Play The Best Strategy Games In 2025
Strategy games have long been a staple of PC gaming, offering deep tactical gameplay, challenging decision-making, and rewarding victories. Whether you love real-time strategy (RTS), turn-based tactics, grand strategy, or city-building simulators, 2025 brings an incredible selection of must-play titles. From timeless classics to groundbreaking new releases, this list covers the best strategy games for PC, ensuring you find the perfect challenge for your strategic mind. Whether you’re a seasoned general or a newcomer to the genre, these top PC strategy games will test your skills and keep you engaged for hours. Welcome to the first of three parts in this massive list where we dive in and discover the ultimate strategy games to play in 2025!
100 – Galactic Civilizations 2: Ultimate Edition
Galactic Civilizations II: Ultimate Edition is one of the best all-time beloved classics! A 4X turn-based strategy game that was revolutionary due to its sheer scale and complexity. The game is still very capable of challenging players to build and dominate a galactic empire through exploration, diplomacy, research, and warfare. As the definitive edition of Galactic Civilizations II, it includes expanded content, improved AI, and deeper mechanics, making it one of the most polished and complete space strategy experiences available in 2025.
With customizable ships, diverse civilizations, and a vast, dynamic galaxy, players can shape their interstellar destiny, forging alliances or waging war to achieve dominance. Whether you prefer tactical battles, political maneuvering, or scientific advancement, Galactic Civilizations 2 remains a must-play for strategy enthusiasts in 2025. If you’re looking for something a bit more modern, you have Galactic Civilizations 3 and 4.
99 – The Banner Saga
It’s hard to believe that The Banner Saga came out almost a decade ago. If you think about it, more time has passed since The Banner Saga came out to this day, than it did from the release of GTA San Andreas and GTA 5. Feeling old, yet? Well, maybe it’s time to dive into this beautiful story-driven tactical RPG that combines turn-based combat, deep decision-making, and stunning hand-drawn visuals inspired by Norse mythology. As you lead a caravan of warriors and refugees across a dying world, every choice—both in battle and in dialogue—shapes the fate of your people.
With its emotional storytelling, strategic combat, and a beautifully animated world, The Banner Saga remains a standout experience in 2025. If you enjoy a long story, the game is a trilogy you shouldn’t miss.
98 – Battle for Middle-Earth 2
I think that The Battle for Middle-earth II is a somewhat forgotten title in 2025, despite being the best real-time strategy (RTS) game set in J.R.R. Tolkien’s iconic world. It allows players to command massive armies in epic battles RTS battles from Lord of the Rings, it features six factions, a rich campaign, and the ability to wage war across Middle-earth’s most famous locations, it expands upon the original game with improved mechanics, naval combat, and deeper base-building options.
The best part of it? It’s available everywhere online through multiple abandonware websites, meaning that you can give this outstanding RTS a go, for free, right now!
97 – OpenXcom (X-COM: UFO Defense)
It’s hard to recommend the classic game, which is nearly 30 years old by now, but OpenXcom a fan-made open-source remake of UFO: Enemy Unknown is an easy sell. This remake does a lot of the heavy lifting necessary to bring the iconic 1994 strategy game into the modern era with enhanced graphics, improved UI, and bug fixes while preserving the original’s spirit. You know the drill by now: Players take command of X-COM, an elite international organization tasked with defending Earth from an alien invasion through turn-based combat and resource management. Many gamers have watched in horror as their experienced and beloved troops were wiped out in a single mission that went wrong, traumatizing them for life. If you enjoy the XCOM remake and would like to see where it originated OpenXcom is the best way to do it in 2025.
96 – Warhammer 40,000: Mechanicus
With Warhammer 40,000: Mechanicus 2 right around the corner, this might be the perfect time to jump into one of the best Warhammer 40,000 strategy games ever made: Warhammer 40,000: Mechanicus. For those of you unaware or those who dislike 40,000, this is a turn-based tactical strategy game that puts players in command of the Adeptus Mechanicus, the Imperium’s most technologically advanced faction. As Magos Dominus Faustinius, you lead a squad of cybernetic Tech-Priests on a mission to explore and conquer ancient Necron tombs, arguably, the most advanced civilization in the Warhammer 40,000 galaxy.
Expect an in-depth tactical experience, paired up with a story-driven campaign with a branching narrative, unit customization, and strategic combat. In a world where there aren’t all that many good Warhammer 40,000 strategy games, Mechanicus stands out as a unique experience focused on one of the more unique factions of the setting.
95 – Civilization IV
A list of the best strategy games to play in 2025 cannot dispense including a Civilization game somewhere. I will include a few, but let’s start with one of my all-time favorites: Civilization IV. The gist is still the same: As the ruler of your empire, you manage everything from diplomacy and military strategy to scientific research and cultural development, all while navigating the evolving challenges that arise as the course of history marches on. What I loved about Civilization IV and found lacking in a game like Civilization VI is the sense of scale it had, and I fondly remember fielding massive doom stacks of armies and marching all across the world to fight some century-long war. Or maybe, it’s just nostalgia playing tricks on me. Despite being a bit outdated by now, I still think it’s well worth experiencing it, especially if you’re the kind of player who only got into Civilization with Civilization V and VI.
94 – Frostpunk 2
Frostpunk is a series for those of you who love absolute misery and human tragedy. Working people to death? Check. Child labor? Check. Starvation? Check. Dying of cold? Check. All out of disgrace always waiting for something to go wrong? Absolutely fucking check!
While the first Frostpunk was a more intimate experience, zooming into the aspects of managing a small town trying to stay afloat in a world of wintery despair, Frostpunk 2 puts you in charge of massive cities, and your decisions are no longer just affecting individual people and small blocks of houses, but entire districts and thousands of virtual folk. The game’s emotional tone and humanizing touch make this harsh survival city-builder unlike anything else on the market in 2025.
93 – Stirring Abyss
Have you ever read “The Temple” from H.P. Lovecraft? If so, then you’ll agree with me when I say that I don’t think Stirring Abyss got the love it deserved. This tactical squad-based strategy/RPG hybrid will have you stranded in your broken submarine, in a Lovecraftian underwater world, where players command a crew of survivors trying to come to terms with the horrors they have witnessed in the depths and trying to repair their sole tether to salvation. As they explore the depths of the ocean, they must battle nightmarish creatures, manage limited resources, and make tough moral decisions, all while uncovering the secrets of a long-forgotten civilization.
With its atmospheric setting, strategic combat, and Lovecraftian inspiration, Stirring Abyss offers a unique blend of tactical gameplay and psychological horror that fans of the genre will very much enjoy in 2025.
92 – Anno 1800
I don’t think there’s a Strategy and Wargaming visitor who doesn’t know what the Anno games are. Hailing back to the late 1990s, this endearing series of real-time strategy and economic simulation reached its peak with Anno 1800. Set in the dawn of the Industrial Age, it’s your job, as governor/mayor/president to to do urban planning, build industry and infrastructure, encourage trade, and settle your disputes either by diplomacy or war. If you’re the kind of player who loves building intricate production chains, loves the challenge of building up a vibrant economy, and loves History, I think you’ll be hard-pressed to find a more complete experience in 2025.
Featuring both single-player and multiplayer modes, extensive customization, and continuous updates, Anno 1800 remains one of the best strategy games in 2025, and certainly one of the best city-builders/economic management titles.
91 – Panzer Corps Gold
Panzer Corps Gold is the definition of money well spent. It usually goes on sale for less than 10 dollars and it has hundreds of scenarios and hundreds of units from every theatre of the Second World War. This beer and pretzels wargame is played turn-by-turn, and it will put you in charge of World War II’s most intense battles. As a commander, you control a variety of units, from infantry to tanks, across expansive, historically accurate battlefields, utilizing tactical depth and strategic foresight to achieve victory. The Gold Edition includes all the DLC expansions, offering an even richer experience with additional campaigns, units, and scenarios. If you were stranded on an island with just Panzer Corps Gold to play, I think that 10 years later you would still be discovering new stuff. If you have a thicker wallet, you can give its younger brother a go, but keep in mind that Panzer Corps 2 doesn’t even come close to the amount of content Panzer Corps Gold has.
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