Here’s one trick Sony and Microsoft don’t want you to know: You don’t have to spend $70 to play a good game. These days, courtesy of in-app payments and the ease of offering both a sample of a title alongside its full-fat version, there are actually plenty of great games to play that won’t cost you a dime. And quality has never been higher across mobile, PC and consoles, so regardless of which platform or device you prefer, you’ll find a number of great free games to choose from.
Of course, there’s always a catch. Many free-to-play games are engineered to empty out your wallet as efficiently as possible, so throughout this guide we’ll call out what exactly you get for free, and where the game will try to upsell you. To get started, though, we wanted to highlight some ways to play games for free that don’t involve microtransactions, skins and countless upsells.
Open-source classics
If you’re a gamer of a certain age, chances are you have some favorites. Chances are, other people far more talented than you have the same favorites, and have worked in some way to preserve and modernize those games. Take Civilization II, a classic turn-based strategy game that’s due (yet another) sequel very soon — that has a number of open-source ports, including the remarkably faithful Civ2clone, which with a little work can be up-and-running on your PC or Mac in minutes. If you have an old favorite, it’s likely someone has figured out how to get it working on your machine of choice.
Mods
Mods have made many a game relevant for long after its natural lifespan. Doom II is perhaps the most famous example, with thousands of add-ons created over the years. MyHouse.WAD made headlines and some game-of-the-year lists last year; it’s a House of Leaves-inspired mess of a game. It’s also free! While not every mod can be MyHouse.WAD, there are several games with big modding communities, and sites that organize those communities and help you find the best experiences. Search around on Google or Reddit and you’ll find some things you love. Recently I’ve been playing The Immortal Lock, a very modern-feeling epic map built on Quake, which you can pick up on Slipseer.
itch.io
itch.io is a giant depository of indie gems. It’s a place where independent developers sell their games, but it’s also filled to the brim with demos, prototypes, game jam games and other free titles ready to be downloaded or played on-site. Some of my favorite games ever, like Doki Doki Literature Club, are just sitting there waiting to be played, with many developers opting for a “name your price” method, where the game is free but they encourage you to pay if you have the means. If you’re ever stuck on what to play, don’t look at the latest Steam or PlayStation sale, look at itch.io.
Blizzard
Even though Blizzard has improved the onramp for new players this time around, Overwatch 2 still has a steep learning curve. Stick with it, though, and you’ll get to indulge in perhaps the best team shooter around. Overwatch 2 has a deceptively simple goal — stand on or near an objective and keep the other team away long enough to win.
It’s much more complex in practice. In the switch from the original to Overwatch 2, Blizzard reduced the number of players on each team from six to five, and tweaked heroes’ skill sets across the board. That switch means each team comprises one tank, two damage dealers and two healers, which has made gameplay faster-paced and less likely to stall out. There’s a greater emphasis on individual impact, but you’ll still need to work well with your teammates to secure a win.
With 40 heroes, each with distinct abilities and playstyles, you’ll surely find a few Overwatch 2 characters with which you can connect. Blizzard has also ramped up the speed of updates, with many more heroes being introduced in recent months. The game looks and sounds terrific too, thanks to Blizzard’s trademark level of polish. At least until you figure out how to play Overwatch 2, you can marvel at how good it looks.
What do I need to play it?
Overwatch 2 is available on Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4 and 5, Xbox One and Series X/S, and PC.
On PC, Blizzard recommends a Ryzen 5 CPU or equivalent with 8GB of RAM, a GTX 1060 GPU or equivalent and 50GB of available storage. If you’re just getting started on PC, you should be prepared to play on mouse and keyboard if you want a shot at climbing to the top of the leaderboards, though if you’re used to gamepads, the game is well optimized for that too.
What do you pay for?
You can effectively access all of Overwatch 2’s game modes and core content without paying a cent. Blizzard has a familiar battle pass system in place for Overwatch 2, with seasons bringing a mix of new levels, heroes and other tweaks. The free tier of the battle pass lets you earn a couple of skins and unlockables, along with some credits towards purchasable skins. If you play enough you can earn plenty of stuff to keep you entertained, including 600 coins which can be put towards a premium battle pass.
The premium version of the pass costs around $10, depending on how much “1000 Overwatch Coins” cost in your region, and nets you faster battle pass progression and many more skins and cosmetics, including the fancy new mythic ones. The caveat is that you have to play a fair amount to unlock the full value. There’s also a $40 “ultimate” pass each season that offers even faster progression and a couple of limited-edition skins. While that price seems outrageous, it does come with 2000 Coins to spend as you see fit, which is enough to purchase two premium battle passes down the line.
There are many, many, other upsells, with pricey collab skins being the worst offenders. That said, Blizzard’s decision to make all characters free-to-play after onboarding makes everything feel a little more equitable, and you can still have a lot of fun with Overwatch 2 without spending a cent.
EA
From the studio that brought you Titanfall, Apex is a 60-player deathmatch with teams consisting of three people each. Apex is very much a battle royale in the Fortnite/PUBG mold, but the gameplay is fine-tuned, with fast-paced shooting, fluid movement and a bigger focus on verticality. The goal of each match is for your team to be the last one standing on the map, where you’ll have to loot and fight your way to survival. If you don’t like the cartoonish aspect of Fortnite, and if you’re a fan of the action-packed Titanfall gameplay, it doesn’t get much better than Apex.
There are 26 characters, or Legends, spread across five different character classes, and currently six maps to play on, all of which leads to a lot of gameplay variety. While additional Legends were introduced to the game at a rapid clip over the first few years, in recent times that rate has slowed to a small trickle. It took three years for the game to expand from its initial cast of 8 characters all the way up to 20. In the two and a half years since, only 6 additional Legends have been released.
What do I need to play it?
Apex Legends is available on Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4 and 5, Xbox One and Series X/S, and PC.
On PC, EA recommends an Intel i5 3570K or equivalent with 8GB of RAM, a GTX 970 graphics card and 75GB of storage space. If you’re just getting started on PC, you should be prepared to play on mouse and keyboard if you want a shot at climbing to the top of the leaderboards, though if you’re used to gamepads, the game is well optimized for that too.
What do you pay for?
You can use the majority of Apex’s characters without having to spend any money. That said, you will have to shell out some cash to access certain content.
Apex has a battle pass system, which it has recently shaken up. There are now two battle passes per season, which is a vibe, but the free tier is at least sticking around. The free battle pass will net you 18 rewards, usually including a character skin, some weapon skins and other trinkets, and 200 Apex Coins, the game’s primary currency.
The basic upgraded battle pass costs $10 for Ultimate or 950 Coins for Premium. The difference between the two is minimal: Each includes a total of 92 unlockable rewards, along with some Apex Packs (loot boxes) and other upgrade materials. The Ultimate edition grants you additional instant unlockables. Both allow you to unlock 1300 Coins through gameplay, which means a frequent player could pay $10 for Ultimate once and feasibly only ever spend in-game currency to keep the battle pass upgrade going forever.
There are, of course, many other ways to spend money on Apex, but the main upsell comes in the form of Ultimate+, which costs $20 and nets you two legendary skins, additional immediate unlocks and the ability to instantly play as any character. All-told, there is a reasonable amount of free content available in Apex, but having to grind (or pay) to access the entire roster of legends may be frustrating.
League of Legends
League of Legends has been around for 15 years at this point, and instead of slowing down, it’s been regularly updated and cemented as the go-to MOBA. LoL has consistently attracted more than 100 million monthly active users over the past five years, exceeding any other game of its type. What that means for you is there are endless players to battle alongside and against, and an extremely engaged audience offering Riot “constructive feedback” about changes to the game.
The basic gameplay will be familiar to anyone who’s played or watched a MOBA — Dota 2, Arena of Valor, even Pokémon Unite are all cut from the same cloth. There are two teams of five players, each with a specific role. The map consists of two bases with three lanes and a jungle between them. Your team’s objective is to knock down the towers defending each lane and ultimately destroy the nexus in the enemy base.
It’s a deceptively simple concept. With well over 150 champions to choose from, there’s a degree of variability to each game that few titles can claim, and a level of tactical nuance that can truly be disorienting at times. Luckily, there’s a good set of tutorials and lots of opportunities to battle against AI before you ever meet a human player. The vast audience also means you will almost always be matched against players that are as clueless as you are. If you prefer to learn by watching, the LoL esports scene is rich with amazing players to emulate. Or, at least try to.
What do I need to play it?
League of Legends is only available on Windows and (technically) macOS. There is a mobile-specific version called Wild Rift that has a smaller map and simplified gameplay available on iOS and Android.
On PC, the required specs to run the game are extremely low. You’ll need an Intel i5-3300 with 4GB of RAM, Intel UHD 630 integrated graphics and 16GB of storage space. With a little creativity on the settings, the game will run on almost anything, though it only supports modern operating systems and you must have a Trusted Platform Module enabled to pass the game’s anti-cheat tests.
On Mac, the specs are similarly modest. It is worth noting that Riot does not formally support Arm processors or any version of macOS past 2020’s Big Sur, so you’re on your own there.
What do you pay for?
Riot mostly makes money from League of Legends in two ways: Champions and skins.
If you spend no money at all, you’ll be able to play one of 20 characters at any given time, with that roster being rotated every two weeks. You can permanently unlock any character with in-game currency earned by playing, or with cold hard cash. Beware that it will likely take several years of playing to unlock the entire cast, though the regular roster rotations do give you ample opportunity to try before you buy.
Buying all of the individual heroes outright would cost an insane amount of money — well in excess of $500 — and is not a reasonable thing to do. The expectation is that you will figure out which lane position you want to play in, and then learn one or two Champions for that position. Over time, you’ll earn in-game currency and be able to unlock more, gradually expanding your pool.
The other way Riot makes money is by offering skins, which are purely cosmetic and can cost obscene amounts. The fully-loaded version of one recent skin, themed after the game’s most famous esports player, Faker, was priced at over $400.
While Riot doesn’t offer a subscription service like many other live-service games, it does have “event passes” which allow you to unlock certain items over a period of weeks.
Riot also has a deal with Microsoft which grants PC Game Pass and Game Pass Ultimate subscribers instant access to all Champions. Given PC Game Pass costs $11.99 monthly, and offers free access to many other games, this is a great option for serious League players.
You can definitely play LoL without spending any money, but not having access to a Champion that is stomping you in lane can be a bitter experience. With a little time invested, though, you can find a pool of characters and have a ton of fun.
Riot Games
Valorant is a competitive online shooter that takes ideas from disparate games and genres and smooshes them together into something new. At its core, it’s a tactical FPS like Counter-Strike — think one team attacking, one defending and lots of peeking around corners to find a good shot. But Valorant is also a hero shooter, with over 20 Agents to choose from, each with a diverse skill set and game-changing ultimate abilities. And (hear me out), through its level designs, it’s also a lot like a MOBA, with maps divided into lanes and set objective points to fight over.
This milieu of inspirations comes together to create a satisfying and unique team-based experience. There’s a pretty serious competitive scene driving the game forward, but there are also a lot of casual modes to enjoy, like Spike Rush, Escalation and good ol’ fashioned death matches. If you’re in the mood to land some sick headshots, throw a few telekinetic knives, or create deadly pools of chemical compounds, this is the game for you.
After several years on PC, the game is just now coming to consoles, which is likely to expand out the audience and accelerate the rate of new agents and experiences.
What do I need to play it?
Valorant is available on Windows, PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S.
You can run Valorant on almost any PC, but Riot recommends an Intel i3-4150 with 4GB RAM and a GT 730 GPU for 60 fps gameplay. Reaching competitive frame rates of 144+ fps should only require an i5-9400F and GTX 1050 Ti. Gamers running Windows 11 will need a Trusted Platform Module in order to compete.
PC players will want to use a mouse and keyboard, unless they enjoy being shot in the head while slowly rotating their character.
What do you pay for?
All players have access to five Agents after onboarding, and can either grind or pay to unlock more. Agents cost either 1,000 Valorant Points (around $10) or 8,000 Kingdom Credits (in-game currency). If you play regularly enough you could reasonably expect to earn enough credits to unlock a new Agent every couple of weeks. Additionally, whenever a new Agent is introduced, you can permanently unlock them by playing consistently over the first few weeks. As with League of Legends, Riot has a deal with Microsoft which grants PC Game Pass and Game Pass Ultimate subscribers instant access to all of Valorant’s Agents.
In addition to the playable characters, there are myriad skins, weapon skins, name tags and more to buy, though none of these impact gameplay. As with Agents, you can typically unlock these with real-world or in-game money.
Finally — you guessed it — Valorant has a battle pass system. The game is split into Episodes and there are three battle passes per Act. Though the length of Acts has varied a little over the year, it always nets out to around six battle passes each year. The basic/free battle pass will allow you to earn a few cosmetic upgrades and not much else. Riot sells an upgraded version for $10 which offers many more unlocks, and faster progression. There are also (it never ends!) limited-time event battle passes occasionally, often coinciding with lunar new year and the Valorant Champions esports event, which also come in free or $10 options.
All told, the five starting Agents offer enough variety for you to play for dozens of hours and figure out whether Valorant is a game you want to grind out or put down a little cash to unlock.
Ubisoft
Trackmania is a game series as old as many gamers — the first iteration came out way back in 2003. The latest entry in the franchise is helpfully just called Trackmania and came out in 2020.
Trackmania is fairly unique in the racing world. The tracks are incredibly fast and short, typically ranging between a few seconds and a minute. The handling is somewhere between an arcade racer and a simulation game — it’s definitely simulating something, and there are tight racing lines and handling physics to master, but it’s also not going to feel like any car you’ve ever driven before.
It’s also unique in that you race alone, as the only car physically on the track of your choice. But at the same time, you’re racing the entire world to set the best time on that track. There are bronze, silver, gold and author medals to unlock on each track, and you can race against ghosts of real people to help you improve your time.
I’m running out of ways to say “unique,” but broadly speaking, Trackmania has no competition. It’s a game you can play once a month, or every day, with a small but dedicated community, regular events and fresh tracks to experience every day.
What do I need to play it?
Trackmania is available on PlayStation 4 and 5, Xbox One and Series X/S, and PC. Although many older players use keyboards, physics updates and the advent of new vehicle types have made a solid gamepad the best input device for most people.
As with many free-to-play games, you don’t need a beefy PC to play Trackmania. Ubisoft recommends an Intel i5-4690K with 8GB of RAM, a GTX 970 GPU and 2.3GB of storage to play at 1080p and 60 fps. With a little persuasion, the game will run reliably on a far lower-specced machine.
What do you pay for?
One of the joys of Trackmania is the massive number of user-created tracks, with thousands available and more added every day. Unfortunately, all of that content is locked behind an annual subscription pass.
For free, you will get to play the first 10 tracks of each (quarterly) season, play ranked matchmaking, local multiplayer and a selection of player-made tracks in the arcade channel, which refreshes with a new track each hour. You also get access to the track editor, to build your own levels and share them with the community.
For $20 a year, you can unlock “Club access,” which basically opens up everything else. That means every official track since the game launched (there are 25 added every quarter), all of the user-created content, and countless skins for your car and driver. You also get access to Cup of Day, a Ubisoft-sanctioned tournament that takes place on a single user-created map each day, and become eligible to submit your own tracks to be the Track of the Day.
Trackmania isn’t for everyone — and it requires hundreds if not thousands of hours to truly compete at the top echelon — but picking up a controller and diving into some new tracks every now and then is nonetheless rewarding. It’s also monetized fairly. There are no upsells beyond the $20 annual pass, which, as you can tell from this guide, is a rarity in today’s free-to-play market.
EA
It’s The Sims! If you’ve managed to navigate the last 24 years of gaming without once coming across Maxis’ life simulation series, congrats, I guess. The Sims is one of the original life sims, launched with the idea that you could control an entire family, designing their house and influencing their relationships. The Sims 4 came out way back in 2014, and is still going strong.
Nowadays, the game has massively expanded to a more complete social simulation with multiple neighborhoods and families. And even if the social simulation doesn’t bite, it’s always a good time to give yourself a million bucks and design a mansion.
What do I need to play it?
The Sims 4 is available on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Windows and macOS. If you choose to pay for add-ons or have a very complex, large save, the game can really chug on those older consoles, though things are a little improved playing on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S via backward compatibility, thanks to those consoles’ faster storage.
On PC, EA recommends at least a four-core Intel Core i5 with 8GB of RAM, a 1GB GPU such as a GTX 650, and 51GB of storage space. The more complex your game, and the more add-on packs you have, the slower things will run, but it remains totally playable on a modest computer. There is an oddly named “laptop mode” that optimizes the game a little for slower machines.
The Mac requirements are similarly low, with basically the same recommended requirements as PC. EA has not updated the game to support Apple Silicon, but everything runs well through macOS’ Rosetta 2 feature, which converts code meant for Intel processors to run on Apple’s new Arm processors. It runs well on even a basic M1 MacBook Air, and performance improves further with higher-specced machines.
What do you pay for?
The base game, as released in 2010, is entirely free, along with the many quality-of-life and engine improvements added since.
EA makes money on The Sims by selling the many, many DLCs it’s released over the past decade and a half. That includes 15 Expansion Packs and counting, which bring new features and content; more than 10 Game Packs, which are similar to Expansions but smaller; and many Stuff Packs and Kits, which are mostly filled with additional furniture and clothes.
Expansion Packs are priced similar to some full games at launch, at $40. Game Packs typically cost $20 a pop, while Stuff Packs and Kits are in the $5-$10 range. Unlocking all of this content will cost in excess of $1,000, which is about as far from “free” as a video game can get.
Of course all of these packs are entirely optional, and the base game remains as fun as it always has been. But you will be frequently tempted by new features, neighborhoods and furniture as you play.
Nuverse
There are countless collectible card games to choose from, but Marvel Snap takes our pick. It was built from the ground-up for mobile platforms, with fast-paced gameplay and a simple interface that makes it a lot easier to get into than some of the more-involved titles in the space like Hearthstone or MTG Arena. Snap also has the benefit of being based around a roster of characters that, even if you’re not a comic book fan, are now very familiar thanks to decades of Marvel movies.
Like most CCGs, you’ll be collecting cards and building decks that you’ll then take into battle against other opponents. Each round of Snap involves laying down cards in order to wrestle control of three in-game locations over six turns. Cards have a power value and energy cost, along with a unique ability. These abilities can provide persistent effects that apply to one or multiple locations, or unleash instant abilities when played. Thanos, for example, shuffles six infinity stones into your deck at the beginning of the game, while Iron Man doubles your power at a single location. There are other effects, too — the X-Man Angel, for example, can leap out of your deck to replace the first card that’s destroyed.
An additional wrinkle in Snap is card rarity, which can be upgraded from Common all the way up to Infinity. Upgrading cards gives them extra visual effects and increases your Collection Level, which can give you additional currency, card variants and more. Balancing cost, power and unique abilities to build a deck that can take on any challenge is a rewarding experience, but even a casual player can have fun with a core deck and a few tweaks.
What do I need to play it?
As mentioned, Marvel Snap was originally built for mobile, and later ported to PC. Progress carries over regardless of platform, so you can play on your phone while on the go and then play on your PC at home. The game runs on Android and iOS well, and it scales to a variety of screen sizes and aspect ratios. Though there isn’t an iPad-specific version, it plays well on those devices too, though you’re locked into playing in portrait mode.
On PC, developer Second Dinner recommends an Intel Core i5-2300 with 4GB of RAM, a 2GB GPU like a GTX 660 and 4GB of storage space. That’s a low spec — the game is designed for mobile after all — and even if you don’t meet it, you will probably get the game running adequately on, say, a laptop with modern integrated graphics.
What do you pay for?
Cards, of course! There’s a battle pass-like “Season Pass” each month, with a free and premium version. The free offering will allow you to unlock some in-game credits and boosters, along with some cosmetics. The premium version costs $10 and immediately nets you one card, and then allows you to unlock more, along with many more booster packs and cosmetics.
There’s also a store where you can buy cards outright, which can be prohibitively expensive. Even Second Dinner doesn’t expect people to have complete collections, and unlocking absolutely everything in the game is not a realistic proposition — we’re talking $1,000s, not $100s. Grinding out in-game currency as a free-to-play player is not tough and you can build a competitive enough deck without spending a penny.
At the upper echelons of competitive gameplay, Snap feels a lot like “pay to win,” or at least, “pay to have a chance of winning,” as maintaining the best decks in the game would cost $100s per year. That shouldn’t be a huge concern for most players, though, as the majority of the game’s player base aren’t spending a penny. And, if the game gets its hooks into you, the $10 battle pass offers enough new content to keep most players content.
Best free games for kids
We’ve all heard stories about kids blowing their parents’ life savings on Fortnite skins and, while adequate parenting should prevent that, many free-to-play games have elements of gambling and advertising in them that you may not want to expose your child to. Mobile and PC app stores are full of titles promising to be kid-friendly, but it’s best to do your own research before setting your toddler wild on them.
There are some useful resources out there, like Common Sense Media, which has a set of reviewers who are mostly focused on determining whether a game, show or movie is suitable for children, and also offers information on privacy, such as whether personal information is passed onto advertisers. Common Sense Media is a non-profit and allows you to read a few reviews free of charge each month, but you can upgrade to read every review on the site for a month for $4. If you’re not down for spending money (which, given this is a free games guide…), many games have ESRB ratings to help out, which you can find in their listings on both iOS and Android.
With that said, we do have a few recommendations for kids to get you started:
PBS Kids
Supported platforms: Android, iOS, web
For really young kids, it’s tough to go wrong with PBS Kids. The venerable broadcaster has a website packed to the gills with games based on popular shows like Sesame Street, Arthur and Clifford. Everything is family friendly, and there are no ads or upsells — except maybe on some printer ink for their print-at-home coloring sheets. If you don’t like the idea of letting your kid use a web browser, PBS has an app for just its games on both Android and iOS.
Duolingo ABC
Supported platforms: Android, iOS
At some point, your child will realize you’re tricking them into learning, but until they reach that level of critical thinking, Duolingo ABC is a great shout. It’s a fun and educational app that’s very much structured like a game, but is designed to improve reading comprehension, fluency and vocabulary for preschool and K-2 kids. On loading up the app, you’ll be able to quickly establish the “difficulty” of the games and help your kid to slowly work their way up through the levels to reading nirvana. Just like PBS Kids, Duolingo ABC is completely free, with no in-app purchases or upsells.
Lego Tower
Supported platforms: Android, iOS
This is a Lego-fied take on the old Tiny Tower formula, where you can build upward and upward to customize a little town in the sky. Being a Lego product, you can be sure it’s kid-friendly, though the game itself is better suited for kids between 2nd and 6th grade.
Lego Tower is playable without spending money, but many of the typical free-to-play upsells are there, such as paid upgrades for customization and speeding up how fast new floors are built. The game is also effectively one big ad for Lego, so even if you can’t buy a set from within the app, there’s a non-zero chance your child will be asking you to swipe at a Lego Store sometime soon.
Spaceteam
Supported platforms: Android, iOS
Spaceteam is a multiplayer game that’s fun for kids and adults alike. It requires multiple devices, and for all players to be in the same physical space, but otherwise is entirely playable for free.
Each player will see a control board with a different selection of nonsensical dials and buttons on their screen. Then, the game will send random instructions out to players — the instruction on your screen will relate to someone else’s control board, so you’ll have to physically shout out “set the Spectrobolt to 3!” in order to progress. It’s good for all ages, but the made-up scientific-sounding terms will require a good level of reading comprehension.
Free games for kids on Xbox or PlayStation
If you have a console at home, there are many different options available. Some of the games in our main list above are a good fit. Trackmania has an ESRB rating of E (for “everyone”), and has lots of free activities inside. If you’re happy setting a kid loose on a first-person shooter, Overwatch 2 and Valorant allow you to customize the level of interaction you have with others. For example, voice and text chat can be disabled entirely, which would stop them from interacting with adults unsupervised.
There are also some kid-friendly free-to-play takes on popular genres. Lego Fortnite, for example, is a sanitized take on Fortnite that’s a better fit for younger children. Rocket League is an online game that’s basically soccer with cars, though you may want to turn off text and voice chat for young children. Both contain in-app purchases, but only for cosmetic items, and they’re fairly light on pushing them.
Free games for kids on Nintendo Switch
Nintendo has free-to-play, kid-friendly spins on a number of popular genres. Want a sanitized take on Diablo? Try Pokémon Quest. It’s a free-to-play game with a few microtransactions mostly intended as shortcuts to speed up progression. Want an all-action brawler? Try Super Kirby Clash. Its main campaign is totally free, though you can buy extra currency to speed up progression.
Outside of those titles, many of the games included in this guide are available on Switch. Lego Fortnite, Overwatch 2 and Apex Legends are all present, and you can set boundaries for online play and communication to fit your needs.
