Steam is hands down the most prominent game library on the Internet, with over fifty thousand titles under its name. Go ahead and think of any game that comes to your mind! There is a strong chance that Steam offers the game you thought of and numerous others from that genre. It is this versatility and the smooth user experience that attracts millions of daily users to use Steam and buy games from the platform. While Steam offers a never-ending list of notable games from all genres, many of these titles can quickly burn a hole in your pocket. To be honest, you don’t really need to spend a ton to have a great gaming experience on Steam. Steam provides a long list of chartbuster games for free on their stores, such as the legendary CS: GO, PUBG: Battlegrounds, Dota 2, and a lot more. Here is the list of best free games on Steam that you can enjoy without having to worry about the expenses:
Counter-Strike: Global Offensive
Most games from recent see a peak in their lifecycles when the most significant number of players play the title. For some games, this peak period happens soon after the launch, after which the game starts losing traction, and users move on to other titles. Now imagine how unlikely it is for a game to stay relevant for about two decades and still grow in popularity with each passing day. Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (CS: GO) is one such title that has been the go-to first-person shooter for numerous players around the world for about twenty years. Available for free on Steam, CS: GO is a fast-paced FPS multiplayer shooter that lets you witness the breathtaking action between the terrorists and the security forces. The game offers numerous game modes like competitive, wingman, casual, deathmatch, and many more that let you compete with the other players in different playing conditions. CS: GO also features some amazingly designed maps like Dust, Inferno, Nuke, Train, and many more. Another great advantage of playing a two-decade-old FPS shooter is that you can quickly expect more than 200 frames per second on an average gaming machine. Some people even go as far as to use this game to benchmark their PCs and flex those crazy FPS numbers. Whatever may be the use case, CS: GO never fails to entertain the gamer in you, and you can always dive in for a fierce 30-point session whenever you feel like it.
Counter-Strike: Global Offensive PC Requirements
Due to the fact that the game dates back to the early 2000s, CS: GO is not at all a resource hog. In fact, the famous saying in the gaming community says that CS: GO can even run on a potato, let alone the graphically capable computers from the current times (CS: GO can run smoothly on any device with over 2GB RAM, 256 MB of graphic memory, and 15 GB disk space according to the official system requirements by Valve).
PUBG: Battlegrounds
While the first game on our list continues to enjoy massive popularity for such a long time, the second game on this list, PUBG: Battlegrounds, reached those heights just a few days after its release. Just after its release in 2017, PUBG witnessed a fantastic response from the gaming community, primarily due to its unique genre and word of mouth. PUBG was the first game to give rise to an entirely new genre; the Battle Royale. Coming to the gameplay, your unarmed character jumps from a plane carrying 99 other players on an island with all kinds of arms and inventory. You can either choose to play in a squad that has four players, a duo with two people in the team, or go solo. After landing on the island, you and your team need to collect arms and healing inventory from different parts of the island and eliminate other teams. Moreover, the playing area keeps on shrinking as the game progresses to make the game more intense and fast-paced. You constantly need to keep moving and eliminate other teams to be the last team standing and enjoy the chicken dinner. The PC version of PUBG has always remained paid since its release, but Krafton recently tweaked its revenue model and made the game free. You can enjoy the classic battle royale for free on Steam and have a great time playing it with your friends.
PUBG: Battlegrounds PC Requirements
The system requirements for PUBG: Battlegrounds are on the higher side as the game features some fantastic visuals and in-game physics. The official requirements state that PUBG needs a minimum of 8GB RAM, DirectX Version 11, GTX 960/ Radeon R7 370 with 2 GB VRAM and above, and a stable internet connection. Please note that these are the barebone system requirements to get the game running; you should prefer using 16GB of RAM and GTX 1060/ Radeon RX 580 with 4GB VRAM and above to have a fluid gaming experience.
Apex Legends
Third, on this list, we have Apex Legends! Apex Legends is another free-to-play battle royale on Steam, but it is significantly different from PUBG: Battlegrounds. As mentioned earlier, every PUBG character lands bare-handed on the island and searches for loot. The protagonists in PUBG don’t have any special powers other than the fundamental movement skills, but Apex Legends changes that. You get to choose your Apex Legends protagonists in the game, which gives you access to some fantastic protagonist-specific skills. This game has a long list of some of the best characters from both genders, and exploring each of the characters is another factor that will keep you hooked while playing the title. Coming to the gameplay, you get to play in a squad of 3 against 19 other similar squads. You can always switch your characters before the match starts and diversify your squad’s attack and defense abilities. You are then put on a plane with your squad and made to land in the area of your choice. Every squad searches through the island to find arms and other inventory to keep them going through the gameplay. Your squad needs to continuously eliminate other squads and be the last one standing to win the game. Apex Legends is continuously growing in popularity and continues to find a place amongst the best free games on Steam. The growing popularity also opens ways to make Apex Legends a viable streaming option and gain quick viewership.
Apex Legends PC Requirements
The game is not too heavy considering its spectacular visuals; you can barely run Apex Legends with 6GB RAM, DirectX Version 11, Radeon HD 7730/ GT 640 or above. You should prefer using at least 8 GB RAM and Radeon R9 290/ GTX 970 or above to enjoy smooth gameplay.
Destiny 2
Sure! Online multiplayers are fun, be it a fast-paced shooter like Counter-Strike or battle royales like Apex Legends and PUBG but games following a storyline are always more fun to explore. Especially the games with fantastic storylines and memorable characters are an amazing gaming experience. The Destiny series is undoubtedly one of the best games in the genre, with a wonderful storyline and legendary characters throughout the game. Although being extremely fun to play, story-driven games have a significant caveat; the story ends at some point, and there’s no fun in reliving the story unless you absolutely love the game. Most storyline games have a fixed storyline that includes a particular set of missions. It doesn’t matter how vast the storyline for a game is; it will end after you complete all the missions but not with Destiny 2. Destiny 2 is an ever-evolving game with a constantly expanding storyline. The game developers frequently add more events to the storyline, which keeps you hooked as you get more indulged in the game’s story. However, there’s a downside to this expanding storyline as the learning curve is exceptionally steep for beginners. Coming to the gameplay, the game will ask you to choose a character and its race and customize it according to you. Every Destiny character belongs to a class and subclass, which tells more about your protagonist’s supernatural abilities. You can later use these abilities and progress through the game’s storyline.
Destiny 2 PC Requirements
Destiny 2 is a demanding title, and you will need at least 6GB RAM, 105 GB of disk space, and a GTX 660/ GTX 1050 with 2 GB of VRAM or above to barely run the title. However, you are better off with 8GB RAM or above and a GTX 970 with 4 GB of VRAM or above.
Yu-Gi-Oh! Master Duel
If you are on a budget PC with very little graphical power on your side and want to have a decent gaming experience, Yu-Gi-Oh! Master Duel might be the perfect title for you. Only the OGs of the gaming world know about Yu-Gi-Oh!; a popular card game before video games took over and everything went digital. During its peak, Yu-Gi-Oh! was more popular than today’s trends like Pokémon, and every other child collected rare Yu-Gi-Oh! cards. The game saw a steep decline in popularity as gaming consoles became the next mass gaming trend. Yu-Gi-Oh! Master Duel is a free-to-play Steam title that lets you relive your childhood nostalgia while also adding the touch of a modern gaming title. The card trading game lets you play online duels against other players from your tier and test your card trading skills. Honestly, this game has a steep learning curve compared to other names on this list, and you might feel fatigued as you begin playing it. The creators of Yu-Gi-Oh! Master Duel seems aware of this steep learning curve and doesn’t hesitate in adding valuable tutorials and guides throughout the gameplay. Moreover, you can also play the Solo Modo to learn the stories behind each of the Yu-Gi-Oh! characters you come across in the game.
Yu-Gi-Oh! Master Duel PC Requirements
As mentioned above, the game is not at all hardware intensive as compared to other best free Steam games. You can run Yu-Gi-Oh! Master Duel with 8GB RAM and Intel HD Graphics 620 on your side.
War Thunder
Battle has shaped a considerable part of human history, especially both the World Wars. War Thunder takes you back to the World War II era and gives you an authentic feel of weapons from those times. The game lets you choose your country and then requires you to strategically proceed further in the game by planning your attacks on land, water, and air. Yes, you read that right! War Thunder comes with three realistic game modes; fight with ships on the seas, fight with aircraft in the sky, and fight with tanks on the ground. Coming to the gameplay, the game offers you the option to choose from 9 nations involved in WW2 and over 2000 vehicles during the combat. You can make progress by winning battles and earning silver coins in the process. Later, you can use these coins to upgrade your current vehicles and weapons or buy new ones. As the game falls under the MMO (massively multiplayer online) category, you get to see a vast lobby of online players to compete with. The game developers use the system of BR (Battle Ratings), which essentially ranks your skills and inventory against other players. The game also makes sure only to let you battle against players with similar BR so that you always get a fair competition with a similar inventory.
War Thunder PC Requirements
As War Thunder is a 2013 release, you can run it with 4 GB RAM, 17 GB of disk space, and GTX 660 on the lowest settings. However, the game can truly utilize all the hardware power you throw at it; the developers recommend using a whopping 16 GB RAM, GTX 1060, and 95 GB space for best gameplay.
DOTA 2
The Dota series is one of the most popular game series of all time due to its exciting gameplay and hooking character set. The game is very similar to League of Legends, where two teams of five players compete in an online match to win over their rival’s territory. Dota’s concept is pretty straightforward; devise new strategies to build your team strength and take over the opponents. Meanwhile, also, beware of the rival’s attacks. Dota’s map consists of two sides for both the opponents; Radiant, which is on the left side of the map, and Dire on the right side. Moreover, three lanes connect both these sides and a river that runs diagonally through the map. Every Dota character has a different set of supernatural abilities that helps them gain an edge over other heroes. Dota 2 also outweighs any other game in the number of characters available for the player to choose; the game has more than a hundred heroes, each of which has a unique set of abilities.
Dota 2 PC Requirements
Coming to the hardware requirements, Dota 2 doesn’t require a ton of hardware power as you can run it with 4GB RAM, GeForce 9600/ Radeon HD3600 and above, and around 15 GB of available disk space.
Conclusion
Steam is the most extensive game library on the Internet, and it features some of the most fantastic game titles of all time. The game library also offers some of the best free games, including legendary titles like Counter-Strike: Global Offensive and Dota 2. The above article compiles the best free games on Steam and ranks them in the order of their popularity. You may now check out the Best free games on the Epic Game Store!
