2023 is about halfway over, and it’s already brought us a bunch of exciting new PC games, big and small: If you haven’t heard about Tchia or Pizza Tower yet, you’re about to.
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. (Our highest review score of last year was 95%. Very few games have scored higher than that in PC Gamer’s nearly 30-year history.)
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 2023, organized by month.
Some good news related to this list: The graphics card shortage has finally eased up, 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.
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.
Best of the best
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.
- Dwarf Fortress (84%) 🙋♀️💻 : The simulation classic now has, get this, graphics.
- Dead Space (84%) 🙋♀️: A remake done right.
- Dredge (89%) 🙋♀️💻: Fishing horror, a strong combo.
- 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.
- Grounded (90%) 🙋♀️🙋♀️: A survival game that doesn’t forget that games are supposed to be fun.
- Disco Elysium (92%) 🙋♀️💻: Our 2019 Game of the Year and #1 best PC game for two years running.
- 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.
- Minecraft (96%) 💻🙋♀️🙋♀️: Build anything you can imagine, as long as it’s made of cubes.
- 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
The best PC games by genre
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: