THE BEST FREE PC GAMES

Free-to-play games have become increasingly popular over the years, and it’s easy to understand why. They’re now so robust that you never feel handcuffed for not plunking down real cash. In case you’re wondering why developers wouldn’t charge anything for the game itself, they generally make money with in-game ads and selling virtual objects.

- JEFFREY L. WILSON, GABRIEL ZAMORA

If you have some time to kill—and don’t we all, lately?—you can’t go wrong with a free title, especially when you’re playing on PC, which has many free-to-play options. But with so many games to sample, finding a game worth downloading can be daunting. You could stick to free Steam games, but if you don’t mind venturing outside the comfy convenience of Valve’s online video game store once in a while, you’ll find a lot of good stuff.

We’ve got some obvious picks in our list—the massively popular battle royale game Fortnite, for one, which combines third-person shooting, resource gathering, and building to create a highly addicting multiplayer experience. And of course, no free-to-play PC list would be complete without Riot Games’ highly popular MOBA League of Legends. But there are plenty more titles on offer.

You can find some of these titles on Steam, others are on Epic Games Store, and still others must be downloaded from a game’s official website. And all are well worth playing. (We’ve officially reviewed some of these games; you’ll see the ratings they’ve earned below. But we’ve played them all.)

BLADE & SOUL

Where to play: Bladeandsoul.com