Best Strategy Games on the PC

Strategy Games are one of the things the PC & Modern Multi-Platform is genuinely for. The ones worth playing start with Balatro, Civilization VI, Inscryption.

The PC and Strategy Games

Not a console, and that is the point: no generation boundary, no exclusivity, and a back catalogue that goes back forty years and never stops working.

This is one of its strengths. Strategy, simulation and indies — the three genres that have essentially always lived here — plus mods, which turn several of the games below into different games entirely.

Filtering to strategy means you want to be making decisions rather than executing them. It is the right filter when what you liked was the planning.

The Strategy Games Worth Playing

  1. 1. Balatro

    Follow the link for hand-written recommendations if you want more like it.

  2. 2. Civilization VI

    Follow the link for hand-written recommendations if you want more like it.

  3. 3. Inscryption

    Follow the link for hand-written recommendations if you want more like it.

  4. 4. Mount and Blade II Bannerlord

    Follow the link for hand-written recommendations if you want more like it.

  5. 5. Blue Prince

    Follow the link for hand-written recommendations if you want more like it.

  6. 6. Slay the Spire

    Follow the link for hand-written recommendations if you want more like it.

  7. 7. Age of Empires II Definitive Edition

    Follow the link for hand-written recommendations if you want more like it.

  8. 8. Total War Warhammer III

    Follow the link for hand-written recommendations if you want more like it.

  9. 9. Arma 3

    Follow the link for hand-written recommendations if you want more like it.

  10. 10. Lemmings

    Follow the link for hand-written recommendations if you want more like it.

  11. 11. Siralim Ultimate

    Follow the link for hand-written recommendations if you want more like it.

What Makes a Good Strategy Game

Losing that teaches you something. A good strategy game makes the reason you lost legible, so the next attempt is different rather than just longer.

Pace and immediacy. Strategy games are slow by design, and the good ones expect you to sit with a screen for a while before anything happens.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the best strategy game on the PC?

Balatro is the usual first answer, and there are 11 in the library we cover.

Was the PC good at strategy games?

Yes — it is one of the things the machine is known for, and there are 11 in the library we cover.

What is the difference between strategy and tactics?

Scale. Tactics is one battle, unit by unit. Strategy is the campaign around it — economy, territory, and which battles to fight at all.

Do strategy games work on a controller?

Turn-based ones, yes; the genre started on consoles. Real-time strategy is genuinely worse without a mouse, with a handful of exceptions built for the pad.

How is this list put together?

From the games this site covers on the PC & Modern Multi-Platform, matched against hand-mapped gameplay categories rather than a storefront's genre tag. A page only exists where there are at least four, which is why some console and genre combinations have no page at all.

Strategy Games on Other Consoles

More From the PC

Or browse the whole PC & Modern Multi-Platform library.