Guide

Online game sites: where to play free games in your browser

Updated 14 November 2026 · 25 sites, each checked the same way

There are thousands of websites where you can play games without installing anything, and they vary enormously. Some set one puzzle a day. Some are a single game made with care by one person. Others are huge portals with hundreds of games and plenty of advertising.

This guide picks out a range of them, grouped by the kind of site they are, with what you can expect from each: how much advertising we found, whether you need an account, and whether it works on a phone.

A new game every day

  1. Arkadium

    Arkadium's category page gathering its daily crosswords, word puzzles and solitaire.

    Advertising: heavy · works on phones

  2. CleverGoat

    A browser hub for new wordplay, grid logic and chess-capture challenges released daily.

    Advertising: light · works on phones

  3. Costcodle

    A daily price-guessing game built around Costco products, with two modes and archives.

    Advertising: light · no account needed · works on phones

  4. Globle

    A daily geography puzzle where you find a hidden country on a colour-coded globe.

    Advertising: moderate · no account needed · works on phones

  5. Merriam-Webster Games

    Daily word puzzles, crosswords and vocabulary quizzes from the dictionary publisher.

    Advertising: heavy · works on phones

  6. New York Times Games

    The New York Times' daily crosswords with Wordle, Connections and other word puzzles.

    Advertising: heavy · works on phones

Small collections worth knowing

  1. Bludle

    A UK-made collection of daily word, colour, logic and reaction games.

    Advertising: light · no account needed · works on phones

  2. Bridge Base Online

    A large online bridge club with free play, tournaments, robot games and live broadcasts.

    Advertising: moderate · works on phones

  3. CardGames.io

    Classic card, solitaire and board games played in the browser against computer opponents.

    Advertising: heavy · no account needed · works on phones

  4. Chrome Music Lab

    Hands-on browser music experiments for learning about sound, rhythm and composition.

    Advertising: no ads detected · no account needed · works on phones

  5. CNN Games

    A small set of daily word, number and picture puzzles from the CNN news site.

    Advertising: moderate · works on phones

  6. Five Minute GameMade by the directory owner

    Short browser games plus a daily set of five puzzles, with original word and logic games.

    Advertising: no ads detected · no account needed · works on phones

  7. Games for the Brain

    A long-running set of small brain, memory and quiz games made largely by one developer.

    Advertising: moderate · no account needed · works on phones

Sites built around one game

  1. A Dark Room

    A sparse text adventure that begins with lighting a fire in a cold, dark room.

    Advertising: no ads detected · no account needed

  2. Candy Box 2

    A text-based incremental adventure built from ASCII art, played in the browser.

    Advertising: no ads detected · no account needed

  3. Drawasaurus

    Pictionary-style sketch and guess game with public and private rooms.

    Advertising: moderate · no account needed · works on phones

  4. Evolve

    Incremental browser game that grows a species from primordial ooze to civilisation.

    Advertising: no ads detected · no account needed · works on phones

  5. lichess.org

    Open-source, charity-run chess server with live games, puzzles, lessons and tournaments.

    Advertising: no ads detected · works on phones

  6. lidraughts.org

    Open-source draughts server for live, correspondence and tournament play online.

    Advertising: no ads detected · works on phones

Big portals with lots to choose from

  1. Armor Games

    Long-running browser game portal with action, strategy, idle, puzzle and MMO titles.

    Advertising: moderate · works on phones

  2. Board Game Arena

    A large online platform for playing adaptations of modern and classic board games.

    Advertising: light · account needed · works on phones

  3. Coolmath Games

    Large catalogue of logic, maths, skill and strategy games playable in the browser.

    Advertising: moderate · works on phones

  4. galaxy

    Open-source hub for free browser incremental games, with forums, chat and cloud saves.

    Advertising: no ads detected · works on phones

  5. itch.io

    Indie game marketplace with a huge filterable catalogue of games playable in the browser.

    Advertising: no ads detected · works on phones

  6. Kongregate

    Long-running portal of free browser games from many developers, with badges and chat.

    Advertising: heavy · works on phones

How to choose

  • Decide how long you want to play. A daily puzzle takes a few minutes; a portal or an idle game can fill an evening.
  • Check the advertising level. Big portals usually carry more ads; small sites made by one person often carry few or none.
  • Look at whether you need an account. Most sites here let you play straight away; some save progress only if you sign in.
  • If you'll play on a phone, check that the listing says it works on mobile.

Questions

Are these games really free?
Every site in this guide can be played for free in the browser. Some offer paid extras or a subscription; where we found pricing on the site, the listing says so.
Do I need to download anything?
No. Every site listed here runs in a web browser. If a site starts a download as soon as it opens, it isn't listed.
How do you decide which sites to include?
Sites are found and checked automatically, then chosen for this guide by simple rules: the kind of site, and how complete our information about it is. Advertising level isn't used to rank sites.