TheRetroArcade
Veteran
Posts: 13,073
Joined: Feb 2026
Joined: Feb 2026
PC Gamer's annual list of the 100 best PC games you can play—updated for 2026
When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Here’s how it works.
Welcome to the PC Gamer Top 100—our annual list of the best games you can play right now. Every year, we look at the hundreds of thousands of PC games that are available to buy, and think, "yes, we can whittle this down into a numbered list". Hubris? Yes. A months-long crucible of heated arguments and impassioned pleas? Also yes.
More than anything, the Top 100 is designed to capture a moment in time. It's a place where the 'canon' classics of the past rub shoulders against the fresh new hotness. Where being a game that a significant portion of the team currently loves is as important as being a game that is recognised worldwide for its contributions to the medium.
It is a deeply subjective process—a way for PC Gamer's editorial team to advocate for the games they're passionate about. One member of our team has spent years attempting to get Overwatch back on the list, taking every opportunity to persuade their fellow editors to give it a chance. Not every entry required that level of dedication to earn its spot, but every pick is a game that at least a handful of our staff cares deeply about.
Ahead of the vote, the PC Gamer team is free to nominate any PC game for voting, giving us a longlist of over 300 games. Each member of the team is then asked to rate those games subjectively across three weighted categories:
The weightings are designed around the Top 100's function as an annual, ever-changing list. Too much weight to Importance, and the list stagnates. Too much to Freshness, and there's no consistency year-to-year. Quality is the most important category because, ultimately, if we don't think a game is actually very good, it doesn't make the list.
The sum of each game's ratings is divided by its number of voters, and then run through a few special formulae—including a penalty for games that receive too few votes—to produce the final Top 100 Score for each game.
We then make some manual adjustments. In the interest of variety we mostly restrict the list to one game per series—only including multiple if we think the games are different enough from each other to be worth mentioning, as with Baldur's Gate 2 and Baldur's Gate 3. Otherwise, the lower scoring game in a series is removed. We also let editors pitch for a change to the list—each of which is voted on by the wider team, and only ratified if it gets majority approval.
Keep up to date with the most important stories and the best deals, as picked by the PC Gamer team.
What's left is the 100 games you find below. Some might claim it folly—attempting to wrestle the varied tastes of our editorial team into a list of games we wholeheartedly recommend. Nevertheless, we're sure that within these entries, you'll find something new to love.
Released: TBA | Top 100 Score: 213.58
Elie Gould: I'm in no way a MOBA-lover but I sure do love Deadlock. I love its fantastically written characters, exciting and experimental game design, and its mode for dummies: Street Brawl.
Jacob Ridley: Welp, Elie has called me out. I play Deadlock for dummies, otherwise known as Street Brawl, and it's something special. A large cast of otherworldly characters keeps every round fresh. It's surprisingly accessible through excellent character, UI, and game design—a high skill ceiling, but fun all the way down. Great game, and I'm yet to even try the MOBA mode.
Elie Gould: That wasn't a call out, Jacob. I also love and play Deadlock for dummies, it rocks!
Andrea Shearon: It's me, the MOBA-lover logging in to say I've only put a handful of hours into Deadlock and already love it. I'm the reverse of Elie and not into hero shooters, but Deadlock (and Calico) have won me over.
Harvey Randall: It's also me, the person on the PC Gamer team with 360+ hours in this thing—and while I do (unfortunately, it's a character ...Read more: Full article on www.pcgamer.com
What do you think about this?
When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Here’s how it works.
Welcome to the PC Gamer Top 100—our annual list of the best games you can play right now. Every year, we look at the hundreds of thousands of PC games that are available to buy, and think, "yes, we can whittle this down into a numbered list". Hubris? Yes. A months-long crucible of heated arguments and impassioned pleas? Also yes.
More than anything, the Top 100 is designed to capture a moment in time. It's a place where the 'canon' classics of the past rub shoulders against the fresh new hotness. Where being a game that a significant portion of the team currently loves is as important as being a game that is recognised worldwide for its contributions to the medium.
It is a deeply subjective process—a way for PC Gamer's editorial team to advocate for the games they're passionate about. One member of our team has spent years attempting to get Overwatch back on the list, taking every opportunity to persuade their fellow editors to give it a chance. Not every entry required that level of dedication to earn its spot, but every pick is a game that at least a handful of our staff cares deeply about.
Ahead of the vote, the PC Gamer team is free to nominate any PC game for voting, giving us a longlist of over 300 games. Each member of the team is then asked to rate those games subjectively across three weighted categories:
The weightings are designed around the Top 100's function as an annual, ever-changing list. Too much weight to Importance, and the list stagnates. Too much to Freshness, and there's no consistency year-to-year. Quality is the most important category because, ultimately, if we don't think a game is actually very good, it doesn't make the list.
The sum of each game's ratings is divided by its number of voters, and then run through a few special formulae—including a penalty for games that receive too few votes—to produce the final Top 100 Score for each game.
We then make some manual adjustments. In the interest of variety we mostly restrict the list to one game per series—only including multiple if we think the games are different enough from each other to be worth mentioning, as with Baldur's Gate 2 and Baldur's Gate 3. Otherwise, the lower scoring game in a series is removed. We also let editors pitch for a change to the list—each of which is voted on by the wider team, and only ratified if it gets majority approval.
Keep up to date with the most important stories and the best deals, as picked by the PC Gamer team.
What's left is the 100 games you find below. Some might claim it folly—attempting to wrestle the varied tastes of our editorial team into a list of games we wholeheartedly recommend. Nevertheless, we're sure that within these entries, you'll find something new to love.
Released: TBA | Top 100 Score: 213.58
Elie Gould: I'm in no way a MOBA-lover but I sure do love Deadlock. I love its fantastically written characters, exciting and experimental game design, and its mode for dummies: Street Brawl.
Jacob Ridley: Welp, Elie has called me out. I play Deadlock for dummies, otherwise known as Street Brawl, and it's something special. A large cast of otherworldly characters keeps every round fresh. It's surprisingly accessible through excellent character, UI, and game design—a high skill ceiling, but fun all the way down. Great game, and I'm yet to even try the MOBA mode.
Elie Gould: That wasn't a call out, Jacob. I also love and play Deadlock for dummies, it rocks!
Andrea Shearon: It's me, the MOBA-lover logging in to say I've only put a handful of hours into Deadlock and already love it. I'm the reverse of Elie and not into hero shooters, but Deadlock (and Calico) have won me over.
Harvey Randall: It's also me, the person on the PC Gamer team with 360+ hours in this thing—and while I do (unfortunately, it's a character ...Read more: Full article on www.pcgamer.com
What do you think about this?