LOOKING for free games to keep yourself or the family entertained in the darkness of winter? There are loads of goodies out there to claim.
Some are totally free and others are wrapped into subscriptions you might already have. But there are dozens of freebies to be had across Xbox, PlayStation, Nintendo, your PC or laptop, and even your phone or tablet – including top titles, multiplayer hits, and family favourites.
Amazon Prime giveaway
Your first port of call should be the monthly Amazon giveaway.
It’s available to Prime members, so if you’ve got a Prime membership then you’re in luck.
Every month, Amazon dishes out a smorgasbord of free games that you can keep forever – even if your Prime membership eventually expires.
The only catch is that the list of claimable games is rolling, so you need to bag each month’s lot before it’s replaced with a new selection.
Typically, the batch of games will come in at a value of between £100 and £250 each month – so that’s potentially more than £1,000 worth of titles over the course of a year.
Usually the games are released in weekly batches, typically arriving on a Thursday.
To get them, just go to the Luna website here, which is Amazon’s gaming hub.
Then sign in with your Amazon Prime account to claim your freebies.
Netflix
Netflix bundles in loads of free games with its monthly subscription.
The bonus freebie is included with all Netflix tiers, so you don’t need to pay anything extra.
Netflix’s gaming offering is split into two main chunks.
The first is stuff that you can play on your telly, typically using your smartphone as a controller.
That includes a healthy selection of party games that you can play as a family or with pals.
The Netflix versions of Boggle and Pictionary are great fun, and require almost zero technical know-how to get going.
Just head into the Netflix Games tab to find them.
And the second is a selection of games that you download on your phone, and then get access to by virtue of having an active Netflix account.
You can find these in the Games section on the Netflix app on your smartphone.
When you go to play the games, you’ll be redirected to the App Store where you can download and access them via your Netflix log-in.
Netflix recently added smash-hit Wild West RPG Red Dead Redemption (by Rockstar Games, of Grand Theft Auto fame) to its list in December.
You can also play the Grand Theft Auto Trilogy, Football Manager 2026, as well as roguelike platformer Dead Cells, which is incredibly fun.
Amazon Luna
Remember Amazon Luna from earlier? The place where you claim those free games?
Well Luna has another perk that Prime members are owed.
Luna is primarily a game-streaming system, so it lets you stream computer games over the internet without needing a physical console. It’s a bit like Netflix or Apple TV, but for games.
All you need is a joypad that you can connect to your telly.
Normally playing Luna games would require an £8.99 a month subscription.
But if you have an Amazon Prime membership, you get access to more than 50 games free of charge.
That includes some top ones, including Hogwarts Legacy, which lets you explore the magical world of Harry Potter.
Loads of the games are GameNight titles too, which can be played using a smartphone as a controller instead.
That includes Jackbox Party Pack games, which are full of house party titles.
It’s a great Prime freebie that shouldn’t be ignored.
Generally free games
The games I’ve mentioned so far are “sort of” free, in the sense that they’re bonus freebies attached to services you might already be paying for.
But there are lots of console and PC games that are just outright free.
Here are some big-hitters that don’t cost a penny:
- Fortnite (multiplayer shooter)
- Roblox (metaverse world-building game)
- Genshin Impact (RPG)
- The Sims 4 (simulation)
- Fall Guys (party-royale obstacle course game)
- League of Legends (multiplayer online battle arena)
- Overwatch 2 (multiplayer shooter)
- Rocket League (football, but with rocket-powered cars)
And there are plenty of mobile games (think iPhone, Android, iPad) that you can sink hundreds of hours into too.
- League of Legends: Wild Rift (mobile version of League of Legends)
- Diablo Immortal (RPG)
- Polytopia (4X strategy game)
- Hearthstone (deck-building card game)
- OldSchool RuneScape (massively multiplayer online RPG)
- Kingdom Rush (tower defence)
With this selection alone, you could probably have enough gaming for a lifetime.
Apple Arcade
If you’ve got an iPhone, iPad or Apple TV, you might have heard of Apple Arcade.
It’s a vast selection of premium mobile games that are unique in having no micro-transactions or adverts.
Usually it’s not free – you’ll have to pay £6.99 a month for it.
But there are a couple of ways to access its library of more than 200 titles.
The quick way is to get an Apple One trial, which lasts for a month.
Apple One is a subscription bundle that wraps together several Apple plans together for a discount. The cheapest option is £18.95, which gets you iCloud+, Apple TV+, Apple Music, and Apple Arcade – a saving of £10 versus buying them individually.
So the free trial is worth a go – and if you keep Apple One then the saving is more than you would’ve paid for Apple Arcade anyway.
A slightly better option is the free three-month offer that you get with a new Apple device.
So if you’ve bought a new iPhone, iPad, Apple TV or Mac, you’ll get three months of Apple Arcade.
You just need to open Apple Arcade within the first three months of activating your device, and then you can get the extended free trial.
Just be warned that normal billing will resume after the first three months of membership, so cancel it if you’re not up for being charged.
Xbox and PlayStation freebies
There are a few ways to get freebies if you own Xbox and PlayStation consoles.
For a start, some big-hitter Xbox games are free outright, including:
- Call of Duty: Warzone
- Zenless Zone Zero
- Overwatch 2
- Apex Legends
- Warframe
But you might also have an Xbox Game Pass subscription, which starts at £6.99 to unlock online console multiplayer.
But a second benefit of this service is that it also gets you access to more than 50 games for free.
So if you’re already paying for online multiplayer, don’t miss out on the free games bundled in with it.
It’s a similar story over at PlayStation.
There’s a great selection of blockbuster freebies that you can enjoy on your PlayStation, including:
- Fortnite
- Roblox
- Rocket League
- Marvel Rivals
- Genshin Impact
- Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Siege X
- eFootball
- Apex Legends
- Sims 4
- Valorant
- Warframe
- Destiny 2
- Zenless Zone Zero
- Overwatch 2
- Asphalt Legends
But if you’re paying for PlayStation Plus for online multiplayer, you can also get free games through two different mechanisms.
The first is the Game Catalogue, which gives you access to a broad library of games in the Extra (£10.99) and Premium (£13.49) tiers.
And you also get access to monthly claimable games that you can keep forever.
You also get these claimable titles with the cheaper Essential plan (£6.99), but you’ll miss out on the Game Catalogue.
Nintendo Switch Online
Like Xbox and PlayStation, Nintendo also serves up free games – with a fun twist.
There are some outright free titles for Nintendo fans, including:
- Fortnite
- Overwatch 2
- Rocket League
- Apex legends
- Asphalt Legends
- Warframe
- Fall Guys
- Sky: Children of the Light
But if you’re paying for online multiplayer via Nintendo Switch Online (£3.49 a month with a seven-day free trial), you’ll get loads of classic games bundled in.
It includes a huge selection of more than 190 retro NES, SNES, and Game Boy titles.
If you love this, you can upgrade to the NSO + Expansion Pack membership (£34.99 annually, which works out at £2.92 a month).
This also wraps in N64, Sega Genesis, and Game Boy Advance titles. It’s not a freebie, but it’s a great add-on.
