Best Steam Games Under $20

There are thousands upon thousands of games available to play on the Steam platform, but they’re not all created equal. Even putting quality aside, the library covers essentially every possible genre, theme, tone, playstyle, and obscurity. There should be dozens of projects to suit nearly every need, and they cover a wide range of prices as well.

It’d take an eternity to sift through the massive library and find several games that check all the important boxes:

• The game is cheap, and specifically, $20 or cheaper.
• The game is fun, and not in the “fun for one hour” way.
• The game is replayable, meaning anyone who buys it will get their money’s worth.
• Finally, no free games.

That said, what are some of the best Steam games under $20?

Updated November 10, 2024, by Mark Sammut: Steam’s library is always expanding with new games, many of which are not AAA projects that launch at $60+. In fact, the indie scene dominates Valve’s platform, ensuring there are always creative titles waiting for players who want to step away from the industry’s big and expensive releases. Galleries have been added for every included title, along with a few more recommendations.

Prices listed are in U.S. dollars and are the regular, non-sale prices at the time of writing.

Dave The Diver

$19.99

After a successful spell in early access, Dave the Diver launched to near-universal praise, cementing itself as one of 2023’s standout indie releases. Mintrocket’s project casts players as the eponymous Dave as he tries to run a restaurant while also collecting the fish they will be selling at their counter.

Consequently, players spend their days exploring a unique and ever-morphing sea in search of underwater specimens, a process that requires smart preparation and intelligent execution. At night, players must run the restaurants, which transforms the game into something of a management sim. Dave the Diver is impressively ambitious for an indie project, and it manages to balance a few ideas and genres incredibly well. The visuals are also charming, as are the characters.

Lethal Company

$9.99

A surprising hit launching toward the end of 2023, Lethal Company is currently in early access, where it has garnered a lot of attention and praise. A co-op experience, players must explore moons to acquire materials for a company, with the goal being to acquire enough cash to access even harder stages. Naturally, the astronauts are not alone, nor are they particularly well-equipped to handle the terrifying menaces that roam these moons.

Lethal Company is just a fun and intense game to play with friends, and it does emphasize strategy to an extent. The gameplay loop follows the formula of extraction shooters, albeit without the “shooter” part since the focus is far more on exploration and horror. While still early days, this project’s future is very bright.

Valheim

$19.99

Think Minecraft, but in third-person, and set in a Viking world. Valheim is a beautiful adventure game that has room for up to 10 players to play together. The mission? Explore the large open world, get sick gear, and fight unique bosses.

It’s a great game to play while chatting with friends on Discord. Space out while creating legendary Viking houses and drinking halls. Enjoy the casual fun while it lasts, because inevitably one player in the friend group will grind harder than everyone else to get overpowered gear. Valheim is cheap at $20 and has plenty of replayability. It’s also a fairly small (in download size) game compared to similar projects, so it’s easy and quick to install and play.

Ultimate Chicken Horse

$14.99

Ultimate Chicken Horse has hilarious and simple graphics and an even simpler goal: get to the end of the level by any means necessary.

There are several rounds, giving all players multiple chances to get from point A to point B. Every time they do, they’re awarded points. The player to reach the point total first, wins. But it’s not that easy. There are obstacles built into each map. And every player gets to pick from a shared pool of obstacles to place on the map in between rounds. Any obstacle placed affects all players, even the one that placed it! Every player can make the map hell for their opponents or for themselves by accident.

Speedrunners

$14.99

Like platforming games? Weird outfits? What about competing with friends? Speedrunners mashes all of these concepts together and churns out a fun racing game where players use grappling hooks to propel themselves around a course.

As the race progresses and players get eliminated, the screen’s borders close in. If any player touches the borders they die! Games are quick and chaotic. As players run around the course, they can pick up weapons to shoot at their opponents to make them stumble and fall to their doom.

Friends Vs Friends

$9.99

Friends vs Friends is a stylish first-person shooter dueling game with a twist. Players can match up against another solo player, or have a 2v2 duel. There are a series of rounds, and whoever wins the most rounds wins the game. But before each round, each player is dealt a hand of cards.

Each card impacts the round in some way. The card could upgrade a weapon from a pistol into an AK-47, or something else that’s much better. The card could make the player move faster, or make their opponent’s head bigger, so headshots are easier to land. Once players have picked a card, they’re let loose on each other.

Left 4 Dead

$9.99

Left 4 Dead may be an older game, released way back in 2008, but it stands to the test of time. Its unique formula of creative weapons, special infected monsters, level design, and difficulty options keep it fresh and challenging for all types of players.

And if players ever get bored with the traditional co-op campaign, they can try their hand at the vs. mode. This opens the door for players to take control of the zombies in the game, and try to eliminate the human survivors. The survivors must work together and make it out alive. But if a survivor dies along the way, don’t worry. They’ll come back to life in a random closet.

Dead By Daylight

$19.99

Dead by Daylight is nowadays firmly cemented as a staple of the multiplayer scene, to the point of a recommendation feeling utterly unnecessary. The asymmetric horror game’s longevity is impressive, especially since the core gameplay loop is relatively straightforward and does not come with too much variety in terms of objectives or structure. Ultimately, four survivors have to work together to activate generators and avoid being caught by the chosen Killer, with both sides being controlled by players. Simple and effective, the formula is beyond approach and will likely continue working for years to come.

Now, Dead by Daylight‘s base game comes with five Killers (The Trapper, The Wraith, The Hillbilly, The Nurse, and The Huntress) and seven Survivors (Dwight Fairfield, Meg Thomas, Claudette Morel, Jake Park, William Overbeck, Nea Karlsson, and David King). That is a big enough roster to keep newcomers entertained for a long while; if they find themselves fully immersed, they can consider purchasing some of the licensed DLC.

Stardew Valley

$14.99

ConcernedApe’s Stardew Valley might just be the best value for money in gaming. Seriously, the indie farming sim has been going strong for decades, regularly receiving updates that add new content or ways to interact with the world. Even if none of those developments happened, Stardew Valley would still be a masterpiece, but the fact that it continues to evolve and improve serves as a testament to the developer’s dedication.

At this point, one has to assume that everyone remotely interested in life sims or farming games has picked up Stardew Valley. However, if there is someone out there who has yet to take that plunge, they can look forward to years’ worth of entertainment. It should be said, the farming element is quite detailed and not as relaxing as, for example, Animal Crossing.

Among Us

$4.99

Among Us surged in popularity a few years ago, but there has never been a better time to play the game thanks to somewhat recent updates.

For those unaware, Among Us is a game about lying and deception. Eight players are thrust into a map together: six of them are crewmates, and two of them are impostors *queue infamous among us noise*. The crewmates have to run around the map and complete their individual tasks before the impostors kill them all. Since the game’s initial explosion in popularity, there have been several updates. There are now loads of new customization options to choose from, and a couple of different ways to play the game. There are also microtransactions now, giving players a way to pay to support the game while earning cool customization options.