Every year there are hundreds of new PC games and only so many evenings in a week. The real question isn’t what’s new; it’s what’s good enough to spend your limited time on. Gaming fans who follow Voxly for entertainment news have probably noticed that 2026 has been an unusual year: a horror sequel topping the sales charts, a cheap deckbuilder pulling more players than games with ten times the budget, and one big open-world release that critics and players could not agree on.
This guide covers the biggest releases, a handful of indie games worth knowing about, the genres that are doing best and a practical note on hardware. Everything here reflects the situation in mid-October 2026, and scores and player numbers change, so treat them as a snapshot.
The Biggest Releases of the Year
Resident Evil Requiem is the one to start with. Capcom’s latest horror entry launched on 27 February and has been the year’s critical and commercial anchor ever since. It earned a Metacritic score in the high 80s, which made it the best-reviewed mainline Resident Evil since the fourth game, and the PC version has scored even higher on the site. Steam players have rated it overwhelmingly positive across well over a hundred thousand reviews. At the time of writing, industry tracker Circana ranks it as the best-selling game of 2026 so far. Critics did point to a weaker story and some uneven boss fights, but nearly everyone agreed that the pacing and atmosphere are excellent. If you want one big, polished, single-player game to play this autumn, this is it.
Forza Horizon 6 arrived on 19 May for PC and Xbox, with a PlayStation 5 version planned for later in the year. This time the series moves to Japan, with a huge recreation of Tokyo and the surrounding countryside, and more than 550 cars available from day one. It’s the usual Forza Horizon formula, an open-world racing festival where you can wander off and do whatever you like, only bigger. Metacritic has it around 90, and Steam reviews were very positive from the start. You don’t need to be a car person to enjoy driving through cherry-blossom roads, though it helps.
007 First Light came out on 27 May from IO Interactive, the studio behind Hitman. It tells an origin story for a younger James Bond and scored in the high 80s on Metacritic, which puts it among the top-rated games of the year. If you like stealth, gadgets and a bit of spy-movie swagger, it’s an easy recommendation.
Crimson Desert is the year’s argument starter. Pearl Abyss released it on 19 March, and critics gave it a Metacritic score of 77, while players rated it significantly higher, around 8.7 out of 10 on user score. It’s still one of the best-selling games of 2026 so far. The honest summary is that it’s a huge, ambitious open-world action game with plenty of rough edges. If you like big sprawling worlds and can forgive some clumsiness, you may love it. If you prefer tightly polished experiences, check a few reviews first.
A few more are worth watching. Phantom Blade Zero, a stylish action game from China, is scheduled for late October at the time of writing. And while GTA VI is expected in November, it’s launching on consoles first, with no confirmed date for PC. If you only play on a computer, you’ll probably be waiting a while.
Indie Gems You Shouldn’t Miss
The indie scene has been in remarkable shape this year, and some of the best games on PC cost a fraction of the big releases.
Slay the Spire 2 is the headline act. Mega Crit’s roguelike deckbuilder entered Early Access on 5 March and promptly broke records, peaking at more than 570,000 players at once on Steam, far above its predecessor. The new version adds fresh characters, cards and mechanics, plus four-player co-op. It’s still in Early Access, and the developers expect it to stay there for a year or two, but the reaction has been very positive. If you’ve ever lost an entire weekend to “just one more run”, you already know what you’re getting into.
Mewgenics, released on 10 February, is the strangest pitch of the year and one of the best. Created by Edmund McMillen and Tyler Glaiel, it’s a tactical roguelike where you breed cats and send them into turn-based battles. It sounds absurd, and it is, but the combination of dark humour and deep strategy has made it one of the most celebrated indie hits of 2026. Critics scored it in the high 80s on Metacritic.
Mina the Hollower from Yacht Club Games, the team behind Shovel Knight, is a gothic adventure with an 8-bit look and a lot of Zelda-style exploration. It’s one of those games that rewards curiosity, and it’s been in the conversation for game-of-the-year lists.
Mixtape is a short, story-driven game about the end of youth, with a soundtrack that critics keep praising. It won’t suit everyone, since some players find it divisive, but if you like narrative games, it’s worth a look. And if city-building is more your thing, Timberborn, the beaver-run settlement game, finally reached version 1.0 in March after five years in Early Access.
Genres Doing Well Right Now
A few clear patterns show up if you look at what players are actually buying.
Roguelikes and deckbuilders. Slay the Spire 2 and Mewgenics both prove that “easy to start, impossible to master” is still a winning formula. These games work well in short sessions, have huge replay value and tend to be cheap.
Survival horror. Requiem’s success shows that people still want classic, atmospheric horror with a bit of action thrown in. Expect more studios to follow.
Open-world action. Crimson Desert’s sales, despite the mixed critical reaction, show that there’s still a big audience for huge, ambitious worlds. Forza Horizon 6 is the racing equivalent.
Co-op and early access. More and more games launch in Early Access and grow with player feedback. Co-op action games like Far Far West and life sim Paralives have drawn large crowds before reaching 1.0. It’s a bit of a gamble for players, but it can lead to better games in the long run.
Cosy and narrative games. Not everyone wants a boss fight. Life sims, farming games and short, story-led experiences keep finding enthusiastic audiences.
What Your Computer Needs
Hardware is the unglamorous part of PC gaming, but a couple of simple rules save a lot of frustration.
First, always check the minimum and recommended specs on the Steam page before buying. They’re listed right there and usually accurate. If a game lists a certain graphics card as “recommended”, that’s what you need for smooth play at medium to high settings, not the bare minimum.
Second, a few general guidelines for big modern games. A solid-state drive is practically mandatory now, since many large games are designed around fast loading. Sixteen gigabytes of RAM is a sensible baseline. For the graphics card, something with around 8 GB of video memory is a good starting point for 1080p, and you’ll want more for 1440p or 4K. Games with ray tracing or path tracing options are demanding, but you can usually switch those off and still get a good-looking game.
Third, don’t assume you need a monster rig. Many of the best indie games on this list, such as the card and tactics games, are modest in their requirements and will run fine on older computers or laptops. A big chunk of the fun in PC gaming is that you can choose how much to spend.
If you want to compare reviews before spending money, three sites are worth bookmarking. IGN and PC Gamer publish detailed reviews and often include performance notes for the PC version, and Metacritic collects critic and user scores in one place. A useful habit is to compare the critic and user scores, since a big gap, as with Crimson Desert, tells you something about who the game is for.
So What Should You Play First?
If you only pick one, pick by mood. Want a polished, scary, single-player ride? Resident Evil Requiem. Feeling like a relaxed drive? Forza Horizon 6. Looking for something to lose a hundred hours to? Slay the Spire 2 or Mewgenics. Feeling adventurous and don’t mind some chaos? Crimson Desert.
The best advice is to ignore the pressure of lists like this one. Nobody can play everything, and a game doesn’t expire on your wishlist. Pick the one that sounds fun, wait for a sale if you can, and enjoy it at your own pace.
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