The best PC games right now

helldivers 2
(Image credit: Arrowhead)

We were hardly starved for new things to play after 2023—Baldur's Gate 3, Starfield, and Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty alone are enough to keep anyone busy for the foreseeable future—but 2024 is showing no signs of slowing down for the sake of backlog control.

Best of the best

Baldur's Gate 3 - Jaheira with a glowing green sword looks ready for battle

(Image credit: Larian Studios)

2024 games: Upcoming releases
Best PC games: All-time favorites
Free PC games: Freebie fest
Best FPS games: Finest gunplay
Best MMOs: Massive worlds
Best RPGs: Grand adventures

As we exit the somewhat quiet holiday season, we've already got our first surprise phenomena of the year in Palworld and Helldivers 2, and some big new releases like Tekken 8 and Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth, both of which you'll find on this list.

This list is specifically our answer to the question "what new PC games should I play right now?" with picks pulled from the best recent PC games, a few old favorites we think now is a good time to revisit, and some hidden gems. It's a reflection of what the PC Gamer team is playing right now, not a list of the all-time best games ever, although there'll be overlap.

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. We have some fresh picks for the best Steam Deck games if you have one of Valve's handhelds on the way.  

We also stay on top of the year's calendar with our guide to the new games of 2024, organized by month. 

Some good news related to this list: The graphics card shortage eased up a while back, which means it's now possible to build a new gaming PC for a non-outrageous price. We have a guide to putting together an entry-level gaming PC for around $750, and we have some recommendations for pre-built PCs, too. 

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Icon key

Reference these emojis to narrow down what you're looking for in our selection of the best PC games. 

  • 💻 = Suitable for low-end PCs
  • 🙋‍♀️ = Singleplayer
  • 🙋‍♀️🙋‍♀️ = Multiplayer
  • 🎮 = Best with a controller
  • 🆓 = Free-to-play

What we're playing now

These are the games the PC Gamer team is currently playing: the up-to-the-minute (or at least, month) stuff on our Steam quick launch menus. For more, check out all of our recent game reviews as well as last year's GOTY winners

Helldivers 2 (86%)

<a href="https://www.pcgamer.com/helldivers-2-review/" data-link-merchant="pcgamer.com"">Helldivers 2 (86%) 🙋‍♀️🙋‍♀️
It's been a rough launch server-wise, but Helldivers 2 is a phenomenally fun Starship Troopers-inspired co-op shooter. Some of the best physical comedy in a recent game.

Tekken 8 (89%)

<a href="https://www.pcgamer.com/tekken-8-review/" data-link-merchant="pcgamer.com"">Tekken 8 (89%) 🙋‍♀️🙋‍♀️🎮
It doesn't quite crack 90% in our review, but Mollie's enthusiasm for Tekken 8 is barely held back by its netcode problems and limited character customizaton: "Tekken is freakin' back, baby, and I couldn't be happier," she wrote. 

Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth (80%)

<a href="https://www.pcgamer.com/like-a-dragon-infinite-wealth-review/" data-link-merchant="pcgamer.com"" target="_blank">Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth (80%) 🙋‍♀️
Infinite Wealth is "indulgent in a way few games get to be," wrote Dominic in is review of the latest and biggest ever Yakuza RPG, which is unreasonably stuffed with goofy minigames and urban crime drama.

Against The Storm (91%)

<a href="https://www.pcgamer.com/against-the-storm-review/" data-link-merchant="pcgamer.com"">Against The Storm (91%) 🙋‍♀💻
This roguelike city builder was one of our favorite games of 2023. Be careful, it's the sort of game that can suspend perception of time—you might put several dozen hours in before you know it.

Alan Wake 2 (88%)

<a href="https://www.pcgamer.com/alan-wake-2-review/" data-link-merchant="pcgamer.com"" target="_blank">Alan Wake 2 (88%) 🙋‍♀
"In the first playable moments of Alan Wake 2, you control a naked, balding, middle-aged man stumbling in confusion around a forest." Never stop being Remedy, Remedy.

Jusant (89%)

<a href="https://www.pcgamer.com/jusant-review/" data-link-merchant="pcgamer.com"" target="_blank">Jusant (89%) 🙋‍♀
"An incredible rock climbing game", as we put it in our review, with "a compelling narrative that gently weaves its way through your journey."

Baldur's Gate 3 (97%)

<a href="https://www.pcgamer.com/baldurs-gate-3-review/" data-link-merchant="pcgamer.com"" target="_blank">Baldur's Gate 3 (97%) 🙋‍♀️🙋‍♀️
Our highest review score in 16 years went to "an unrivalled RPG that will swallow your life whole." It's true: Few of us at PC Gamer haven't been swept up by Baldur's Gate 3's D&D sandbox. <a href="https://www.pcgamer.com/starfield-review/" data-link-merchant="pcgamer.com"" data-link-merchant="pcgamer.com"">Starfield's good too, but it has struggled to pull us away from our tadpole friends.

Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty (87%)

<a href="https://www.pcgamer.com/cyberpunk-2077-phantom-liberty-review/" data-link-merchant="pcgamer.com"" target="_blank">Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty (87%) 🙋‍♀️
Not only do we really like Cyberpunk's first and only expansion, we're very pleased with<a href="https://www.pcgamer.com/cyberpunk-2077-20-vs-phantom-liberty-what-changes-to-expect-from-each-update/" data-link-merchant="pcgamer.com"" data-link-merchant="pcgamer.com""> the 2.0 update, which is free for all owners, and improves the whole game with changes to skill progression, AI, and other fundamental aspects of the RPG. Now is definitely the time to play Cyberpunk 2077, if you haven't.

Armored Core 6: Fires of Rubicon (87%)

<a href="https://www.pcgamer.com/armored-core-6-fires-of-rubicon-review/" data-link-merchant="pcgamer.com"" target="_blank">Armored Core 6: Fires of Rubicon (87%) 🙋‍♀
Another FromSoftware banger. AC6 departs from the Souls formula the studio has become most associated with over the past decade to revive its action series where you're a "a one mech army instead of some nasty little guy," as Wes put it in his review.

Jagged Alliance 3 (81%)

<a href="https://www.pcgamer.com/jagged-alliance-3-review/" data-link-merchant="pcgamer.com"" target="_blank">Jagged Alliance 3 (81%) 🙋‍♀️🙋‍♀️
A very long-awaited strategy sequel—24 years!—in which you hire mercs for tactical turn-based combat. Goofy, old-school fun with an RPG layer that sets it apart from other strategy games.

Diablo 4 (85%)

<a href="https://www.pcgamer.com/diablo-4-review/" data-link-merchant="pcgamer.com"">Diablo 4 (85%) 🙋‍♀️🙋‍♀️
We liked Diablo 4 when it released last year, even if we weren't in love with the live-servicey aspects, and it <a href="https://www.pcgamer.com/in-less-than-a-year-blizzard-transformed-diablo-4-into-an-action-rpg-worth-grinding-for/" data-link-merchant="pcgamer.com"" data-link-merchant="pcgamer.com"">improved a lot in the months that followed.

More great PC games

Harry climbs a statue with a drink in his hand

(Image credit: ZA/UM)

These games aren't all piping hot out of the oven, but some things get better with age. They're the cream of the crop on PC, either scoring 80%+ in a review, winning one of our GOTY awards, or appearing on our list of the Top 100 PC games. If you just want a damn fine PC game from the past several years, check these out. 

  • Tchia (90%) 🙋‍♀️ One of the best open world games of last year and of any year.
  • Amnesia: The Bunker (93%) 🙋‍♀️ You have one gun, and there is one monster... which can't be killed with a gun. Good luck!
  • Remnant 2 (84%) 🙋‍♀️🙋‍♀️ Surpasses the first game with better combat and even more procedural surprises and weird bosses.
  • Viewfinder (87%) 🙋‍♀️💻 A trippy puzzle game in which you alter reality through "astonishing visual and space-bending tricks you've never seen in a videogame before.'
  • Street Fighter 6 (89%) 🙋‍♀️🙋‍♀️🎮 The latest Street Fighter rules, especially for newcomers.
  • Dave the Diver (91%) 🙋‍♀️🎮💻 A simple fishing and restaurant management sim at first, but it goes much deeper than that...
  • Vampire Survivors (87%) 🙋‍♀️💻 The best value on Steam: A $5 bullet hell roguelike that would run on a toaster and is hard enough to stop playing that you might want a copy for your toaster.
  • Pizza Tower (90%) 🙋‍♀️💻🎮 An ode to Wario Land that's better than Wario Land.
  • Honkai: Star Rail (90%) 🙋‍♀️🙋‍♀️: The new RPG from the Genshin Impact studio.
  • Dwarf Fortress (84%) 🙋‍♀️💻 : The simulation classic now has, get this, graphics.
  • Pentiment (88%) 🙋‍♀️💻: A great, narrative-focused murder mystery set in the 1500s.
    Marvel's Midnight Suns (88%) 🙋‍♀️: A deckbuilding tactics game and a superhero friendship simulator.
  • The Case of the Golden Idol (89%)🙋‍♀️:💻 Challenging detective puzzles with a fascinating story.
  • Elden Ring (90%) 🎮🙋‍♀️🙋‍♀️: Surprise, surprise: This open world fantasy gauntlet from Dark Souls creator FromSoftware is brilliant.
  • Immortality (95%) 🙋‍♀️💻: Her Story director Sam Barlow's latest video mystery is his best yet.
  • Teardown (90%) 🙋‍♀️: A physics-based destruction engine that would've been fun even if it weren't also a genius puzzle game.
  • Disco Elysium (92%) 🙋‍♀️💻: Our 2019 Game of the Year and our reigning #1 game in our yearly Top 100 list.
  • Crusader Kings 3 (94%) 🙋‍♀️🙋‍♀️💻: The king is dead, long live the king!
  • Hitman 3 (90%) 🙋‍♀️: The art of assassination, polished as finely as Agent 47's head. 
  • Slay the Spire (92%) 🙋‍♀️💻: The deckbuilding roguelike all others aspire to beat.
  • The Witcher 3 (92%) 🙋‍♀️: Still one of our all time favorite RPGs.
  • Total War: Warhammer 3 (90%) 🙋‍♀️🙋‍♀️: A brilliant final act with the series' most inventive and unusual factions yet.
  • Strange Horticulture (90%) 🙋‍♀️💻: A beautiful and engrossing detective game packed with mysteries, puzzles, plants, and intrigue.
  • Forza Horizon 5 (90%) 🙋‍♀️🙋‍♀️🎮: Even a marginal improvement on the best racing series around is worth celebrating.
  • Wildermyth (90%) 🙋‍♀️🙋‍♀️💻: Narrative design as genetic engineering, it will live in your head like an imaginary friend.

The best competitive multiplayer games right now

Hunt: Showdown

<a href="https://www.pcgamer.com/2021-was-the-year-i-fell-in-love-with-hunt-showdown/" data-link-merchant="pcgamer.com"" target="_blank">Hunt: Showdown 🙋‍♀️🙋‍♀️
Quietly one of the best multiplayer games you can play today. Morgan elaborated on why <a href="https://www.pcgamer.com/2021-was-the-year-i-fell-in-love-with-hunt-showdown/" data-link-merchant="pcgamer.com"" data-link-merchant="pcgamer.com"" target="_blank">last year: "When enjoyed with friends, Hunt is one of those games that seems to magically manufacture special moments."

Image

<a href="https://www.pcgamer.com/call-of-duty-modern-warfare-2-review/" data-link-merchant="pcgamer.com"" target="_blank">Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 (83%) 🙋‍♀️🙋‍♀️
Infinity Ward has again set the bar for gun design in Call of Duty. There's plenty to complain about (the crashes, for one thing), but a lot of changes that we find fun, both in Modern Warfare 2 proper and its free-to-play companion game, <a href="https://www.pcgamer.com/call-of-duty-warzone-2-review/" data-link-merchant="pcgamer.com"" data-link-merchant="pcgamer.com"">Warzone 2.0 (especially DMZ, the extraction mode).

Apex Legends (93%)

<a href="https://www.pcgamer.com/apex-legends-review/" data-link-merchant="pcgamer.com"" target="_blank">Apex Legends (93%) 🆓🙋‍♀️🙋‍♀️
One of our favorite current battle royale games. The map is fantastic, the 'ping' communication system is something every FPS should have from here on, the guns and movement are great fun (no wallrunning, but sliding down hills feels great).

Rainbow Six Siege (90%)

<a href="https://www.pcgamer.com/rainbow-six-siege-review/" data-link-merchant="pcgamer.com"" target="_blank">Rainbow Six Siege (90%) 🆓🙋‍♀️🙋‍♀️
Siege might lack the sharp hit detection and purity of CS:GO, but it's a more accessible and modern FPS that rewards clever timing and coordinated teamwork as much as aim. 

The best PC games by genre

forza horizon 5 fastest cars - hennessey venom gt 2021

(Image credit: Playground Games)

Find our selection of the best PC games just a bit too broad? Perhaps you know you're after a gripping story, or an intense racer, or the kind of sim you can spend a whole weekend playing like a second job. Our genre lists have curated recommendations for RPGs, racing, strategy, and more. Check 'em out:

Tyler Wilde
Executive Editor

Tyler grew up in Silicon Valley during the '80s and '90s, playing games like Zork and Arkanoid on early PCs. He was later captivated by Myst, SimCity, Civilization, Command & Conquer, all the shooters they call "boomer shooters" now, and PS1 classic Bushido Blade (that's right: he had Bleem!). Tyler joined PC Gamer in 2011, and today he's focused on the site's news coverage. His hobbies include amateur boxing and adding to his 1,200-plus hours in Rocket League.

With contributions from