Apple fans are used to free gaming for the iPhone and iPad, but tend not to think so much about free games for macOS. This is a shame, because the Mac is a great games platform with plenty of excellent freebies.

Indeed, the Mac App store is positively packed with free games, and you can pick up some amazing Mac games elsewhere that are great fun to play without paying a penny. These aren't just casual or hobbyist games, either, but full-blown, high-quality experiences.

Note that before playing for the first time, some titles may require you to temporarily adjust your security settings in System Preferences > Security & Privacy > General. Set 'Allow apps downloaded from' to 'Anywhere', launch the app once, confirm you're OK with it, and then revert your System Preferences settings to a higher level of security.

For more brilliant gaming options, read our roundup of the best Mac games, and our guide to the best free web browser games for Mac.

Basketmania

It's not the most visually amazing game, but Basketmania is a giggle to play. Use the dots to line up the beginning of a trajectory and fling the ball. It's easy to pick up but soon starts to offer a more challenging experience.

FREE | Download Basketmania

Beneath a Steel Sky

Beneath a Steel Sky is a old science-fiction point-and-click adventure game from back in 1994 (it was originally released on the Amiga). It's been reworked to run on OS X, and while the graphics aren't incredible it does have a real charm. It's like reading a detective novel set in a cyberpunk future.

FREE | Download Beneath a Steel Sky

Brogue

Brogue is a roguelike adventure game for the Mac based upon the classic adventure game Rogue (first developed back in 1980). The levels, characters and enemies are all represented using letters and symbols, which may strike you as a bit odd but it's actually a great representation of a world.

It's almost like a cross between a text adventure and an early video game. It's incredibly tough to play, but Rogue is a classic and Brogue is the best modern representation.

FREE | Download Brogue

Counter-Strike: Global Offensive

The original Counter-Strike was released way back in 2000, and is still available as a paid-for game. The team-based Global Offensive followed in 2012, and was also paid-for, although it switched to free-to-play at the end of 2018, partly as a response to the success of titles such as Fortnite.

Global Offensive has the same anti-terrorist theme as other games in the Counter-Strike series, but focuses on online multiplayer action with two teams competing to achieve their objective, such as defusing a bomb or rescuing a group of hostages. There are several different game modes available, including Casual and Deathmatch, which are the easiest for new players who are just getting started.

At the end of each match you'll be rewarded with in-game currency that you can spend on upgrading your weapons and other gear, and as you improve you can work your way up to the more advanced Competitive mode. If you're really good then you can pay for a Prime Status upgrade (£11.29/$14.99) that gives you better loot and teams you up with other top players. Alternatively, the couch potatoes among us can switch into Watch mode, and see how the professionals do it.

FREE | Download Counter-Strike: Global Offensive

DOTA 2

Defence Of The Ancients - aka DOTA - and its sequel, DOTA 2, were among the key games that started the MOBA genre of online strategy games a few years ago. Even today, Valve claims that DOTA 2 is the most played game on Steam. Unfortunately, the Mac version of DOTA 2 was, shall we say, a bit erratic, and it took quite a while to come up with a stable and reliable version.

The current version works perfectly well, though, and the age of the game means that you don't need a super-powerful Mac to run it. However, DOTA 2 is quite a complex game, with dozens of hero characters that you can choose to play, each with their own weapons and powers that can affect your style of play. Fortunately, the current version does include an improved tutorial to help you get started, and if you stick with it then DOTA 2 will provide endless hours of challenging strategy action.

FREE | Download DOTA 2

Dwarf Fortress

Like Brogue, Dwarf Fortress is another ASCII-based open roleplaying game. It's incredibly complex, as you explore the world and build your own fortresses. You get an expedition team of dwarfs, and use them to perform tasks like woodworking, farming and craft-making.

You then get to dig up the earth, mine for minerals and begin building your own world. Minecraft owes it a big debt.

FREE | Download Dwarf Fortress

The Elder Scrolls: Legends

Legends takes the characters, setting, and artwork of the vast Elder Scrolls role-playing games and transfers them on to digital cards, which you'll collect in the game and use to battle against both computer and online players. It promises a large amount of single-player content, but the biggest draw is sure to be the real-time online competition, for which you'll build your best deck to prepare for tense battles. Andrew Hayward

FREE | Download The Elder Scrolls: Legends

Eternal Card Game

At a glance, Eternal looks a lot like Blizzard's wildly popular Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft, but reviewers say it's a lot more like Magic: The Gathering with having to play land cards and build mana. And if that all means nothing to you, know this: it's a free-to-play online card-battling game, it has a cool Wild West-meets-fantasy aesthetic, and most players seem to love it. Andrew Hayward

FREE | Download Eternal Card Game

Eve Online

Eve Online has been available for Macs for quite some time, although the macOS version of the game didn't always perform very well, and it hasn't had a large following so far. However, some recent updates and a move to 64-bit software should help to make Eve Online a bit more Mac-friendly.

It's a vast and remarkable game, giving you a galactic-scale interplanetary sandbox to play in, where you can explore strange new worlds, start trading, or get stuck in with some space-faring combat. The game starts in a fairly conventional manner, allowing you to choose from four different races, as well as a variety of trading, combat and other skills. And, of course, you'll need to choose a suitable ship in order to head off into space and begin your adventures.

The in-game economy is vast, and you can spend your entire time simply exploring and trading, or join one of the many factions that are constantly vying for power. It's not an easy game to learn, though - even with the in-game tutorial for beginners - so you can take out an optional subscription, or buy a starter pack to help you boost your skills and ease you into the game. The system requirements for the dazzling outer-space graphics are pretty high too, so check that your Mac can handle the game before signing up.

FREE | Play Eve Online

Fistful of Frags

If you want a great free first-person shooter then Fistful of Frags is the game to get. It's built upon the Half Life 2 engine, so looks the business and plays incredibly well. It's set in the wild west, and you have old weapons like pistols, rifles and shotguns.

Players work in teams, and four teams: Desperados, Vigilantes, Rangers and Banditos compete in each online game. Each game is packed with close-range, tense gunfights.

FREE | Download Fistful of Frags

Fortnite

There's no doubt that Fortnite is one of the most popular games in the world at the moment, with the game's professional World Cup tournament recently offering millions of dollars in prize money to top players.

The rest of us non-professionals can get started easily enough, though, as the game's basic Battle Royale mode is free to download and play - albeit with some pretty expensive Battle Packs that offer a variety of upgrades that can help you progress more quickly. It follows the standard Battle Royale format, dropping 100 players onto an island or zone, where you can collect materials and weapons, building your own base and fighting to be one of the last players standing.

There's also a Creative mode, which is free, where you can design your own island and invite friends to compete in your own little Fortnite world. However, the co-op, four-player Save The World mode requires the purchase of an upgrade pack, with prices starting at £34.99/$39.99.

FREE | Play Fortnite

Full Deck Solitaire

Solitaire is a classic card game that's a great way to while away an hour or two. Full Deck Solitaire is a visually gorgeous version that's also easy to pick up and play. Aside from that it's very much the Solitaire we all know and love. A great free addition to the Mac.

FREE | Download Full Deck Solitaire

Hearthstone

Hearthstone is an online game where you collect cards. Sounds boring, but it's got around 40 million players so put your preconceived ideas away.

You earn cards by playing daily quests, and then battle your cards in online matches against other gamers (where you can win rare cards). You can't trade cards, you can only win them in battles (this is a good thing as it means there are no scams and fewer robots playing).

It's easy to pick up, quick to fit into your daily life and has an amazing community of players. There are in-app purchases, but you can get by just playing the free game.

FREE | Download Hearthstone

League of Legends

League of Legends is a multiplayer battle arena game (MOBA) and is one of the most popular games in the world. You control a champion, and compete in matches against other players online.

You'll start out at a very low level and gain experience as you play the game. It's a very easy game to get started with, but is ultra-competitive amongst its fans. It's also far deeper than you first suspect, with a huge range of characters. A great free game to play.

FREE | Download League of Legends

Lord of the Rings Online

LOTRO is a free strategy game based in JRR Tolkien's Middle-earth. You create a character and get to wander around Middle-earth, going through a main quest story.

While there is a bit of combat (against game monsters or other players), it has a huge amount of crafting where you can build objects and artifacts, and both farm and cook food. This gives it a charm that Tolkien fans will love.

FREE | Download Lord of the Rings Online

Manic Miner

A loving tribute to Matthew Smith's seminal 1980s platform game, Manic Miner finds you leaping through 20 single-screen caverns, on a mission to collect objects and not horribly die. The problem is, this being based on a 1980s game, dying comes frequently.

But stick with Manic Miner, gradually mastering its challenges, and you'll find a deviously designed classic platformer, even if it lacks the eye-searing colours and ear-smashing audio of the ZX Spectrum original.

FREE | Download Manic Miner

Marathon Trilogy

Before Bungie made Halo (originally a Mac game) it built Marathon, a first-person shooter set in space. Halo fans will recognise much that made it into Halo, although it's recognisably an older game.

Marathon has been updated by fans to work on Mac and a free version can be downloaded. It's a little long in the tooth, but a great piece of gaming history.

FREE | Download Marathon Trilogy

Max Gentlemen

As everyone knows, a gentleman must wear a hat. And so it follows that to 'max' your gentleman status, you must wear all the hats.

Hence in this game you belt along, pilfering other people's hats by having yours magically leap from your head. Swooping birds must be avoided by moving the magic hat up and down the stack and leaping from that point. And one you've maxed out your hats, you head to the pub for one-on-one hat and beer-guzzling battles with a drinking chum.

FREE | Download Max Gentlemen

NeonPlat 2

This fast-paced single-screen wraparound platform game finds you scooting along lazily drifting platforms, trying to paint white ones blue. For reasons unknown, the other inhabitants of this neon realm hate your interior design skills and set out to stop you.

Fortunately, you can unsportingly hurl balls you collect their way. Other than that, it's a case of dodging and running until they clobber you the traditional three times.

FREE | Download NeonPlat 2

Pacapong

A game to set IP lawyers twitching, Pacapong finds two bats facing off, a maze of dots and ghosts between then. The ball is fired into a corridor, whereupon it takes on a famous form and starts munching dots.

If it ingests an alien bonus, an invader attacks the opposition's bat. Wait long enough and a celebrity gaming ape starts hurling barrels into the air. (And Pacapong is precisely why remix culture should be celebrated rather than curbed - it's mad and brilliant.)

FREE | Download Pacapong

Realm of the Mad God

Preposterously addictive and blessed with some of the catchiest music in gaming, RotMG is a twin-stick shooter and massively multiplayer (co-operative) RPG that caused massive drops in productivity in the Macworld offices one Christmas. You can play in the browser or download it on Steam; either way the game is free. David Price

FREE | Download Realm of the Mad God

Shadowverse

With its many millions of active players, Blizzard's Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft feels like the de facto collectible card game today, but there are alternatives. Shadowverse is the latest, although it appears to have garnered a significant following in Japan before getting translated into English. In fact, many reviewers claim it scratches an itch that Hearthstone simply cannot.

On the surface, however, they seem very similar: you'll take turns playing a creature or hero card on the board, and then they'll battle it out, while the 400+ collectible cards offer a load of deck variety. It's free-to-play, too, which means pumping in money can bring big advantages, but at least you can try it out and probably play quite a bit without spending. Andrew Hayward

FREE | Play Shadowverse

Shotgun FunFun

Probably the most fun you can have in five minutes. Shotgun FunFun is a side-scrolling action game in which you have to shoot as many zombies as possible with a shotgun. It's dumb fun, but definitely fun.

FREE | Download Shotgun FunFun

Slime Time

The most brutal game in this list, Slime Time finds a little jet-packing CEO trying to cover up a toxic waste crisis. Said executive blasts about, blowing up sewer pipes that spew green goo and lasering creatures that emerge from the toxic pool below.

Recoil-based controls wrong-foot you from the start - firing the laser downwards also moves you up, and left/right shoots in that direction but flings you the other way - and the difficulty is such you'll consider yourself a gaming genius on scoring more than zero. It's infuriatingly compelling, though.

FREE | Download Slime Time

Spelunky

This indie darling is best known in remade form on Xbox 360 and PS Vita, but its origins go way back to 2008 on Windows. This download is an unofficial Mac take on that first version.

And what a game it is, featuring a little spelunker exploring procedurally generated caves packed full of ladders, precarious drops, venomous spiders and loads of bling. Merely surviving is a test; zooming through levels at a rate the game's happy with is a true challenge for even the most skilled gamer.

FREE | Download Spelunky

Starcraft 2: Starter Edition

Starcraft 2 is one of the finest games you can get for the Mac. That you can get an (almost) full Starcraft 2 game for free is jaw-dropping.

This strategy game sees you controlling three different races: Terrans, Zerg and the Protoss. Each race has different weapons, craft and abilities (and each feels magnificently different to play). You wage battles against one or two of the other races.

There's a great narrative story, and you can play five missions from the full game in the Starter Edition. You can also play other gamers online, and it's a great multiplayer experience.

The original Starcraft has gone free too, along with the Brood War expansion.

FREE | Download Starcraft 2: Starter Edition

Super Crate Box

A fierce twitch platform shooter, Super Crate Box tasks you with leaping about platforms, blasting running skeleton heads, and collecting boxes. If the skeletons reach the fire, they reappear at the top of the screen in madder, faster form, so keeping their numbers down is key; but only collecting boxes improves your score and racks up the points needed to unlock new arenas and weaponry.

The game's an adrenaline-rush juggling act, then, often over in seconds, but compelling enough to stick with until you're armed to the teeth.

FREE | Download Super Crate Box

Super Stickman Golf 3

Golf? Isn't that just people hitting tiny balls with sticks? How very dull. But in Super Stickman Golf 3, you wear hats that give you special abilities, wield clubs that also have crazy powers, and thwack balls about floating islands, in dungeons, and through space stations in zero-gravity.

For free, you get 20 full courses and online turn-by-turn matches with friends; cough up for premium (£2.99/$2.99) and you get yet more places to show off your swing.

FREE | Download Super Stickman Golf 3

Team Fortress 2

This is the gold medal award. Team Fortress 2 is an amazingly well-balanced online shooter with a wonderful cartoon style.

Even though Team Fortress 2 is multiplayer-only, it's easy to jump in and start playing on your own. It's ridiculously good fun, with a range of genuinely different character types. You'll soon become utterly addicted to helping your team win each shootout.

FREE | Download Team Fortress 2

Teeworlds

If you remember a game called Worms, then you'll love Teeworlds. It's like Worms, but free.

Up to 16 players can play at once, and you can meet other gamers online. It's open-source and developed by users who play the game themselves. You can also create your own maps using the in-game map editor.

FREE | Download Teeworlds

Touchgrind

This game from iOS makes its way to the Mac in style. Touchgrind is a skateboarding game where you place two fingers on the trackpad to guide the skateboard around.

It's a real test of skill, but also an innovate control style that makes a great change from the usual mouse and keyboard routine.

FREE | Download Touchgrind

Trove

Minecraft has become a global phenomenon in the last few years, with millions of players exploring its chunky pixelated world - including many young children getting their first taste of gaming. But Minecraft isn't free, so if you're looking for a free alternative then Trove is a good place to start.

It provides the same open-world freedom as Minecraft, allowing you to build your own home within the game world, or letting your imagination run wild as you create vast castles and other buildings to play in. However, Trove also has elements of RPG action that allow you to go off and explore dungeons and other locations within the world, and to join up with other players as you battle monsters and search for hidden treasures. There's also a Battleverse mode that lets you go head-to-head in combat against your friends.

The basic version of Trove is free to download and play, but there are expansion packs that provide access to new classes and areas within the game - much like DLC content for traditional RPG games - and some of these can be quite pricey, so keep an eye on the kids if they're playing with your Steam account.

FREE | Download Trove

World of Warcraft

Slight word of warning: World of Warcraft is genuinely addictive.

This online roleplaying game puts several players together and keeps them building up their characters. World of Warcraft is one of the greatest computer experiences ever made, and has legions of fans.

It's free to play up until level 20, but you can buy a subscription that unlocks the remainder of the game. Most people play the subscription model so it'll only be free until you get hooked and start wanting to play the extra levels.

FREE | Download World of Warcraft

Zen Pinball 2

Pinball's great on an iPad, but Macs have the clout to render tables in a properly eye-dazzling fashion. And Zen Pinball's tables are certainly dazzling, marrying realistic physics with larger-than-life animatronics and special effects.

You can buy tables in-app (including Marvel and Star Wars ones), but spooky fairytale Sorcerer's Lair is entirely free. It's a great table, packed with mini-games, ramps and missions, as you venture into a haunted mansion and join forces with the spectral Whisper in an attempt to defeat the titular Sorcerer.

FREE | Download Zen Pinball 2