8 games · updated June 2026

Best adventure games

Worlds built to be explored rather than cleared.

Adventure is the category for games where going somewhere is the point. Not a checklist of map icons, an actual reason to walk over the hill. The online entries here manage the harder version of that, keeping a world interesting when other players have already been everywhere in it.

There is real range here, from games you can finish to games you can only wander.

What to expect

Exploration-led progression rather than a level treadmill.
Strong art direction, this is the category where it shows most.
Co-op in most entries, and worth playing that way.

Start here

Where to begin with adventure games

The entries we would hand someone new to the genre.

MMORPG

Final Fantasy XIV

The MMORPG that was cancelled, rebuilt, and became the genre's high point.

9.3/10

Action

Deep Rock Galactic

Four dwarves, a procedurally generated cave, and a fully destructible one.

9.0/10

The ranking

All 8 adventure games

Ordered by our editors' score across the whole library, so positions here match the main ranking.

Final Fantasy XIV
9.3/10
MMORPGPCConsoleSubscription2013
A subscription MMORPG where one character can hold every class in the game. Best-in-class story, and a free trial that runs to level 70.
MMORPGRPGAdventure
Deep Rock Galactic
9.0/10
Co-op shooterPCConsoleBuy to play2020
Co-op mining under fire. Every wall can be dug through, which makes the level geometry a tool rather than a constraint.
ActionMultiplayerAdventure
Guild Wars 2
8.7/10
MMORPGPCBuy to play2012
An MMORPG with no subscription and a horizontal endgame, max gear is reachable and then stops being the point.
MMORPGRPGAdventure
Terraria
8.7/10
Sandbox adventurePCMobileConsoleBuy to play2011
Two dimensions, five hundred hours, and a boss list that keeps going.
Stardew Valley
8.4/10
Farming simPCMobileConsoleBuy to play2016
A farming sim with four-player co-op and no clock you did not set.
Genshin Impact
8.3/10
Open-world action RPGPCMobileConsoleFree to play2020
An open world built to a standard the free-to-play model does not usually reach.
Roblox
7.9/10
Game platformPCMobileConsoleFree to play2006
Not a game, a few million of them, made by the people playing.
RuneScape
7.9/10
MMORPGPCMobileFree to play2001
The modern branch of the same world, with the systems the old one voted down.