Steam is home to thousands of games, so any list of the best ones is going to include most of the PC games we think are worth playing. It's also the most popular place for PC gamers to buy and download new games, and developers know it—hundreds of new games appear each month, and many of them, bluntly, just aren't worth your time.
2025 games: Upcoming releases
Best PC games: All-time favorites
Free PC games: Freebie fest
Best FPS games: Finest gunplay
Best RPGs: Grand adventures
Best co-op games: Better together
And while publishers are increasingly returning to Steam, there are still a handful of great games still locked to other launchers like Epic, GOG, Battle.net and even the EA App. It can be hard to wade through the sheer number of PC games and find the very best, so we've picked out some of the best choices that are available on Valve's platform.
If you're new to PC gaming, have a gift card to use, or are just looking for the next game to pick up, we've compiled a list of our recommendations to save you sifting through the store for yourself. Our broad categories feature recommendations that we've loved and would say any Steam user must play.
New Steam games
Some of our favorite recent Steam releases and their review scores.
- Balatro (Game of the Year 2024)
- Lonely Mountains: Snow Riders (89%)
- Nine Sols (92%)
- Metaphor: ReFantazio (95%)
- Zero Sievert (85%)
Great free-to-play games on Steam
Some of the best games on Steam can be played for free.
Explore big open worlds
Open world games on Steam
Red Dead Redemption 2: If you've got a fairly powerful PC, Rockstar's vast western tale is an excellent pick. Here's our review.
The Witcher 3: CD Projekt's landmark open world RPG, starring Geralt of novel, Netflix series, and bathtub fame.
Death Stranding: A supernatural backpacking adventure from Hideo Kojima with a bizarre and wonderful take on a post-apocalyptic USA. Our 2020 GOTY.
Grand Theft Auto 5: That famous game about stealing cars and otherwise committing crimes in a big city. Its online mode is also very popular.
Euro Truck Simulator 2: It's exactly what it sounds like, a game about driving trucks through Europe. You might be surprised by just how into it you get.
Challenge yourself
Challenging games on Steam
Hades: Getting out of the underworld won't be easy, but you can do it if you keep trying. One of the best recent action games, with great characters.
Doom Eternal: In its modern form, the classic first-person shooter is a super-fast gauntlet of bloody demonic combat. We love it.
Elden Ring: The latest of the famously difficult action RPGs from developer FromSoftware, the developer behind the Dark Souls series. Like those games, it's brilliant if you have the patience for it.
Hollow Knight: An expansive 2D bug adventure that's full of secrets to discover, and just about the pinnacle of the 'Metroidvania' genre.
Investigate mysteries
Detective games on Steam
Disco Elysium: A brilliant, story-focused RPG about a hungover detective solving a murder in a grimy, fantastical city in the throes of class struggle. Our 2019 GOTY.
Immortality: An immersive interactive movie where you are the editor and the film might be haunted. This is another great mystery from the creator of Her Story and Telling Lies.
Paradise Killer: A wild anime and vaporwave-inspired setting houses one of our favorite new detective game designs. Find out who killed Paradise itself.
Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc: Perhaps an even more bizarre murder mystery. The premise: A bunch of students are trapped in their high school and told that the only way to escape is to murder a classmate without getting caught.
Zero Escape: The Nonary Games: Another great (and very strange) visual novel series, this one starts with a Saw-like premise, but goes in entirely its own direction.
Return of the Obra Dinn: Find out what happened to the Obra Dinn, a ship that was lost at sea, in this eerie, 1 bit-styled mystery. One of our top games of 2018.
Outer Wilds: Untangle a time loop that spans a whole solar system. (Not to be confused with The Outer Worlds, which is alright, too, but a different game entirely.)
Games for kicking back
Cozy games on Steam
A Little to the Left : If you feel like you need to get your life in order, which face it a lot of us do, then A Little to the Left is bound to scratch that itch. Within its various puzzles, you'll neaten up, tidy, and organize every nook and cranny where your belongings may have scattered themselves.
Stardew Valley: Spend your days clearing out rocks and designing your ideal farm, and your evenings hanging out with new friends. One of our all-time favorites, and it has kept getting better over time.
A Short Hike: An ultra-charming game about exploring an island and making friends. Can be enjoyed in one nice sitting, if you like. (Cup of tea not required, but pleasant.)
What The Golf? Find out what golf is (maybe) in one of our favorite comedy games.
Dorfromantik: This super chill strategy game gives you a deck of hex tiles to build pastoral world with or, if you like, just snap them together at leisure in sandbox mode.
Chants of Sennaar: A lovely language-based puzzle adventure where you'll teach yourself several fictional languages as you climb a towering mountain inhabited by different societies who need to reconnect.
Play with friends
Co-op games on Steam
Baldur's Gate 3: This massive RPG was our Game of the Year 2023 and just in case you weren't aware it's co-op too.
Valheim: A recent favorite. Build a Viking settlement with friends, craft weapons, and fight mythical bosses. Here's a guide for getting started.
Satisfactory: Work together to construct giant three-dimensional factories on an alien planet. Conveyer belt loops never stop being fun to design.
Left 4 Dead 2: A classic for just $10. You and up to three friends scramble to get from point A to point B while shooting waves of zombies.
Phasmophobia: Work with friends to investigate hauntings in what we recently called "the best ghost game ever made."
Dead by Daylight: A group of survivors try to escape one killer, who's also controlled by a player. Scary, and just a great asymmetrical multiplayer game.
Strategize and build
Strategy games on Steam
Dune: Imperium: You're in control of spice production within this deck builder, and you'll have to deploy harvesters and face any oncoming attacks from your competitors. Along the way, you will also want to earn the trust of different factions which raises the challenge of deciding whether you will side with them or go against their wishes in pursuit of spice.
XCOM 2: Build and manage your base and command soldiers against alien invaders in challenging turn-based combat. One of our favorite tactics games ever.
Factorio: Design and manage enormous 2D factories in this satisfying construction game. We gave it a 91% in our 2020 review.
Crusader Kings 3: It might take some time to learn, but once you do, this grand historical strategy game is one of the best ever, and generates brilliant medieval drama.
Total War: Warhammer 2: One of our favorite games in the Total War series, which has you commanding giant fantasy battles in real time. It's not a big deal if you're not familiar with the Warhammer universe.
