Why purchase Windows PC games when there are many good ones freely available? Today, there are great freemium (free-to-download) PC games that you can download from various sources. However, there are also other sources for playing free video games on PCs, in the form of emulators. Finding the best sources for free games will save you dough. These are some of the best sources for playing free video games on Windows PCs.
Epic Games
Epic Games is perhaps the best source for playing free video games on PCs. Many players install the Epic Games Launcher to play Fortnite, one of the best freemium games. However, there are many great freely available games on Epic, such as Genshin Impact, Magic: the Gathering, Apex Legends, World of Warships, Rocket League, and PUBG Battlegrounds.
Epic Games also gives away a couple of paid games every week as part of its regular free game promotions. These limited-time promotions are very generous because Epic has given away thousands of dollars’ worth of games over the years. Even if you don’t play the freemium games available, you should install the Epic Games Launcher for the free game promotions. Check out this Epic page to see what’s free at the moment. These are some of the games Epic has given away with its promotions:
- Control
- Death Stranding
- Alien Isolation
- Civilization 6 (and its expansions)
- Europan Universalis 4
- Wolfenstein: The New Order
- Shadow of the Tomb Raider
- Football Manager 2024
- Cities: Skylands
- Tomb Raider Trilogy
- Prey
- Grand Theft Auto 5
Steam
Steam doesn’t give away games as much as Epic. However, Valve’s storefront still has a good collection of freemium games you can install with Steam. Counter-Strike 2 is perhaps the most popular of free video games exclusive to Steam. Dota 2, PUBG, Delta Force, Apex Legends, Naraka: Bladepoint, War Thunder, Rainbow Six Siege X, and Destiny 2 are some of the other more popular free-to-play games you can install with Steam.
Steam does occasionally offer free-to-keep promotions for paid games. For example, I obtained a free copy of Half-Life 2 offered for the game’s anniversary celebrations with such a promotion. You can keep track of the free promotions via this SteamDB page.
Microsoft Store
Microsoft Store is a good source for free video games, with an MS Store app that’s pre-installed on all Windows 11/10 PCs. Most users will also already have a Microsoft account required to download from it. So, why not check out the free-to-play games available there? There are many hundreds of freely available games on the MS Store. These are some of the best free video games you can download and install from the Microsoft Store:
- Asphalt 9: Legends
- Roblox
- World of Tanks Blitz
- Candy Crush Saga
- Asphalt 8: Airborne
- World of Warships
- Fallout Shelter
- Angry Birds 2
- Destiny 2
Google Play (With Android Emulator)
Google Play is choc-a-bloc with many thousands of freemium games. Now, you might think Google Play is only for Android mobile games. Well, that’s not entirely correct, because you can play Google Play mobile games on your Windows PC by installing an Android emulator. BlueStacks 5 is the most popular emulator choice for playing Android mobile games on PCs. That emulator includes unique features such as a mapping and macro-recording tool.
You can download BS 5 or 4 emulators by clicking the Download buttons on this BlueStacks page. Installing BlueStacks 5, or an alternative emulator, will place a huge Google Play directory of freemium mobile games at your fingertips. You can play mobile games like Call of Duty: Mobile, Temple Run 2, PUBG: Mobile, Sonic Dash, Dream League Soccer 2025, Age of Empires Mobile, and Clash Royale with an Android emulator on larger Windows PC displays.
Blizzard Battle.net
Blizzard Battle.net is one of the best Windows PC distribution platforms for multiplayer gaming. Although it doesn’t have the biggest library of free video games, it offers some of the most popular freemium multiplayer titles. It’s worth installing Battle.net to download and play the freely available Heartstone, Call of Duty: Warzone, Starcraft II, and Overwatch 2 games alone.
Retro Game Emulator Websites
Emulator software packages enable players to freely play retro games from old consoles, like the NES, Super NES, Sega Master System, Genesis, etc, on Windows PCs. There is some debate regarding the legality of console emulators. Although emulator software is legal, downloading their ROM (Read-Only Memory) files to play copyrighted games that were never freely distributed is illegal.
So, how can we legally play retro console games on our PCs without downloading ROM files? The solution is to play them on retro game emulator websites, from which we don’t need to download anything (software or files). There are numerous websites with emulators embedded in them from which we can freely and legally play classic DOS, NES, SNES, Master System, and Genesis games, among others. These are some of the better retro game emulator websites to play them from:
You can play many old favorites on those sites, be it Doom, Super Mario Bros, Prince of Persia, Civilization 2, Sonic the Hedgehog, Zelda: A Link to the Past, etc. Click the options for playing the retro games on those websites to start them. Then, select full-screen options to expand their displays and remove the page clutter around them.
So, check out those great sources for free video games to stop spending and start saving! There’s a huge variety of freemium games collectively available at Epic, Steam, Battle.net, and Microsoft Store. You can get even more free games with the limited-time giveaways from Epic and Steam. Plus, you can expand your free PC gaming with mobile and retro games via Android and web-based console emulators.
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