Hunting for the best browser games? Modern computers are so powerful that you don’t need a beefy rig to play great games. As long as you have access to a stable internet connection, there’s a massive library of games that can be played from the comfort of your web browser, and what’s more, every game on this list is free.
It can be difficult to coordinate with several friends to find a game that everyone owns. Gone are the days of worrying about your friend’s empty Steam library and their low specced PCs – instead you can simply send them a link to these top browser games and start playing right away.
Whether you’re looking for something to play for a few minutes before your lunch break ends, or you want a game to sink your teeth into after work, we’ve got you covered. Our list of the best browser games contains a mix of genres to ensure there’s something for everyone. With all of that said, here are the best browser games.
The best browser games are:
- Hero Wars
- Friday Night Funkin'
- Forge of Empires
- Pirates of the Caribbean: Tides of War
- Game of Thrones: Winter is Coming
- Elvenar
- Anocris
- Rail Nation
- Eternal Fury: Resurrected
- Survivor Legacy
- Townscaper
- Minecraft Classic
- Catan Universe
- Kingdom of Loathing
- Tetr.io
- Powder Game
- Chrome Offline Dinosaur
- OpenArena Live
- Spelunky
Hero Wars
Hero Wars is a simple clicker game that’ll be just what you’re after if you’re looking for a game that’s good at filling those brief windows of time. It’s all about building up a team of heroes and then having them battle against a selection of monsters and other players.
Hero Wars is filled with daily challenges that start easy and slowly become more and more difficult as you play. There are so many heroes to unlock, and doing so will be a big part of the appeal for many players because they all fight in unique ways and some of them have interesting and unusual designs. Naturally, it tries to squeeze microtransactions out of you as you get further and further into it, but it’s definitely less predatory than some of the others out there.
Friday Night Funkin’
Though many browser games may not receive that much mainstream attention, Friday Night Funkin’ has achieved huge levels of popularity. For the few who haven’t heard of it, this rhythm game sees you playing as Boyfriend, a character who engages in singing contests and rap battles with a variety of colourful characters in order to impress Girlfriend.
Part of its broad appeal comes down to its gameplay. It’s similar to something like Dance Dance Revolution, but instead of moving your feet to match up with the arrows, you let your fingers do the walking and use the arrow keys on your computer. It’s simple, but the presentation is so charming that you’ll soon find yourself coming back again and again.
Forge of Empires
Forge of Empires takes players to the beginning of the Stone Age to create a long lasting city that evolves throughout the ages. InnoGames released this strategy game back in 2012 on browsers and has continued with regular updates. Not only can you play this city building game on your browser, you can take your progress with you with the iOS and Android apps.
As players discover new technologies to expand and develop their cities, they’ll make their way through 20 different Ages. Forge of Empires doesn’t stop at the Contemporary Era; with enough time you can progress all the way to the colonisation of Venus.
Play Forge of Empires for free.
Pirates of the Caribbean: Tides of War
If you’re a fan of Pirates of the Caribbean and strategy gaming, Tides of War is going to be a match made in heaven for you. In this game, you build your own base which you develop and enhance over time. This allows you to develop better resources, and then allows you to strengthen your army, and attack the bases of other players. It’s an endless cycle, but one that can become highly addictive. Along the way, you’ll not only meet familiar faces from the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise, but also many historic pirates.
Play Pirates of the Caribbean: Tides of War for free.
Game of Thrones: Winter is Coming
The Game of Thrones HBO series may be finished, but the officially licenced browser game is just getting started. In Game of Thrones Winter is Coming, you play as a Westeros Lord who desperately wants to end the bloodshed between the Seven Kingdoms. Expand your kingdom to attract the attention of the characters from the show and recruit them to join your team.
Just like the source material, you’ll have to command a large army and fight your way through hordes of enemies to compete against the other Lords. The characters you recruit from the series, like Jon Snow, Lord Varys, and Arya Stark can be used to aid your army in battle, allowing you to turn the tide of any difficult fight.
Play Game of Thrones: Winter is Coming for free.
Elvenar
Create the fantasy world of your dreams in Elvenar, a city building game that gives you the option of playing as mystical elves or battle-focused humans. Choosing between elves and humans can be a difficult choice as both races bring something different to the table. Elves tap into their history of magic to create special city buildings, humans are focused primarily on medieval architecture and engineering.
Elvenar rewards players for spending time improving the city with its Culture system. Keep your population happy, productive, and healthy by creating useful buildings.
Anocris
Have you ever wanted to build your own ancient Egyptian city? Anocris tasks players with creating an Egyptian settlement that can stand the test of time. Over a 3,000 year period, you must build a powerful empire in an attempt to take over the Nile. While there are elements of actual history in Anocris, you also get to wield the power of the high priests of Amun as you tap into the power of the Ancient Egyptian Gods.
Play Anocris for free.
Play for free
Rail Nation
Experience the turbulent history of railways in Rail Nation, a strategy game that lets you become a railway tycoon. Players begin the game by helping a small city bring in supplies. By boosting the city’s economy, you can invest your profits to create a long-lasting railway company.
Rail Nation allows you to play on a fantasy map with 50 different cities, or through a version of the real map across America and Europe. Train buffs will appreciate the level of detail in Rail Nation as the train game features six eras of railway history. From steam engines to ultramodern electric engines, there are over 100 replicas of classic trains to choose from.
Eternal Fury: Resurrected
If you’re looking for a new browser game to play, chances are you want something that’s simple, stress-free fun and that’s exactly what you get with Eternal Fury. This is an RPG game that’s about grinding your way through various dungeons, which are all made up of a number of turn-based battles.
It’s one of those games where you feel like everything you do in it is productive in some way, because it all factors towards you getting stronger. If you like that satisfying feeling of completing lots of micro-tasks to get more and more powerful, then this is a game that you might find yourself getting very addicted to.
Play Eternal Fury: Resurrected for free.
Survivor Legacy
Evil businessmen have brought humanity to the brink of extinction by unleashing a zombie apocalypse on Earth. As one of the planet’s last remaining survivors, it’s your duty to put an end to the devastation.
In this post-apocalyptic world, players must assemble a squad filled with strong soldiers to rid the world of zombies. Clearing out zombie-infested areas reveal powerful survivors who can be recruited to your team. However, players must proceed with caution, as the enemies in this strategy war zombie game are lethal – you’ll need a powerful army to fight off the deadly horde.
Townscaper
Townscaper is a relaxing, totally directionless city-building game in which you don’t have to worry about any of the boring details like pollution, traffic, or tourist boards. You start with a simple stone island in the middle of the sea and then click either side or the top of it to create your first building. Every click generates a new piece of your city, and as you continue expanding the foundations you’ll learn some of the rules that dictate how your clicks are turned into a postcard-perfect coastal metropolis. Give it just ten minutes and you’ll have something stunning. There’s a full version of Townscaper that you can buy on Steam, which has a few more building types and lets you build out further, but the browser-based version is an excellent way to whet your appetite.
Minecraft Classic
Minecraft Classic whisks you all the way back to those heady days of 2009 when Minecraft was in its infancy, so prepare for a barebones version of the sandbox game you know and love. You can run around, destroy blocks, and place them down, but that’s pretty much it. There’s no survival mode, no enemies, and a lot of the controls are significantly different from the current version of the game. However, you can invite some friends along to help you with your rustic Minecraft builds.
Catan Universe
One of the best board games of all time has made it to PC in a few different forms, but with this browser-based version, you don’t have to download anything to play it. At its core, Catan is all about expansion and settlement-building on a board with extremely limited resources. You want to develop your settlement with roads, resources, and buildings, but you’ll never have access to everything you need, which means you’ll need to hone your silver tongue to convince other players to trade with you. There’s diplomacy, backstabbing, and some very, very pretty tiles -what’s not to love? Catan Universe also boasts an exceptionally thorough tutorial, so if you’ve always wanted to play the board game but can’t bear to sit through your friend’s terrible explanation then this is the way.
Kingdom of Loathing
Kingdom of Loathing is first and foremost a comedy game. You pick classes like pastamancer, seal clubber, or accordion thief, and then set out on a journey across a fantasy open world that playfully rips into RPG conventions every step of the way. Every encounter is a bit, but the constant joking never gets old not just because of its originality, but also because it’s underpinned by robust build options. If you find yourself falling in love then you can also check out West of Loathing from the same developers – it’s a very similar kind of deal, except it swaps out the fantasy tropes for Western ones.
Tetr.io
You know that puzzle game, the one usually labeled as the greatest of all time? It’s available in your browser as a solo and multiplayer game. Tetr.io is a fantastic Tetris clone that features a wide variety of players across all skill levels. Whether you’re looking to sharpen your skills in Sprint mode, or you want a short session of Marathon to pass the time, Tetr.io has you covered.
What makes Tetr.io so special is the level of customisation each player has. Minute details like Soft Drop Factor and Delayed Auto Shift can be carefully adjusted – if that means nothing to you, the default options are perfect for any casual players. For a lot of people, Tetr.io is the ultimate Tetris game due to its rich abundance of features and low barrier to entry for all players. It’s worth mentioning that there’s a whole io games genre in which almost every game is playable with a browser, so head to that list for more like this.
Powder Game
Powder Game is the quintessential school browser game that you play because every other website is blocked. In a small black square, players are given a blank canvas to experiment with over 30 different powders. Create an ice sculpture and see how it reacts when you pour acid, magma, and salt onto it. Fire lasers at C4-coated vines, then douse the flames with water and ice to see what happens. If you love elemental reactions, Powder Game lets you live out your wildest dreams.
Chrome Offline Dinosaur
The internet has unexpectedly gone down, so now work is out of the question. While you wait for someone to fix the internet, why not try Google’s endless runner? When you see the dinosaur on the ‘unable to connect to the internet page’, hit spacebar to start the game. Jump over the stacks of cactus to keep the dinosaur running for hours on end.
OpenArena Live
Remember Quake Live? id Software’s classic PC game has since moved to Steam, but OpenArena Live has swooped in to take its place. OpenArena Live is a clone of Quake III Arena, giving players the full Quake experience right from their browser. You don’t even need to sign up to start playing; join public games using the server browser, or create a private server to play against your mates; simply send them a link and the game will handle the rest. If someone at the office hits you with “1v1 me” as a joke, send them a private match link to settle the score.
Spelunky
Derek Yu’s Spelunky has been ported to web browsers to ensure you never get any work done at the office. In this roguelike platformer, you play as Guy Spelunky as he attempts to explore the dangerous mines, dense jungles, icy caves, and Egyptian temples in search of lost treasure.
Each playthrough is different as the levels are randomised, and you won’t be able to take your previous items with you. For such a simple game, there’s a lot of depth to Spelunky that you can discover if you put the time in. Spelunky is brutal at first, but the game is so addictive that you’ll spend hours trying to become a master treasure hunter.
And those are some of the best games you can play from your web browser. For other relaxing games, check out the best tower defense games on PC.
