The best short games you can actually finish
26 hand-picked games
Complete experiences that respect the fact you have a life. Some are short by design, others are built around runs that fit in a lunch break. Nothing here needs a hundred-hour commitment.
Rocket League
2015Rocket League
Car football. Explains itself in ten seconds and takes a decade to get good at.
SportsRacing
DOOM: The Dark Ages
2025DOOM: The Dark Ages
Slower and heavier than Eternal. You stand and block instead of flying and dodging.
Shooter
Mario Kart World
2025Mario Kart World
Mario Kart with the tracks joined into one open world you can just drive around.
RacingParty
Mario Kart 8 Deluxe
2017Mario Kart 8 Deluxe
The one game in this list your entire family will agree to play without negotiation.
RacingParty
Marvel's Spider-Man
2018Marvel's Spider-Man
The swinging alone justifies it. You will take the long way across Manhattan every time.
ActionOpen World
DOOM Eternal
2020Hades II
2025Hades II
Bigger and denser than Hades, with a protagonist who is much less interested in your approval.
RoguelikeAction
Dead Cells
2018Dead Cells
Fast enough that a failed run costs you nothing but the urge to start another one.
RoguelikeMetroidvania
Slay the Spire
2019Slay the Spire
The game that made deckbuilding a genre. Still the cleanest version of the idea.
RoguelikeCard Game
Balatro
2024Celeste
2018Celeste
Brutally precise, and gentle about it. The assist options are part of the design, not an apology.
Platformer
Vampire Survivors
2022Vampire Survivors
You barely press anything and it is still one of the most compulsive things ever made.
RoguelikeAction
Portal 2
2011Portal 2
Fifteen years on, still the gold standard for teaching mechanics without a tutorial.
Puzzle
Cult of the Lamb
2022Cult of the Lamb
Half village-management cosy game, half dungeon crawl, entirely about starting a cult.
RoguelikeSimulation
Overcooked! 2
2018Into the Breach
2018Into the Breach
Perfect information tactics in eight-by-eight squares. A full run fits in a lunch break.
StrategyRoguelike
Left 4 Dead 2
2009Left 4 Dead 2
Ancient and still unmatched at what it does. Four people, one hallway, escalating panic.
ShooterCo-op
Return of the Obra Dinn
2018Return of the Obra Dinn
Identify sixty corpses from frozen moments in time. Deduction, with no hand-holding whatsoever.
PuzzleMystery
Super Mario Odyssey
2017Super Mario Odyssey
Endlessly generous. Every corner of every level has something hidden behind it.
Platformer
Firewatch
2016Firewatch
A summer in a fire lookout tower and a voice on the radio. One evening, well spent.
AdventureMystery
What Remains of Edith Finch
2017What Remains of Edith Finch
Short stories about a family, each told with a completely different set of rules.
Adventure
Untitled Goose Game
2019Untitled Goose Game
You are a horrible goose. That is the entire pitch and it is entirely sufficient.
PuzzleSandbox
Journey
2012A Short Hike
2019A Short Hike
Walk up a hill, talk to some animals, feel better afterwards. That is all it wants.
Adventure
FTL: Faster Than Light
2012FTL: Faster Than Light
Your ship is always slightly on fire and someone is always in the wrong room.
StrategyRoguelike
How this list is put together
Every game here was added to the PlayNext catalog by hand and tagged individually. The order is editorial — a popularity weight set by a person, not an aggregate review score — so the games most people are actually looking for come first rather than whichever obscure title happens to have a 9.4 average from forty ratings.
Length estimates are how long the game takes to finish, or to feel done with if it doesn't end. Use the game finder to narrow any of these lists further by time and budget.