Best Casual Games On PC

If you’re looking to take a break from playing more competitive gamers or simply need a new chill and relaxing game to unwind after a long day, we’ve got you covered.

When it comes to casual gaming, its important to prioritize things like simple controls, straightforward mechanics, and rewarding gameplay.

In this list, we’ll highlight the best casual games on PC to play in 2023, including the best free casual games on PC and best casual multiplayer games on PC.

We’ll be updating this list in the future with new titles, so make sure to check back and let us know if we missed any of your favorite titles!

Related:Best Free PC Games 2023Best Base Building Games 2023Best Farming PC Games

What could be more casual than a game about washing things? PowerWash Simulator provides you with the simple satisfaction of turning dirty messes into sparkling wonders.

In it, you’re tasked with building up your own power washing business by taking on contracts across the dusty town of Muckingham.

There are no time restraints or final scores to worry about, just you and an abundance of washers, nozzles, and extensions designed for different tasks.

The game also gives you the ability to customize your gear and replay completed assignments in Free Play.

When approaching The Ramp, it’s best to think of it as more of a digital toy than a traditional video game, one that’s perfect for a few minutes of casual gaming.

Designed with skateboarders in mind, it offers satisfying and unique skateboarding gameplay with easy to learn, hard to master tricks and controls.

There are four levels included: a classic halfpipe, an empty pool, two compacted bowls, and a mega ramp for pulling off high-flying stunts.

While simple in its presentation and design, The Ramp is a great option for rainy days when you don’t feel like going outside to skate and still want to enter the flow zone.

Townscaper takes a minimalist approach to city building that manages to stay true to the genre’s captivating, simulation-driven nature.

Devoid of any goals or complex management systems, gameplay revolves around building quaint island towns with curving streets, soaring cathedrals, canal networks, or really anything you set your mind to. 

This is all done block by block using simple controls that streamline the entire process, allowing you to focus on more creative aspects such as determining the layout, placement, and color of each structure.

In many ways, Townscaper is more of a virtual toy than an actual game, one that uses underlying algorithms to ensure every block placed magically becomes a cute house, archway, staircase, or bridge.

A pioneer in the incremental clicker genre, Cookie Clicker focuses on expanding your dessert empire by baking more and more cookies.

It starts with you clicking on one massive cookie that nets you one cookie per click; once you’ve baked your way past a certain threshold, you can unlock new cursors to click the cookie for you.

Other upgrades include grannies that bake for you, cookie seeds you can plant in a field to grow cookies, a bartering Cookie Dragon, and various mini-games that let you earn multiple cookies at once.

Previously, the game was only playable on a web browser or mobile devices but in 2021, you can now find Cookie Clicker on Steam.

Striking the perfect balance between challenging and casual gameplay, Superflight is an indie game about flying in a wingsuit through colorful mountainscapes.

As you soar through the sky, you earn points by pulling off risky maneuvers and get dangerously close to objects in the environment.

The gameplay feels thoroughly satisfying due to super intuitive controls and a sense of speed and momentum that get conveyed to the player.

There’s a great deal of variety in the levels’ appearance and anytime you discover one that stands out, you can save its seed to replay later on.

There Is No Game: Wrong Dimension is a parody game that pokes fun at iconic video game franchises such as Pac-Man, The Legend of Zelda, and Day of the Tentacle.

Gameplay-wise, it plays like a WarioWare title complete with random mini-games, interactable environments, and clever riddles that require you to think outside the box.

There are also plenty of Easter eggs, nods to some of our favorite games, and a hint system for when you get stuck.

If our word’s not enough, you can check out the game’s Steam page for yourself to get a feel for its silly tone and visual presentation.

Calico fulfills every cat lover’s dream by putting you in charge of rebuilding the town’s local cat café and filling it with an assortment of cute and fuzzy animals.

It’s a lot similar to life sims like Animal Crossing and Ooblets but with a cat-business twist.

You can wear different outfits, name, and pet any cats you befriend and explore the world with an army of adorable felines in tow.

There’s also a decorating mode that lets you place furniture throughout the café as well as create delicious-looking desserts for all your new customers.

Alba is a fun and relaxing adventure game about a little girl who visits her grandparents on a Mediterranean island.

During her stay, she witnesses an animal in danger and decides to get involved with wildlife and environmental preservation.

You’ll explore the island’s beaches, forests, swamps, and even an ancient castle, searching for volunteers and taking pictures of different animals.

By picking up litter, treating sick animals, and repairing bridges, you and your friends and family will be able to save the island.

Kind Words is a cozy social game that revolves around writing and receiving anonymous letters from other players.

It can be a useful therapeutic tool for anyone facing emotional or psychological difficulties and needs someone to talk to.  

You can attach stickers to letters and trade with other players to grow your collection. There are also toys you can collect to put on display in your character’s room.

Kind Words is backed by a positive community centered on inspiring and empowering one another.

If you need a casual game to play with friends, Golf With Your Friends offers just that.

It’s a low-stakes version of mini-golf with unique mechanics and tons of themed courses that simultaneously support up to 12 players online.

This means you don’t have to wait around for every person to have their turn whacking the ball since every player progresses on their own in real-time.

Golf With Your Friends includes three modes, a level editor, and customization options to help your ball stand out from the competition.

Human: Fall Flat is a puzzle platformer with wonky physics that significantly benefits from couch co-op, allowing you to talk things out as you and your buddies traverse obstacle-laden levels.

It’s one of those kinds of games that gets better the less coordinated you and your teammates are, resulting in laugh-out-loud moments and a fair share of headaches.

Ultimately, it all feels worth it once your squad manages to reach the end of a level after the umpteenth attempt and join hands to celebrate.

Developer No Brakes Games has rolled out consistent content updates since the game’s launch, adding new free levels, character costumes, and other goodies that warrant coming back.

The Jackbox games have become a staple of casual online gaming with friends, mainly due to their simple controls and clear objectives.

Each Party Pack includes five games that put a creative twist on classic parlor games and can be played using smartphones as controllers.

Considering Jackbox releases a new pack each year, we suggest researching each one to see what your group of friends would enjoy.

With that said, Party Pack 7 includes a good mix of both new and old games such as Quiplash 3, Champ’d Up, and The Devils and the Details.

Among Us is another asymmetrical multiplayer game for 4+ players; in it, 1 to 3 people become Imposter aliens while the rest are innocent human Crewmates.

If you’re an Imposter, your goal is to turn the other players against each other as you take them out one by one; Crewmates have to try and sleuth out the traitors and complete tasks.

It has a very approachable difficulty level and supports crossplay across various systems, including PC, smartphones, and even consoles.

If you don’t have a full group of friends to play with, you can always try looking on Discord or Reddit or just join a random lobby and start typing in the chat.

A Short Hike invites you on a nostalgic adventure spent hiking, climbing, and soaring across the mountainous landscapes of Hawk Peak Provincial Park as you make your way to its summit.

Along the way, you’ll discover hidden treasures and meet other hikers with interesting stories to share.

This is all accompanied by a satisfying progression system that sees you collecting golden feathers to extend your flight.

As its name suggests, A Short Hike can be completed in a single sitting but rewards you for taking your time and exploring every nook and cranny Hawk Peak has to offer.

Hidden object games make for some great entertainment during downtime and are good for your brain.

One of our favorites is Hidden Through Time, which sees you traveling through history searching for objects in colorful hand-drawn levels.

There are four historical ages to play through, along with a map editor that lets you dream up your own levels, discover other player creations, and leave a rating for each one.

It’s a meaningful evolution of the genre, and we simply can’t praise it enough for anyone in need of a new casual game.

Mini Metro is a minimalist and strategic puzzle game that tasks you with designing the subway layout for bustling cities around the world.

You start out each map with three stations that you connect by drawing routes that serve as subway lines.

There’s a limit to the number of commuters each station and train can hold, requiring you to adjust routes and make sure everything is running as efficiently as possible to avoid delays.

Included are three modes and over 20 real-world cities with unique color themes and subway design challenges.

Amanita Design is best known for point-and-click adventure titles like Machinarium, Samorost, and Botanicula.

The studio has a distinct surrealistic hand-drawn look to its art that always manages to toe the line between creepy and cozy. 

While there’s no shortage of games in their catalog we’d recommend, Creaks is Amanita’s first foray into making a full-blown puzzle game, and a successful one at that.

It’s just as quirky and visually striking as their previous outings and features plenty of small logic puzzles that will put your brain to work.

Tabletop Simulator lets you play a large number of tabletop games virtually with up to ten friends across the globe.

The base game includes classics like Chess, Poker, and Jigsaw Puzzles, and you can download literal thousands more via Steam Workshop.

During games, you can walk and look around a fully-3D space, pick up, rotate, shake, and even throw objects.

Considering how many officially licensed games you can find in here, Tabletop Simulator is a great way to play a wide range of board games while saving money.

Fall Guys: Ultimate Knockout is a colorful platforming battle royale that sees up to 60 players competing in easy-to-learn, difficult-to-master mini-games.

Some rounds are modeled after physical game-show challenges, while others are inspired by classic 3D platformers.

During each mini-game, players are tasked with traversing tricky obstacle courses and sometimes working together with teammates to score the most points.

The real joy comes from interactions with other players that highlight the game’s intentionally clumsy controls and physics, which are designed to trip you up.

Although Tetris hasn’t really changed much in the 30+ years it’s been around, developers constantly find new ways to iterate on the iconic puzzler.

The two that come to mind more recently are the Nintendo-exclusive Tetris 99 and Tetris Effect VR, the latter of which was adapted for Xbox consoles and PC as Tetris Effect: Connected.

The game utilizes different visual and auditory cues that correspond to your tetrominoes’ movement and placement in relation to music tracks that play in the background.

As you progress through challenges, so does the background music, evolving in tempo and rhythm as you reach tense moments where blocks rapidly descend onto your screen.

Slime Rancher is a playful farming game that tasks you with managing an alien ranch populated by cute slime creatures.

Your job is to catch slimes, bring them back to your ranch, and feed them various foods until they create ‘Plorts,’ which serve as the game’s main currency and method for upgrading equipment.

Since there are many slime species to encounter, you can look forward to breeding different slimes and discovering new variations with unique characteristics.  

Bear in mind, not all slimes get along, so you’ll have to monitor their interactions and keep certain breeds separated from each other or deal with the consequences.

Inspired by the beloved Harvest Moon games, Stardew Valley is a 2D farming sim with light RPG mechanics and vibrant pixel art graphics.

In it, you create your own character and set out to bring your grandfather’s old farm back to life by gathering seeds, planting crops, and selling them for a profit.

A day/night cycle encourages you to plan out activities ahead of time, which includes exploring mines, talking to NPCs, tending to crops, or just hanging out at the local bar.

The citizens of Stardew have distinct personalities that really make them come to life, allowing you to make friends, rivals, and even get married.

Whether you want to build a criminal empire, explore outer space as an astronaut, or become the most beloved gardener in all of Willow Creek, Sims 4 has practically every walk of life covered.

That’s without even mentioning its robust building tools that allow you to turn your dream home into a virtual reality.

As the series has progressed, so too has its romance system, allowing for same-sex marriages and the ability to adopt children.

If you’re playing on PC, you can unleash your imagination and get creative with the best Sims 4 mods available to download.