Best rated pc game in 2022

Figuring out which PC game deserves the “best rated” title is trickier than you’d think. Do you go by Metacritic scores? Steam reviews? Reddit opinions? Sales numbers? They all tell different stories. A game with a 97 on Metacritic might have “Mixed” Steam reviews because of a bad port, while a niche indie game with 98% positive Steam reviews might have only been played by a few thousand people.

So let me run through the games that consistently show up at the top across multiple rating platforms, and more importantly, explain why they earned those scores. Because a number doesn’t tell you whether you’ll actually enjoy playing the thing.

Elden Ring – The One Everyone Agrees On

If you asked “what’s the best rated PC game in 2022” on any gaming forum, Reddit thread, or Discord server, Elden Ring was the answer 9 times out of 10. It sits at a 94 on Metacritic, has an “Overwhelmingly Positive” rating on Steam, and won Game of the Year at basically every award show that year.

FromSoftware took their Dark Souls formula – punishing combat, cryptic lore, incredible boss design – and dropped it into a massive open world. The result is something that feels genuinely different from every other open-world game. There are no quest markers pointing you to the next objective. No minimap covered in icons. You explore because the world is fascinating, not because a UI element told you to go somewhere.

The collaboration with George R.R. Martin on the world-building shows. The lore of the Lands Between is deep, weird, and compelling in that specific FromSoftware way where you piece together the story from item descriptions and environmental storytelling rather than cutscenes.

Fair warning: this game is hard. Not unfairly hard, but hard enough that you will die repeatedly. If that sounds frustrating rather than motivating, this might not be your thing. But the difficulty is what makes every victory feel earned. When you finally beat Margit the Fell Omen after your 15th attempt, the rush is real.

God of War (PC Port) – The Surprise Hit

When Sony started bringing PlayStation exclusives to PC, nobody expected the ports to be this good. God of War’s PC version launched in January 2022 and quickly became one of the highest-rated PC games of the year with a 93 on Metacritic and “Overwhelmingly Positive” on Steam.

The story of Kratos and Atreus traveling through Norse mythology is genuinely moving – and that’s not something anyone expected from a series that started as “angry bald man kills Greek gods.” The shift from hack-and-slash chaos to a more deliberate, emotional action-adventure was a bold move by Santa Monica Studio, and it paid off massively.

On PC, you get the benefits of uncapped frame rates, ultrawide support, and higher resolution textures. If you have a decent GPU, running this at 4K 60fps is one of the best-looking gaming experiences available. The Leviathan Axe throw – where you toss it, it sticks in an enemy, and you recall it back to your hand – never gets old, and it feels even better at high frame rates.

Stray – The Wholesome Surprise

A game where you play as a stray cat exploring a cyberpunk city populated by robots shouldn’t work as well as it does. But Stray earned a Metacritic score in the high 80s and insanely positive Steam reviews, becoming one of the most talked-about games of 2022.

It’s not a long game – maybe 5-6 hours – and it’s not mechanically deep. You’re a cat. You jump on things, meow at robots, knock objects off shelves, and curl up in cardboard boxes. But the world design is gorgeous, the story is surprisingly touching, and there’s something deeply satisfying about exploring this neon-lit underground city as a small cat who doesn’t care about the larger robotic civilization’s problems.

The game also became a viral sensation because actual cats loved watching it. People posted videos of their real cats reacting to the in-game cat, pawing at the screen and meowing back. That kind of organic social media moment can’t be manufactured, and it helped Stray reach an audience way beyond typical gamers.

Vampire Survivors – The Addictive Underdog

Vampire Survivors technically entered early access in late 2021, but its full 1.0 release in 2022 is what catapulted it to fame. It has a 97% positive rating on Steam from hundreds of thousands of reviews. For a game that costs less than a cup of coffee.

The concept is absurdly simple: you move around a field, enemies come at you from all directions, and your weapons fire automatically. Your job is to survive, pick up upgrades, and last as long as possible. That’s it. And it’s one of the most addictive games I’ve ever played.

Sessions start as “I’ll just play one quick round” and end 3 hours later. The upgrade system constantly dangles new combinations that might be overpowered, new characters that change your strategy, and new secrets hidden in the game’s surprisingly deep meta-progression. It’s the perfect podcast game or stream-while-you-play game.

Other Notable 2022 Contenders

Neon White blended speedrunning with card-based FPS combat and earned a devoted following. Sifu brought martial arts combat that felt genuinely like a kung fu movie. Norco offered one of the most unique narrative experiences of the year for point-and-click adventure fans. And Inscryption, while technically a 2021 game, won the 2022 BAFTA for Best Game and continued to blow people’s minds with its genre-defying structure.

The PC gaming landscape in 2022 was unusually strong. Whether you wanted massive open worlds, intimate indie experiences, or competitive multiplayer, there was a highly rated option in every category.

Frequently Asked Questions

What was the single highest-rated PC game of 2022 by Metacritic?

Elden Ring holds the highest Metacritic score for a 2022 PC release at 94. It’s closely followed by God of War at 93 and Persona 5 Royal (PC port) at 93. These scores represent critic averages – user scores vary more widely since they include people who didn’t enjoy the difficulty level or had technical issues at launch.

Are these games still worth playing in 2026?

Absolutely. Elden Ring received a major DLC expansion (Shadow of the Erdtree) that’s essentially a full game on its own. God of War’s sequel Ragnarok also came to PC. Vampire Survivors has gotten massive free content updates since launch. These aren’t the kind of games that become irrelevant quickly – they’re designed to be replayable and have aged well.

Which of these games runs best on lower-end PCs?

Vampire Survivors runs on practically anything – it has minimal system requirements and can play on integrated graphics. Stray is also fairly lightweight. On the other end, Elden Ring and God of War need a reasonably modern GPU (GTX 1060 or equivalent minimum) to run well. Elden Ring in particular had some performance issues at launch on PC, though most have been patched.

What about multiplayer games – were any highly rated in 2022?

MultiVersus launched with strong reviews but has had a rocky path since. Overwatch 2 replaced the original and received mixed reception. The most acclaimed multiplayer experience of 2022 was arguably Elden Ring’s co-op and PvP, which added another dimension to an already packed game. For pure competitive multiplayer, Valorant continued to dominate but was originally released in 2020.