Gaming is a fun but pricey hobby. Once you build your gaming rig with the latest and greatest graphics card and processor, you’ll be out nearly two grand. You could go in for a less expensive gaming laptop or home console, but games will still cost you between $60 and $70, not including downloadable content added later.
Luckily, there are ways to play games on a budget. Some of the hottest online multiplayer titles are free to play, as are popular esports titles. For everything else, though, you’ll have to pay up. The good news is that there are ways to make those purchases hurt a little less. Here are some websites, tools, and simple tips to help make gaming a little cheaper.
Are There Any Deals? These Sites Will Tell You
Digital storefronts from Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo frequently offer discounts, as do platforms like Steam, GOG, and Itch.io. Check back frequently to score something good, or add what you want to your wishlist to get notifications when they’re on sale. Steam, and many other stores, have bigger seasonal sales that often provide the greatest discounts.
If you can’t be bothered to scour the web, IsThereAnyDeal aggregates sales across the internet and can show you who has the cheapest price at any given moment. Many of the best deals are often digital storefronts, like Fanatical, Green Man Gaming, and IndieGala, that sell Steam keys. On Reddit’s r/GameDeals, users will vote for the best deals, pushing them to the top of the page.
Twitter users can also look to @videogamedeals and @Wario64 for frequent updates about game deals. Just be ready to pounce when you find something you like.
Buy Games in Bundles
Buying in bulk is a popular way to save money on all sorts of goods, so why not do it with games too? The trick is finding bundles that are worth your time.
Humble Bundle is a good place to start. It offers pay-what-you-want bundles on games, comics, software, and more; a portion of what you pay goes to charity. Humble Bundle rotates bundles out every few weeks, but if you look at the right time, you can end up with new games for just a few bucks. Other sites like Fanatical, IndieGala, and Itch.io have their own weekly or monthly bundle deals that can help you save money on more games. You may even be able to score some deals on GOG or Steam.
(Disclosure: PCMag parent company Ziff Davis owns Humble Bundle.)
Subscribe to a Monthly Game Service
Music lovers have Spotify, anime fans use Crunchyroll, and comic book fans have Comixology. It’s only right that gamers have their own subscription services. These options aren’t exactly streaming, but the concept is the same. How else can you get dozens (or even hundreds) of games for one reasonable monthly price?
The biggest name in gaming is Xbox Game Pass, which is available for Xbox consoles and PC. The service offers over 100 games, and the $14.99 Game Pass Ultimate package also includes Xbox Live Gold and EA Play, making it the clear frontrunner on the market.
PlayStation Plus gives you online multiplayer, free PS4 and PS5 games, and exclusive discounts for $9.99 per month or $59.99 per year. If you have a PS5, you would also get a bunch of free PS4 games with the PS Plus Collection.
Nintendo’s Switch Online subscription costs just $19.99 for a full year and provides online play, access to exclusive titles, and over 100 classic games from the NES and Super Nintendo.
Fans of AAA games from EA and Ubisoft can subscribe to EA Play and Ubisoft+, respectively, though the $14.99 you’d pay for the top tier of each service may be too expensive for some.
If you have an Amazon Prime membership, you already have access to free PC games through Prime Gaming. Each month, Amazon has in-game loot and full games available to claim for a limited time. Why not take advantage of what you already pay for?
Humble Choice is a subscription service from Humble Bundle that allows you to claim a selection of games to keep each month, plus play any titles from the Humble Trove collection. The more you pay, the more games you can keep and the bigger your store discount. Another subscription is the family-friendly Utomik service.
There’s Always Mobile Gaming
Yes, the mobile gaming scene has become inundated with free-to-play (and free-to-win) moneymaking schemes over the last half-decade, or so. That doesn’t mean there aren’t still good games out there.
If all you have is an iPhone, iPad, or Android device, we have lists of free and premium games you can pick up while on the go. And with mobile, console, and PC gaming all converging with crossplay, the hardware you use has become less important.
If you’re looking for something a little more curated, there are subscription services for your mobile device. We like what we’ve seen from Apple Arcade, Google Play Pass, and GameClub, which each cost $5 a month
Try Game Streaming
Now, if you want a subscription but don’t necessarily have a powerful enough device to play the latest PC, PlayStation, and Xbox titles, game streaming may be a viable alternative. Provided your internet connection is fast enough, you can tap into remote servers for a monthly price rather than shell out for a pricey gaming PC or console, plus the individual games.
Xbox Game Pass Ultimate might also be your best bet here. Included with the price is Xbox Cloud Gaming, which lets you play many of your favorite Xbox titles on your Android device, with many more devices on the way. But if you prefer Sony, PlayStation Now grants you access to hundreds of PS4, PS3, and PS2 titles for $9.99 a month on console or PC.
We were impressed by Shadow by Blade, a service that lets you rent a high-powered virtual PC and play the games you own. But it’s pretty expensive at $29.99 a month, and the company isn’t taking new customers until 2022. Instead, Nvidia GeForce Now lets you play games from your Steam library on nearly any device, and only costs $9.99 a month.
Newer options, like Google’s Stadia and Amazon’s Luna, give you a high-quality gaming experience on your phone or PC. Of the two, we found Luna to be much more reliable and affordable than Stadia.
Grab Free Games When You Can
The best price to pay for a game is free. Many subscription services allow you to claim games to keep, but there are a few places where you can grab a free game for absolutely no cost. We track these games for you. So does r/Freegamestuff.
If you want free, check out the Epic Game Store, which gives out free games on a weekly basis. Past titles given out for free include Grand Theft Auto V, Hitman, Just Cause 4, Rage 2, Star Wars Battlefront II, A Total War Saga: Troy, and other games a step or two below AAA. You can also find free games available to claim for a limited time on Steam, Itch.io, and even GOG.
You should also keep an eye out for free weekends on Steam (check out this tool) and game trials from companies like Ubisoft, which will grant you unlimited access to titles for a limited amount of time. It’s meant to entice you to buy the full game, but maybe you can blow through the campaign in a few days and save some money.
Don’t Forget the Free-to-Play Titles
Instead of buying a ton of new games, try a free-to-play title. Popular picks like Spellbreak and Team Fortress 2; multiplayer battle royale favorites like Apex Legends and Fortnite; and esports titles such as Dota 2 and League of Legends don’t cost anything to get started.
Free games are everywhere, but Steam in particular has a hefty collection of enjoyable free games. Just don’t fall into any microtransaction and play-to-win schemes.
