The game also takes ideas from the hero shooter genre by incorporating characters with unique abilities and weapons, allowing players to gravitate toward their preferred playstyles. This creative decision resulted in a project with a higher skill ceiling than most available battle royales, although the combat is still reasonably accessible.

14 Team Fortress 2

Metascore: 92

Team Fortress 2 might be the best online team-based shooter ever made. Team Fortress 2 continues the class-based play style that the original Team Fortress made popular. Critics and users alike have almost nothing but praise for this game’s graphics, control, class balance, and low system requirements.

This game is twelve years old, and yet it is still considered the go-to shooter for intense multiplayer action. There are in-game transactions in Team Fortress 2, but they are limited to cosmetic changes. People who haven’t played this game yet should head over to Steam and give it a try. Obviously, they will initially feel overwhelmed since they will almost certainly going up against players that know TF2 like the back of their hands; however, if they manage to push through this early wall, they will quickly understand why Valve's shooter has been around for so long.

15 Valorant

Metascore: 80

Created by a team that understands a thing or two about crafting successful free-to-play games, Valorant hit the ground running and quickly found its place in the oversaturated hero shooter genre. Riot's project is arguably the price point's strongest team-based first-person shooter, and it is showing no signs of slowing down. Featuring multiple modes and a good range of maps, Valorant blends tight gunplay with strategic nuance thanks to its wide variety of agents, each one of which fits into a few different class types. As matches are 5v5, team synergy plays a significant part in determining the winner, and players are expected to fulfill certain roles depending on their chosen agent.

Even though it has been around for three years and has been great for most of that period, Valorant still feels like it has room to improve. While longevity can be difficult to predict, Riot's shooter seems destined to be around for the long haul.

16 The Finals

Steam User Rating: 74%

After a few playtests, The Finals unexpectedly launched on the same day as The 2023 Game Awards. Revolving around 3v3v3 battles, the team-based FPS has a quirky sense of humor that is largely presented through its framing device: a game show. Players compete in an in-universe televised competition, and creative mayhem is rewarded.

At the moment, The Finals is somewhat lacking in content, although the available modes are different enough from each other to provide some variety. The classes are also unique, justifying experimentation with all of them. The Finals has some rough edges, but it has gotten off to a very respectable start. The game is performing well on Steam, and it seems set to maintain that momentum for at least a couple of months. While the core gunplay is solid, the most fun part of the package is the destructible environments.

As the months have passed, the game has steadily started to stage events and release updates that push things to the next level. Although The Finals' Steam player base has declined quite a lot since December 2023, it is still managing to average over 10K simultaneous users. Those might not be Palworld numbers, but they are not terrible either.

17 Honkai: Star Rail

Metascore: 80

After creating one of the most popular action RPGs in the free-to-play scene, HoYoVerse has turned its sights to the turn-based sphere. Although not the first entry in its series, Honkai: Star Rail serves as something of a soft reset, in the sense that newcomers can jump in without needing to be familiar with previous projects like Honkai Impact 3rd (which is a decent freebie in its own right). Unlike Genshin Impact's fantasy setting, Star Rail is drenched in sci-fi goodness, with its campaign following a space crew as they visit different planets. Serving as the game's biomes, planets tell relatively self-contained stories and allow HoYoVerse to introduce new cultures, world designs, and enemies. Star Rail launched with two planets, although this number should increase as the months and years roll by.

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Honkai: Star Rail's turn-based combat shares similarities with Genshin Impact's real-time battles since both systems revolve around 4-member teams and emphasize party synergy. Even though it is not real-time, Star Rail's combat is still dynamic and fast-paced when compared with other turn-based RPGs. Along with story-given characters, players unlock new party members through a gacha mechanic, and the game already has a robust roster of fighters.

18 Sheepy: A Short Adventure

Steam User Score: 99%

A stunningly gorgeous platformer seemingly inspired by the Ori series, Sheepy: A Short Adventure is a must-play for anyone with a PC. The game follows an adorable sheep who wakes up in a desolate world, and they go on a journey to discover what happened.

Despite lasting just about 1 hour, Sheepy feels like a complete experience, one that incorporates a mysterious and effective setting along with good controls and simple but enjoyable gameplay. Except for the first level, the game is surprisingly open, granting players quite a bit of freedom in how they traverse the map. Sheepy even manages to throw in boss fights and collectibles.

19 The Sims 4

Metascore: 70

After roughly 8 years on the market, The Sims 4 went free-to-play, granting everyone access to the vanilla version. Now, the social sim's expansion packs have continued to require a monetary investment, and they do add quite a bit to the base experience. Nevertheless, The Sims 4's free iteration is ideal for newcomers who just want to dip their toes into this popular franchise; if they like what they see, they can always check out the expansions to decide if there is anything that suits their fancy.

The Sims 4 has attracted its share of criticism over the last decade, with many believing the entry failed to reach the heights seen by its predecessors. That said, messing around with the Sims is still entertaining.

20 Infinite Craft

An Addictive Browser Word-Crafting Game

Now, for something slightly different. Browser games might feel like a thing of the past, but they are still present in this day and age. And, they are generally free-to-play, with most of them seeking to offer users a way to kill a few minutes rather than consuming their lives for eternity. Infinite Craft is one of these sorts of games, although its satisfying rhythm and sound design create an addictive loop that can be difficult to break free from. Players start with four elements, and they are meant to combine them to produce something new. While initially basic, Infinite Craft's elements can get very weird, meta, and referential, and the possibilities can seem endless at times.

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Infinite Craft is the definition of simplicity, being built on a concept that is immediately understandable and accessible. On the surface, the game might sound almost too basic for its own good, but it is executed perfectly. There is also the satisfaction of discovering new elements, although accomplishing that is far from easy. If someone is simply craving a relaxing and entertaining distraction, they can do much worse than this freebie.