If you love cheap PC games, it’s always a good idea to make sure you buy from reputable, authorized sources. We’ve covered the reasons why you shouldn’t use grey market sites, but what about places that sell games for cheap and are also worthy of your time and money?
Thankfully, there are legitimate sites out there where you can pick out games that are priced cheap. Here’s a selection of sites worth your time.
Also read: The 6 Best Linux Distros for Gaming
1. Steam
Steam, by itself, doesn’t deal in cheap games exclusively. It does, however, have sales very regularly. Not only that, but you can also look for games that are under a certain price point as well as find games that are currently on sale.
The best time to really get cheap games on Steam is during a holiday period. Steam usually finds any excuse to put on a sale (we recently had one for the Chinese New Year!), so simply tune in during any US-centric holiday, and you should find a range of games on sale.
If you don’t want to keep checking the store, you can also make an account and add the games you want to a wishlist. Steam will then shoot you an email when they go on sale so you can grab it at a good price.
2. Humble Bundle
The Humble Bundle made its debut as the Humble Indie Bundle, which gave out a lot of indie titles for a very cheap price. These days it has grown into something a lot more more, and now sells eBooks, software, and comics as part of its range. It still sells games, however, and it’s worth signing up to email updates to find out when they put up a bundle.
The bundles typically follow a hierarchy: one tier of games for donating $1 or more, one tier for donating above the average donation amount, and one tier for paying the preset premium price. Not all bundles follow this pattern, but the majority will. This means you can pick and choose how much you pay for the games you want.
3. Fanatical
Fanatical (previously Bundle Stars) is a game store that also features flash sales and bundles. The variety of offers can fluctuate wildly; sometimes you’ll get a bundle full of games nobody has heard of, and sometimes there will be an entire critically-acclaimed series on sale. As such, it’s worth poking in every so often to see if anything of interest has appeared.
4. Chrono.gg
Chrono.gg is a little different. Unlike the other stores, this one only sells one game every day at a discounted price. It includes a trailer, a description, and live streams of the game so you can see if it’s for you. If you don’t like the game on offer, you can click the coin next to the buy button and earn some digital cash to spend on their game store.
5. Good Old Games
The clue’s in the name; Good Old Games sells just that! It also has a nice collection of modern games, but you’ll be visiting GOG when you want to pick up an old classic from the early PC era.
If that sounds like your kind of store, be sure to sign up for their email updates. They’ll sometimes put on sales (at around the same frequency as Steam), so you can pick up classics for cheap!
Cheap and Cheerful
If you’re looking to flesh out your PC games collection without breaking the bank, there are several ways to do so. Now you know of five great sites that can get you more for less.
Which site is your favourite? Let us know below.
Also read: 11 Strategies to Find Great Deals and Save Money
Image Credit: Rob DiCaterino
