Gaming can put major stress on your wallet and even with seasonal Steam sales, it never feels like there’s enough money in the world to try out all the games we want. Luckily there are a ton out there that don’t cost anything! We’ve been digging into the Steam library and found ten exceptional free to play games currently available, so save your cash.

IGN's Top 25 Modern PC Games 26 IMAGES

10. Brawlhalla

Initial release date: November 3, 2015

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9. Team Fortress 2

Brawlhalla could be described as Smash Bros lite. It’s a platform fighter that incorporates powerful weapons and gadget drops that change your playstyle according to the specific item. One minute you’ll be fighting with grenades, then the next you’ll be riding a rocket spear into someone’s face.Play in ranked or casual matches that support 1v1, 4v4, and anywhere in between. There’s even an alternate party mode with completely different objectives to mix things up. The roster of 46 legends can be bought with earnable in-game currency in addition to real money, but there are always 8 legends available for free every week in rotation.Aside from the cute sprite art and animations, every legend has different stats that help to make each feel unique. For example, my favorite Legend, Fait, has increased speed and strength but lowered dexterity and defense. Barraza, on the other hand, is more of a tank with slower movement but a high defense stat. Brawlhalla has something for everyone and might have you coming back with friends to play once you get your first taste of victory. - Stella Chung

Initial release date: October 10, 2007

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8. War Thunder

Team Fortress 2 is the grandaddy of hero shooters. But don’t play it for a history lesson. Play it because it’s fun, stylish, unique, and still boasts around 50,000 concurrent players every single day. Choose from nine of the most creative and fundamentally dissimilar classes ever crammed into the same first-person shooter to accomplish objectives with the rest of your ridiculous 16-player team.Don convincing disguises, eat a sandwich and even drench your enemies in piss. If the brilliant core game modes are too fun for you then why not try the cooperative, wave-based Mann v.s Machine mode? And much like CS:GO, the TF2 community has taken it upon themselves to create even more wacky modes like prop hunt, surf, and trading servers where players argue over who has the most valuable hat. - James Duggan

Initial release date: November 1, 2012

7. Paladins

War Thunder is an absolutely massive military vehicular combat game, featuring hundreds of vehicles from multiple eras and more than half a dozen nations. You’ll progress through the tech tree of your chosen nation’s arsenal of aircraft, tanks, or naval warships.Choose your preferred arena, be it ground, land, or sea and queue into matches of up to 32 players. Good news if you’re a Mil-Sim buff: War Thunder offers realistic and simulation variants of the normal arcade mode that boast more realistic damage and flight models in addition to things like having to return to an airfield to reload. There’s certainly a lot of progression to work through, but even at low levels, there’s plenty of pretty fun to be had. - James Duggan

Initial release date: September 15, 2016

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6. DOTA Underlords

Paladins is more than a little similar to Overwatch, but it does some interesting things of its own. What’s unique about Paladins is that it incorporates a card deck system for your champion that grants amplified attributes and enhanced or modified skills that allows you to build towards a specific playstyle.All cards are free to use for all Champions which opens up customization to a higher degree. There are three major game modes: Siege (a capture the objective and push the payload type), Team Deathmatch (5v5), and Onslaught (a capture the point objective).And of course, Paladins boasts a roster of 41 playable champions each with unique abilities. For example, my personal favorite, Seris, is a support character who directly heals teammates but is also able to hold her own in a fight since dealing damage heals her. My favorite ability of hers is that she can slip out of dicey situations with her Shadow Travel which grants immunity from damage for a limited amount of time. Matches aren’t absurdly long and getting kills feels super rewarding, especially if you’re trying a Champion you’ve never played before. - Stella Chung

Initial release date: June 20, 2019

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5. Smite

Dota Underlords is a Valve-created, standalone version of the popular “Auto Chess” mod for Dota 2. At a top-level, Underlords is a deckbuilding tactics game. And while it isn’t exactly easy to pick up at first, it becomes dangerously fun and addictive once you have a few games under your belt.Each match pits eight players against one another to see who can build the best team of random units drafted from a shared pool. You’ll have to consider unit placement, synergies, stats, effects, your opponents’ strategies as well as properly manage your gold and experience in order to achieve victory. Every match is a brand new opportunity to try a new and fun build, which makes the prospect of playing just one more hard to refuse. - James Duggan

Initial release date: March 25, 2014

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MOBAs can seem daunting to approach but Smite makes it easy to jump right into the thick of it. Most MOBAs are isometric point and click, but Smite is actually unique in that it’s played in third- person. Gods, the roster of playable characters, are deities, immortals, and mythical creatures from ancient mythology from all over the world.You can play as Medusa, Ra, or even Cupid if you want. The classic game of Smite is a 5v5 but there are other game modes with different rules and objectives that you can choose from. My personal favorite is Joust, a 3v3 mode that’s on a one-lane map with the goal of destroying the enemy’s defenses and their Titan. Joust, along with a few other game modes, usually last about 15 minutes which makes it super fun and easy to hop into a match without worrying about spending a half-hour in one game. Smite is a fresh take on MOBAs and is beginner-friendly to players who might be unfamiliar to the genre. - Stella Chung

Initial release date: August 21, 2012

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3. Warframe

The Counter-Strike series has been the gold standard of competitive PC shooters for more than 20 years and the global eSports scene for CS:GO has been going strong since the Major Championships were founded in 2013. While CS:GO’s biggest draw is undoubtedly its core bomb defusal and hostage rescue game modes, it also has a plethora of other modes to choose from including the addicting gun game and a new battle royale that went live back in December.In addition to the official game playlist, CS:GO allows the community to build private modded servers that allow for a variety of creative game types. Some of these custom servers help you with your aim, while others house surfing obstacle courses, and some even create bizarre story campaigns that you just have to experience for yourself. - Stella Chung

Initial release date: March 25, 2013

2. Dota 2

From the outside looking in, Warframe can seem impenetrable. Half a decade of updates, system reworks, and ever-evolving stories have made it a complex game chock full of different mechanics to learn. While that can be intimidating at first, Warframe is so dang fun that it more than rewards the time you put into learning it.Years of updates also mean it holds a well of content so deep you may not see the bottom even after hundreds of hours playing - all of which can be experienced entirely free, as Warframe has some of the most inviting free-to-play systems on this list. It’s a game that truly never stops getting better, and it’s well worth getting comfortable with so you can craft your own space ninja suits and bullet-jump through waves of enemies with the rest of us. - Tom Marks

Initial release date: July 9, 2013

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1. Path of Exile

Remember MOBAs? Though they are no longer front and center in the gaming trends spotlight, they're still immensely popular, and Dota 2's spot on this list is a testament to that. Dota 2 is a highly strategic MOBA with a reputation for its challenging mechanics. But, if you spend any time with it, you'll see why people like myself have invested years in this game. Like most MOBAs, Dota 2 pits two teams of five against each other on a map divided up by three lanes.The first team to destroy a key structure in the enemy's base, called an Ancient (hence the name Defense of the Ancients), wins. All the matches may happen on one map with the objective the same each time, but the growing list of over 100 heroes and plenty of item combinations to go with them makes each match unique. Valve's constant updates, some of which completely change the map and key mechanics, usually keep the meta fresh.Dota 2 can be frustrating at times like with any living multiplayer game, but those narrow (or even crushing) wins make it worth it. Even better, it's all completely free. All updates and all-new heroes. But if you get sucked in, you might find yourself buying cosmetics and its yearly The International Battle Pass that contributes to the event's immense prize pool. That being said, if you're are interested in playing, just be prepared to spend plenty of time learning Dota 2's intricate systems and heroes. - Miranda Sanchez

Initial release date: October 23, 2013

As of summer 2019, it’s fair to say that Path of Exile is the hands-down best ARPG on the market. In terms of post-launch support, developer Grinding Gear Games has candidly raised the bar for the genre. The most recent content update called Legion is Path of Exile’s 10th expansion.The breadth of unique and replayable content at this point is absolutely massive with depth to match when it comes to character progression and loot. What’s more, all of this great content is free. Its monetization system is more altruistic and less intrusive than many $60 AAA games in 2019. If you’re looking for an ARPG with hundreds of hours of unique gameplay and no signs of slowing down its post-launch support in the near future then look no further than Path of Exile. - James Duggan