Thousands of games hit Steam every year, all vying for your attention through algorithmic recommendations, TikTok snippets, and reviews on sites like PC Gamer. So how do you pick the best PC games to play right now?
We figure the simplest way to help is to tell you what we're playing. If PC Gamer's crew of 30-plus game enthusiasts and our network of contributors are sinking hundreds of hours into a new title, odds are you might like it too.
We also want to shine a light on indie gems that might only have grabbed one or two of us, but have really grabbed us.
How We Pick the Games
We rate and rank games in many ways at PC Gamer. Further down this page you'll find our highest recent review scores, the champions from our annual Top 100 list, and more ways to find a new game to play.
The list of great games in the next section, however, is made just for this article and updated at least monthly. We consider three main things when picking the games to put on it:
- Are we currently playing it? The goal of this list is to recommend games we love right now, not what we were playing last year or in 1996, so we regularly poll the team to see what everyone's been up to.
- Is right now the best time to play it? Great games don't always have great launches. When big updates drop, older games can suddenly become the best place to be.
- Would we recommend it to our friends? Ultimately, we put games on this list because we think they're worth playing—by you, us, and everyone we know.
The Best PC Games to Play Right Now
June 2026: Added Forza Horizon 6 and Path of Exile 2.
1. Path of Exile 2
Released: Dec 2024 | Review: NA | Steam | PCG's recent playtime: 50+ hours
With its latest update, Path of Exile 2 "raises the bar for all other action RPGs," says resident PoE2 player Tyler Colp. How you react to his description of the early access game might tell you whether it's the ARPG for you:
"Path of Exile is one of the most complex action RPGs around. Look up a screenshot of its gigantic skill tree and you'll understand its maximalist approach to character build customization. It isn't a game about leveling up and collecting loot so much as it is about using programmer logic to design the most effective monster-slaying machine possible."
2. Subnautica 2
Released: May 2026 | Review: NA | Steam | PCG's recent playtime: 70+ hours
The biggest disappointment of Subnautica 2 is that it isn't finished. We'll probably have to wait a couple years for the 1.0 release, but even in early access it's quite polished and a lot of fun. Like the original, Subnautica 2 drops you into an alien ocean where you can gather resources, flee from giant scary alien sea creatures, build an underwater home, and unravel a sci-fi mystery.
3. Forza Horizon 6
Released: May 2026 | Review: 84% | Steam | PCG's recent playtime: 50+ hours
Phil didn't find Forza Horizon 6 especially ambitious in his review, but the racing game still earned his praise: "It's slick. It's polished. It's consistently fun. It's also a continuation of what the series has been doing for over a decade." Its setting, Japan, works perfectly with the format.
4. Diablo 4: Lord of Hatred
Released: April 2026 | Review: 90% | Steam | PCG's recent playtime: 60+ hours
The latest Diablo 4 expansion has "revolutionized what it's like to play Diablo 4," Tyler Colp said in his review. It's impressive how consistently Blizzard has improved the action RPG with each expansion. This one adds two classes, the Paladin and Warlock, and brings Diablo 4's first story arc to a satisfying close.
5. Crimson Desert
Released: March 2026 | Review: 80% | Steam | PCG's recent playtime: 200+ hours
This wildly unconstrained open world RPG has been a bit divisive. Our take has mostly been that Crimson Desert's "overwhelming ocean of things to engage with," as Mollie described in her review, is worth diving into for its fun combat and absurd number of systems, which include goat stealing, arm wrestling, and stock investing.
"Crimson Desert is a game that tries to do it all," Mollie said. "A jack of all trades. Master of some, perhaps. If you can think of it, this videogame probably has it."
6. Marathon
Released: March 2026 | Review: 90% | Steam | PCG's recent playtime: 100+ hours
Another divisive game, Bungie's new extraction shooter is more PvP focused than Arc Raiders. Complaints about the UI aside, it's fantastically stylish and offers the "raw first-person shooting excellence" Bungie is known for, as Morgan put it in his review.
7. Arc Raiders
Released: November 2025 | Review: 86% | Steam | PCG's recent playtime: 100+ hours
This is the extraction shooter we predicted would launch the genre into the mainstream, and sure enough, it's been a hit. Unlike some of the more cutthroat extraction shooters, you can have a good time in Arc without a whole lot of PvP—the game's 'aggression-based matchmaking' has been controversial, but we think it's what sets it apart. Here's Morgan with more on that.
8. Esoteric Ebb
Released: March 2026 | Review: 90% | Steam | PCG's recent playtime: 35+ hours
The easiest way to describe Esoteric Ebb is 'Disco Elysium, but for D&D adventures.' I'll leave it to our reviewer, Ted, to explain further:
"Esoteric Ebb is the best game like Disco Elysium that anybody's made since Disco Elysium, an RPG with a focus on exploration over combat, a literary, political bent, where your ~~skills~~ attributes talk to you. But it's not some rehash of the things Disco did well and few have managed to replicate: Esoteric Ebb has a charm all its own, and it's an impressively reactive RPG with an innovative approach to combat."
9. Resident Evil Requiem
Released: February 2026 | Review: 92% | Steam | PCG's recent playtime: 30+ hours
Capcom sure is on a roll. Well, Monster Hunter Wilds did have all those performance problems, but the Resident Evil series in particular has been solid for the past several years. Requiem clocks in at about 10 hours, which is shorter than expected, but it's 10 hours without a moment wasted, Elie says:
"Everything I did in those 10 hours felt"
...like a tight, focused horror experience that respects your time. For fans of the series, it's a must-play.
These are the games we're playing right now, and we think you'll love them too. Check back next month for updates as new titles and updates shift the landscape.
