The 16 Best Free FPS Games

A shadow drop for this constantly updated shooter arrived on February 4, 2019, and caught everyone off guard. Since that day, Apex Legends has evolved to become one of the most-played battle royale games on the market and a go-to for competitive multiplayer enthusiasts. Three-player squads vie for the top spot as the last surviving unit during battle royale competitions, plus this game's version of Team Deathmatch ("Arena") provides something more familiar to arena shooter fans. All in all, Respawn Entertainment's tentpole live-service release is most definitely one of the best free FPS games out right now.

This tactical hero FPS comes from the developers at Riot Games, which is most known for its continued work on the world's biggest MOBA, League of Legends. Instead of engaging in top-down tactical MOBA matches here, you'll instead have to play extra carefully and work in conjunction with your teammates in one of the most hardcore first-person shooters on the market. Valorant's 5v5 competitive multiplayer experience rewards precise gunplay and offers cool unique powers that make each "Agent" stand out from the rest.

Destiny 2 is one of the most played and content-rich free-to-play online first-person shooters on the market. And if you have the time and energy needed to dive into it, then you'll be treated to a magnificent galactic journey that offers great solo and co-op adventures to embark on. The main gameplay thread here deals with upgrading one's very own "Guardian" and delving into missions that involve blasting extraterrestrial threats across neighboring planets. Linking up with other Guardians for super tough raids and engaging in thrilling multiplayer skirmishes will certainly keep incoming players busy. Destiny 2 and its many expansions/updates will throw first-timers into a vortex full of worthwhile content.

Halo Infinite comes in two different parts - its massive, open-world campaign and its free-to-play competitive multiplayer component. We're going to focus on the latter portion of that game here, which has grown to include a lot of the features fans of Master Chief's universe have been requesting since even before launch. "Spartan" soldiers from all over the world can hop into this FPS to enjoy legacy modes such as "Capture the Flag," "Slayer," "Stockpile," and more. And thanks to Forge mode, tons of player-created maps join the gamut of 343 Industries-developed battlefields. So yeah, there's a lot to love about Halo Infinite's multiplayer component.

Call of Duty's highly addictive and super competitive battle royale mode has been injected with the same dynamic gunplay that propped up the first version while introducing a brand new map to freshen things up. Call of Duty Warzone 2.0 lets you shoot it out with a bunch of other militant fighters in a bid to be the last soldier or team standing. You still have the opportunity to get back into the game after getting killed by winning in the "Gulag," plus signature modes such as "DMZ" and "Resurgence" inject fun variations on the battle royale blueprint for a nice change of pace.

Splitgate's Halo inspirations are evident as soon as you boot up the game and take note of its fast-paced gameplay in motion. Its armored warriors and arena-style multiplayer gameplay focus allude to the game's development team being inspired by Bungie's iconic FPS. What sets this game apart from Halo is the focus on using portals, which add a nice wrinkle to the furious PvP matches as you use them to drop into different areas of the battlefield to get the drop on the opposition. Using those portals to quickly escape from the brink of death is also a useful maneuver that makes Splitgate's multiplayer mechanics so clever and masterfully implemented. When the topic of the best free FPS games comes up, Splitgate deserves a mention.

Blizzard Entertainment's 5v5 first-person shooter has fully embraced its 2.0 state and has added new heroes that provide a nice variety of varied abilities that give players their own chosen playstyles to master alongside their teammates. Overwatch 2's quality modes of play and seasonal content updates continually freshen up its overall package and give players all the more reason to keep grinding it out online. The new PvP mode called "Push," in which two teams battle for control of a massive robot that pushes a team's payload to the opponent's side of the map, is the main attraction of this colorful shooter.

Quake is the multiplayer arena shooter that OG's of the 90s PC gaming boom love to death. The latest and greatest version of that style of multiplayer team deathmatch goodness is Quake Champions, a fast-paced FPS that demands quick thinking and even quicker reaction times if one truly wants to stay alive. 16 "Champions" equipped with lethal weaponry (the Railgun, Rocket Launcher, and Lightning Gun are essential!) and tons of agility are at your disposal during your team-based skirmishes that will make your knuckles sweat.

Battle Royale shooters are still the rage nowadays. The one we found to be a top-notch pick for this list of the best free FPS games is Ring of Elysium. A massive natural disaster will always be at the forefront of your mind as you attempt to be the last person standing during a 60-person struggle for survival. Three spacious maps allow you to scavenge, shoot, and use different types of traversal to hop onto the rescue helicopter that will whisk you away to safety from Mother Nature's wrath.

Hero shooters may not have a chokehold on the competitive multiplayer scene as they once did when Overwatch first hit the scene. But there are still a bunch of quality games that stick to that style of team-based multiplayer, such as this one that's based in a fantastical medieval realm ruled by magical elves, dwarves, dragons, and more. Paladins: Champions of the Realm features four separate modes, 5v5 tam-based matches, and a whopping 58 "Champions" to master during your time spent competing in this game.

You know what's such a mind trip? This iconic multiplayer shooter started as the 1996 Team Fortress mod for Quake and its 1999 remake Team Fortress Classic. And it's also wild how this game has led to the creation of numerous fan-made comedy vids that even non-players have laid eyes on. Hopping into Team Fortress 2 to see what all the hype is about is still worth doing these days if you ask us. The name of the game here is "teamwork" - run with either the RED or BLU side, pick your favorite character class, and attempt to push your squad to victory across "King of the Hill," "Capture the Flag," "Control Point," etc.

Military FPS games come a dime a dozen these days, but only a few of them can truly be considered elite experiences. Thankfully, we found one of them and it's called Black Squad. The overall art design of this game isn't too inspired, to be honest. But the amount of content you're provided in this shooter is quite plentiful - Black Squad comes with 10 varied game modes, over 85 firearms to master, 10 different characters to bring onto the battlefield, and over 460 skins to equip & make your solider look their very best.

Those laser-beam and explosion-filled space wars you've seen erupt during some of your favorite films can be replicated in the massively multiplayer online first-person shooter PlanetSide 2. Your jaw will drop when you get loaded onto a map filled with thousands of geared-up soldiers armed to the teeth and ready to put on a planetary war for the ages. Just imagine Battlefield, but with all the futuristic weapons and vehicles you'd expect to see in Halo and Titanfall. Intergalactic warfare is at the forefront of this amazing team-based shooter.

Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, which everyone and their grandmother refer to as CS:GO, has now reached its 2.0 phase via the sequel simply known as Counter-Strike 2. This tactical first-person shooter caters to the most hardcore fans of the genre - players have to be as careful as possible and coordinate with their four teammates to dominate the competition across nine modes of play. Those modes include "Classic Casual," "Classic Competitive," "Deathmatch," "Bomb Scenario," "Hostage Scenario," "Wingman," and "Premier Competitive." Once you learn the ins and outs of this hardcore FPS, you'll find your next competitive multiplayer shooter addiction.

So here's the deal - Hellbound has a full-fledged campaign that you can purchase if you feel the need to do so. But if you're not looking to get caught up in some plot details and just want to go all "unga bunga" on a neverending flood of demons, then it's best if you hop into the game's free-to-play Survival Mode. As a lone badass with a whole lot of guns in his arsenal, your only concerns are not dying and making sure every monster that attempts to kill you gets blasted into all sorts of bloody bits. If the straightforward running and gunning in DOOM, Quake, and Duke Nukem 3D excites you, then so will Hellbound: Survival Mode.

Once you learn that this final pick on our list of the best free FPS games comes from a development studio full of ex-Battlefield developers, you'll come to recognize all the wanton destruction this shooter delivers. So here's the deal, folks - THE FINALS is a chaotic 3v3v3v3 competitive multiplayer shooter where teams shoot it out while rabid fans watch the proceedings via a game show feed. This game's base mode is called "Cashout" and tasks teams with opening essential vaults and fending off other trios while transporting them to a "cash-out" location. "Light," "Medium," and "Heavy" characters are at your disposal as you wield varied firearms, melee weapons, and gadgets while having the time of your life within highly destructive environments.