The Holiday season is coming soon, which means you have to start thinking not only about presents, but also about what you’re going to do after the supper is over and the guests are gone. We can help you with both. Below you’ll find twenty of the best games for you to play on Christmas, whether you’re celebrating it, or just enjoying a day off.
The list includes some of the coolest, latest video game releases, a game or two suitable for the kids (in case you have to keep them occupied), and plenty of options for teens and adults alike. With our recommendations you won’t have to wonder what to play on this year’s winter holidays.
| Game | Release | Genre | Developer | Sale | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 | Random ELITE 5 Keys | Random | Random | Random | 98% | Read more |
 | Spider-Man: Miles Morales | 2022-11-18 | Action-adventure | Insomniac Games | 57% | Read more |
 | Need for Speed Unbound | 2022-12-02 | Racing | Criterion Games | 55% | Read more |
 | Dorfromantik | 2021-03-25 | Puzzle | Toukana Interactive | Read more | |
 | Victoria 3 | 2022-10-25 | Strategy | Paradox Development Studio | 41% | Read more |
 | LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga | 2022-04-05 | Action | Traveller's Tales | 60% | Read more |
 | Grounded | 2020-07-28 | Survival | Obsidian Entertainment | Read more | |
 | FIFA 23 | 2022-09-30 | Sports | EA Canada | 52% | Read more |
 | Age of Empires IV | 2021-10-28 | Strategy, Real-Time | Relic Entertainment | 50% | Read more |
 | Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II | Cross-Gen Bundle (Xbox Series X/S) | 2022-10-28 | Action | Infinity Ward | 14% | Read more |
 | Farming Simulator 22 | 2021-11-22 | Simulation | Giants Software | 62% | Read more |
 | Stray | 2022-07-19 | Adventure | BlueTwelve Studio | Read more | |
 | Sackboy: A Big Adventure | 2022-10-27 | Platform | Sumo Digital | 56% | Read more |
 | God of War | 2022-01-14 | Action | Santa Monica Studio | 60% | Read more |
 | Minecraft Java Edition | 2013-11-19 | Action | Mojang | Read more | |
 | Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord | 2020-03-31 | RPG | TaleWorlds Entertainment | 41% | Read more |
 | Grand Theft Auto V: Premium Online Edition | 2015-04-14 | Adventure | Rockstar North | 66% | Read more |
 | Project Zomboid | 2013-11-08 | Indie | The Indie Stone | 51% | Read more |
 | Gotham Knights (EU /NA) | 2022-10-21 | Action RPG | WB Games Montréal | 70% | Read more |
 | Ready or Not | 2021-12-18 | First-Person | VOID Interactive | 28% | Read more |
 | Red Dead Redemption 2 | 2019-11-05 | Adventure | Rockstar Games | 73% | Read more |
 | No Man's Sky | 2016-08-12 | Adventure | Hello Games | 63% | Read more |
 | Random Winter 5 Steam Keys | Random | Random | Random | 91% | Read more |
 | Days Gone | 2021-05-18 | Action | Bend Studio | 80% | Read more |
 | Total War: WARHAMMER III | 2022-02-17 | RTS | Creative Assembly | 49% | Read more |
 | Halo Infinite (Xbox, Windows 10) | 2021-12-08 | Shooter | 343 Industries | 66% | Read more |
 | Battlefield 2042 | 2021-11-19 | Shooter | DICE | 62% | Read more |
 | Jurassic World Evolution 2 | 2021-11-09 | Construction, Simulation | Frontier Developments plc | 86% | Read more |
 | Random Winter 1 Steam Keys | Random | Random | Random | 72% | Read more |
 | Football Manager 2022 | 2021-11-09 | Sports | Sports Interactive | 72% | Read more |
 | Dead By Daylight | 2016-06-14 | Adventure | Behaviour Digital Inc. | 61% | Read more |
 | Random Winter 10 Steam Keys | Random | Random | Random | 91% | Read more |
 | Horizon Zero Dawn | Complete Edition | 2020-08-07 | Adventure | Guerrilla | 76% | Read more |
 | The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim Special Edition | 2016-10-27 | Adventure | Bethesda Game Studios | 71% | Read more |
 | Dark Souls II: Scholar Of The First Sin | 2015-04-01 | RPG | FromSoftware, Inc | 32% | Read more |
 | Dying Light | Platinum Edition | 2015-01-26 | Adventure | Techland | 91% | Read more |
 | Squad | 2015-12-14 | Action & Shooter | Offworld Industries | 47% | Read more |
 | NBA 2K22 | 2021-09-10 | Simulation, Sports | Visual Concepts, 2K Games | 74% | Read more |
 | ANVIL | 2021-12-02 | Action & Shooter | Action Square | 53% | Read more |
 | Grand Theft Auto V | 2015-04-14 | Adventure | Rockstar North | 59% | Read more |
 | Terraria | 2011-05-16 | Adventure | Re-Logic | 60% | Read more |
 | Hearts Of Iron IV: Cadet Edition | 2016-06-06 | Simulation | Paradox Development Studio | 79% | Read more |
 | Don't Starve Together | 2016-04-21 | Economy | Klei Entertainment | 68% | Read more |
 | The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim Anniversary Edition | 2021-11-11 | Adventure RPG | Bethesda Game Studios | 65% | Read more |
 | The Sims 4 | 2014-09-04 | Simulation | Maxis | 76% | Read more |
 | Assetto Corsa | 2014-12-19 | Indie | Kunos Simulazioni | 80% | Read more |
 | Golf With Your Friends | 2016-01-29 | Indie | Blacklight Interactive | 68% | Read more |
 | Sid Meier's Civilization VI | Platinum Edition | 2016-10-20 | Economy | Aspyr (Mac, Linux) | 89% | Read more |
 | PAYDAY 2 | 2013-08-13 | Action & Shooter | OVERKILL - a Starbreeze Studio. | 79% | Read more |
 | Cities: Skylines | 2015-03-10 | Economy | Colossal Order Ltd. | 82% | Read more |
Nice
Dorfromantik
| Release date: | 2021-03-25 |
| Genre: | Puzzle, city-building |
| Developer: | Toukana Interactive |
To start off with something nice and whimsical, consider Dorfromantik, a charming game about building a rustic world out of a pile of terrain tiles, randomly shuffled for good measure. Any given playthrough ends when you deplete the stack entirely, but you might find a quest which rewards you with extra tiles. Usually, the tasks are based on connecting landscapes in a specific manner.
If you’ve ever played Carcassone, then you might feel at home, even if the pieces are hexagonal, rather than square, and the game isn’t competitive at all, even if it looks a bit like the map of Civilization. Dorfromantik looks lovely, the gameplay is a very relaxing worldbuilding exercise, and there’s enough variety of sceneries and tiles to make every playthrough meaningfully different.
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Grounded
| Release date: | 2020-07-28 |
| Genre: | Survival |
| Developer: | Obsidian Entertainment |
Grounded isn’t conflict-free, but it’s premise and presentation are still whimsical enough to give it a spot among the nice and friendly games. Here, you become a teen shrunken down to insect-size and you have to survive in your own back yard. Unfortunately for you, in addition to a lot of mess you were supposed to clean yesterday, the place also has surprising biodiversity.
You’ll meet, for example, ants, weevils, and, unfortunately, spiders, but the game at least allows you to make them look less… arachnid. Grounded is a survival game through and through, with base building (out of grass, leaves, and sticks), resource gathering (including collection of morning dew), and a story to drive you towards exploration of other regions of the suddenly huge backyard.
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Stray
| Release date: | 2022-07-19 |
| Genre: | Adventure |
| Developer: | BlueTwelve Studio |
Stray is a game set in a cyberpunk city populated almost exclusively by humanoid robots. It might sound bleak, but there’s a ray of sunshine: the player character, who’s a cat that got lost in the city and tries to find a way out. And as anyone who played Stray could tell you, the cat is an obvious highlight and anyone who likes cats (=isn’t a monster) will be delighted by how realistic it is.
Although the game is a fairly linear adventure mostly filled with traversal and solving environmental puzzles, you can be very cat-like if you want. You can curl up to take a nap, nap for attention, and snuggle up to friendly robots, which always gets them to react in one way or another. It’s quite cute, despite the underlying sad and mildly spooky moments and worldbuilding.
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LEGO Star Wars: Skywalker Saga
| Release date: | 2022-04-05 |
| Genre: | Action |
| Developer: | Traveller's Tales |
If you’ve ever wondered what it would be like if Yoda was on Hoth, or whether Han Solo would be effective during the battle of Naboo, now you have a chance to check! LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga covers the movie saga from The Phantom Menace up to the Rise of Skywalker, and with the typical LEGO game roster size you can ignore the canon and do what seems fun!
Of course, the events of the movies are adapted in a very humorous manner, with the game gently poking fun at a lot of classic moments, sometimes turning them from dramatic to just straight-up silly. What’s important, is that LEGO games are great in co-op, and the gameplay is simple and easy enough to make this title fun and enjoyable for Star Wars fan of any age.
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Age of Empires 4
| Release date: | 2021-10-28 |
| Genre: | Strategy, Real-Time |
| Developer: | Relic Entertainment |
This year a classic real-time strategy series Age of Empires graced us with a new installment, and wouldn’t you know, it’s really good. The game features 4 campaigns which will take you on a highly eventful journey through history, starting in the Middle Ages and going into the Renaissance. There are eight civilizations to choose from, ranging from the Holy Roman Empire to China.
The gameplay is also going to feel immediately familiar to fans of the old AoEs. You have to build an efficient city, turtle up behind its walls as soon as you can, and recruit units of various types, because in a true old-school RTS fashion there are some rock-paper-scissors dynamics to the real-time combat. Just be mindful not to ignore the economy, or your army will go out in a blaze or funeral pyres.
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Farming Simulator 2022
| Release date: | 2021-11-22 |
| Genre: | Simulation |
| Developer: | Giants Software |
Sometimes what you need to have a satisfying gaming experience is to hop on a powerful machine and harvest something. The Farming Simulator series has been delivering this kind of power-farming experience for years, and the most recent entry, Farming Simulator 22 is no different. From tending to and harvesting crops to animal husbandry FS22 has everything needed to fuel your farming fantasy
Of course, it would be a Farming Simulator game without a staggering number of licensed and faithfully recreated machinery. In FS22’s case, the list of farming equipment has over 400 entries, coming from more than a hundred manufacturers. It might not be as whimsical as Stardew Valley, but there’s no denying that the realistic approach of Farming Simulator 22 has its own relaxing charm.
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Football Manager 2022
| Release date: | 2021-11-09 |
| Genre: | Sports |
| Developer: | Sports Interactive |
The world’s most comprehensive simulator of running a football club has lived to see another installment. Football Manager 2022 is here, arriving with over a hundred different leagues, a database of half a million of real football players, and a cadre of assistants. It also has a very nice new interface including an excellent Data Hub giving you all the performance metrics you need and desire.
FM2022 truly benefits from long years of experience, delivering a deep and broad managerial experience, coupled with an accessible, easy-to-read and interpret presentation. Making new acquisitions, managing tactics, and handling rising crises is as exciting as it could be. If running a football club is your greatest dream, no series delivers on it better than Football Manager (2022).
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Forza Horizon 5
| Release date: | 2021-11-09 |
| Genre: | Racing |
| Developer: | Playground Games |
In terms of open-world racing games, few titles can match up to the Forza Horizon series, including its latest installment, Forza Horizon 5. This time the series takes you on a trip to Mexico, transformed into a massive map filled with diverse locales. The immersive open world is further enhanced by dynamic weather acting differently between the games’ multiple biomes. It’s pretty awesome.
Of course, a vast, lovely landscape is no use if you’ve no car to drive around, but FH5 has you covered with a huge stable housing over 500 different, customizable, cars. Forza Horizon 5 remains multiplayer-friendly, with not only plenty of regular races to participate in, but also creative modes like the Piñata pop minigame, which is, indeed, about the cooperative wrecking of piñatas.
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Jurassic World Evolution 2
| Release date: | 2021-11-09 |
| Genre: | Strategy |
| Developer: | Frontier Developments |
Do you think you can do a better job than John Hammond or the people who actually launched a park filled with deadly genetically modified superdinos? Well, you can prove it by playing Jurassic World Evolution 2, a bigger, better, snazzier sequel to JW: Evolution 1. There are more than seventy different dinosaur species for you to develop, hatch, care for, and show off to your visitors.
In terms of innovations compared to the previous game, now you’re building a park in the contiguous United States rather than a remote island. It means more biomes, and, more importantly, bigger maps. There are, of course, several modes, including a story-based campaign, a what-if mode Chaos Theory, and the indispensable Sandbox mode letting you just go hog wild on park development.
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Minecraft
| Release date: | 2015-07-29 |
| Genre: | Adventure |
| Developer: | Mojang |
Recommending Minecraft is never a bad idea, because it remains one of the most engaging games for anyone who wants to build amazing things with very few restrictions. The idea is simple: the world is made out of blocks corresponding to (mostly) natural resources, you can use tools to put these blocks in your pockets and use them to build something directly, or craft specific items using a special table.
That’s pretty much if for the gameplay premise. Of course, there are more complexities to consider, like properties of different materials, or using animals for food and resources. There are even survival mechanics in the appropriate game mode. Minecraft is also extremely mod-friendly, so if you somehow find the absurd range of options to be limiting, there are mods which can help you out.
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The Sims 4
| Release date: | 2016-11-03 |
| Genre: | Simulation |
| Developer: | Maxis |
The promise given to you by The Sims series is enough to be interested: you can build a house, decorate it however you want, and have a satisfying family life. The Sims 4 features a very robust Create-a-Sim system, letting you customize your Sims to a dramatic degree, as well as decide their personalities and aspirations governing how they behave in the game proper.
Since its release in 2013, The Sims 4 has collected a large number of expansions and content packs, which add more items, new careers, and occasionally even entire new mechanics and areas. On top of it all, the AI controlling your Sims can handle most things even without your input, which allows you to watch your toon people like they are fish in an aquarium, living their little, silly lives.
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Naughty
Spider-Man: Miles Morales
| Release date: | 2022-11-18 |
| Genre: | Action-adventure |
| Developer: | Insomniac Games |
Swinging through the town on a web made in a lab… Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales is a fantastic follow up to the Peter Parker-led previous game. Miles, still kind of fresh to his Spider-powers (including bio-electricity) has to keep New York safe while Pete is out of town. Which is a problem, because villains are wearing their ugly heads, and Christmas is coming fast.
Although the map is pretty much the same as in Marvel’s Spider-Man, it got an appropriate winter makeover. The combat system is also immediately familiar, but Miles’ electric powers provide just enough extra juice to make learning the ropes exciting again. If you’re looking for a cool superhero-themed game that fits the Holiday spirit, give Miles Morales a chance!
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God of War: Ragnarok
| Release date: | 2022-11-09 |
| Genre: | Action-adventure, hack and slash |
| Developer: | Santa Monica Studio |
A late-year smash hit, a sequel to one of the best games in 2018. Taking place a few years after Kratos’ conflict with Baldur, God of War Ragnarok leads the old Spartan and his teenage son Atreus into a complicated web of alliances and conflicts with the remaining Aesir gods. It certainly doesn’t help that Atreus is doing some research on his own, trying to learn more about his heritage.
You’ll explore many realms of Norse mythology, trade words with Odin, and have a crucial role to play in the titular apocalyptic event. Add to that a crunchy combat system, cool gear with special abilities, and gorgeous graphics, and you get a game that is not only excellent in its own right, but also improves on its direct predecessor. Easily Game of the Year material.
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Elden Ring
| Release date: | 2022-02-25 |
| Genre: | Action RPG |
| Developer: | FromSoftware |
While it’s not the coziest game on the list, no end-year list would be complete without one of 2022’s finest releases. Elden Ring came from the forges of FromSoftware, the creators of Dark Souls and Bloodborne, and with little surprise to anyone, it turned out to be excellent. A large, but tightly designed open world filled with stories, challenges, and secrets to discover.
The story involves a family falling apart due to devastating ambitions and irreconcilable conflicts. You become a Tarnished, a wild card returning to the Lands Between to solve a deific crisis. You’ll find allies, align yourself with factions, and challenge the corrupted children of a divine ruler, Queen Marika. It’s a tall task, but every enemy felled, gives you the resources you need to succeed.
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Warhammer 40k: Darktide
| Release date: | 2022-11-30 |
| Genre: | Action, first-person shooter |
| Developer: | Fatshark |
To take a breath from Holiday cheer and bask in the grim darkness of the far future, let’s descend into the bowels of Tertium, a hive city having a bad case of Nurgle cultists. Thankfully you are there with an arsenal of lethal weapons and tremendously dangerous psychic powers. Well, you and your crew of misfits whose only way out is by following the missions given by the Inquisition.
Darktide comes from Fatshark, creators of Vermintides 1 & 2, except instead of Warhammer Fantasy, this time it takes place in Warhammer 40k. It remains a first-person action game focused on using a mix of ranged and melee weapons to fight hordes of enemies and special units. If you’d love some gritty, brutal action, to relax after a family gathering, give Darktide some attention.
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Halo Infinite
| Release date: | 2022-11-30 |
| Genre: | FPS |
| Developer: | Fatshark |
Long-time coming, Halo Infinite brings back Master Chief, the Banished, and the series’ true main draw: phenomenal multiplayer. Although it’s been spruced up with new toys like the grappling hook, the core and heart of Halo remains the same, and the best part is that if it’s just multiplayer that you’re interested in you can check it out for free, you only need to pay for Battle Pass for extra goodies.
However, if you want to dive into the singleplayer story mode, seeing what’s up with Master Chief after Cortana glitched herself into villainy, you’ll need to pay. And it’s worth it, because it mixes the familiar tight gunplay with a semi-open world structure, letting you take down enemy encampments and tangle with the same faction you might know from Halo Wars 2.
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Inscryption
| Release date: | 2021-10-19 |
| Genre: | Horror |
| Developer: | Daniel Mullins Games |
Inscryption is a curious game which seemingly came out of nowhere, and quickly rose to the ranks of the highest-rated games on Steam. The premise is quite unusual: it’s a roguelike, a deck-building game, AND a horror. It comes from the developer who made Pony Island a few years before, so you know you’re into something weird, dark, and absolutely engaging your attention.
Aside from building a deck and using it to roguelike your way out, you also have to solve puzzles reminiscent of escape-rooms. Unfortunately, to speak of the story would be to spoil it, and it’s better that you discover it yourself. Inscryption is weird, it’s dark, and sitting at over 90% of positive reviews on Steam it clearly does something worth checking out.
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Monster Hunter Rise
| Release date: | 2022-01-12 |
| Genre: | Action |
| Developer: | CAPCOM CO., LTD. |
After the smashing success of Monster Hunter World and its Iceborne expansion, Capcom still managed to do something fresh and exciting for Monster Hunter Rise. One sweet addition are the wirebugs, useful little insects acting like impromptu Spider-Man webs, enhancing your mobility and providing new combat moves. And then there are Palamutes, your big, rideable dog friends.
The general idea stays the same: you’re a hunter capable of and equipped for taking down large (and occasionally huge) monsters threatening the area. Each big monster is effectively a boss fight, and your rewards are resources for new weapons and armor. Monster Hunter games have a satisfying gameplay loop and learning the ins and outs of the weapons and monster movesets is very rewarding.
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Resident Evil Village
| Release date: | 2021-05-07 |
| Genre: | Horror |
| Developer: | CAPCOM CO., LTD. |
Resident Evil Village is a direct sequel to Resident Evil 7, putting you back in the shoes of the chronically unlucky Ethan Winters after a three-year time skip. He spent that time living his best life with Mia and caring for a newborn daughter. Unfortunately, things go pear shaped and he finds himself in a wintry European village filled with mutants and a ruling class of powerful weirdos.
Resident Evil Village keeps the first-person perspective from RE7 and uses it very well to not only increase immersion in the spooky, scary, and horrifying locations. Each mutant lord’s area presents a different theme and style, from a vampire mansion to a haunted house, and if Ethan is going to save his daughter, he’ll have to confront the rules of the place, including the elusive Mother Miranda.
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Ruined King: A League of Legends Story
| Release date: | 2021-11-16 |
| Genre: | RPG |
| Developer: | Airship Syndicate |
Ruined King: A League of legends Story launched hot on the heel of the smashing success of another LoL title: the animated show Arcane. Don’t be mistaken, however: Ruined King stands on its own. Developed by Airship Syndicate, it shares some aspects with a previous game of the studio: Battle Chasers: Nightwar, especially the jRPG-like turn-based combat and Joe Madureira’s art style.
The story involves a mysterious Black Mist threatening to envelop the pirate city of Bilgewater, and a tight crew of champions who decide to do something about it. The roster is composed of six heroes: Miss Fortune, Ilaoi, Braum, Pyke, Ahri, and Yasuo, but you can only take three people. As a result, you have to consider hero synergies and challenges ahead to find the best team comp for the job.
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Random Key Steam Game
| Release date: | Random |
| Genre: | Random |
| Developer: | Random |
If the glut of choices is overwhelming and you’d rather rely on guided chance, consider checking out the random key offer. With several safeguards in place to ensure you’ll get a game is good at minimum, this way you can give yourself a surprise gift, something that doesn’t usually happen.
Depending on the tier you choose the random games you might draw have a different minimum base price, as well as specific minimum review average, to ensure you don’t risk getting a dud. The keys come in bundles ranging from 1 to 10 keys, giving you a chance to get them in bulk if you want to.
May December be jolly
This concludes our list of hot video games for Christmas 2022. You should play all of them yourself, but they also are an answer to the age-old question “what to get my friends for holidays?”. Whoever you’re trying to treat this winter holiday season, we’ve got you covered.
We also have more than games if you’d like to diversify your holiday gift spending. We’ve got gift cards, subscriptions, and more.