Looking for the perfect multitasking game? Here are some of our favorite ‚podcast games.‘
Just because you play a lot of games doesn’t mean you can’t also enjoy and engage in other forms of media. There’s a lot to do, see, watch, and listen to — especially in 2023, where virtually every form of media is saturated with more content than has ever existed before — so sometimes it’s nice to sit back and watch a Twitch stream or catch up on an audiobook series while playing an equally relaxing game.
Plenty of games do want to capture the sum total of your attention, especially brain-twisters like 2022’s fantastic Immortality and RPGs and strategy games that reward you for the brainpower you spend on the experience. Still, it’s worth looking at the best games that allow you to sit back and disengage while your brain idles over a podcast or something similar. Here are our top picks for the best games to play while listening to podcasts in 2023.
Vampire Survivors makes the list for its remarkable approachability. It’s a crossbreed between a shoot-’em-up and a roguelike, but you don’t actually need to press any buttons other than the ones that move your character around on the screen. All the shooting is automated as you try to evade, outmaneuver, and fight your way through waves of enemies – which become more numerous as time wears on. Meanwhile, defeating foes and collecting their pickups gradually rewards you with an increasing arsenal of weapons and power-ups that make your character unstoppable by the end, so you only have to pay just enough attention to avoid getting swarmed.
Vampire Survivors is free to play on iOS and Android and is also part of Xbox Game Pass. PC, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, and Mac users can also buy Vampire Survivors for $5. All PC versions of Vampire Survivors run in a windowed format, meaning you can easily play it while multitasking.
Much like Vampire Survivors, Loop Hero is a partially idle game to play in the background while doing other things. In it, the player is a godlike figure who sets up the world for the heroes to autonomously explore and adventure in. The challenge of Loop Hero comes from creating a world that is both fair to the heroes, but is challenging enough to sufficiently make them more powerful as time goes on and monsters become more deadly. It’s also a deck-building game, which means there’s some level of randomization to each of the different cards you’re able to allocate. Some decisions that seem to be fortuitous at first may present unforeseen challenges and vice versa.
This dynamic keeps Loop Hero interesting after a long session, and since your decisions play out in front of you in the form of loops rather than requiring you to directly control a protagonist, you can easily listen to a podcast or even watch a movie while playing Loop Hero in the background. It’s available for $15 on Windows, macOS, Linux, and Nintendo Switch.
Playing a casual sport like golf or racquetball, or doing a low-intensity cardio workout like walking or jogging, can pair well with listening to a podcast. But if you own a Nintendo Switch, you might also want to check out Nintendo Switch Sports, which is the underappreciated sequel to Wii Sports. It includes many of the same games, like Golf and Bowling, but it also includes plenty of new games, like Volleyball, Soccer, Badminton, Tennis, and Chambara. Although it’s incompatible with the Nintendo Switch Lite and requires a safe play space for physical activity, it’s simple enough to complement listening to a podcast or audiobook.
Nintendo Switch Sports is currently available for $40 digitally, though you may want to splurge for the $50 physical edition if you also want the leg accessory that allows you to use your actual legs to kick the virtual ball in Soccer.
