The best PC game of 2024

The PC is arguably the definitive gaming platform, deeper and wider than any of the custom boxes you put under your TV. It’s become a catch-all for multi-platform games, an inevitable second home for first-party console exclusives, and a bastion for smaller games that might not be able to develop ports. It’s also a destination unto itself for unique, mouse-and-keyboard-driven genres that just aren’t quite as comfortable to play while sitting on a couch, while also being the place for laptop-friendly games thanks to f .eg Steam tires. Unsurprisingly, that meant we had plenty of games to choose from when it came to crowning our 2024 PC favorites.

While plenty of incredible games came to both PC and other platforms this year, our picks for the best PC games of 2024 stand as a mix of impressive experiences across multiple genres — some of which simply can’t be played with a controller in your hand. There are the convoluted, automated empires of Satisfactory; the exquisite puzzle design of Animal Well; Balatro’s just-one-round compulsion; the thrilling detective work The Rise of the Golden Idol and more.

But only one can be named the best PC game of 2024. What did the IGN team rate as the most worthy? Let’s take a look at the results…

Honorable mentions

With so many excellent games to choose from this year, the spread of votes for the best PC game was understandably wide. The varied tastes of the IGN team meant that several games received strong votes, but unfortunately not enough to secure a podium finish. Of those games, the two that only just missed out were 1000xResist and The Rise of the Golden Idol.

Plenty of games tell a compelling story, but it’s the way 1000xResist tells its story that really stands out. It’s a confident and moving narrative that isn’t afraid to go deep, mixing surreal concepts with emotional deconstructions of the human condition in a way reminiscent of games like Nier: Automata. Thanks to its narrative-first design being something of a first cousin to visual novels, 1000xResist’s story is able to double down on the delivery of ideas and plot in innovative ways that raise the bar for its genre.

A follow-up to 2022’s breakout detective game, The Rise of the Golden Idol continues to impress by allowing you to solve its crimes with hands-on detective work. Set in the 1970s, it features multiple diorama-like crime scenes in each chapter, requiring you to gather clues via close observation and then piece together exactly what happened. Rarely are the actual events as simple as they appear, and the truth can only be gleaned from spotting minor things, such as an empty armory or the hidden subtext of an angry note. It is a “puzzle game” that is not only about finding the right button to press, with an artistic presentation that is completely unique.

Runner-Up: Animal well

2D pixel art platformers can feel like they’re a dime a dozen these days, but Animal Well is different. It might sound like a cliche setup, something you’ve heard before about plenty of other games, but it’s really true here. Animal Well wears the skin of a puzzle-driven metroidvania while also bucking all the usual trends that come with that structure.

You’re not fighting your way through waves of enemies or increasing your missile capacity here, thanks in part to Animal Well’s near-complete rejection of violence. Instead, you’ll find bubble-blowing wands that can produce floating platforms, Frisbees that can tame rabid dogs, and fireworks that illuminate the darkness to reveal the hidden platforming challenges ahead.

However, the real joy of Animal Well is realizing that there is far, far more to each item than their obvious use. And then you begin to realize that there is far, far more to each place than the obvious goals. And as you begin to peel back the layers, you quickly discover that what initially appeared to be a five-hour metroidvania is instead a gigantic puzzle with enough secrets to discover that they could fill an actual well. It is an innovative and endlessly enticing take on otherwise well-worn terrain.

Number two: Satisfying

After nearly five years in Early Access, Satisfactory’s 1.0 update arrived this year to cement it as one of the absolute best automation games out there. It’s about building assembly lines and laying down endless kilometers of conveyor belts, which is much more of an immense joy than it first appears. The subsequent technical increase that sees your factories become faster, more efficient and inevitably more complicated always has you looking forward to the next big breakthrough.

The sight of spaghetti-like factories spanning a thousand acres may seem intimidating at first, but don’t let that put you off: Satisfactory’s well-constructed grid of targets will help you build confidence in your technical abilities. In just a few hours, you’ve graduated from a novice conveyor belt enthusiast to an automation veteran capable of troubleshooting catastrophic malfunctions as if they were minor inconveniences.

But even if the factories are your primary concern, Satisfactory is much more than the bottom line. This is also a Minecraft-style open world where you must delve into caves, survive deadly gas clouds and strip mine rock formations to collect the necessary materials to both fund and fuel your colossal creations. Throw in a few friends working together in co-op to pave over every inch of greenery on this detailed alien world, and you’ve got a “blink and an hour gone” recipe that rarely stops.

Number two: UFO 50

UFO 50 is an almost incomprehensible achievement. The concept of an old game system being miraculously unearthed and made available today is already cute, and I wouldn’t blame you if you assumed the catalog of 50 games that came with it was pretty much just quantum mini-games that provide a fun but fleeting distraction. But that is simply not the case.

Each and every entry in this library is essentially the size of its own retro game, many of which would surely have been one-of-a-kind hits in their era, had they actually existed at the time. But this isn’t a collection of games made in the 1980s, and the deeper down the rabbit hole you go, the more obvious that becomes. The games in UFO 50 are smart. Like, modern indie darling smart. Each weaves brilliant new ideas into the canvas of a retro classic, resulting in games that feel like toys of yesteryear but play like a Steam top seller in 2024. Echoes of No Man’s Sky, Hotline Miami, Into The Breach and more can be found between the scanlines, but each game is more than just a de-make of its inspiration. UFO 50 is essentially a playable examination of video games past and present.

There’s just so much to dig into here, with an almost alarmingly consistent level of quality. The UFO 50 could have been half the size it is and it would still have been impressive – instead, it’s borderline transgressive.

Winner: Balatro

If you’ve already played Balatro, you probably understand why it’s here. In fact, odds are good you might still be playing it right now. And if you haven’t, I’d recommend you do, but maybe the kinder thing is to tell you to run. Because once you jump into its clever blend of roguelit deck building and digital poker, you might find your free time slipping away and the sun creeping up on what should still be night. But again, it’s definitely worth it.

There’s something about Balatro that effortlessly captures you, the “just one more ride” syndrome distilled to its purest form. Everything about its rather simple presentation is perfectly tuned to be endlessly satisfying, bringing joy or destruction with every card you play. Although on the surface it’s a poker game accessible to anyone who can feel their flushes from their full houses, don’t be fooled into thinking you need to know the rules of the classic casino game to play. It actually isn’t actually poker.

Balatro is a completely original idea, and while poker hands may be in the center of the screen, the real center of the experience is building wild game-breaking decks that can send your score multiplier skyrocketing. Each round allows you to fine-tune and improve your collection of cards, change suits to more easily achieve better hands, or use celestial powers to collect literal wild cards. The possibilities are incredibly deep for those who then want to open up the intuitive tropes with clever modifiers – you may have put together a four-of-a-cheek in your day, but play a five-of-a-cheek for the first time, and you will never return.

This is Balatro’s truly impressive trick, making you think you know what it’s doing every step of the way, then teasing you deeper as more game-changing jokers are discovered, more decks unlocked, and the scores you consider to be impressive, starts range from thousands to exponents so large that you need a degree to decipher them. Wrap that in a lo-fi presentation that’s as deceptively well-designed as the deck it houses, and you’ve got a game we’ll no doubt be playing for years to come.