Best free games on PS4 and Xbox One
Great games don't have to be expensive. Even if you're short on cash, there's plenty of fun to be had that's easy on your wallet. Here are our picks of the best free games on PS4 and Xbox One, each one offering hours of entertainment without spending a penny.
There are card games, MMOs and MOBAs, and even triple-A sports and action games on offer, meaning there are tons of free games that are a lot of fun, but also have a lot of variety depending on what you're after.
Most are supported by premium microtransaction economies, whether that’s cosmetic character or weapon skins, loot boxes or booster packs. Some are more aggressive than others, so we’ll do our best to point out what needs paying for so you can invest your valuable time wisely. Others are unlimited "trial" versions of larger games which you can pay to unlock more of.
If we’ve left anything off, chime in below and we’ll add it to the list.
Best free games on PS4 and Xbox One:
- Apex Legends
Despite a slightly uninspiring name, Apex Legends is the latest battle royale from Respawn Entertainment - the development team behind Titanfall that was formed from ex-Infinity Ward employees who worked on COD 4 and MW2. With pedigree like that, it's no surprise that Apex Legends is tight and slickly designed FPS that incorporates elements of hero shooters like Overwatch to provide a fresh take on the BR genre.
The set-up is pretty standard - 20 squads of three players compete in a 60-player battle royale on a dense and varied map - but the brilliant Ping system makes communicating incredibly painless, even without voice chat.
Apex Legends' roster of heroes have a variety of different skills that they can deploy on the battlefield, which all feel pretty balanced at this point, and the best guns that you scavenge from the environment feel solid and fun to shoot.
It's early days, but Apex certainly has potential to be a big player on the F2P scene - especially if the level of support promised in the game's season roadmap can be maintained. The microtransactions are expensive, and you can spend an infinite amount on loot boxes, but there's a lot of game to get into here without spending money on cosmetics.
- Realm Royale
Platform: Xbox One, PS4
Just like military shooters in the late noughties, battle royale is the hot "me-too" genre right now - with tons of companies looking to grab a piece of the pie. Realm Royale comes from Hi Rez studios of SMITE and Paladins fame, and is actually one of the best around.
It borrows heavily from Fortnite, sure, but brings enough unique features to the team to stand on its own. Chief amongst these is the RPG-like upgrade system, where you gather resources from the large and varied environment to craft stronger equipment and abilities. It's a fun idea, and makes for tense shootouts around upgrade points.
Realm Royale also plays with time-to-kill in interesting ways. When your health is depleted instead of getting kicked to the lobby your character turns into a speedy chicken - not only giving you a second chance to run away, but also encouraging close-quarters combat and reducing the chance of being melted from miles away.
Again similar to Fortnite, Realm Royale is free-to-play, but has a paid-for "Founder's Pack", cosmetic microtransactions paid for with premium virtual currency, and a "Battle Pass" system, which gives players access to unlockable tiers of items over the course of a few weeks.
- Fortnite: Battle Royale
Platform: PS4, Xbox One
The breakout genre of 2017, Fortnite: Battle Royale went from strength-to-strength in 2018 and remains the hottest game in the world right now - with good reason. If you’ve been curious about PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds - or battle royale in general - but not wanted to pay to test it out, then this is the game for you.
In the main battle royale mode, 100 players drop into a giant map, scavenge weapons and materials, and fight until there’s only one left standing. It’s tenser than the cartoony visuals would suggest, incredibly strategic and a whole lot of fun.
What differentiates Fortnite from other battle royale games is the ability to break down scenery to collect resources which you can then use to build things like barricades that shield you from fire. Fortnite is also set apart by the incredible pace that new content and updates are added to the game, with sweeping changes implemented quarterly, and smaller ones - including new weapons and game modes - coming almost every week.
You can take the game on the go as well, developer Epic Games launched Fortnite Mobile this month, and generated a massive amount of hype.
Fortnite supports cross-platform play on both PS4 and Xbox One, but not together. On PS4, you can play with iOS, PC and Mac players, but not Xbox One. On Xbox One, you can also play with iOS, PC and Mac players, but not PS4.
There’s a PvE story mode in Fortnite too, but you have to pay for that, as well as premium cosmetics that you can buy with real money. These alter the look of your character, the parachute you drop into the arena with and the pickaxe you can use to gather resources, but give no competitive advantages.
- Pro Evolution Soccer 2019 Lite
PES has always offered an unashamedly arcadey and undeniably fun football experience, and its 2019 edition is no exception. The free "Lite" version includes offline single matches - great for a cheap kick-about - as well as Pro Evo's Ultimate Team analogue "myClub", where you build a squad from packs of players and face off against others' online.
Like FIFA Ultimate Team, you're heavily, heavily incentivised to pour real money into myClub, which is probably why Konami are bundling it in as part of their free offering.
However, this is easily the cheapest way to enjoy a current season sports game on PS4 and Xbox One, without investing in something that'll be obsolete in a few months.
- Warframe
Platform: PS4, Xbox One
Warframe is a third-person, action-sci-fi MMO based around space-age combat-suits equipped with a stacked arsenal of swords, rifles, knives, lasers and bows. There’s capable gun-play, as well as slick parkour and melee fighting across a variety of missions, which, combined with the option to use stealthier weaponry, means that you can approach the game with a multitude of different play-styles.
While the action is fun, Warframe is quite complicated. There are deep crafting and upgrade systems for your suit and weapons, on top of tonnes of loot and customisation options to sink your teeth into.
It uses a premium currency called Platinum bought using real-world money. Platinum is primarily used for cosmetic items and colours, but can also be used to buy new weapons and warframes without gathering the necessary resources.
Warframe has come a long way since it first dropped in 2014. What was once a promising, but stodgily paced and cold experience is now a much more open, fully-featured game with a hardcore fan-base and dedicated development team. The recent Plains of Eidolon expansion added a large open world area to Warframe, along with new methods of traversal. This marked improvement speaks volumes of Digital Extremes’ commitment to Warframe. If you pick this one up, you might not put it down again.
- World of Tanks
Platform: PS4, Xbox One
World of Tanks is something really different in the online war shooter space. Piloting one from a vast array of more than 500 tanks, you can battle other players online or take on a PvE story mode featuring comic-book style cutscenes.
Patience is key. World of Tanks isn’t a twitch-shooter like Call of Duty, your firing reticle tightens slowly, while the limited manoeuvrability means that it feels like nothing else out there.
It’s also worth mentioning that the latest version of World of Tanks on PS4 is an especially chunky 50GB download, so make sure you’ve got space to spare.
World of Tanks’ microtransactions are also particularly aggressive, with gameplay affecting tanks and ammunition available for purchase on top of cosmetics. However, there’s still a lot to enjoy for free in World of Tanks, like its extensive upgrade system, where you gain experience by playing with certain tanks and move up through a flowchart of iterative models until you reach the most powerful.
The console version of World of Tanks isn't the best out there though. On PC, Wargaming recently released World of Tanks 1.0, which overhauls the game's graphics with a completely new engine. The new tech doesn't really affect the gameplay, so don't worry about missing out too much, but if you love a good looking game then check out the PC version - the minimum specs are incredibly low.
- Brawlhalla
Platform: PS4
Brawlhalla is a free-to-play fighting game that’ll feel instantly familiar to anyone who’s played Super Smash Bros. on Nintendo Consoles.
The aim of the game is to knock other characters - called legends - out of the arena to score points by dealing damage to them with various attacks and combos. Weapons and items are added to the mix to ratchet up the chaos, while each character uses their unique strengths and weaknesses to gain the upper hand.
The hitboxes take a little while to get used to, but Brawlhalla quickly becomes frantic fun both online and in local co-op.
More characters are available to unlock via currency earnt in-game, or you can pay a one-time purchase fee to unlock all present and future legends. There’s also a premium currency that’s paid for with real money, which you can use to unlock skins and other cosmetic items like taunts and KO effects. Purchases are refundable if you change your mind though, so developer Blue Mammoth Games certainly earn some points there.
- Trove
Platform: PS4, Xbox One
While it might look simple, Trove is a surprisingly fun online sandbox RPG that blends elements of builder games like Minecraft with features of more traditional role-playing games.
You can choose from a good variety of classes to start, ranging from the melee-focused warrior to the range-wielding gunslinger, and explore cute, blocky environments fighting enemies, clearing dungeons and sniffing out loot.
The quick gratification of loot drops from dungeons is addictive and there are a decent amount of quests to get through. You can also break down blocks and scenery in the world for parts to build your own home with, as well as reach high places.
The monetisation of Trove is quite aggressive, however; when you open up the menu to access your inventory, the icon it defaults to is the in-game store. Once you’ve picked a starting class, others have to be unlocked using premium credits, and there are tonnes of items, chests and mounts that have to be bought - although you can grind for some with in-game coins.
- Orcs Must Die: Unchained
Platform: PS4, Xbox One
Orcs Must Die is an interesting take on a tower defence game, where you take control of one of a varied cast of heroes from a third-person perspective, laying traps for an onslaught of baddies to haplessly wander into.
There’re loads of traps to experiment with and upgrade, as well as plenty of laughs from the genuinely funny script. Boss monsters and chaos trials - which place outlandish modifiers on the player, like forcing you to dance every time a boss is defeated - add even more to the mix, and while most of the emphasis is on teaming up with friends, you can play solo too.
In terms of monetisation, most of the items you collect, as well as hero skins, are obtained from loot boxes that are paid for with real money. You are given some through normal play, but paying is much quicker. The only way to upgrade traps is by getting a certain amount of them in loot chests, and you have to buy keys for chaos trials too. Orcs Must Die is worth your time - there’s certainly a decent amount of stuff on offer for free - but expect to be hassled to pay often.
What's quite sad though is that this game isn't going to be around forever, after the dev team announced that it'll be closing - along with a couple of its publisher's other games - in April 2019. So enjoy this one while it lasts.
- Smite
Platform: PS4, Xbox One
Smite is a multiplayer online battle arena, or MOBA, themed around gods and religious mythology.
With a huge player base and deep metagame, Smite is a great choice to get into MOBAs on console, boasting a massive list of gods to choose from, each with their own unique abilities, and a few distinct character classes and roles to learn. There are front-line warriors, nippy assassins, tanky guardians and range-focused hunters and mages.
There are multiple game modes to choose from as well, and thankfully, you get some high-tier characters for free, so you’re not going to get stomped by people who’ve paid for access to more stuff.
Smite’s premium currency is called gems and is used to unlock additional gods - although you can grind to get them too - as well as skins, emotes and voice packs for characters.
- Planetside 2
Platform: PS4
Planetside 2 delivers same the kind of intense online multiplayer shooting that you'd expect from some of the biggest triple-A names in the business, but with an MMO-twist.
After choosing your empire, you fight alongside other players for control of the wider planet in real time in both boots-on-the-ground and vehicular skirmishes.
With a keen community, as well as a variety of classes and weapons to choose from, Planetside 2 is definitely one of the best free games on PS4.
- Gwent: The Witcher Card Game
Platform: PS4, Xbox One
Starting life as a mini-game in The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, stand-alone Gwent is a revised and expanded iteration of the addictive one-on-one card game.
The aim of Gwent is to win two out of three rounds by having a higher score on your side of the board than your opponent. Different cards have different effects, like dealing damage to other cards or summoning copies of themselves.
Fans of the main Witcher series of RPGs will love the nostalgic sound effects and brilliantly animated card designs, and there are single-player adventures, challenges and timed events to go with the player-versus-player action.
You can buy more cards with real money via “card kegs”, but the game’s more generous than most with dishing them out for free.
- Path of Exile
Platform: Xbox One
Path of Exile is an action-RPG in the classic mould of games like Diablo and Torchlight, where you play as an Exile on the road to revenge in a dark fantasy world.
Path of Exile has a massive range of possible character builds because of its mix-and-match skill gem system, while also offering a seriously meaty (we’re talking 30-70 hours here) story campaign.
Path of Exile is supported by a premium currency bought with real money, which you can use to buy cosmetic items like pets, weapon and armour effects, and decorations, as well as upgrades for your in-game stash.
If you’re into dungeon-crawling, loot, or just RPGs in general, then Path of Exile is worth your time - let alone for free.
- Paladins
Platform: PS4, Xbox One
Paladins is a first-person hero shooter, similar to Overwatch, and is developed by Hi-Rez Studios, the same company as Smite.
It’s currently in early access beta, so a little rough around the edges, with simpler maps and less polish than pay-to-play games in the genre, but still captures the same need for quick decisions and intense team fights.
The microtransactions are a little heavy-handed, with many heroes locked behind a pay-wall, which can leave you feeling like you don’t have a counter to some opposing characters. While the recently implemented card system - which can increase damage or reduce the cooldown of abilities - gives players with upgraded cards a demonstrable advantage in-game. The only way to upgrade cards is to open duplicates of them in loot chests, so people that pay will feel more powerful much, much quicker.
With that said, there’s no substitute for skill - and these effects are capped in ranked play - so if you like the look of Paladins, there’s definite fun to be had.
- Let it Die
Platform: PS4
From madcap game director Suda51, Let it Die is a third-person hack-and-slash full of punk rock and '80s action movie-inspired charm. Under the guidance of skateboarding grim reaper Uncle Death, players must climb the mysterious Tower of Barbs, overcoming progressively more deadly traps and adversaries.
Let it Die is best described as a "rogue-lite". There's permadeath - you control disposable "fighters" of varying types who can be upgraded as you advance - as well as elements of procedural generation and randomised loot.
The combat is an acquired taste, with deliberately rigid animations and pacing. It's cliche to say something has Souls-like combat nowadays, but here the comparison's apt. If you're into high difficulty games that take patience to master, then Let it Die is for you.
As for microtransactions, you can buy in-game food, power-up items and armour - but the main thing is a premium currency called "Death Metal". Death Metal act as continues, letting you come back to life when you'd normally lose a fighter. Death Metal is given out routinely as a log-in bonus, but given the difficulty of the game, these are something you'll be tempted with a lot.
- Armored Warfare
Platform: PS4
If you're a fan of rolling war machines, but unconvinced by World of Tanks, then Armored Warfare could be worth a shot. It's a bit quicker and more arcadey than World of Tanks, and the general consensus is that there's less grinding involved.
Originally developed by Obsidian Entertainment - makers of Fallout: New Vegas and South Park: The Stick of Truth - before being taken over by Mail.ru, Armored Warfare has both PvP and a fleshed out PvE mode where teams of players fight against AI opponents in various missions.
There are fewer tanks to collect in Armored Warfare than World of Tanks, but that also means there are fewer to learn - which is useful if you haven't got a ton of free time to pour into the game.
On the microtransaction front, Armored Warfare is quite overtly monetised with premium currency, tanks, staff, decals and loot boxes. These won't give you a massive advantage in battle though, and there's no premium ammo. Premium tanks are balanced to be less powerful than fully-upgraded versions of tanks in the same tier for example. So although you might have to grind to upgrade your vehicle, you're not going to run into players that have paid for weapons that are simply better than yours and always will be.
- H1Z1
Platform: PS4
H1Z1 is a battle royale PC giant that has finally made its way onto PS4. It’s a free-to-play open beta right now, and will eventually have all the battle royale essentials – customisable gear, daily challenges, as well as Solo, Duos and team play.
The UI and inventory screens have been redesigned to work well on a controller, so you’ll be seeing a lot more radial menus. The H1Z1 HUD has been simplified, but the biggest change is that the game doesn’t feature a crafting system on PS4.
- The Awesome Adventures of Captain Spirit
Platform: PS4, Xbox One
Announced way back at E3, The Awesome Adventures of Captain Spirit is a standalone story in the Life is Strange universe. This narrative experience stars Chris, a ten-year-old boy with a big imagination.
As seen in the trailer, Chris will actually become part of a supernatural experience not unlike what he’s always imagined in his head. The story of Captain Spirit will have links to the upcoming story of Life is Strange 2.
- Fallout Shelter
Platform: PS4, Xbox One
Fallout Shelter is the successful free-to-play spin-off from the Fallout franchise. Combining pay-to-win with play-to-win, you'll need to compete against Raiders, Radroaches and declining power levels to succeed. Bethesda has continued to roll out updates for Fallout Shelter, including new quests, the Overseer's office and customisable characters.
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