You’ve done it. You’ve made the plunge. Your shiny new CyberPowerPC is sitting on your desk ready for you to play all of your favorite games on. But if you’re new to PC gaming, you may be wondering, “Where do I get my PC games?”. Don’t worry, we’re here to help. These are the best places to buy PC games in 2024.
Unlike consoles, there isn’t a singular storefront to download your games from. There are quite a few options out there, but we will be focusing on the main ones that should give you access to just about every game you could ever want to play. Check out these recommended online stores to fill your library.
Table of Contents
Steam
First up on our list of the best places to buy PC games, is the main place where you are going to purchase, download, and launch your games – Steam.
Great holiday sales feel like fun events to look forward to. Join the annual Summer Sale tradition of getting a cart full of discounted games that you won’t touch for years!
Steam is the biggest and most popular gaming marketplace. So much so that it is pretty much synonymous with PC gaming at this point. It features a massive and diverse library of games to purchase. Additionally the Steam application itself packs in tons of innovative features – such as cloud saves – that make managing your library, connecting with friends to play, and more a breeze.
If you just got your CyberPowerPC set up, Steam should be your first download to get started with games.
To get started or learn more about Steam, visit the Steam website.
GOG.com
Unlike consoles, older games do not get left behind as new hardware comes out. Modern computers pretty much play any game that has ever been released on the platform, which means you have access to years worth of old games.
At the forefront of preserving these classic titles, is GOG.com (Good Old Games). They offer classic titles reconfigured with patches or updates that make them run better on current hardware. They also have modern games available for purchase and download, although their library is not as robust as the mainstay Steam.
Another great thing about grabbing games from GOG is that they are DRM free. DRM is a way of ensuring the owner is the one running the game. Typically this is done via internet connection, for example most Steam games use Steam’s DRM. It checks that the game is legit – not copied or running from another computer.
On GOG, the games on their service do not do these checks. When you download a game, it will never require you to log in to the service to launch it or have to install some sort of 3rd party software to check for licenses – the game is fully yours do with as you wish. True digital ownership.
XBOX
No not the console of the same name. It also happens to be the name Microsoft uses for its PC gaming store. If you have an XBOX console, think of this as an extension of the XBOX ecosystem.
The library is not as broad as what you see on Steam, but it has Game Pass Integration. GamePass is Microsoft’s subscription service that acts as a “Netflix” of games. You pay a monthly subscription fee to get access to a curated selection of titles.
Some Xbox games are dual entitlement, meaning you can play them on your PC or on your XBOX console. The interface is clean and easy to navigate. Plus you get cloud saves, built in voice chat and messaging, and no-charge multiplayer.
Click to learn more about the Xbox PC App .
EPIC Games Store
The Epic Games Store is a relative newcomer to the PC gaming space. It’s striving to offer a similar experience to Steam, but it is not quite there yet in terms of quality and features.
The platform does see it’s share of exclusivity deals, so sometimes a game may only be available on Epic or there for period of time exclusivity.
If you’re looking for Fortnite, this is where you’ll want to grab it.
If you are an aspiring game dev or interested in playing around with Unreal Engine, it comes with some pretty neat Unreal Engine resources to play around with.
Highlights of the Epic Games Store include exclusive games, some great free game giveaways, no DRM, and some pretty great sales coupons. It is still a bit lacking in features, but for the purpose of just downloading and playing games it gets the job done just fine.
With these four store fronts, you will have access to all of the games you want! Download them to your PC and get started with purchasing, downloading, and playing all of your favorite games.
Still need a PC? Explore our diverse gaming PC options – from prebuilt systems, to gaming laptops, and desktops with custom liquid cooling, CyberPowerPC has a gaming PC for every gamer.