Best free online games to play in a browser, by mood and number of players

Short answer: pick by situation. For five minutes on your own, a daily word puzzle or a logic puzzle. For two people, checkers, battleship or tic tac toe, because a friend can join with a link. For a group of three or more, drawing and guessing games. For a long evening or a few weeks, a browser RPG with progress you can come back to. Below are two or three options for each case, including games we did not make, and what each is actually good for.

We build browser games ourselves, so some of ours are in the list. Where someone else's game fits better, we say so.

You have five minutes and you are alone

You want short rounds, rules you understand on the first screen, and no penalty for skipping a day.

• Wordle. One five-letter word, six tries, one puzzle a day. The New York Times promised to keep it free when it bought the game in 2022; check the Times site for the current status. The catch is that you get one puzzle a day.
• Checkers puzzles. Checkers: Towers has eighty "find the winning move" puzzles, some needing two or three moves in a row. One takes a minute or two, and hints are available.
• One room in Hall of Finds. In this hidden object game a room can be cleared in a few minutes, and there is a setting that turns the countdown off if rushing annoys you. A trip into a room spends one entry, and entries come back one every twelve minutes. The free rooms never cost entries.

There are two of you

A two-player game needs a clear turn order and no setup. The usual annoyance is that your friend has to install something or make an account. In a browser, a link solves that.

• Checkers. Our game has nine rule sets, from Russian and international draughts to giveaway checkers and Wolf and Sheep. You invite a friend with a room code or a QR code, and they join from their own browser. You can also play two on one screen.
• Battleship. Naval Battle has an Online button in the menu: it finds a live opponent, and if nobody turns up for a while a bot takes the seat. The rules are the paper-and-pencil ones: ten ships, and a hit means you shoot again.
• Tic tac toe. Classic tic tac toe is a draw if both players are careful, which is why our game includes eight relatives: five in a row, nine boards, misère, vanishing marks and more. They give the game its point back.
• Chess on Lichess. If you both play chess, this is the best free option: the project runs on donations and states it will never show ads. We do not make chess and will not pretend to compare.

More options are in our collections two player games and games to play with friends.

There are three or more of you

Here it works best when everyone does something at the same moment and mistakes are funny instead of frustrating.

• Skribbl.io. One person draws a word, the rest guess it. It runs in a browser and you can make a private room and send friends the link. Sources disagree on the maximum number of players in a private room, so check the room settings before you invite a crowd.
• Durak. The classic Russian card game for a group. Durak: The Journey has the throw-in version against the computer, and play with real people from the menu. We cover how the game changes with the number of players in our article on card games.
• Thousand. A three-player card game with a talon and marriages. The rules are unusual, so in our Thousand they are on a separate screen inside the game.

You want something calm

Not every game has to demand reflexes. Some are for sitting down after work.

• Hidden objects. Hall of Finds takes place in a country house attic, a shared kitchen, a railway buffet and a watchmaker's desk. Twenty-four rooms, six ways to search: from a list, by silhouette, in the dark, in pairs, by riddles and from memory. Rooms unlock by playing, not by paying.
• Merge games. In Corner Bakery you merge identical ingredients into new dishes, neighbours order what you cook, and the coins and stars go into restoring the bakery.

You want a game for evenings and weeks

This is where progress matters: a hero, a home, friends you want to return to.

• Free Lands. A browser online RPG with your own house, crafting, turn-based fights and expeditions with a squad of friends. One honest caveat: it is not a massive MMO. It is a small settlement, twelve regions and a shared chat, not hundreds of players on one map. Your hero is stored on the server and survives clearing the browser.

How to avoid a bad pick

Before you sink an hour into a game, check five things.

1. Does it open on your phone without installing anything? If you need an app store, it is not really a browser game.
2. What costs money? A free game with a subscription for "speed-ups" and a free game with a one-time purchase are different things.
3. Is progress saved? In a browser it often lives on your device. If you clear your browser, you need an account or a recovery key.
4. Is there a live opponent right now? Many "online" games quietly seat bots. That is fine when they say so.
5. How much did you have to type before the first match? A good number is zero.

Quick summary

If you know a good browser game that is missing here, tell us on the contacts page. The list gets updated.