Jump to:

The best PC games to play right now

Features
By last updated

Colossal RPGs, ingenious puzzle games, surprise indie hits, and all the other great PC games we're playing today.

Esoteric Ebb helmeted medieval cleric reading book next to open window with city below
(Image credit: Raw Fury)
Jump to:

Thousands of games release on Steam alone each year, beckoning to you from algorithmic recommendation engines, the bottom halves of TikTok videos, and the review sections of websites like PC Gamer. So how the heck do you decide which are the best PC games to play right now?

We figure the best way to help is to tell you what we're playing. Chances are, if PC Gamer's staff of 30+ videogame enthusiasts and network of contributors is putting hundreds of hours into a new game, it's something you might enjoy, too.

How we determine the 10 best PC games to play now

Best of the best

Henry engages in bloody warfare with his allies in Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2.

(Image credit: Warhorse Games)

2026 games: Upcoming games
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

We rate and rank games in lots of ways at PC Gamer, and further down this page you can find a list of our highest recent review scores, the champions from our annual Top 100 list, and more ways to find a new game to play.

The list of 10 great games in the next section, however, is made just for this article and updated at least monthly. We consider three main things when picking the games to put on it:

  • Are we currently playing it? The goal of this list is to recommend games that we love right now, not what we were playing last year or in 1996, so we regularly poll the team to see what everyone's been up to.
  • Is right now the best time to play it? Great games don't always have great launches, and when big updates drop, older games can suddenly become the best place to be.
  • Would we recommend it to our friends? Ultimately, we put games on this list because we think they're worth playing—by you, us, and everyone we know.

The 10 best PC games to play right now

Recent updates

March 2026: Resident Evil Requiem, Esoteric Ebb, and Slay the Spire 2 are the latest additions to the list. I'm holding on adding Marathon until we've had more time to check it out, but at the moment it looks like it'll fit in nicely next to Arc Raiders as a more PvP focused extraction shooter.

1. Arc Raiders

Best Arc Raiders weapons tier list: A player looking up at a massive spider-like robot as it kicks up dust and fires a laser beam.

(Image credit: Embark)

Released: November 2025 | Review: 86% | Steam | PCG's recent playtime: 100+ hours

This is the extraction shooter we predicted would launch the genre into the mainstream, and sure enough, it's been a hit. Unlike some of the more cutthroat extraction shooters out there, you can have a good time in Arc without a whole lot of PvP—the game's 'aggression-based matchmaking' has been controversial, but we think it's what sets it apart. Here's Morgan with more on that.

2. Resident Evil Requiem

Leon and Grace amid the flames

(Image credit: Capcom)

Released: February 2026 | Review: 92% | Steam | PCG's recent playtime: 30+ hours

Capcom sure is on a run. Well, Monster Hunter Wilds did have all those performance problems, but the Resident Evil series in particular has been solid for the past several years. Requiem clocks in at about 10 hours, which is shorter than expected, but it's a 10 hours without a moment wasted, Elie says:

"Everything I did in those 10 hours felt necessary. No redundant fetch quests, no dragged-out stealth sequences just for the sake of raising blood pressure needlessly. Every puzzle, corridor and burst of action is tightly choreographed, and if I appreciate anything in videogames, it's when they don't waste my time. But Requiem doesn't just use its time wisely—it manages to make every minute just as exciting as the last."

3. Esoteric Ebb

tower overlooking sea and garden in Esoteric Ebb

(Image credit: Raw Fury, Christoffer Bodegård)

Released: March 2026 | Review: 90% | Steam | PCG's recent playtime: 35+ hours

The easiest way to describe Esoteric Ebb is 'Disco Elysium, but for D&D adventures.' I'll leave it to our reviewer, Ted, to explain further:

"Esoteric Ebb is the best game like Disco Elysium that anybody's made since Disco Elysium, an RPG with a focus on exploration over combat, a literary, political bent, where your skills attributes talk to you. But it's not some rehash of the things Disco did well and few have managed to replicate: Esoteric Ebb has a charm all its own, and it's an impressively reactive RPG with an innovative approach to combat."

4. Slay the Spire 2

Slay the Spire 2 screenshot

(Image credit: Mega Crit)

Released: March 2026 | Review: N/A | Steam | PCG's recent playtime: 5+ hours

Slay the Spire 2 just released in early access, so we don't have a formal scored review and haven't spent a lot of time playing it yet—but I can already tell that I'm going to sink at least 100 hours into it. You don't need to have played the hyper-influential original to appreciate this roguelike deckbuilder, which has been an instant hit on Steam. If after 10 more hours I decide that, actually, it isn't worth the $25, I'll drop it off the list—but I'd be shocked.

5. Mewgenics

Mewgenics Desert Heat Wave: A blue cat next to a road in the desert waving, stood next to a dead snake.

(Image credit: Edmund McMillen, Tyler Glaiel)

Released: February 2026 | Review: 92% | Steam | PCG's recent playtime: 150+ hours

A tongue-in-cheek roguelike with tactical, systems-driven combat underpinned by a substantial homemaking and cat breeding system. In his review, Robin described it as "a sprawling, ridiculous, and endlessly surprising roguelike that will drag you body and soul into its chaotic world."

6. Cairn

A woman climbing a mountain

(Image credit: The Game Bakers)

Released: January 2026 | Review: 91% | Steam | PCG's recent playtime: 20 hours

A climbing adventure that has similarities to games like Death Stranding and Baby Steps, but "feels like a landmark, in the sense that it's the first of its kind that I'd unreservedly recommend to everyone," Shaun said in his review.

7. Nioh 3

Nioh 3 Baba Nobuharu: A close-up of Baba Nobuharu looking ahead menacingly after slamming his ocean-themed axe on the ground.

(Image credit: Team Ninja)

Released: February 2026 | Review: 90% | Steam | PCG's recent playtime: 60+ hours

"Team Ninja is giving FromSoftware a run for its money, with an open-world soulslike that I think I like even more than Elden Ring," wrote Lewis Parker in our review.

8. Helldivers 2

A cyborg from Helldivers 2 stands ominously, surrounded by mist and vapor.

(Image credit: Arrowhead)

Released: February 2024 | Review: 86% | Steam | PCG's recent playtime: 10 hours

Helldivers 2 is doing live service right, Morgan recently argued, by not just peppering us with new cosmetics but releasing full-on expansions. The latest has added a fantastic tank and a new biome.

9. Overwatch

Overwatch Jetpack Cat: Key art of Jetpack Cat sitting on their flying mech, smiling straight ahead.

(Image credit: Blizzard)

Released: May 2016 | Review: 88% | Steam | PCG's recent playtime: 10 hours

If you hadn't heard, it's just Overwatch now—they dropped the "2." The decade-old Blizzard hero shooter has also gotten a major update with five new heroes. If you're a lapsed player and were ever thinking about jumping back in, now's the time.

10. Europa Universalis 5

Europa Universalis 5 screenshot

(Image credit: Paradox Interactive)

Released: November 2025 | Review: 87% | Steam | PCG's recent playtime: 20 hours

A mind-bogglingly complex historical simulation. Europa Universalis 5 buckles under the weight of its ambition at times, Jon said in his review, but it's Paradox's "best suite of interlocking, core game mechanics since Hearts of Iron 4."

More games we've been playing

  • Battlefield 6: Battlefield Studios pulled off the comeback (Steam)
  • Clair Obscur: Expedition 33: The most acclaimed RPG of 2025 (Steam)
  • Baby Steps: Bleak and hilarious (Steam)
  • Demonschool: A great old school tactics RPG (Steam)
  • Dispatch: Episodic workplace comedy (Steam)
  • Elden Ring: Nightreign: We're still jumping into this FromSoft spin-off (Steam)
  • Peak: A co-op climbing game that was a surprise hit in 2025 (Steam)
  • Skate Story: Skateboard through hell (Steam)
  • Final Fantasy Tactics - The Ivalice Chronicles: A classic (Steam)
  • Monster Train 2: One of our favorite deckbuilders (Steam)
  • Metal Gear Solid Delta: A successful remake of MGS3 (Steam)
  • Deep Rock Galactic: Survivor: One of the best Vampire Survivors-likes. (Steam)
  • Hollow Knight: Silksong: The metroidvania sequel lived up to the hype (Steam)
  • Abiotic Factor: Half-Life, but a survival game. Excellent. (Steam)

High scores: 90% and up

If we score a game 90% or higher in our review, we think it's stupendously good. Here are the games that joined the 90-and-up club in 2025. (There are none so far in 2026.)

All-time greats

Below are the top 10 games from the latest edition of PC Gamer's yearly Top 100 list, which was published in October 2025.

Whereas the list on this page is entirely focused on what to play right now and mainly features newer games, our Top 100 also considers historical significance.

The selection changes year-to-year not just because there are new games we want to include, but also because our collective tastes change as people join or leave the team, or because we've reevaluated a classic since the last vote.

The games that fell out of the top 10 this year are: Doom (1993), Minecraft, Persona 5 Royal, and Half-Life 2. New to the top 10 are: Dwarf Fortress, Crusader Kings 3, Caves of Qud, and Red Dead Redemption 2.

  1. Baldur's Gate 3: Our 2023 Game of the Year and a brilliant RPG (Steam/GOG)
  2. Disco Elysium: Our 2019 Game of the Year and former #1 game (Steam/GOG)
  3. Dwarf Fortress: There's nothing quite like this fantasy civilization sim (Steam)
  4. Crusader Kings 3: There's also nothing quite like this historical sim series (Steam)
  5. Stardew Valley: Still our favorite farming/life sim (Steam/GOG)
  6. Caves of Qud: A ridiculously deep roguelike (Steam/GOG)
  7. Balatro: The poker roguelike sensation was our 2024 Game of the Year (Steam)
  8. The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt: Set a high bar for open world RPGs (Steam/GOG)
  9. Elden Ring: Another day, another FromSoftware masterpiece (Steam)
  10. Red Dead Redemption 2: Rockstar's classic western (Steam)

More resources and lists

Looking for more recommendations? We've got you covered.

Best games by genre

Metaphor: ReFantazio

(Image credit: Sega Atlus)

Find our selection of the best PC games just a bit too broad? Our genre lists have curated recommendations for RPGs, racing, strategy, and more.

Tyler Wilde
Tyler Wilde
Editor-in-Chief, US

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.

You must confirm your public display name before commenting

Please logout and then login again, you will then be prompted to enter your display name.

Back To Top