Playing the best free games is the quickest road to saving a whole lotta cash while still getting the best gaming experience. We picked 45 of the best free games on offer right now, so you can have your pick in 2019.
By
Vic Hood, Joe Osborne, Andrew Williams, Jamie Hinks2019-06-10T21:42:35Z
Gaming
If you’re looking for the best free games to distract you with after a long day’s work, then you’ve come to the right place. Everyone loves free stuff, especially when it comes to the best PC games. There are so many fun, entertaining free games out there right now on PC. And, unlike Xbox and PlayStation, which periodically give out free games on Xbox Games With Gold and PlayStation Plus, respectively, things work much differently with gaming PCs: the top free games are a genre all their own.
Due to the huge popularity of free-to-play titles, the best free games are available from Steam, GOG and even (brace yourself) EA’s Origin client. You can even download the Epic Games Store app, and score some premium indie games for free every couple weeks.
So, from Battle Royale free-to-play games, like Fortnite, to online CCGs, like Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Links, the best free games cover a wide range of genres and styles. Let’s dive in.
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Dauntless is essentially a household name at this point, becoming an overnight success on PC, thanks to Monster Hunter World. However, what if we told you that you could get a very similar experience for free, with a game that it’s also easier on your PC? Enter Dauntless.
Rather than the clear environmentalist focus of Monster Hunter: World, where you’re trying to preserve the habitats, Dauntless simplifies things a bit and just tasks you with slaying behemoths to protect a human colony.
The gameplay itself is much simpler as well, free of some of the more obtuse gameplay systems that you either love or hate in the Monster Hunter series. The core DNA of the series, however, is there – hunt monsters, craft gear, hunt more monsters, making it one of the best free games to have right now.
Dauntless is now available at the Playstation, Microsoft and Epic Games stores.
The Battle Royale trend is huge right now, and Epic Games has all but perfected it with Fortnite Battle Royale. Initially developed as a sort of add-on for Fortnite, Battle Royale took off in a way that nobody predicted, fast becoming one of the most played games of 2018.
One of the best free games right now, Fortnite Battle Royale is entirely based around a simple scenario: you’re dumped in a map with 99 other players in a free-for-all melee, and the only winner is the one who is left standing at the end. Because of its meteoric success, Epic Games is hard at work adding new game modes and features all the time. Take Playground mode, for instance – it dumps you in the map and lets you build up structures for a set amount of time before the floodgates open and the carnage begins.
What’s especially cool is that Fortnite lets you play with your friends, no matter what platform they’re on. Whether you’re on PC, Xbox One, iOS, Android or PS4, you’ll be able to be matched up against millions of other players from all these different platforms.
Image Credit: Valve
The Dota universe may have derived from a WarCraft 3 mod, but Dota 2 is very much its own entity, not to mention one of the best free games.
This top-down arena battler is incredibly active, attracting multi-million dollar prize funds for serious tournament players. It’s not just for obsessives, though.
A brief tutorial now points out the ropes, with the Steam Community stepping in to provide guides to the original MOBA. Don’t expect a warm welcome or easy learning curve from its sophisticated gameplay mechanics, but bring a few friends and Dota 2 will have you hooked on one of the biggest crazes in PC history.
Two years before Destiny dropped into orbit, we had Planetside 2. It’s an epic, all-out first-person battle that’s so incredible, you might have to pinch yourself every time you load it up to remind yourself it’s completely free. There are in-game purchases, sure, but you can still dive into the biggest battlefield in gaming and still have a great time with the default equipment.
There’s simply nothing as exhilarating as taking part in a massed assault on an enemy base and coming out on top, or living in a world where an enemy convoy could appear on the horizon at any second. Planetside 2 is proof that ‚free‘ doesn’t mean prosaic.
Image Credit: Grinding Gear Games
Path of Exile is a free dungeon crawler in the style of Diablo III, and it’s a bit different than most to the best free games out there. It’s not just about fragging real-life people until they scream at you in shrill pubescent tones through their Skype headsets.
Path of Exile is a bit more slow-paced than your typical multiplayer affair, but give it time, and you might just find yourself addicted. It really is the best free game for former Diablo addicts. There are hidden mechanics and features to uncover after playing for hours and a huge skill tree to slowly progress through.
Even basic loot can be useful because there’s always an opportunity to enhance even the simplest weapon with magic. If you’re bored with the grind of Diablo III, it’s a good one to check out.
Pick a champion and head into battle in this seminal free-to-play game from the creators of the Warcraft III mod, Dota. League of Legends’ automated matchmaking, diverse cast of characters and pristine maps have made it a multiplayer leviathan over the last few years, and one of the best free games that will certainly stand the test of time.
It’s an aggressive gameplay experience, but one that rewards good teamwork and careful tactics. You won’t master it overnight, but you’ll be having fun shortly after you hit that ‘play’ button.
Like Dota 2, League of Legends attracts many high-end players, and the top tournaments offer prize pools of over $1 million. The weird world of esports, eh?
Image Credit: Activision-Blizzard
Ever played Magic the Gathering, the card game? Hearthstone is Blizzard’s attempt at making a free online version of it.
In typical Blizzard style, it’s staggering. It’s immediately inviting, lacking the terrifying learning curve you would expect from an online fantasy card game. Hearthstone plays quickly, boasts a very casual visual approach and benefits from a basic rule set, all of which adds up to a very accessible card battler that will give you plenty of enjoyment – especially if you’re a World of WarCraft fan.
Despite being accessible, it’s still quite challenging as well, especially if you’re up against an opponent that plays their cards right, which is why its gets our vote for one of the best free games to date.
Taking the Star Wars MMORPG after Star Wars Galaxies went away (rest in peace), Star Wars: The Old Republic was not free at release. However, since then, like so many MMORPGs before it, adopted the free to play model. If you want to get Sith kicks, this is the best way to get them for free.
Subscriptions are available to give you more in-game potential and end-game content, but in true best free games fashion, all the story missions are still available for free – it just might take a bit longer now.
It’s worth your time just to see the Star Wars universe from different sets of eyes, like the hyper-professional Imperial Agent and Bounty Hunter. If you want to go with the dull option and just have a generic Jedi Knight, though – you can totally do that.
Image Credit: Microsoft
When Xbox head Phil Spencer said he was going to bring the console’s best franchises to the PC, he wasn’t kidding. Among these notable games is Forza Motorsport.
Shunned by petrol-heads and embraced by gamers, Forza Motorsport may seem like an arcadey offshoot of its biggest rival on PlayStation, but it consistently looks and feels superb nonetheless.
Forza Motorsport 6 Apex in particular brings a complete Forza Motorsport game to PC gamers for the first time – before Forza Horizon 3 came out in 2016. While it’s not quite the full-fledged experience you can expect with full entries to the series, Forza Motorsport 6 Apex is the best free game would could have asked for from Microsoft’s long-standing racing series.
Rare’s classic fighting series, Killer Instinct, may not be the household name it once was, but the ability to play one character for free is enticing nonetheless.
What’s more, characters can be purchased a la carte as downloadable content, which means you don’t have to shell out a wad of cash unnecessarily for characters you’ll never play. And, for the Xbox fans out there, this game is basically Microsoft’s equivalent of Super Smash Bros. and PlayStation All-Stars: Battle Royale since you can pick up numerous Xbox mascots. These include Arbiter (Halo), Rash (Battletoads) and General RAAM (Gears of War), in addition to a growing catalog of Killer Instinct-specific characters.
While Killer Instinct isn’t as popular with the Fighting Game Community, there is a certain novelty of being able to control these classic Xbox-derived characters, and on PC at that, which is why this makes our best free games list.
Image Credit: Wargaming
World of Tanks is a different kind of MMO, as you might have already guessed from the title. Team-based, massively multiplayer action with a huge range of war machines to drive into battle awaits, with new players able to jump into the fray right away.
The upgrade system adds a sense of personalization, while being surrounded by an entire army at all times to remind you that loners won’t survive on the battlefield. Get sucked in, though, and you may find yourself spending a chunk of your wages on great big chunks of virtual metal.
While some premium tanks cost just a few dollars, others are more expensive. You can see where maker Wargaming is earning some cash from World of Tanks enthusiasts. Still, this doesn’t stop it from being one of the best free games right now.
It was only a matter of time before Blizzard dipped its toes in the MoBA phenomenon, and with Heroes of the Storm, we’re left asking: what took so long? It’s an incredibly approachable esports title, somewhere between League of Legends and DOTA 2 in terms of complexity, with the added bonus of characters you know and love.
That’s right: the roster is completely made up of Blizzard characters from across its library of classic games. If you’ve ever wondered who would win in a fight between Thrall and Kerrigan, Heroes of the Storm can show you how that fight plays out on the battlefield.
Blizzard knocked it out of the park here, making one of the best free games that keeps getting better by the day.
Image Credit: Daybreak
Though its future was briefly uncertain after the sale of Sony’s online entertainment division in February 2015, Everquest has returned with a vengeance, touting new expansion packs and continued support by Daybreak Game Company. And, that’s one of the many reasons why it’s made our best free games list.
The first of its kind to commercially succeed with a 3D game engine, Everquest was released in 1999 as an MMORPG (massively multiplayer online role-playing game) and has since been documented as one of the most important games in the medium’s history.
Featuring consistently released expansion packs (quite massive in scale, at least early on) with vast new areas, races and classes, Everquest brings to the table just about everything you would expect from an MMO. Plus, it’s notably better at handling co-op than its alternatives.
Originally hailed as the game that would finally dethrone World of Warcraft, Rift had its moment – and is still going strong depending who’s talking. It brought innovation to a genre that was changing very slowly, letting you change your class whenever you felt like it.
The whole game is focused on separating giant boss battles and events that occupy entire zones. It’s ambitious, exciting, and massive with dozens of interdimensional rifts that keep things fresh and unique from other MMOs. And, even after Rift went free to play, Trion has stayed on top of things, releasing regular expansions for everyone to enjoy.
Plus, you can ride on a landshark.
Image Credit: Jagex
Runescape is one of the biggest free-to-play MMOs out there, and now would be a good time to take a look. In 2013, it entered its third reboot – this is actually ‚Runescape 3‘, although just jumping in now, you might not appreciate that it has been around in one form or another for more than 10 years.
