The best free shooters you can start tonight
Five shooters with no upfront cost, ranked by how quickly a new account gets to the good part.
Free-to-play usually means paying later. Every game here is playable for dozens of hours without spending anything, and none of them locks core modes behind a battle pass.
1. Counter-Strike 2
The cleanest competitive shooter on PC and the cheapest to run. Monetization is skins only, and nothing sold affects the match.
2. Deadlock
Valve's shooter-moba hybrid is still in invitation-based development, and matches take longer than the rest of this list. The hero design is the draw; expect balance churn between patches.
3. Overwatch
The 5v5 format is in the best shape it has been since the switch. The free track of each season is enough to keep a casual account moving.
4. Team Fortress 2
Eighteen years old and still the funniest shooter on this list. The community servers do the heavy lifting; start there, not in casual queue.
5. Warframe
The one that asks for the most reading. The first ten hours are rough, after which it becomes the most generous game here. Our entry tracks the current new-player experience.
