Every kid wants to play games, and geeks keep that interest as they get older. Either way, most video games are prohibitively expensive, meaning kids and adults who could be enjoying their favorite pastime are missing out. To pile on, it’s expensive to give our kids their first devices, so it can be hard to shell out another $50+ for a game. So let’s talk about six of the best ways to enjoy video games without spending money.
6. IsThereAnyDeal
The webtool IsThereAnyDeal (ITAD) helps you find games which are discounted or free, but it is an aggregator, so there’s no guarantee at any time that it will feature a game you’re looking for. You can easily sort by “Giveaways” to find free games which are currently available. If you’re already looking at the other tools mentioned here, there will be some repetition, but ITAD pulls from a lot of places, meaning it can save you time from searching every engine yourself.
5. Prime Gaming
Anyone with a Prime Subscription can play games with Prime Gaming. The selection of games expands regularly, and there seems to be no end of new games to try. Bonus points given for being included in a subscription many people already have, but the service loses points for requiring an entirely unrelated service to play its game library. The biggest sticking point for this one, is that to share Prime Gaming with your kids, you have to attach your accounts together, which gives your kids access to your saved payment methods. Naturally, this will mean many parents don’t use this option for their kids.
4. Netflix Gaming
Unlike Amazon Prime, Netflix Gaming is shared with your entire household without giving purchase power to your kids. This is a preferred tool for parents with several kids who want to play video games, because it’s all under one umbrella. If you are playing on mobile, you simply download the app through Netflix, and you can begin playing immediately. What keeps this from being lower on the countdown is the fact that many of the apps included rely on a third-party app publisher to update the program, and I’ve run into a number of apps which no longer save their progress, or plain don’t function.
3. Steam Library Sharing (and Wishlist)
The Steam platform is a powerful tool all on its own, but players can share their libraries with their friends in order to allow them to try out a game, play asynchronously, and more. The biggest limitation with Library Sharing, however, is that only one person can play at a time. If the owner launches the game, it closes on other users, and no one else can open it until the owner closes it. That said, you can build a substantial library of games by finding free Steam games, and adding non-free games to your wishlist to be notified if it is ever free (though you’ll also get messages when it’s discounted). The fact that you get alerted to discounts and giveaways is a serious selling point for Steam, but each person who wants to play a game with others will need their own copy of each game, so Steam is a bit behind our final options.
2. Epic Games Weekly Giveaway
The Epic Games launcher features a new sale of a free game or two which starts and ends each Thursday. There are also periodic extended giveaways which offer games daily instead of weekly. Even with minimal effort, one can build a substantial game library in a short time. And because everyone gets the same free games each week, you can buy it for $0, and so can your kids, your spouse, and your friends. This makes Epic our household’s go-to tool for gaming for free, because we can all own the game, the games aren’t attached to a subscription, and we aren’t giving our kids access to our credit cards.
I’ve been using the Epic Games service for several years, and I have over a hundred free games despite being very picky about the games I bother purchasing. One of our kids purchases nearly every free game, and has a library with hundreds and hundreds of games. As a bonus, you can create an account for your kid (so long as they are 13 or higher), and add games to their library each week so they always have access to new games. No other option on the internet offers such a good deal, which is why I’m comfortable declaring this the easiest way to collect video games for free on the internet.
1. Freebies
The best approach is always going to be tracking down great games which are always free. It’s the easiest way to get multiple friends and family members playing the same game, as well. Exceptional games in this category include Fortnite, Genshin Impact, and The Sims 4. For folks without a computer, Genshin Impact and Fortnite are available on PS4, PC, Xbox, Android, and iOS. The Sims 4 is available for Windows, Mac, PS4, and XBOX One.
TL;DR:
There are several ways to game for free, but some options don’t give you reliable access to the game (Steam Library Sharing, Netflix, Amazon). Some options will give you sporadic access to free games (IsThereAnyDeal), while others will give you predictable access to owning and playing your games without subscription or additional costs (Freebies, Epic). Your needs are going to determine which option is best for your family, but as a starting point, check out Epic for PC and Mac, and the games in our Freebies entry for consoles and mobile devices.
