Free-to-play has become somewhat of a phenomenon in gaming over recent years. The idea is very attractive to both players and developers alike.
For players, the option to just download and play a game for free, allowing you to try a genre you might not normally play, or not feel compelled to play for any length of time, is a great feature.
For developers, free-to-play can quickly increase your player base, which is essential for multiplayer titles in particular.
10 Best Free To Play Games With Near-Flawless Steam User Reviews
No expense, but all the quality of a paid blockbuster. Sign me up!
Some games, such as the below ten, will even convert into free-to-play later in their lifecycle, either to extend their life, revive a dwindling player base or chase the elusive Golden Goose of billions of dollars for a successful live-service title.
Entries are ranked by how successful their free-to-play transfer has been and how beneficial it’s been to players.
This list doesn’t include mobile phone ports which turn free to allow for ads or purchasable chapters, or games which have become free-to-play after a paid early access.
10Destiny 2
I Hope You’ve Been Following Since Day 1
Fextralife Wiki
Destiny 2was originally released as a paid-for sequel toDestinyin 2017. With a more focused approach to the lore and story, as well as some excellent level design and the always-pitch-perfect Bungie gun play, it was released to great success.
Four paid-for expansions followed, and then Bungie brought the publishing rights for Destiny from Activision.
Destiny 2 then pivoted to free-to-play, with the base game, Leviathan Raid, and the first two expansions being accessible to all. Other expansions could be brought separately, with each being a self-contained experience.
Now, with Destiny 2 becoming bigger and more unwieldy with each update, some of these expansions and seasonal content have since been shelved.
This means that if you are new to the game you might need to watch some YouTube catch-up videos, as the game isn’t the greatest atexplaining what to do first.
9Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Siege X
Free-To-Play, Sort Of
Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Siege X
Rainbow Six Siege, a tactical shooter game by Ubisoft, shows what can happen if a developer doesn’t let early sales numbers dictate its stance on the game.
Rainbow Six Siege originally released to middling sales numbers, which could have easily made Ubisoft give up on the shooter, as they’ve done withplenty of other games.
Instead, they continued to support it and set their sights on player retention, creating a loyal fanbase that slowly increased to over 45 million registered players as of 2019.
To celebrate its 10-year anniversary in 2025, Rainbow Six Siege was rebranded as Rainbow Six Siege X, with a free-to-play tier being added, allowing potential players to have a go at modes like Quick Match and Unranked without having to open their wallets.
8Fall Guys
Not Nearly The Fall Guy
Fall Guyshad an interesting release timeline. Released in the middle of the pandemic, it benefited strongly from streamers and the party atmosphere it created, alongside the fact that it was released on PlayStation Plus.
Originally a paid-for title, the party game, which is a mix of Total Wipeout and Gang Beasts, exploded in popularity, with over 10 million copies sold and saw everyone chasing for an elusive crown. It also saw alot of copycatsand eventually Epic picked it up.
10 Free To Play Games With Great Cosmetics
You don’t pay to win, you pay to be fashionable.
As with the other games in its portfolio, Epic quickly turned Fall Guys into free-to-play, with it still performing well to this day, now with over 50 million accounts activated.
7Counter-Strike: 2
A Counter To Paying
Counter-Strike 2
Counter-Strike: Global Offensiveis one of the most popular eSports currently available, as well as one of the most concurrently played games on Steam, ever.
A tough-to-learn and even tougher-to-master tactical shooter, the game has won over a large player base who spend 1000s of hours on the game to reach the top levels.
The game also has a sprawling skin market for its weapons, with the most expensive havingjust sold for $400,000.
Now, the skin market has had to be restricted in recent years due to a proliferation inmoney-laundering, but the microtransactions are still a big cash-cow for Valve.
These microtransactions, alongside the popularity of Fortnite in 2018, caused Valve to convert the play model for CS: GO into free-to-play as well as include its own battle royale mode. When the game converted intoCounter-Strike 2in 2023, it kept this free-to-play model.
6PUBG: Battlegrounds
From Record-Breaking Sales To Microtransactions
PUBG: Battlegrounds
PUBGcatapulted the battle royale genre into the limelight, with its mix of emergent stories, tight gunplay and tense match-ups. It also quickly became one of the best-selling games of all time, with over 75 million copies sold.
Unfortunately for PUBG, whenFortnitecame along with its free-to-play battle royale mode, players quickly gravitated to the wacky and colorful world of Tilted Towers.
That’s not to say PUBG became unpopular, however, just that the public conversation heard turned to Flossing, rather than Chicken Dinners.
In 2018, PUBG retaliated and released a free-to-play mobile version of the game, seeing amazing results, with the PC edition also converting to the free-to-play model in January 2022.
5Rocket League
An Epic Tale
Rocket League
Rocket Leaguehad a very similar release story to Fall Guys. While technically released as a paid entry, it actuallyowes its success to PlayStation Plus, which allowed it to reach a player base that might not have otherwise given the game the time of day.
Which is surprising, as football with cars and rocket boosters surely sounds like a slam dunk. At least Rocket League has a happy ending, as a decade later, it’s still going strong witheSports championship pots in the millions of dollars.
Epic brought it in 2020 and turned it into free-to-play to better fit into its strategy of free titles that worked so well for it with Fortnite and Fall Guys.
4The Sims 4
Free-To-Play, Unlike Life
The Sims 4
The Simsseries has always seemed like a great setting for a free-to-play title. The base release of each sequential game has never included everything the previous game had, allowing for a slew of expansion packs, which have become synonymous with the series.
Allowing players the opportunity to dip their toes in for free seems like a good way to appease them and avoid headlines like toddler-gate from happening.
After testing the waters with a few free-to-play mobile games, EA took the plunge and turnedThe Sims 4into a free-to-play game in 2022. Well, the base game anyway, with each bit of DLC needing to be purchased –which can quickly add up.
However, with mods andguides as to which DLC should be purchased first, as well as the occasional giveaway of smaller stuff packs, there’s still plenty of life left in the life sim.
3StarCraft II
A Star Is Born
StarCraft 2
StarCraft IIwas initially released in 2010 to universal acclaim for its gameplay and storytelling. It sold over 3 million copies in its first month, becoming the fastest-selling RTS of all time, at the time of its release.
The game was, at one point, seen as the largest eSport in the world, until the likes ofLoLandDota 2eclipsed it. It started to see a decline in player numbers from 2013, with the final expansion being released in 2016.
The game seemed to be seeing the end of its lifecycle; however, Blizzard then made the decision to transition the game to free-to-play for its multiplayer modes and the base single-player campaign.
This caused aresurgence in player numbers, especially as emerging markets such as Brazil now had even easier access to the game.
2Team Fortress 2
Hats Off To TF2
Team Fortress 2
Team Fortress 2is the second Valve game on this list and the originator of the cosmetic skin boom. Originally released in 2007 as a paid-for title, as part ofThe Orange Box, it turned into free-to-play in 2011.
Its main source of revenue is through in-game transactions, which aremostly hat-based. This change caused TF2’s revenues to increase by afactor of 12.
This cemented free-to-play as a business model that Valve would continue to use, to great success, with Dota 2, Counter-Strike 2 andHalf-Life 3. Well, maybe not the last one.
1The Lord of the Rings Online
My Precious Subscription
The Lord of the Rings Online
The Lord of the Rings Online was originally released in 2007 to great reviews but middling sales. As any MMO of the period found, trying to go up against the might ofWorld of Warcraftwas nigh on impossible.
The game transitioned to free-to-play in 2010, and saw itsrevenue triple, becoming the third most-played MMO of the year.
Players flocked to the intricate world of Tolkien, with all its beloved characters, tall tales and even a MIDI-based music playing system.
While its standing in the rankings has since dropped as new players and returning classic modes of other MMO’s have been released, the game is still popular enough to gain new expansions to this day.
As with many of the games on this list, the expansion packs continue to be paid for. However, all the expansion packs up to and including 2013’s Helm’s Deep are now included for free.
8 Indie RPGs With AAA Appeal
There are big name RPGs, and there are those RPGs that you’ll love forever even without the massive budget.
