We're not starving for new games in 2023 and beyond. Baldur's Gate 3, Starfield, and Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty are enough to keep everyone busy for the foreseeable future. But even in 2024, the backlog shows no signs of slowing down. Control.
After a rather quiet holiday season, we've already seen the first surprises of the year with Palworld and Helldivers 2, as well as some big new releases like Tekken 8, Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth, and Dragon's Dogma 2. I am. You'll find it in this list.
This list is specifically our answer to the question, “What new PC games should I play right now?” Here's a selection of the best recent PC games, old favorites we think now is a good time to revisit, and some hidden gems. This is a reflection of what the PC Gamer team is currently playing, and while there may be some overlap, this is not a list of the best games of all time.
For a more comprehensive list of great PC games past and present, check out our annual Top 100 list of the best games on PC. If you own Valve's handheld games, we've got some fresh picks for the best Steam Deck games.
You can also stay up to date with the annual calendar with our monthly guide to new games in 2024.
Some good news related to this list: The graphics card shortage eased a while ago. That means you can now build a new gaming PC for a non-exorbitant price. We have a guide to building an entry-level gaming PC for about $750, and we also have some recommendations for off-the-shelf PCs.
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Browse these emojis and narrow down what you're looking for from our selection of the best PC games.
- 💻 = Suitable for low-end PCs
- 🙋♀️ = Single Player
- 🙋♀️🙋♀️ = Multiplayer
- 🎮 = Best used with a controller
- 🆓 = Free play
what we are playing now
These are the games the PC Gamer team is currently playing. The Steam Quick Launch Menu contains the most recent (or at least a month) of content. For more, check out all of his recent game reviews and his GOTY-winning work from last year.
More great PC games coming
Not all of these games are hot out of the oven, but some do get better over time. These are the best masterpieces on the PC that receive scores of 80% or higher in reviews, win GOTY awards, or appear on lists of the top 100 PC games. If you want some great PC games from the past few years, check these out.
- Cheer (90%) 🙋♀️ One of the best open world games of last year and this year.
- Amnesia: The Bunker (93%) 🙋♀️ You have one gun, but there's one monster you can't kill with your gun. Good luck!
- Remnant 2 (84%) 🙋♀️🙋♀️ Exceeds the first game with better combat, more procedural surprises and weird bosses.
- Finder (87%) 🙋♀️💻 This quirky puzzle game allows you to alter reality through “amazing visuals and space-warping tricks never seen before in a video game.”
- Street Fighter 6 (89%) 🙋♀️🙋♀️🎮 Latest Street Fighter rules, especially for beginners.
- Dave the Diver (91%) 🙋♀️🎮💻 It starts out as a simple fishing and restaurant management sim, but it's much deeper than that…
- Vampire Survivors (87%) 🙋♀️💻 Best value on Steam: $5 bullet hell roguelike. You might want to copy it for your toaster since it runs on a toaster and is hard enough to stop playing.
- Pizza Tower (90%) 🙋♀️💻🎮 An ode to Wario Land that's better than Wario Land.
- Honkai: Star Rail (90%) 🙋♀️🙋♀️: A new RPG by Genshin Impact studio.
- Dwarf Fortress (84%) 🙋♀️💻 : Classic simulation with added graphics.
- Repentance (88%) 🙋♀️💻: A great story-driven murder mystery set in the 1500s.
Marvel's Midnight Sons (88%) 🙋♀️: A deck-building tactics game and superhero friendship simulator. - For Golden Idol (89%)🙋♀️:💻 A challenging detective puzzle with an engaging story.
- Elden Ring (90%) 🎮🙋♀️🙋♀️: Surprise, surprise: This open-world fantasy gauntlet from Dark Souls creators FromSoftware is amazing.
- Immortality (95%) 🙋♀️💻: Her Story director Sam Barlow's latest video mystery is his best yet.
- Decomposition (90%) 🙋♀️: A physics-based destruction engine that would have been fun even if it wasn't a genius puzzle game.
- Disco Elysium (92%) 🙋♀️💻: Game of the Year in 2019 and currently the #1 game on our Top 100 list of the year.
- Crusader Kings 3 (94%) 🙋♀️🙋♀️💻: The King is dead, long live the King!
- Hitman 3 (90%) 🙋♀️: Assassination skills as finely honed as Agent 47's head.
- Defeat Spire (92%) 🙋♀️💻: A deck-building roguelike that everyone else aspires to beat.
- The Witcher 3 (92%) 🙋♀️: Still one of our favorite RPGs.
- Total War: Warhammer 3 (90%) 🙋♀️🙋♀️: A great final act with the most original and unusual faction in series history.
- Weird gardening (90%) 🙋♀️💻: A beautiful and engrossing detective game filled with mysteries, puzzles, plants, and intrigue.
- Forza Horizon 5 (90%) 🙋♀️🙋♀️🎮: Even the slightest improvements in the best racing series are worth celebrating.
- Myths of the Wilderness (90%) 🙋♀️🙋♀️💻: Story design as genetic engineering will live on in your head like an imaginary friend.
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Best PC games by genre
Feeling like our selection of the best PC games is a little too wide? Perhaps what you're looking for is an engaging story, an intense racer, or the kind that you can spend an entire weekend playing like a second job. It's a sim. Our genre list has hand-picked recommendations for RPGs, racing, strategy, and more. Check it out:
