Best Free PC Games: Top Picks You Need to Play Now

We all enjoy a bit of gaming from time to time - or more often than that, if we’re honest, and what’s more fun than a classic PC game to while away the hours? This isn’t a trick question: the answer is a free classic PC game, because everything is more fun when you don’t have to pay for it. And you don’t need to compromise on quality, because as we will see below, there are more than enough excellent contenders among the wealth of free games on offer.

Action-packed Adventures

There’s nothing like an action game to get the adrenaline pumping, and some of the most-loved action games are available for no cost at all. The iconic battle-royale shooter Fortnite is just seven years old, but feels like it has been at the core of gaming culture for much longer than that. Compete with friends, and perhaps not-friends, to be the last man standing (and dancing), or maybe if your thrills come from first-person atmospheric shooters, you would prefer to spend some time playing Apex Legends and employing your strategic skills to emerge from the fray as champion.

Strategy Games for Thinkers

Of course there is a strategic element to games such as the above, but if you want to dial up the thinking, then there is no better option than perhaps the daddy of all arena games, League of Legends. LoL has gained a worldwide audience of millions for good reason, and you can lose hours trying to outthink your opponents. While skins and other custom items need to be paid for, all of the game’s champions can be unlocked for free. You may prefer the fast-paced card battle game Hearthstone if you’re feeling the adrenaline, but why not both? They’re free, after all.

Puzzle Challenges to Master

If you really want to give your brain a workout, then the best way to do it may be with a few puzzle games that exercise the gray matter. There’s no more cerebral option among the free games on the market than Sudoku, with several versions available online for no cost. This Japanese puzzle challenge requires you to apply your knowledge of numbers and lateral thinking. Alternatively in a more classic computer gaming vein, you could do a lot worse than play one of the many free versions of Tetris; it needs no explanation, surely, with the falling blocks familiar to anyone who’s ever even switched on a PC.

Virtual Worlds to Explore

The improvements in PC technology and game engineering have meant that over the years, world-building and exploration games have just gotten better and better. Beautifully-designed open worlds have become a hot property on the gaming market, and that is never better seen than in the anime-tinged Genshin Impact with its seven nations to explore and cast of characters to meet. If you’re keen on MMORPGs, on the other hand, RuneScape’s old-world graphics and millions of players (over 300million accounts have been opened on the game) will keep you busy for more than a minute.

Indie Gems Worth Discovering

Not every game worth playing comes from a major development studio, of course. There is a wealth of exciting indie games which are well worth exploring particularly considering they are free to play. Among this collection, the best are Slay the Spire which has won lots of fans on console and PC as a deck-building roguelike game, and Celeste, a challenging platform game which is not always free, but is often available for no cost on promotions. If you can’t find it for free, do bookmark it; it will be available at some point.

Multiplayer Mayhem for Friends

Games are always more enjoyable when you introduce a communal and competitive element, and there are plenty of free multiplayer games available for groups who want to play socially. The legendary and darkly hilarious Among Us is one such game, where you will win if you can launch your friends’ characters off of high surfaces to become the last player standing. Brawlhalla, meanwhile, needs little explanation beyond the name. Knock your co-players’ characters into the explosive “blastzones” for glory and amusement.

Classic Games Online to Revisit

Once upon a time, video games were the future. And the past in which they were the future was a lot of fun, so it is worth getting nostalgic and playing some of the classics of those eras. You can take it right back to the 1980s and enjoy an online version of PacMan (there are people who played this game as teenagers who are now in their 60s, if you want to feel old). Or you could jump forward about a decade and play Doom; it may feel dated now, but in a highly enjoyable way and when it came out it was genuinely revolutionary. Playing for just a few moments will demonstrate just why people’s jaws dropped all the way back in 1993.

Mahjong Solitaire and More Classics

The list of fun free games simply goes on and on. Sometimes you just want to start up your PC and play a game that’s as simple as they come. The likes of Minesweeper and Bridge are a couple of popular examples, and there is a lot to be said for the joys of Mahjong Solitaire as you can find here. You can also find other games designed to help a player unwind, with Spider Solitaire being another classic that provides a gentle workout for the brain when you just want to blow away the cobwebs (pun not intended, but we’ll leave it there anyway).

The above are just a few of the fun online games you can find for free from one or more of the online providers serving up browser games to a growing audience. It’s genuinely the case that some of these games would be well worth paying full price for, but you don’t have to - you can just log on, log in and check out the joys of free online gaming at your leisure.

DISCLAIMER: The games on this website are using PLAY (fake) money. No payouts will be awarded, there are no "winnings", as all games represented by 247 Games LLC are free to play. Play strictly for fun.