Best laptop games to play in 2024
Luckily PC gaming is not just a fitting hobby for those packing massive battle stations worth thousands of dollars. The platform has so much to offer in terms of variety and that goes for technical requirements as well as genres. The best laptop games require far less power to run, but provide the full package of fun.
These games, which are often made by some of the most talented indie developers in the industry, won't melt down your machine with their system requirements and still provide hundreds of hours of entertainment. They're often playable on Steck Deck or other handheld alternatives, too.
Some laptop games are even among the best-rated games of all time on platforms like Steam, which goes to show that you can make fantastic gameplay happen with very limited technical means.
Is that tea all done then? Excellent.
Honkai: Star Rail
HoYoverse
Laptop requirements:
- Memory: 6 GB
- GPU: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 650
- CPU: Intel Core i3-2120
- File Size: 20 GB
From the creators of Genshin Impact comes Honkai: Star Rail, a turn-based RPG set in a funky space universe full of husbandos and waifus. Playable completely for free, it tells a fun story with memorable characters and comes with a slick combat system that's simple to learn and fun to optimize.
Stardew Valley
ConcernedApe
Laptop requirements:
- Memory: 2 GB
- GPU: Intel HD 3000
- CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo E8400
- File Size: 500 MB
Grow crops, fish in the river, delve into dungeons, and find a wife or husband among the local populace of Stardew Valley, a tiny town full of colorful characters. Very few games are as relaxing as this. In it, you inherit a farm and you’re left to do whatever you want across the seasons and the years. Smash the rocks, chop the weeds, and build your own farming empire.
Into the Breach
Subset Games
Laptop requirements:
- Memory: 1 GB
- GPU: Intel HD 3000
- CPU: Intel Pentium 4 1.70GHz
- File Size: 400 MB
Here’s another flavor of strategy game for you. Into the Breach is a bit like chess, but with giant mechs and kaiju instead of the normal pieces, and the queen can uppercut weaker pieces through literal mountains. How can we ever go back to regular chess?
RimWorld
Ludeon Studios
Laptop requirements:
- Memory: 4 GB
- GPU: Intel HD 3000
- CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo E8400
- File Size: 500 MB
If you found Dwarf Fortress a bit hard to get into (though we have some beginner tips for you that might change things), RimWorld is the game for you. It’s very similar mechanically, but you have a whole planet to colonize. You can do some truly evil and deplorable things in this game. Harvesting organs from prisoners and then eating the rest of the body, anyone? No? Okay. It’s a proper simulation, despite the simple graphics, and it has so many features that there’s no point in us even trying to smmarize them. You really need to explore them for yourself.
Hearthstone
Activision Blizzard
Laptop requirements:
- Memory: 3GB
- GPU: ATI Radeon HD 2600XT
- CPU: AMD Athlon 64 X2
- File Size: 3GB
Hearthstone almost single-handedly brought back the collectible card game genre on PC, leading to dozens of imitators over the years trying to replicate its success. Nothing, however, comes close to the charm and loving eye for detail Blizzard puts into its cards, which all draw from its popular Warcraft universe. You can enjoy it on your laptop or on your mobile device all the game, trying out its various different game modes. It can be a bit daunting to make the jump into ranked play, but there are plenty of ways to get cards for strong decks without investing too much.
Wildermyth
Worldwalker Games LLC
Laptop requirements:
- Memory: 3 GB
- GPU: ATI FireMV 2260
- CPU: Intel Core i3-2340UE
- File Size: 2 GB
This indie RPG features graphics reminiscent of hand-drawn characters and maps from pen-and-paper RPGs and tells stories in the style of those same adventures. You'll have the choice between prefabricated storylines or procedurally generated maps, events and enemies. Assemble your adventuring party of warriors, hunters and mages, cleanse the lands of rogue monsters and create a legacy for yourself. Watch out for beloved characters of previous adventures returning later on as wise mentors as you populate the world with generations of heroes.
Gunpoint
Tom Francis
Laptop requirements:
- Memory: 1 GB
- GPU: NVIDIA GeForce 510
- CPU: Intel Pentium 4 2.00GHz
- File Size: 700 MB
Gunpoint is a bit of a misnomer because it’s not really a shooting game – it’s more about slapping people unconscious with doors or pouncing on them like a panther and jackhammering your fist into their face. Every single electronic in this game can be rewired to something else, allowing you to set devious traps to bypass the guards in each of the 2D stealth puzzles.
Terraria
Re-Logic
Laptop requirements:
- Memory: 2.5 GB
- GPU: Intel HD 3000
- CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo T5750
- File Size: 200 MB
Released in 2011 and still receiving updates to this day, despite the developers swearing time and again that they were done, Terraria is a masterpiece. You may mistake it for a 2D version of Minecraft at first glance, but make no mistake: While mining, crafting, and building are huge parts of this game, it's a full-fledged open-world RPG with countless pieces of equipment and NPCs to collect. Selling over 35 million copies by 2021, Terraria is one of the biggest indie hits of all time.
Disco Elysium
ZA/UM
Laptop requirements:
- Memory: 2 GB
- GPU: AMD Radeon HD 5450
- CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo Q6867
- File Size: 20 GB
Disco Elysium is a role-playing game, but you’re not here to kill a god or save the world. You’re here to solve a murder that’s tied up in a union dispute, but there’s one problem: you don’t remember who you are, where you are, or even where you left your shoe. Disco Elysium puts you inside your character’s head in a way no other game can, with your entire journey narrated by your limbic system, lizard brain, and various other recesses of your body and mind.
Slay the Spire
Maga Crit Games
Laptop requirements:
- Memory: 4 GB
- GPU: NVIDIA GeForce 8300 GS
- CPU: Intel Pentium 4 2.00GHz
- File Size: 1 GB
Even if your eyes glaze over when you hear the words “card game”, you should give Slay the Spire a chance. As addictive as it is brutal, you’re tasked with making your way to and beating a series of bosses while building out ever more powerful decks. What makes it so captivating is how new unlocks trickle in, from new cards to new items, and even characters with entirely different playstyles.
Loop Hero
Devolver Digital
Laptop requirements:
- Memory: 2 GB
- GPU: AMD Radeon HD 4650
- CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo E6750
- File Size: 200 MB
The apocalypse is complete. Well, almost. You're somehow still alive and have to try and reassemble reality in this roguelite deck-building adventure. Your hero, be they warrior, rogue, or necromancer will travel the same loop day in, day out, and automatically battle any monsters they encounter to gain XP and new gear, all the while collecting resources that can later be used to expand your camp – a little slip of the world you and your companions managed to stabilize.
Whereas most other roguelites or roguelikes achieve replayability through random generation, Loop Hero gives you full control over how different you want each loop to be through a deck-building system. The cards represent terrain tiles and buildings, which spawn certain types of resources and enemies. If you want to play a loop where you mainly face spiders or vampires, you can construct your deck accordingly.
Minecraft
Mojang
Laptop requirements:
- Memory: 2 GB
- GPU: Intel HD 4000
- CPU: Intel Core i3-3210
- File Size: 1 GB
There are plenty of survival games these days, but Minecraft is arguably responsible for popularizing them. Starting with nothing, you have to carve out a living for yourself in a landscape made of blocks, all while being hounded by undead creatures. At the start of the game, you’re battling against the environment. By the end, you’ve molded it into your own kingdom. The only limit is your imagination in what is basically digital Lego.
Cult of the Lamb
Devolver Digital
Laptop requirements:
- Memory: 4 GB
- GPU: GeForce GTX 560 Ti
- CPU: Intel Core i3-3240
- File Size: 4 GB
What if Hades had an evil baby with Animal Crossing? Well, here’s a game that lets you be a sacrificial lamb who also happens to be a cult leader. Head into its roguelite dungeons and make your way to a series of bosses in slick, punchy combat encounters, then head to your base and manage your cult. Clean up endless poop, indoctrinate animals, and offer your followers up to your gods. Oh, it's beautiful!
Papers, Please
Lucas Pope
Laptop requirements:
- Memory: 2 GB
- GPU: ATI FireGL T2-128
- CPU: Intel Pentium 4 1.50GHz
- File Size: 100 MB
Your family is starving and you need to make money, but how much do you care about the plights of others? This morality game places you in the shoes of a border agent for a fictional Eastern Bloc country and tasks you with allowing – or barring – people entry. Check if their papers are in order, listen to their stories, and make your decisions. There will be consequences.
FTL: Faster Than Light
Subset Games
Laptop requirements:
- Memory: 1 GB
- GPU: Intel HD 3000
- CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo E8400
- File Size: 175 MB
Manage a starship as it escapes from a powerful fleet, assigning people to engines, weapons, medical bays, and more. From suffocating a boarding party by opening the airlock to taking out an enemy ship’s weapons systems with well-placed shots, FTL makes you feel like a master tactician… right up until you’re turned into space debris because of your hubris. You might never finish this notoriously difficult laptop game, but you’ll have a bunch of fun trying. Make it so!
Don’t Starve
Klei Entertainment
Laptop requirements:
- Memory: 4 GB
- GPU: AMD Radeon HD 5450
- CPU: Intel Pentium 4 1.70GHz
- File Size: 500 MB
Control a range of characters in a top-down world reminiscent of a Tim Burton cheese dream and learn to survive in this alien landscape. Giant cyclops birds, pigmen, overgrown spiders, hunger, and insanity are just some of the things you have to deal with. Once you die, it’s right back to the start again. At least next time you’ll know not to eat the red mushrooms. There's also a co-op version for not starving with your friends.
If you do have one of those beefy gaming PCs, you should check out our list of the best PC games to play right now.
