The best laptop games

There was a time that gaming laptops weren't exactly lap-friendly. They were heavy. They were hot. Their batteries lasted all of 45 minutes at full power. But these days, even a laptop not explictly built for gaming can handle more great PC games than you could play in a lifetime. And slim gaming laptops with powerful GPUs can put up the kind of framerate numbers you once needed a towering desktop to achieve. Laptop gaming is great.

Some of our favorite PC games are deckbuilders, strategy games, and esports-focused shooters and MOBAs that don't require high-end graphics or ray tracing, though of course you can get those things on a laptop, too.

So if you can play practically whatever you want on a laptop in 2026, how do you decide what to spend your time on? We can help with that.

This list of the best laptop games broadly focuses on lighter system requirements so you don't obliterate your battery life or have to tolerate a mere 30 frames per second in a game that deserves better. Most of our recommendations are also quite playable with a trackpad, ideal for lying down in bed or getting in an hour of gaming at the hotel if you forgot to bring a mouse. A limited few are ideally played with a gamepad: (for more recommendations in that vein check out our selection of the best Steam Deck games).

The best laptop games won't rely on your PC blasting out 144 frames per second, since not all of us can afford a beast with an RTX 5090 on board. A few are marked with a 🖱 to indicate you'll really want a mouse to get the best out of them.

Below you'll find our favorite just-one-more-turn games for lounging with your laptop, plus low spec roguelikes and adventures. Keep in mind that most AAA games from the early 2010s or earlier will run on any new laptop with ease, and you can always grab some you missed in a Steam sale for like, 90% off. Also check out GOG's old games or the Internet Archive's in-browser emulation library for more classic options.

And if reading about the best laptop games has you thinking it might be time for some new hardware, here's our guide to the best gaming laptops.

Best laptop games: Strategy & card games

Final Fantasy Tactics: The Ivalice Chronicles

Release: 2025 | Developer: Square Enix | Link: Steam

The long-awaited PC release of Final Fantasy Tactics is a superb rendition of one of the best strategy games ever made. Not only does its political story of class strife feel more pertinent than ever, but Square Enix's updates to the presentation and game balance are very well-judged.

"I expected the freshly recorded voice acting heard during cutscenes to be expressive, but I didn't expect the all-new in-battle lines for even generic units to bring as much personality to the game as they do," Kerry Brunskill writes in their 91% review. "Additional assistance is everywhere I look in battle, making it easier to make good, tactical decisions and fully enjoy the interlocking job/skill learning/equipment systems... This knowledge was always in the game somewhere, but its accessibility now means combat flows better than it ever did before. I find myself clearly remembering—and then actually using—small bits of information I was once only vaguely aware of and could never quite be bothered to look up."

Tactical Breach Wizards

Release: 2024 | Developer: Suspicious Developments Inc | Link: Steam

PC Gamer's pick for the best strategy game of 2024 is a brilliant small-scale twist on XCOM, but with very funny wizards. As reviewer Harvey Randall wrote, it's "a prime example of a game that defines exactly what it's here to do, what vibe it's here to capture, and then proceeds to get full marks on every one of its own set goals."

The writing adds a personal and silly flair you don't see in more military-minded strategy games, but the strategy itself also crackles with creativity: "Instead of long-term battles, it zeroes in on the 'breach, clear, repeat' loop of bite-sized combat puzzles, and gives you more tactical tools than you could fit inside a bag of holding."

Balatro

Release: 2024 | Developer: LocalThunk | Link: Steam

The indie card game sensation of 2024, deckbuilder Balatro uses the theming of poker to create a game that is very much not poker. Get ready to put together some wild "illegal poker hands" with jokers galore and blinds and point totals that ascend into the multimillions. "It’s like watching a Poker game on a cursed TV accidentally tuned to 1972, filmed by a crew gradually coming down from hallucinogens," as we wrote in our 91% review. "A roguelike deckbuilder debut already worthy of joining Slay the Spire and Monster Train at the King’s table. Essential."

🖱 Factorio: Space Age

Release: 2024 | Developer: Wube Software LTD. | Link: Steam

Factorio is a modern PC classic in the base-building / automation space, but this new 2024 expansion, Space Age, is practically a sequel. Heck, it's bigger than the original game, and is destined to be the kind of game PC players keep coming back to for the next decade. As we wrote in our review of Factorio in 2020: "Let's skip the preamble, shall we? Factorio is brilliant. If you're remotely interested in games about management, construction, and above all production chains, then hop aboard the nearest conveyor belt and grab yourself a copy of Factorio this instant. Then pick up another copy for the most important person in your life, because they won't be seeing you for a while, and at least this way they'll understand why."

Cobalt Core

Release: 2023 | Developer: Rocket Rat Games | Link: Steam

A blend of FTL's space journey with Slay the Spire's deckbuilding, Cobalt Core manages to not feel too derivative of either. You'll use cards to do more than attack: positioning your ship and dodging attacks are key to battles, and the meta progression will see you recruit new crew members and unlock new ships that change how you play. It may sound like standard roguelike stuff, but the way all the pieces come together makes Cobalt Core quite possibly the best one of 2023.

Best laptop games: RPGs

🖱 Labyrinth of the Demon King

Release date: 2025 | Developer: J. R. Hudepohl | Link: Steam

Horror dungeon crawler Labyrinth of the Demon King was a 2025 sleeper hit, but we didn't sleep on it: We declared it the best horror game of the year. "My time with Demon King was full of moments of profound, unsettling discovery, like crawling down a narrow cave to emerge in a hidden chapel that feels like it's at the center of the earth," wrote PC Gamer's Ted Litchfield. "Demon King has excellent first-person combat with an unforgiving stamina system⁠—its pace is languid, with you anxiously struggling against your character's slow movement and swings, but it's possible to reach a state of flow and mastery not unlike the tank control Resident Evil games.

"But you're never fully safe or in control: The crushing atmosphere, limited resources, and omnipresent threat of an unkillable yokai you accidentally released by blaspheming against the Buddha (it makes sense in context) ensure that Demon King is tense from start to finish. And similar to films like Oldboy, no amount of combat mastery will let you shake the queasy feeling that this story can't possibly have a happy ending."

Demonschool

Release date: 2025 | Developer: Necrosoft Games | Link: Steam

A savvy, Persona-inspired tactics RPG, Demonschool's best idea is streamlining out some typical RPG conventions like levels in favor of a breezier combat system. "I devoured it in a matter of days, and it pulled off something no other RPG has managed before: make me fall in love with the ways of the isometric grid," wrote PC Gamer's Mollie Taylor in her 86% review.

"Demonschool operates on an explore-talk-fight loop: tackling the main story advances the day from morning, evening, and then to night, usually with a battle separating each segment. As the days and weeks advance, so do the island's inhabitants and activities. There's almost always a new NPC to talk to, or a party member begging to be taken to karaoke to advance their friendship (aka future makeout prospect) meter."

With a slick art style that mixes 3D and pixel art, Demonschool looks quite handsome while still running on a dual-core CPU and even a modest integrated GPU.

Keep Driving

Release date: 2025 | Developer: YCJY Games | Link: Steam

This turn-based "management" RPG "perfectly captures the feel of a long and memorable road trip," writes PC Gamer's Chris Livingston in his 90% review. A distant descendant of The Oregon Trail, you'll experience a range of events as you make a cross-country road trip that effectively serve as turn-based combat. Hitchhikers add utility to your journey, but as you spend more time withj them you'll learn more about them, too. "Developer YCJY Games does an impressive job of developing characters who are, technically, just pixelated square portraits you lock into inventory slots," writes Chris. "With minimal text, their stories and personalities come through, and by the end of the trip it's clear that we're all crammed into this car for the same reason: because we're all a little damaged, a little aimless, a little adrift."

With multiple endings to discover this is a simple-looking game that can keep you busy for quite awhile. It's a little cramped on the Steam Deck's screen, which makes it perfect for a laptop.

Metaphor: ReFantazio

Release: 2024 | Developer: Atlus | Link: Steam

One of the best games of 2024 is quite possibly Atlus's most accomplished RPG ever, and that's saying something given its string of hits with Persona and Shin Megami Tensei. We scored this fantasy RPG a rare 95%, praising its story, combat, and changes to returning Atlus ideas like social relationships with your party members and a daily calendar of activities to manage. It's a must-play, and best of all, has very modest CPU and GPU requirements that any gaming laptop should be able to chew up and spit out.

Dread Delusion

Release: 2024 | Developer: Lovely Hellplace | Link: Steam

Dread Delusion is like a bite-sized Elder Scrolls, a snackable Morrowind, an amuse-bouche of Shivering Isles. You're chasing down an outlaw on the Asteroid frontier of a magical society that's killed its gods and enforces atheism at the point of a sword. The combat is meh but that's not why we're here⁠—Dread Delusion's got all the juicy exploration and atmosphere of an Elder Scrolls but with all the fat trimmed off, and the cosmic horror sci-fi writing on display is killer. PC Gamer writer Ted Litchfield ranks one of its quests among his RPG all-timers: It involves reckoning with the ethics of a human meat substitute relied on by a society of vegetarian zombies. If you loved Morrowind's weird, it's only amplified here.

Disco Elysium - The Final Cut

Release: 2019 | Developer: ZA/UM | Link: Steam

This is one of our favorite RPGs of all time, and our Game Of The Year in 2019. Disco Elysium is gorgeous in a sad, gritty way, but its painterly 2D environments won't push your system. It's a detective RPG that feels quite a lot like playing a classic adventure game or a visual novel. Expect to slow things down here to discover clues and secrets in its detailed environments and read a lot of fantastic writing. It's sly, clever, and full of surprises, meaning you can get some of the best new RPG action without needing a GPU that handles ray-tracing.

Thanks to the Final Cut version of the game that now comes standard, Disco Elysium's installation size is a bit beefier than it used to be. If you've got the space to spare though, it should still run swell.

Best laptop games: Puzzle & Adventure

Old Skies

Release: 2025 | Developer: Wadjet Eye | Link: Steam

Our favorite adventure game of 2025, Old Skies is a classic-style point-and-click with a perfectly judged time travel story. "It's not filled with branching paths, social puzzles or characters who remember that you once killed their mum," writes PC Gamer's Fraser Brown. "Those things are great, sure, or at least they can be, but Old Skies is a reminder that there's a very good reason this genre used to be the reason to get a PC back in the '80s and early '90s. Evocative settings, charming characters, clever storytelling twists and striking art—sometimes that's more than enough. ... The puzzles are great too! They're accessible and playful rather than brutal headscratchers, but they're absolutely engaging enough to keep you dangling on their hooks."

Dispatch

Release: 2025 | Developer: AdHoc Studio | Link: Steam

A surprise late 2025 hit, this successor to the Telltale style of episodic adventure games stars misfit superheroes and an all-star voice cast featuring the likes of Jeffrey Wright and Critical Role's Matthew Mercer. We ended up giving Dispatch an award for the Best Characters of 2025; its conversations are its heart and soul, without much going on in the strategy bits you control between chats.

"The cast of Dispatch is so thoroughly endearing that I'm not surprised at all AdHoc decided to narrow in a laser-focus," wrote PC Gamer's Harvey Randall. "The worldbuilding is cardboard-flimsy because that's not what Dispatch is about, it's about people. The Z-Team, a merry band of screw-ups, keeps the game bumping through its sometimes-repetitive management sim segments with distilled 'friend group on a Discord call at 4 AM' energy."

Blue Prince

Release: 2025 | Developer: Dogubomb | Link: Steam

"One of the best puzzle games in years," PC Gamer's Chris Livingston declared in his 92% review. If that's not all you need to hear to load Blue Prince up on your laptop, here's a bit more: you're exploring a mansion by puzzling your way through it, but how you build the mansion, by placing rooms you randomly draw as cards, is itself a part of the puzzle.

"A few puzzles are contained to certain rooms and you'll encounter them repeatedly, like a math-based dartboard puzzle in the billiards room and a logic puzzle in the parlor, but most of Blue Prince's best puzzles, the real puzzles, the ones you'll keep thinking about when you're not even playing the game, are spread throughout the mansion," Chris writes. "I've had so many great 'Eureka!' moments (though mine are usually expressed as 'Holy shit!') where I spotted something for the first time and then flipped frantically through my notes because I'd seen something related to it in a different room on an earlier run, maybe even days earlier."

This one's going straight onto our list of all-timer puzzle games, and its light hardware demands make it perfect for a laptop.

Promise Mascot Agency

Release: 2025 | Developer: Kaizen Game Works | Link: Steam

A tough game to slot into this list by genre, but an incredibly easy one to recommend, Promise Mascot Agency is part sim, part adventure, part visual novel, which sees you trying to pay off a massive debt by managing a talent agency of living mascots. Reviewer Maddi Chilton praised how all of its ideas tie together in her 94% review:

"What's tremendous about Promise Mascot Agency is that the excessiveness of its concept only serves to anchor it deeper in our own material reality. Everyone Michi meets is real, even the people who aren't. A noble-minded bureaucrat stifled by his idiot boss is found down the street from a dissected eel whose sole purpose in life is to stop people from eating unagi; a foreign teacher who's trapped in town for visa reasons is right next door to a sentient grave marker giving unprofitable tours out of historically minded selflessness... Kaso-Machi is both a total freakshow bizarro sideways world and a patient and thoughtful representation of a dying town somewhere in rural Japan."

Whether you play it for the management sim aspects or the funny, at times insightful dialogue, this is just as unique an outing as the developer's first game, detective mystery Paradise Killer.

Riven

Release: 2024 | Developer: Cyan Worlds | Link: Steam

"This is how you remake a classic," we said in our 90% review of Riven, the 2024 update to the sequel to Myst. We reviewed this game on an aging laptop with an Nvidia GTX 1070 and found it played fabulously with the graphics dialed right up, while the experience of exploring Riven's world absolutely holds up thanks to some smart changes from the original. "The Riven remake preserves that unique sense of estrangement even though I've been to this world before," we wrote, pointing to how some puzzles have been changed. But "what hasn't changed in 27 years is that this is less a game to be solved and more a place to be experienced."

A new in-game notetaking system proves to be a smart addition, though, if you do want to fully unravel Riven's big mystery.

The Rise of the Golden Idol

Release: 2024 | Developer: Color Gray Games | Link: Steam

The sequel to 2022's killer Case of the Golden Idol, we loved this follow-up puzzler nearly as much as the original, and some folks out there consider it the stronger of the two. You can't go wrong playing either, and the sleuthing in this one is much the same.

"it's your job at grisly crime scenes to sort out not just what happened, but how it happened, and especially why it happened," PC Gamer's Chris Livingston wrote in his 87% review. "Just as in its prequel, The Case of the Golden Idol, the answers only come after exhaustively examining the scene, identifying the participants, and building a narrative of the events. Once again the cases are incredibly clever and solving them is almost always deeply satisfying, and each brings you a step closer to unraveling a central mystery that sprawls through the entire game."

Incredibly modest system requirements mean this will run on even an old laptop with integrated graphics.

Best laptop games: Action & Platformers

Deep Rock Galactic: Survivor

Release: 2024 | Developer: Funday Games | Link: Steam

Vampire Survivors: The best no longer? We love this survivor game set in the dwarfy mining world of Deep Rock, which left early access in September 2025. "Over the last few years I've played a lot of different Vampire Survivors imitators, and all the way through DRG:S's run in early access, I think it's been the king of the pack. It's creative, it's charming, and it genuinely bridges the gap between two wildly different games," writes Robin in his 90% review.

"DRG:S's special sauce is its environments. Each stage is its own randomly generated cavern, and your dwarf's pickaxe allows them to burrow through the rock walls, creating their own tunnels and arenas. This is where combat gets tactical, because most bugs don't have that ability. As the swarms chase you, you're able to shape the landscape around you against them, escaping down tunnels, creating bottlenecks, or leading them in circles around pillars."

Animal Well

Release: 2024 | Developer: Billy Basso | Link: Steam

This metroidvania-styled adventure may have actually fit in better with the puzzle games above. It plays like a platformer but diverges from other games in this style like Hollow Knight to focus far more on unraveling the world through clever puzzles, like modern classic Fez. There's no combat, and the more we played it the more inventive it revealed itself to be. In our 90% review we praised how puzzles are sometimes single-screen affairs, while other times they "spawn whole regions."

"The credits rolling in Animal Well just marks the end of one game and the beginning of another," wrote reviewer Shaun Prescott. "Animal Well morphed from a fun-verging-brilliant indie metroidvania into something that now keeps me awake at night. I'm not ready to move on, and I won't, but I'm going to need a hivemind's help to unpick its deepest secrets."

Hades 2

Release: 2024 | Developer: Supergiant | Link: Steam

Now out of early access, Hades 2 is a worthy successor to the massive hit it follows, with a broader pool of weapons and powers to mix and match as well as two distinct paths to charge down as you fight back against the Titan Cronos. As Tyler Colp wrote in our 88% review, Hades 2 sometimes threatens to give too much busywork, with a crafting system that at times makes incremental progress rote. "Eventually, however, the table-setting stops and Hades 2 finally, finally becomes the game I didn't know I was waiting for," he said. When it gets good, it gets real good.

"Despite my issues with its pacing early on, Hades 2 won me over. It expands on the original game's imaginative take on Greek mythology, blending cerebral action RPG combat and slick narrative design into a complete package that feels distinct from the original."

Terraria

Release: 2011 | Developer: Re-Logic | Link: Steam

Terraria is a huge game in a very tiny package. Even if you originally wrote it off as a 2D Minecraft clone, it's grown far beyond that label in the years since. Terraria is a crafting adventure with heaps of updates to its name with new bosses, biomes, fishing, and too many other things to name, and it's still seeing updates as of 2023. It's also wild how little this huge game demands from your computer with its tiny install size and modest system requirements.

Best laptop games: First-person shooters

🖱 Skin Deep

Release: 2025 | Developer: Blendo Games | Link: Steam

Another of our 2025 GOTY award winners, Skin Deep took home the all-too-rare prize of Best Immersive Sim. Shame we can't give out one of those every year (though with community mapmaking support, maybe Skin Deep will take home the prize in 2026, too). It's already a deeply replayable treat of a bite-sized systemic shooter; or, as PC Gamer Editorial Director Evan Lahti calls it, "slapstick Die Hard in space."

"Beneath that goofiness is a very well-designed first-person game," he wrote. "Skin Deep's fluid movement is a joy—lunging into and out of air ducts is so smooth, you feel like your whole body is lubricated in 2" of vaseline. The whole experience is built within the most artisanal of game engines, idTech 4, which was used for Doom 3 and gives Skin Deep a neo-retro look and feel that no other game replicates." And yes, that means it runs very well on very modest hardware.

🖱 Cultic

Release: 2022 | Developer: Jasozz Games | Link: Steam

One of the standouts of the boomer shooter renaissance (and less twitchy than some others), Cultic is comic booky with a gnarly horror shimmer, nasty in just the right ways. The first episode released in 2022 is a meaty 6-8 hours of shooting, but it also got a whole new level in 2023 and has another big chapter on the way.

"What Cultic impressed me with most was its ability to shift tonal gears," writer Dominic Tarason said in 2022. "Within a single level it’s not unusual to traverse long trails full of small encampments before assaulting a cult stronghold in a frantic cover-to-cover battle accompanied by some very John Carpenter synth jams. Moments later, I’m in a dark corpse-lined tunnel, tension building and the music completely absent until a horror set piece introduces a new supernatural threat. All that in the space of 10 minutes."

🖱 Counter-Strike 2

Release: 2023 | Developer: Valve | Link: Steam

After years of Counter-Strike: Global Offensive being the biggest FPS in the world, Valve has transformed it into Counter-Strike 2, a free shooter that is largely similar to its predecessor. Then again, in the grand scheme of things Counter-Strike hasn't changed that much since its very first iteration in the '90s. As a result the small details matter a lot, and CS2 does make some meaningful changes that will keep the competitive scene on its toes for the next year or so. Whether you've never played CS or haven't played in years, now is an ideal time to jump in: the game hasn't been this shiny and new for a decade.

Best laptop games: Multiplayer

🖱 Peak

Release: 2025 | Developer: Aggro Crab, Landfall | Link: Steam

Is Peak peak? Sorry, I'm sorry, I'm trying to delete it! What started as a game jam game turned into one of 2025's delightful surprises: a co-cop climbing game that's comedic, challenging and rewarding all at once.

"If I made a word cloud just using everything that was said during an average game of Peak, 'Grab my hand' would be slap bang in the middle in absolutely huge writing, with something like 'Does anyone have any bandages' probably being a close second," reviewer Eli Gould wrote in their 86% review. But, Elie said, "that's just as it should be, because Peak is a game all about helping your friends, no matter how many dumb situations they manage to get themselves in."

🎮 Rematch

Release: 2025 | Developer: Sloclap | Link: Steam

Rematch, aka Rocket League with Feet, is quite a hit: an athletic, competitive football game with style to spare. Rematch "is as intense an arcade sports game as I've played in a long time, nailing that tightrope walk between depth and immediacy I associate with sports game greats like Super Mega Baseball and Daytona USA," reviewer Justin Wagner wrote in our 86% review. "Developer Sloclap had already proved it could build a skill-expressive, weighty brawler with Sifu and Absolver, but despite the absence of fist fights, the studio's take on the biggest sport in the world doesn't feel like a left turn. Instead, it feels like a culmination of those games' successes."

You'll likely want a controller or a mouse handy for this one, though.

Abiotic Factor

Release: 2024 (early access) | Developer: Deep Field | Link: Steam

This fantastically inventive co-op survival game feels a bit like an off-key version of Half-Life. You're stuck in an underground science lab when an alien disaster strikes, and you've got to use whatever's at hand to survive—the more comical the resource, the better. Expect to make chest plates out of couch cushions, survive on vending machine rations, and have your character defined by positive and negative traits. "I chose to have a weak bladder (I have to relieve myself 20% more often) so I could afford the Decathlon Competitor trait (sprint a lot longer)," writes Morgan Park. "I'm realizing that it's not survival-crafting that I was tired of all along, it's the homogeneity of trees, cabins, furnaces, and caves that wore me down."

Lethal Company

Release: 2023 (early access) | Developer: Zeekerss | Link: Steam

A viral smash hit from 2023, this dirt cheap survival game features the rarest of all multiplayer coups: making voice chat essential. Also hilarious, as described by editor Jacob Ridley in our GOTY 2023 entry:

"What makes this game so absurdly entertaining is 1) the proximity-based chat and 2) the lack of polish and 3) the social mechanics. The game is scary, and it's going to make you jump at times, but it's fun for the massively overblown reactions it generates and way it always keeps you either talking to one another or talking about one another (when you're dead).

"You'll find yourself giggling as your pal creeps deeper into a dark room. Then laughing as a far-off scream turns to a sudden silence. Then as quickening footsteps approach the room you felt oh so safe inside, the laughing quickly subsides and you're the one screaming as you sprint towards the door."

Stardew Valley

Release date: 2016 | Developer: ConcernedApe | Link: Humble

An indie sensation that brought the idyllic farm life of Harvest Moon to PC. Build your farm into a vegetable empire, go exploring, learn about the lives of your neighbors, fall in love and settle down. Simple graphics ensure this one will run like a dream on your laptop, and it'll make long flights pass by in a snap. Stardew Valley has officially supported co-op farming for a couple years now, which is undoubtedly a great way to go back to Pelican Town.

🖱 Minecraft

Release: 2011 | Developer: Mojang | Link: Official site

One of the main questions you see asked online about laptops is “Will it run Minecraft?”, to which the answer, for future reference, is “Yeah probably”. Mojang's infinite block-'em-up isn't terribly demanding specs-wise, and it's the perfect game to mess around with on a laptop when you're supposed to be writing features for PC Gamer about low-spec games. While it's often played on a tablet, phone or console these days, you're getting the latest updates and mod support if you choose to build stuff with your PC. Here's our frequently updated list of the best Minecraft mods.