Best battle royale games on PC 2023

Call of Duty: Warzone 2.0

Warzone 2 deviates from the standard battle royale games formula in pretty much every area… save for the fact that there’s still an ever-shrinking circle of death forcing all 150 players into conflict until only one team remains. There are respawns in the form of a bizarre 2v2 duel in the Gulag, you can collect cash and spend it on respawning teammates or killstreaks at Buy Stations, and you can even set up your best Warzone loadout before a match – if you plan on risking it all for your preferred guns. All of this helps make Warzone 2 a BR game where losing one teammate really isn’t a big deal, meaning you’re free to play as aggressively as you want.

Pretty much any common assault rifle is good enough to net you a kill – looting is mostly useful for earning cash and ammo – so you can focus on getting into and out of as many scraps as possible. Other tweaks aid to the simplicity: the zone is incredibly lethal so there’s no camping in the gas meta, armor plates cover your whole body so you don’t need to worry about helmets, and health regenerates just as it does in multiplayer. So if you’re looking for a free battle royale game that’s fast-paced and accessible then Warzone 2 is one of the best options out there, and one of the best war games too.

Fall Guys: Ultimate Knockout

Fall Guys borrows elements from the battle royale genre and the hit Japanese game show, Takeshi’s Castle, to create something completely unique. Bringing together 60 contestants, each player must defeat their fellow jelly beans in a mad dash for the finish line, but only the top number of players can progress through each round to eventually be crowned victorious. The challenges aren’t always obstacle courses either, they range from memorization games, clinging to a platform for dear life, and even an oversized football match that splits players into two separate teams.

The beauty of Fall Guys is that no matter how skilled you are, almost anyone can win, and that random factor is what makes Fall Guys so entertaining. Even if you don’t win, you’ll have a good story to tell. While the popularity of Fall Guys has dropped off since it launched back in August 2020, the game is still incredibly popular. The developers continue to release new content every few months like skins and challenges, and they listen to community feedback to fine-tune the experience for new and experienced players alike. Check out our Fall Guys review if you want to know more.

Apex Legends

With the dystopian charm of Titanfall’s mech-ravaged world and the intense gunfights that make PUBG so gripping, it’s no wonder that Apex Legends’ player count reached over 25 million players in its first week. Respawn’s battle royale game came out of nowhere and surpassed genre stalwart Fortnite on Twitch in viewership figures in its first seven days.

Apex Legends zips along at an astonishing pace. Sure, it may not be the parkour and wall-running we’ve come to expect from Respawn’s famous robot game, but this battle royale moves in its own way. Sprinting is swifter than you’d expect and sliding takes you a greater distance – especially with the mountainous terrain considered. Movement sets the tone of the gunplay, too: if your team successfully flanks another in a well-timed push, you earn their bounty.

Apex Legends weapons themselves are finely-tuned, showing Respawn’s confidence in launching Apex Legends as a full game rather than in early access. Shotguns fire off with a fearsome crunch that can punish a poorly-timed push as much as a well-placed headshot will aid anyone who is a dab hand with a sniper rifle.

Better still, there are lots here for casual players. Apex Legends uses a ping system to ease the burden of mic-free communication. Clicking the scroll wheel highlights places of interest, valuable loot, and charging hostiles. What’s more, from a time-hopping assassin to a zip-line quip-happy robot, the cast of Apex Legends characters is wonderfully diverse, quirky, and cool to inhabit. Check out our Apex Legends review to find out exactly why this BR is so good. We also have a guide to Apex Legends Season 18 if you want to find out what’s coming to the game in August.

PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds

There’s a reason PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds regularly boasts hundreds of thousands of concurrent players and has sold millions of copies: it’s the basic battle royale premise done right. With frequent PUBG updates and new PUBG maps, the chart-conquering sensation is replete with features and is addictive beyond belief.

PlayerUnknown isn’t just a cool-sounding title either, it’s the pseudonym of Brendan Greene: the creator of PUBG, and the man responsible for the incredibly popular Arma 3 Battle Royale mod. That experience shows in PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds, which forgoes complications like crafting and a complex melee fighting system and instead focuses on razor-sharp firefights, tactical play, and scavenging.

More so than any other battle royale game on this list, PUBG feels and controls realistically, resulting in reactive gameplay that never grows old. We have a PUBG review here if you want to know more.

Fortnite

Want some poppy, comic book visuals with your 100-man massacres? Fortnite Battle Royale takes the perfectly poised match structure of PUBG and ditches all the gritty realism for colors and soft edges. On top of that, Epic Games continue to outdo themselves with each new Fortnite season, changing the map, adding heaps of new Fortnite skins, and overhauling gameplay mechanics. It’s no wonder Fortnite player numbers continue to swell: this is the current king of battle royales.

You’re also able to harvest resources and build structures like houses to camp in, walls for cover, and ramps to help you climb up mountains. This is a battle royale game for those who like to get creative.

That changes the rhythm of the game considerably, increasing the emphasis on resource-gathering throughout the match so that you’ve got plenty of materials to build cover and fortify as the player count dwindles. Being able to build also means a lot of scope for unconventional tactics. Pinned down behind a tree? Pull out your pickaxe, gather a few logs, and build yourself a wall that will give you a bit more protection. Need a sneaky way of getting to an opponent? Try building a series of ramps to flank them from an unexpected angle.

And if you tire of the BR aspect then you can hop into Fortnite Creative mode and play some of the incredible player-made maps, creations, and game modes using Fortnite Island codes. The Fortnite vs. PUBG debate isn’t going to be settled any time soon, so just be grateful we have two spectacular survival shooters to revel in.

Spellbreak

Just when you thought we’d seen it all in the battle royale genre, a free-to-play game like Spellbreak comes along to remind us that there are still plenty of new ideas out there. Spellbreak gives players six battlemage classes to pick from, each with its own set of skills and abilities. Picking a class doesn’t limit you to just one set of abilities either; you can wield different magical gauntlets to create spell combos. Mixing Pyromancer spells with Tempest gives you fiery tornadoes, whereas a Conduit and Toxicologist hybrid can create electrified gas clouds.

Spellbreak’s magical powers make the game stand out among the crowd, creating spectacular fights, inspired by shows like Dragon Ball Z. The 3.1 update recently revamped the new player experience, making it easier to unlock all six classes by simply reaching Mage Rank 4. There hasn’t been a better time to play than right now, and Spellbreak features cross-play to ensure you always have people to fight against.

Super Animal Royale

Super Animal Royale is a top-down 2D battle royale where 64 players fight to the death. Yes, you read that correctly, the game is called Super Animal Royale. These cute animals may look innocent and sweet, but they’re capable of wielding an array of weapons. The battles take place in an abandoned safari park, though that doesn’t explain where the weapons came from…

If you’re after a Hotline Miami-style battle royale game, Super Animal Royale is for you. Super Animal Royale also supports cross-platform, allowing PC players to square off against their console friends. You can play the game in solos, duos, and squads all without paying a penny as it’s a completely free game.

Totally Accurate Battlegrounds

What started development as an April Fool’s Day joke turned into one of the most inventive battle royale games of 2018, and developer Landfall can claim three million Totally Accurate Battlegrounds downloads in four days as proof. Totally Accurate Battlegrounds (TABG) boasts countless melee and ranged weapons, attachments, and gear to ensure every gun battle is as unpredictable and messy as the ragdolling character models.

TABG’s coup de grâce is its exaggerated physics, which sees your character flopping up staircases and tumbling over obstacles, not to mention the recoil from high-caliber weapons, which punts you backward with every shot. Developer Landfall embraces the goofy nature of their battle royale with a ridiculous character customizer and a dedicated key for holding your weapon sideways and beatboxing. Unsurprisingly, the default binding for this is G.

Minecraft Survival Games

Owing to the total freedom afforded to players by Minecraft, particularly on PC, it was only a matter of time before somebody made a version of The Hunger Games in Mojang’s family-oriented sandbox. That creative freedom means there are hundreds upon hundreds of maps, arena styles, weapons, armor setups, and rules to keep the experience varied depending on which Minecraft server you decide to play on.

Rather than players spawning or dropping into the map at random points, and unlike some of the best Minecraft maps in its parent game, most Minecraft Survival servers pay tribute to the blockbuster franchise by spawning players in a circle around a huge cache of weapons – when the timer hits zero it’s anyone’s game. Rush to the weapons and risk dying in the immediate fray, or hope to scavenge one from a corpse later on? Minecraft Survival Games is a solid battle royale experience, and the sheer number of custom variants ensures it serves every niche.

Unturned: Arena mode

Naraka: Bladepoint

Naraka Bladepoint was the most anticipated battle royale game of 2021, with over 160,000 concurrent players joining the fray during its second open beta period. Though the game does include traditional weapons, you settle most fights by melee combat. This is where Naraka Bladepoint separates itself from the rest of the competition. Combat plays out like a fighting game – players need to consider every move to avoid being punished by their opponent.

Naraka Bladepoint focuses on verticality as each player has access to a grappling hook and parkour abilities. Depending on which Naraka: Bladepoint character you pick, your playstyle can drastically change. For example, Matari has powerful stealth abilities, which can be great for picking off injured enemies, or Tarka Ji can throw fireballs that deal AoE damage. Read our guides to pick up some helpful beginner tips, find out what the best weapons are, and discover how to customize your character. For more on this frantic melee BR, check out our Naraka Bladepoint review.

Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodhunt

Vampire: The Masquerade is probably the last series you’d expect to have a battle royale game, but it works surprisingly well. Despite the initial hesitation from the VtM community, the devs have proven they know how to introduce battle royale to the World of Darkness series. It turns out that playing as powerful vampires with supernatural abilities makes for a fun time.

Bloodhunt plays a lot like PUBG with superpowers. These vampires may have abilities, but they still use weapons to get the business done. The supernatural abilities in Bloodhunt see fights ensue across the rooftops of Prague as teams leap from building to building. Players can revive if left alone for long enough, so be sure to ‘diablerise’ them before they get the chance. Bloodhunt rewards situational awareness almost as much as accuracy with the battlegrounds being more vertical than anything else on this list, you’ll do well to watch the skies, as well as your back. Sadly, the devs recently announced they will not be supporting the game anymore as Bloodhunt doesn’t have enough active players. The servers will not be switched offline any time soon, but don’t expect any new updates.

That’s your lot, the best battle royale games on PC. If you’re impatiently waiting for Minecraft 2’s release date to be announced, or need to kill some time while the best upcoming PC games finish baking, you really should fire up the brutal battle royales above. Granted, Fortnite and PUBG may have conquered the world, but there are some smaller wonders out there worth playing for yourself.