The Epic Games Store has been running promos galore for years and has become an undeniably great resource for PC gamers on a budget. Its main competitors, steamwhich is still generally considered the best PC launcher and store, actually has its own free giveaway program called Free-to-Keep. In other words, it's a publisher-sponsored promotion that offers a specific game for free for a limited time.
Example: Indie home improvement game house flipper was made available for free for just a few days in early April 2026. People who took advantage of this promotion were able to claim the game for free on Steam, and it would appear in their games library like any other title. It will never expire for any reason and you will receive all the same updates as the regular paid version. In other words, it is a no-strings-attached deal. Interestingly, the Epic Games Store is one of the few other platforms doing something similar. This means providing games without requiring subscriptions or other indirect costs. However, the two services are significantly different, and which one you should watch will depend on at least two key factors.
The best co-op games on Steam you can play right now
From online multiplayer titles to local classics, Steam has plenty of fantastic co-op games to play in 2026.
In terms of the games themselves, the Epic Games Store has been pulled from Steam.
I'm not going to ask the point. The giveaways on the Epic Games Store are much better than on Steam. I rarely use the Epic launcher (more on that later), but I've secured the following AAA essential plays: Fallout: New Vegas, XCOM 2and LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga. You've also been able to get a ton of fantastic indies for free in the store, including: sable, loop heroand shifu.
Click or tap the game that matches your category.
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But I've missed out on far more Epic Games Store prizes than I've caught. Here are some of the most important games available for free through Epic over the past few years.
- hogwarts legacy
- grand theft auto 5
- bioshock
- death stranding
- Borderlands 3
- Just Cause 4
- Subnautica
- Batman: Arkham Collection
Not only are these titles receiving more attention and critical acclaim than Steam's free storage promotions typically provide, but they're also incredibly timely. It's not uncommon to get modern, high-demand games through Epic just a few years after release. for example, hogwarts legacythe best-selling game of 2023, has been made available for free on the platform less than three years after it first launched on the latest console.
Epic typically offers one or two free games a week, but this begins in December, when the platform will offer a new game every day for 15 days.
Everything is subjective, but you'd be hard-pressed to find many people who would argue that Free-to-Keep games on Steam are as consistently good as games on the Epic Games Store. Games that participate in Free-to-Keep are at the request of the publisher, not Steam itself. This unfortunately means that most games are releases that struggle to gain traction in one way or another. take Sentience: The Story of an AndroidIt became free on April 20, 2026 and will remain available until April 23, 2026. Despite being released in June 2017, it has just over 100 Steam reviews at the time of this writing. For what it's worth, these are mostly positives, but these are very small numbers for a game that is almost nine years old. right angle It didn't sell like hotcakes when it was released.
The Free-to-Keep program includes several popular games: Injustice: There are gods among us and little nightmareHowever, this is very little, especially compared to Epic's best-selling or critically acclaimed giveaways. Overall, the Epic Games Store is certainly a good option if you're looking to fill your PC library with free titles, but the program has one distinct drawback that's difficult to overcome.
To play Epic Games, you actually have to use the Epic Games Store
When I first started playing PC games, I never thought the launchers you used could be so great. And in the grand scheme of things, I don't think that's the case. But over time, your choice of generic launcher can have a surprisingly big impact on your overall PC experience. To be honest, the Epic Games Store is much worse to use than Steam. So I said I rarely use it. Even though my Epic library is full of great games, I can't get the launcher to boot up on a regular basis.
To be clear, you won't be able to play games you've freely claimed except through the Epic Games Store.
There are many reasons for this, including the Epic Games Store being slower and buggier than Steam, the UI being painfully cluttered and unintuitive, and constantly bombarding you. fortnite Ads even if you've never played it fortnite On the computer in question. The platform also does not enforce AI disclosure, a policy that Epic CEO Tim Sweeney recently called “nonsense.” If you're a consumer who wants to avoid games made using AI, Epic is a much worse choice than Steam, which has a firm AI disclosure policy. Additionally, Epic is still lacking many titles. call of duty. If you want to play this game, you will need to download another launcher regardless.
The freebies on the Epic Games Store are better than Steam's, to the point that the platform can make the case that it offers the best deals on games. However, the overall inferiority of the Epic Games Store detracts from this value further than expected. Meanwhile, Steam's Free-to-Keep promotion is something of a pleasant surprise within the already thriving empire that is Steam that doesn't need to attract new consumers like Epic does.
