The 25 best PC games of all time

What are the best PC games? From triple-A household names like GTA 5 to enchanting indie releases such as Rocket League, these classics are the biggest games across Steam, Epic Games Store, and more. Finding the top PC games is no easy task. There are, you may have noticed, quite a lot of them.

From the 50,000-plus Steam games to… all those other platforms you love so much, there has never been more choice available to the discerning PC gamer. From the best free PC games thrown in there, too.

Here are the 25 best PC games of all time: 

Kingdom Come Deliverance 2

Kingdom Come Deliverance 2 is an RPG with a surprising amount of scope. You play as Henry, a blacksmith's son who finds himself as the personal bodyguard of a noble named Hans. Hans is a bit of a scamp, and embarks on an important journey to prove to everyone that he isn't the drunken layabout that everyone says he is.

After things go rather quickly downhill due to some drunken layabout antics, Henry is let loose on a wonderfully detailed Bohemia. Kingdom Come Deliverance 2 offers a world with consequence; one that feels alive, and one where you can feel very, very small. This is good, and you should play it, even if the first game ed you by. You can read our Kingdom Come Deliverance 2 review if you want to know more.

Metaphor ReFantazio

It's always a difficult task to follow up on what some people consider to be one of the greatest games of all time, in this case, Persona 5, and yet Atlus continues to blow people's socks clean off every time. Metaphor ReFantazio is the latest from Atlus, developed by its Studio Zero division which has been comprised of ex-Persona talent. The game is set in a fantasy world where the United Kingdom of Euchronia is on the brink of conflict, it's your job to usher in peace by lifting the curse from the kingdom's lost prince.

As our very own Aaron Down put so eloquently in his Metaphor ReFantazio Archetypes list to help you decide which abilities to go for.

Elden Ring

FromSoft's Souls series has established itself as one of the all-time great series of the past decade in gaming, but its reputation for difficulty has probably scared off at least as many potential players as it has drawn in with its moody, mournful worlds and esoteric narratives. While Elden Ring doesn't break from Souls' traditional challenge, it offers a far more welcoming experience thanks to its vast open world — the first of its kind for the studio.

And what an open world it is. Elden Ring's The Lands Between is a revelation: it stretches for miles but never feels empty. Each area is packed with new enemies to outwit, ancient tombs to uncover, weird characters to meet, and fantastical Elden Ring bosses to die fighting again and again and again until you can finally bring knowledge and execution together and emerge victorious. Each of Elden Ring's zones includes a 'legacy dungeon' that feels more akin to the more linear do-or-die levels of the Souls games, but each one merits revisiting to find the secrets hidden deep within.

But if, for example, a stray dragon guarding a lake is proving too difficult, you can always head off and explore somewhere else. You're only ever given suggestions, and you're always free to head off on your own to learn more about the world and grow stronger simply by following your sense of curiosity and adventure or trying out different Elden Ring builds.

Elden Ring is a great game when considered on its merits, but it's also an important game: its approach to open-world game design plots a new course for the genre toward a world in which repeatable, cookie-cutter activities and endless map icons are relics of the past. There's no seasonal reward track to follow because playing Elden Ring is the reward — and that's more than enough. Take a look at our Elden Ring review for the full verdict.

If you are looking for even more Elden Ring content, you really need to see our Scadutree Fragments to power up their characters.

Hades 2

As the only early access title on our illustrious list, Hades 2 has a lot to live up to as one of the best PC games. Fortunately, it's easy to justify Supergiant Games' sequel to arguably its best game as it manages to build on an impressive foundation. You play as Melinoë, the sister of Zagreus, as she attempts to take down Chronos, the God of Time. To separate the sibling's playstyles, Mel has a host of unique keepsakes to ensure the fighting experience is different this time.

Don't let the early access tag dissuade you from picking up this wonderful roguelike game. Our Hades 2 release date arrives, the game will be bigger and better than ever before.

Balatro

It's difficult to believe that a game as accessible, polished, and addictive could be created by just one person, but that really is the case with Balatro. Developed by a man known only by his online name of 'LocalThunk', Balatro takes the concept of Poker and builds on it to transform it into something truly special. Even if you're not a Poker fan, it doesn't take long to memorize the hands you're able to play each turn, and there's a cheat sheet available in-game if you need it.

What makes Balatro so addictive is the Joker system, unique cards located at the top of the screen that affect the scoring system. For example, you can get a Joker that adds a multiplier of 15 to your score, but there's a one in six chance that it'll disappear. Players have to weigh up the pros and cons of each Joker when building their perfect deck. Things start to get exciting when you start to involve Jokers that multiply your multiplier, allowing you to reach scores well into the millions and even beyond that.

Balatro is easily one of the best games of 2024, and LocalThunk has already confirmed that DLC is coming to the game later this year via a free update. We already saw a balance update shortly after launch that upgraded some lesser-used Jokers, and now we're going to receive a patch that aims to add more ideas and strategies to the base game.

Cyberpunk 2077

Alongside No Man's Sky, Cyberpunk 2077 is up there as one of the most improved games over the past few years. As the follow-up to CD Projekt Red's much-loved The Witcher 3, expectations were sky-high for this cyberpunk adventure. In our Cyberpunk 2077 review, we gave the game an excellent 9/10 score, but it was easy to see why other outlets felt differently.

While the game's reception at launch on PC was largely positive, it was a different story on consoles where the game looked like a shell of itself. Not only was the game pulled from console storefronts, but the developers made a promise to fix the game and add numerous features the community had asked for since launch. With all the changes made to the base game over the years, you need to do yourself a favor and try out this excellent RPG game.

Phantom Liberty continues V's story, this time teaming up with Idris Elba who takes on the role of the former FIA Agent known as Solomon Reed, as we explore the lawless region of Dogtown searching for the NUSA President. If you weren't a fan of Cyberpunk 2077's endings, you'll be pleased to know there are a few new ways for V to see out the game's story in this expansion.

There's more of a James Bond vibe in Phantom Liberty as it opens up new ways to approach missions. While the most common method is to barge into problems guns first, you always have the option to complete missions in a manner of ways. Without giving away any spoilers, one of our highlights of the story is where the game suddenly transforms into a horror game as you escape the clutches of a deadly robot. Give our Phantom Liberty review to see why we gave this expansion an incredible 9/10.

Street Fighter 6

Street Fighter 6 has been incredibly popular among the game's usual hardcore audience, and it's managed to reach a new set of fans thanks to its casual approach. The fighting game includes the usual 1v1 fighting mode the series is known for, but now there's a 15-hour story mode for players to learn the mechanics and brush up on their Street Fighter lore.

The fighting side of Street Fighter 6 has never been better, featuring the Drive Bar, which incorporates several new and returning mechanics. Not only is the classic parry back, but players also have access to Drive Rush, a new technique that lets fighters cancel specific moves, leading to spectacular combos. Check out our Street Fighter 6 tier list if you're wondering who to main first. One year after launch and the game is still as popular as, reintroducing two of the series' most iconic villains, Akuma and M. Bison. The second fight also includes Street Fighter's first guest fighters, Mai and Terry from Fatal Fury.

Baldur's Gate 3

Larian's reputation as one of the best developers around was solidified with the release of Divinity: Original Sin 2, but if you had any doubts, Baldur's Gate 3 is sure to cement its place. Built upon the foundations of Dungeons and Dragons' fifth edition ruleset, BG3 lets players use their creativity to solve problems, accomplish tasks, and set goblins on fire.

A lot of games promise this level of depth, but BG3 is designed to continue even if the player decides to kill every useful NPC around. In this 70-hour epic, the story will adapt to your actions, even if you murder fan favorites like Baldur's Gate 3 builds guide if you want to design your character from scratch.

Hitman World of Assassination

If you thought Hitman: Absolution was a misstep, put those worries aside – everyone's favorite barcode-headed baldie is back on fine form in Hitman World of Assassination. IO Interactive, the game's developers, decided to combine all three games into one standalone title, creating World of Assassination. Featuring 20 unique locations, Hitman takes you on a journey across the globe as you're tasked with taking out targets in any way you see fit.

The Hitman series is full of incredible, tense, and sometimes hilarious missions that can end in ways you never expected. Sapienza is an instant classic, asking you to take out a mob boss in a picturesque Italian town. In it, you can eliminate your target by popping an explosive golf ball into their caddy sack and watching them take a swing at it. Whether you're drowning folk in a toilet or carefully lining up a sniper shot in time to some fireworks, Hitman is full of inventive ways to dish out death. Each mission is designed to be played over and over again, begging for you to approach it in myriad ways.

As you'll discover in our Hitman timeline to see the full story of Agent 47.

Tetris Effect: Connected

Created by Tetsuya Mizuguchi, the video game designer behind Lumines and Rez Infinite, Tetris Effect is known best for its incredible journey mode.  Fly in hot air balloons above the desert, swim in the ocean surrounded by sea creatures, and take a trip through a dense forest in this impressive single-player campaign. The best Tetris game ever made just got better with Connected, a free expansion that adds cross-platform multiplayer and cooperative modes to the puzzle game.

As the name implies, up to three friends can connect as they fight against AI-controlled bosses. Using the Zone mechanic, players combine their screens to create one super-sized Tetris board, granting you the ability to fire off massive amounts of garbage lines. If you're feeling competitive, you can play a modern version of Battle Tetris using the zone mechanic or rewind the clock with classic NES rules. The PC version of Tetris Effect: Connected is as good as it gets, featuring optional VR , for ultra-wide aspect ratios, and an uncapped frame rate.

Half-Life: Alyx

Okay, so maybe a VR game wasn't what we all had in mind when Valve announced its first new Half-Life game since the long-abandoned Half-Life 3, but Alyx isn't just an incredible Half-Life game. It also – finally – validates the years of VR hype.

The scope is certainly smaller than the main Half-Life games, with missions in Alyx often taking place in a single building. The level of interaction available to you in these small levels, however, far exceeds that of the core Half-Life games. Whether that's in flashy moments like using a wooden beam to play baseball with enemy grenades or simply sweeping clutter off shelves searching for extra ammo. It has that good game feel, just like a shotgun blast in Doom, but this time, it makes you feel as much a part of City 17 as the looming Combine ships. You can read our full Half-Life: Alyx review here in case your mind's not made up yet.

Outer Wilds

Forget the sprawling galaxies of Starfield, No Man's Sky, and Elite Dangerous; if you truly want to get as close as you can to experiencing the wonder of space exploration in a digital form, Outer Wilds is the only choice. It might not offer the sheer scale of other space games, yet it feels the most natural and wondrous of them all thanks to its careful, intricate design and beautifully realized clockwork worlds that tick alongside one another in perfect harmony.

We recognize the irony here in what we're saying, but Outer Wilds is one of those games where your experience is enhanced if you go into the game without knowing anything about it. Above all else, this is a journey of discovery, whether that be flying your rickety little ship around the galaxy to explore planets and discover new secrets upon each of them, or learning more fundamental truths about the world itself and the laws that bind it in ways that let you explore even deeper moving forwards.

Outer Wilds is all about the journey as you explore several planets with weird and wonderful happenings, including discovering some lost friends who have been resigned to see out their existence on these planets. You'll be left scratching your head at times, too, because there are plenty of logic puzzles to solve in one of the best games of all time. The brilliant nature of Outer Wilds is truly difficult to explain, though, as it's an experience everyone should experience without knowing much more going into it, so what are you waiting for?

Red Dead Redemption 2

In Rockstar's follow-up to one of the greatest western games of all time – you'll take on the role of rugged outlaw Arthur Morgan, part of the reckless and depleting Van der Linde gang. As you ride through the merciless fictional US landscape, Red Dead Redemption 2 not only thrusts you into a perilous world in which outlaws are facing extinction, crushed under the ability of law and order but propels you into a downward spiral of morality versus survival.

Red Dead Redemption's beauty lies in the imminent fate of the gang and stolen moments around the campfire. Arthur feels a crushing responsibility to rescue and reassure his entire hapless family, even the rotten rogues who appear hell-bent on steering the group toward a cataclysmic end.

Red Dead Redemption 2 is one of those games that will stay with you for many years after the credits roll. From quiet haunts tracking legendary animals and plucking herbs from the side of old railways to moments of desperation where the gang leads a retaliation against rivals, – there's an immense amount of detail in this world and just as much heart. See our Red Dead 2 cheats, which are sure to get you out of a metaphorical, and literal, bind.

Slay the Spire

We've seen other developers try their hand at creating a roguelike deck builder, but no one has perfected the genre like Megacrit's Slay The Spire. It's easy to understand all the deck archetypes for each class, and you can take things to another level when you incorporate Relics. These powerful items contain special buffs that permanently affect your deck.

Relics open up endless deck-building possibilities as you can discover game-breaking combinations, but therein lies the problem. You may not receive the same mixture of Relics and cards in your next 50 attempts, leading you to discover stronger setups than you ever imagined. With 20 difficulty levels to get through, a deadly secret boss at the end of each run, and four unique classes to learn, there's a good reason why most Slay The Spire players have hundreds of hours logged on Steam. See our PC Slay the Spire 2 release date guide to find out when you can get your hands on the sequel.

Hollow Knight

If there's an insect-based game that should intersect your Steam library it's Team Cherry's incredible Metroidvania game, Hollow Knight. Placed into the shoes (feet?) of a tiny masked knight, Hollow Knight will have you go on an epic adventure across the sleepy kingdom of Hallownest to save it from a disease that's corrupting its inhabitants.

With nowt but your trusty needle by your side, as well as a slew of unlockable abilities and charms to help you on your quest, Hollow Knight's difficulty more than betrays its adorably quaint dressing. It easily matches some of the top soulslikes out there in of boss difficulty, and don't get us started on the platforming.

Dishonored 2

Sometimes, in Dishonored 2, you have to kill yourself to save yourself. Playing as Emily Kaldwin, you're able to cast a ghostly doppelganger at street level and jump down onto its head, plunging your dagger into its neck to break your fall, negating any damage.

Doppelganger's intended function is to be used as a distraction, a way to escape from a confrontation. But developer Arkane wants you to bend the rules; to see what's beyond the veil. You're supposed to experiment, to see what's possible – and, oh boy, there's so much you can do if you are inventive enough. There's so much to revel in; Arkane's sneaker is one of the few games we've awarded a perfect score. Read our Dishonored 2 PC review to find out why we love it so damn much.

You get to play with these systems in Karnaca – a gorgeous, stylized, fictional slice of the Mediterranean. It is one of the most cohesive, story-rich environments in video games, with every room telling a story with its props. Whether you're slinking across the rooftops or sprinting through, knife-in-hand, it's a place that begs to be explored as much as your abilities do. If you like your games with both violence and brains, don't overlook this clever assassination sim. Indeed, it's one of the best stealth games on PC ever.

Titanfall 2

It doesn't matter how many of the best FPS games you've played – if you haven't beaten Titanfall 2, you haven't seen it all. Its short but explosive campaign delivers fresh ideas and mechanics with each act, a real masterclass in level design. The pace and freedom of its combat and parkour manage to feel at once effortless and exhilarating, and your mech companion BT-7274 is the best buddy a soldier could ever ask for.

While the Titanfall 2 story mode is more than reason enough to pick it up, Titanfall 2 also boasts one of the best multiplayer games around. Its blend of human players and AI grunts means that you can always find targets to take down, even if you aren't a leaderboard-topping kill machine, and the Titan mechs add a unique dynamic to the battlefield that changes up the pace without completely dominating on-foot players, giving it an edge over even Respawn's fellow in-universe battle royale game Apex Legends.

XCOM 2

XCOM 2 is a special sequel. Most gaming follow-ups are iterative improvements on a formula, but this one works to justify its existence by being a different game altogether. Where Enemy Unknown granted you the of all the planet's governments and asked you to watch it dwindle, XCOM 2 starts you off with next to nothing: a handful of ragtag fighters of questionable backgrounds fighting against the might of an alien enemy that has already conquered Earth.

This new guerilla perspective produces some of the best tactics the PC has ever seen, and as our XCOM 2 War of the Chosen guide.

Stardew Valley

Indie farming games are a dime a dozen these days, but Stardew Valley is the genre's shining star and absolutely the best place to start. After giving up your dull office job, you move to your grandfather's farm and take over the reins. It's not quite as simple as growing crops and looking after animals though, as the quaint village of Stardew Valley is full of interesting characters and mysteries to uncover.

Expanding is just one of the tasks on your list, as you make friends and give gifts to plenty of budding bachelors and bachelorettes, all while helping to restore the community center at the heart of the town, and prevent – or assist if you'd rather – supermarket conglomerate Joja Corp from taking over. Combat is a vital aspect of the game too as you head deeper into the mines, as is fishing and exploring secret areas away from the village itself. Stardew Valley is the ultimate Stardew Valley mods will have something for you.

The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt

The best RPGs keep their greatest stories in their side quests, and those in The Witcher 3 contain some of the most memorable and heartbreaking moments in video games.

Its genius lies in how nuanced its characters are. Take the Bloody Baron – when you first meet him, he seems like a hateful, nasty man with no redeeming qualities whatsoever. You begrudge helping him at all. By the end of his plot, you'll empathize with him, despite his disgusting character flaws. It's dark fantasy at its very darkest – an adult game that is actually for grown-ups, full of moments that will stay with you well after the credits roll. Simply put, it's one of the best PC games ever made, as you'll find out in our The Witcher 3 PC review.

When the credits do roll, though, you still have two of the best videogame expansions in existence to get stuck into. The first, Hearts of Stone, takes a seemingly innocuous character you meet at the start of the main game and turns them into the most menacing, disturbing adversary you've ever seen.

The second, best The Witcher 3 mods, although we aren't sure you'll need to change much.

Grand Theft Auto 5

There's a reason GTA 5 still consistently tops the charts and boasts incredible player counts years after its release: it's still the pinnacle of the sandbox genre, not to mention one of the top PC games of all time. We have had a bunch of other open-world games launch since, but none match the fidelity of GTA 5's fictional recreation of LA; its sprawling hillsides, the distant Mount Chiliad, its jutting metropolis, and the dusty trailer parks surrounding it all.

It's a world that calls to you, begging for you to speed across it on a motorbike, weaving between traffic as you go. Plenty of games lure us to the peaks of their mountains, but very few let us then base jump from the mountain's peak while being chased by the armed forces. Rockstar's crime series generally attracts headlines because of its violence, but it's not the shooting that keeps players exploring its world – it's the feeling that anything can happen, the Rage engine's slapstick physics system providing endless entertainment as you barrel down hills or take a clout to the head with the wing of a plane.

The fact that you can experience all of this online with friends makes it all the sweeter, and that online portion of the game is now as popular as the main game, boasting rich GTA 6 release date and a new trailer for the next in the series.

Portal 2

Barring the inadvertent, buggy slapstick of a Fallout New Vegas, or the spontaneous antics in online hits like Lethal Company, it's not often you get a videogame that is genuinely funny. Tonally, Portal 2 is the equivalent of a razor-sharp, universally appealing Pixar movie – whether you've played games or haven't, whether you like them or don't, Portal 2 will successfully win you around, and make you laugh in the process.

On the contrary, comparing it to any film feels redundant. Valve created something that would be impossible to replicate beyond the form of videogames, where the punchy, satirical, and occasionally somber and dreadful world of Aperture Science can only spring to life through your (increasingly involved, always rewarding) interactions. It's clever without pretension, unique without obfuscation, and simultaneously playful and mature. A lot of videogames make this claim, but Portal 2 might be the only one to comprehensively fulfill it – there is something in here for everyone.

Minecraft

There are many reasons the blocky survival game is one of the most beloved and well-known games of all time. Minecraft allows you to explore an infinite world filled with colorful biomes, treacherous realms, and mythical creatures – both hostile and friendly. Crossing genres, Minecraft dabbles in survival, crafting, building, PvE, adventure, and more, has a story and an 'endgame' boss, and then delivers hours upon hours more content by welcoming you to another realm and leaving your world open to explore more fully.

Both peaceful and terrifying, it's difficult to think of another game that offers quite as much as Minecraft does without feeling cluttered or overcomplicated. Depending on your requirements, you can also choose to make monsters peaceful, which is perfect for young kids, or just play around in creative mode.

Even without modding, Minecraft is a masterpiece. However, if you happen to get bored with the vanilla game – and Mojang Studios' huge annual content updates – you can turn Minecraft into an entirely different experience. Minecraft maps give creators a platform to show off their talent, turning the crafting game into a puzzle game or a horror game, for example.

ing Minecraft mobs to interact with, troubling you with new quests, turning the game into an RPG, or delivering new biomes to explore. And let's not forget that you can play with friends, or make new ones in one of the hundreds of popular, safe, and successful Minecraft servers. Again, what's not to love about Minecraft?

World of Warcraft

One of the few subscription MMOs to get it right, and always capable of a resurgence in popularity and quality, World of Warcraft is an easy recommendation. Its Warlords of Draenor low point left many wondering if there was still a future for one of the most famous games of all time. Fortunately, recent expansions have shown that it's still alive and well, and it's not going away any time soon. No matter what you're logging on for, it remains one of the best PC games around.

Each expansion provides a massive, co-op-enabled RPG storyline of its own, with only the most climatic moments requiring the presence of other people. Of course, if you want to delve into the endgame and 24 others in taking down the world's biggest bads, all that is there as well. best MMOs on PC.

If WoW appears too daunting you can play it in its base form with World of Warcraft Classic. In our WoW classes guide will be all the prep you need.

Half-Life 2

Ignoring for a second its environments, its characters, and all of its wonderful aesthetic details, what Half-Life 2 managed to create was an almost perfect chemistry between action and story, and videogame developer and videogame player. The fact it did this in 2004, before BioShock, The Last of Us, Red Dead Redemption 2, or any of the modern, acclaimed narrative adventures, is a testament to what was once Valve's visionary game-making ability.

Set pieces are intricate, original, and entertaining. The pace is electric, pushing you from City 17, to the canals, to Ravenholm, the coast, Nova Prospekt, then back to the city for a spectacular finale. And virtually every aspect of Half-Life 2 feels pored over and refined. It's a supremely enjoyable game to play, but your expression and your fun as a player never comes at the cost of the game's integrity, and its creators' intentions. Two decades later, Half-Life 2 still feels groundbreaking.

There we have it – the best PC games you can buy today. While we impatiently wait for best gaming PC money can buy to experience them in full.

Additional contributions by Paul Kelly and Ed Smith.