Due to the recent spike in GPU & other specific components, building a gaming right turned out to be pretty costly in the recent post-pandemic scenario. Now even though the new full RGB gaming machine is ready, some of us still prefer to settle for those sweet free-to-play games for now. This list will also include the games that you can run on your PC if you are still using an old GPU when you are waiting for that long-awaited price reduction. So here’s our list of all the best free PC games you can play right now on Steam in 2024.
Best Free PC Games on Steam
These games listed are also taking the new recent updates into account. And some of the previously paid games like PUBG Battlegrounds, have turned into a free-to-play model. So we will include them here. And some games in this list, like Capcom Arcade Stadium, currently have very less players. But they are still fun to play for their nostalgic retro actions. To make this fare, we will sort them by the peak number of players they received since their launch. This will help you also find the games that made the most noise since they were available on Steam. We are also fans of games like Fortnite & Valorant, but today we will only focus on the ones available via Steam now. Now with that said, here are the best free PC games you can play right now on Steam:
| Rank | Free Steam PC Game Title | Peak Players Till Date |
| 1 | Counter-Strike: Global Offensive | 1,308,963 |
| 2 | Lost Ark | 1,325,305 |
| 3 | Dota 2 | 1,295,114 |
| 4 | PUBG: BATTLEGROUNDS | 3,257,248 |
| 5 | Capcom Arcade Stadium | 488,791 |
| 6 | Apex Legends | 393,116 |
| 7 | World of Warships | 379,096 |
| 8 | Destiny 2 | 292,513 |
| 9 | Halo Infinite | 272,586 |
| 10 | Yu-Gi-Oh! Master Duel | 262,689 |
| 11 | Dota Underlords | 202,334 |
| 12 | Warframe | 189,837 |
| 13 | Path of Exile | 158,882 |
| 14 | Team Fortress 2 | 151,253 |
| 15 | Z1 Battle Royale | 151,239 |
| 16 | Crusader Kings II | 141,439 |
| 17 | Prismata | 122,553 |
| 18 | Realm Royale | 105,440 |
| 19 | GrandChase | 79,883 |
| 20 | Bless Unleashed | 76,377 |
| 21 | War Thunder | 76,204 |
| 22 | Football Manager 2019 | 75,982 |
| 23 | Unturned | 71,241 |
| 24 | Yet Another Zombie Defense | 67,959 |
| 25 | Splitgate | 67,724 |
| 26 | Clicker Heroes | 65,882 |
| 27 | Ring of Elysium | 63,435 |
| 28 | Paladins | 60,743 |
| 29 | Alien Swarm | 60,467 |
| 30 | Phantasy Star Online 2 New Genesis | 59,558 |
| 31 | Trove | 58,949 |
| 32 | World of Tanks Blitz | 56,669 |
| 33 | Crab Game | 56,106 |
| 34 | Eternal Return | 52,853 |
| 35 | Battlerite | 45,145 |
| 36 | VRChat | 42,769 |
| 37 | Fallout Shelter | 42,656 |
| 38 | Dark Shadows – Army of Evil | 39,883 |
| 39 | AX:EL | 35,956 |
| 40 | 雀魂麻将(MahjongSoul) | 35,277 |
| 41 | Brawlhalla | 34,816 |
| 42 | Bless Online | 34,392 |
| 43 | Star Wars: the Old Republic | 34,210 |
| 44 | Stash | 32,094 |
| 45 | SMITE | 31,169 |
| 46 | Grimm | 30,886 |
| 47 | tModLoader | 30,513 |
| 48 | PlanetSide 2 | 29,676 |
| 49 | Loadout | 29,424 |
| 50 | Robocraft | 26,725 |
| 51 | Crucible | 25,145 |
| 52 | Knight Online | 24,594 |
| 53 | Shadowverse | 24,167 |
| 54 | AdVenture Capitalist | 22,998 |
| 55 | Stumble Guys | 21,842 |
| 56 | Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Links | 21,520 |
| 57 | Goose Goose Duck | 21,492 |
| 58 | Heroes & Generals | 21,026 |
| 59 | eFootball PES 2020 | 21,018 |
| 60 | Conqueror’s Blade | 19,178 |
| 61 | Swords of Legends Online | 18,806 |
| 62 | Idle Champions of the Forgotten Realms | 18,578 |
| 63 | DC Universe Online | 17,701 |
| 64 | Quake Champions | 17,476 |
| 65 | Riders of Icarus | 17,162 |
| 66 | Bloons TD Battles 2 | 17,137 |
| 67 | Deceit | 16,923 |
| 68 | BRINK | 16,824 |
| 69 | Scavengers | 16,787 |
| 70 | Ace of Spades | 16,309 |
| 71 | Black Squad | 15,939 |
| 72 | RIFT | 15,546 |
| 73 | ELYON | 15,541 |
| 74 | Infestation: Survivor Stories 2020 | 15,373 |
| 75 | Conqueror’s Blade | 15,008 |
| 76 | Neverwinter | 14,866 |
| 77 | The Descendant | 14,586 |
| 78 | Magic Duels | 14,586 |
| 79 | Infestation: The New Z | 14,437 |
| 80 | eFootball 2022 | 14,360 |
| 81 | Warface | 13,867 |
| 82 | Soda Dungeon 2 | 13,385 |
| 83 | Albion Online | 13,363 |
| 84 | Spiral Knights | 13,143 |
| 85 | Dirty Bomb | 13,113 |
| 86 | Journey To The Center Of The Earth | 13,027 |
| 87 | The Culling | 12,995 |
| 88 | Radical Heights | 12,757 |
| 89 | Defiance | 12,690 |
| 90 | RuneScape | 12,569 |
| 91 | CRSED | 12,266 |
| 92 | Century: Age of Ashes | 12,222 |
| 93 | Rogue Company | 12,189 |
| 94 | Awesomenauts | 12,156 |
| 95 | Blacklight: Retribution | 12,131 |
| 96 | Battleborn | 12,101 |
| 97 | KurtzPel | 11,937 |
| 98 | Last Man Standing | 11,857 |
| 99 | Unfortunate Spacemen | 11,823 |
| 100 | APB Reloaded | 11,813 |
You might also since titles like tModLoader & VRChat here, even though you might not technically consider them as a proper ‘game,’ there are tagged and available under the Games category on Steam. So we’ll keep them here for now.
So that’s all for our list of all the best free PC games you can play right now on Steam. While you are here, check out our Video Games Guides for more tips & tricks for most of the popular games from the above list.