The Best Indie Games of the 2020s
Eighteen independent games from 2020 to July 2026, ranked by what they actually built rather than what they scored. Vote them into a better order. The measure is ambition per head: how much a small team managed, how far the idea traveled afterwards, and how much of it I finished. Ties go to whichever game people will still be arguing about in 2031. Border cases are flagged in the copy instead of quietly dropped, so publisher-backed studios that still operate independently are eligible and so are self-published giants, which is why Baldur's Gate 3 and Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 are here and why both placements will irritate somebody. Remasters and ports of pre-2020 indies are out. Early-access graduations are placed by their 1.0 date, which is why Valheim is absent until September 2026. Single-year depth belongs to the year-end lists, so The Best Games of 2025 keeps the runners-up from its own year.
Hades is #1 on “The Best Indie Games of the 2020s”.
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Hades
Supergiant self-published on 17 September 2020 after nearly two years in Early Access, then became the first video game ever to win a Hugo Award, in 2021. The Mirror of Night is why the structure holds: spending accumulated darkness on extra Death Defiance charges turns a failed escape into a purchase rather than a punishment, and Hypnos has a new joke about it every time.
Hades on SteamDefy the god of the dead as you hack and slash out of the Underworld in this rogue-like dungeon crawler from the creators of Bastion, Transistor, and Pyre.https://store.steampowered.com/app/1145360/ - 2
Balatro
LocalThunk built the entire poker roguelike alone under a pseudonym, Playstack shipped it on 20 February 2024, and Game Developer reported five million copies sold by January 2025. The Jokers do the work: stacking Blueprint onto a retrigger engine until one played hand spits out a number too long to read, then finding the blind has scaled past it anyway.
Balatro on SteamThe poker roguelike. Balatro is a hypnotically satisfying deckbuilder where you play illegal poker hands, discover game-changing jokers, and trigger adrenaline-pumping, outrageous combos.https://store.steampowered.com/app/2379780/ - 3
Hollow Knight: Silksong
Team Cherry self-published on 4 September 2025, six years after the 2019 announcement, and demand briefly knocked Steam, the eShop and the Xbox store offline on the same afternoon. Hornet is faster and more fragile than the Knight, and the Needolin, played standing still while things walk toward you, is the tensest save mechanic anyone has shipped. The difficulty complaints are fair; I disagree with them.
Hollow Knight: Silksong on SteamDiscover a vast, haunted kingdom in Hollow Knight: Silksong! Explore, fight and survive as you ascend to the peak of a land ruled by silk and song.https://store.steampowered.com/app/1030300/ - 4
Inscryption
Daniel Mullins Games made it, Devolver Digital published it in October 2021, and it took the Seumas McNally Grand Prize plus three further awards at IGF 2022. Photographing a doomed deck to create a Death Card, which then turns up in later runs carrying your old mistakes, is the point where the cabin stops being a card game and starts being a save file with opinions.
Inscryption on SteamInscryption is an inky black card-based odyssey that blends the deckbuilding roguelike, escape-room style puzzles, and psychological horror into a blood-laced smoothie. Darker still are the secrets inscrybed upon the cards...https://store.steampowered.com/app/1092790/ - 5
Clair Obscur: Expedition 33
Sandfall Interactive's debut, published by Kepler Interactive on 24 April 2025, won nine categories at The Game Awards 2025 including Best Independent Game, then took Best Game at the 2026 BAFTAs. Whether a Kepler-funded studio counts as indie is genuinely disputed, and the ceremony that called it independent also called it the best of everything. Parrying on the enemy's turn makes every fight a rhythm test.
Save 20% on Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 on SteamLead the members of Expedition 33 on their quest to destroy the Paintress so that she can never paint death again. Explore a world of wonders inspired by Belle Époque France and battle unique enemies in this turn-based RPG with real-time mechanics.https://store.steampowered.com/app/1903340/ - 6
Baldur's Gate 3
Larian Studios financed and published it themselves, released it on 3 August 2023 after nearly three years in Early Access, and won Game of the Year at The Game Awards that December. Calling a several-hundred-person production indie irritates people and the objection is reasonable, but nobody outside Larian signed off on anything. The optional House of Hope heist, which most players never open, is the proof.
Baldur's Gate 3 on SteamBaldur’s Gate 3 is a story-rich, party-based RPG set in the universe of Dungeons & Dragons, where your choices shape a tale of fellowship and betrayal, survival and sacrifice, and the lure of absolute power.https://store.steampowered.com/app/1086940/ - 7
Vampire Survivors
Poncle's one-man arcade experiment left Early Access on 20 October 2022 and then won Best Game at the 2023 BAFTA Games Awards, which surprised the developer as much as anyone. Levelling a Hollow Heart to evolve the Whip into a Bloody Tear is a tiny chemistry set, and twenty minutes later the screen is an unreadable wall of damage numbers. It costs less than a sandwich.
Save 25% on Vampire Survivors on SteamMow down thousands of night creatures and survive until dawn! Vampire Survivors is a gothic horror casual game with rogue-lite elements, where your choices can allow you to quickly snowball against the hundreds of monsters that get thrown at you. Be the bullet hell!https://store.steampowered.com/app/1794680/ - 8
ANIMAL WELL
Billy Basso spent years writing this alone in a home-brewed engine, and Bigmode, the label run by the YouTuber videogamedunkey, released it on 9 May 2024 as the first game it ever published. The bubble wand is the design in one item: a toy that becomes a staircase, a projectile and a key depending on what you have worked out. Discovery continues well past the credits.
ANIMAL WELL on SteamExplore a dense, interconnected labyrinth, and unravel its many secrets. Collect items to manipulate your environment in surprising and meaningful ways. Encounter beautiful and unsettling creatures, as you attempt to survive what lurks in the dark. There is more than what you see.https://store.steampowered.com/app/813230/ - 9
Blue Prince
Dogubomb worked on the manor for years before Raw Fury released it on 10 April 2025, and it won Game Design at the 2026 BAFTA Games Awards. Every morning you redraft Mount Holly one room at a time, and reaching Room 46 depends on laying an Antechamber route you cannot yet see. My notebook filled with handwriting until the drafting stopped feeling random.
Save 40% on Blue Prince on SteamWelcome to Mt. Holly, where every dawn unveils a new mystery. Navigate through shifting corridors and ever-changing chambers in this genre-defying strategy puzzle adventure. But will your unpredictable path lead you to the rumored Room 46?https://store.steampowered.com/app/1569580/ - 10
TUNIC
Andrew Shouldice started in February 2015 and finished roughly seven years later, with Finji publishing on 16 March 2022. Collecting loose instruction manual pages is the real progression system: a page arrives and a wall you walked past a dozen times becomes a door, because you finally understand the icon. Half of it is learning a written language nobody agrees to teach you.
TUNIC on SteamExplore a land filled with lost legends, ancient powers, and ferocious monsters in TUNIC, an isometric action game about a small fox on a big adventure.https://store.steampowered.com/app/553420/ - 11
SIGNALIS
rose-engine, a two-person German team, put it out on 27 October 2022; Steam now lists Balor Games as publisher after the Humble Games catalog changed hands, so credits vary by source. Tuning the handheld radio until static resolves into a usable signal is the whole mood: survival horror that makes you listen rather than shoot. PlayStation-era fog, pixel portraits, an ending that does not console you.
SIGNALIS on SteamA classic survival horror experience set in a dystopian future where humanity has uncovered a dark secret. Unravel a cosmic mystery, escape terrifying creatures, and scavenge an off-world government facility as Elster, a technician Replika searching for her lost dreams.https://store.steampowered.com/app/1262350/ - 12
UFO 50
Mossmouth released fifty finished games on 18 September 2024, each presented as software for a console that never existed, built by six people including Derek Yu of Spelunky. Barbuta, the first title on the menu, is a hostile little platformer that establishes the rule for everything after it: none of these is a minigame, and several are better than things that shipped alone.
UFO 50 on SteamUFO 50 is a collection of 50 single and multiplayer games that span a variety of genres, from platformers and shoot 'em ups to puzzle games, roguelites, and RPGs. Our goal is to combine a familiar 8-bit aesthetic with new ideas and modern game design.https://store.steampowered.com/app/1147860/ - 13
Stray
Twenty-eight people and two cats made it at BlueTwelve Studio in the south of France, Annapurna Interactive published on 19 July 2022, and it won Best Independent Game at The Game Awards that year. The Zurk chases are the weakest thing in it. The Slums are the best, because you can scratch a rug for no reward whatsoever, which is exactly what a cat would do.
Save 50% on Stray on SteamLost, alone and separated from family, a stray cat must untangle an ancient mystery to escape a long-forgotten cybercity and find their way home.https://store.steampowered.com/app/1332010/ - 14
Spiritfarer
Thunder Lotus self-published on 18 August 2020; the Steam page now reads Farewell Edition after free 2021 updates, but it is the same app and the same release, not a remaster. Ferrying a spirit to the Everdoor means building their cabin, cooking what they like and then losing them, and the hug button is still mapped when there is nobody left to use it on.
Spiritfarer®: Farewell Edition on SteamSpiritfarer® is a cozy management game about dying. As ferrymaster to the deceased, build a boat to explore the world, care for your spirit friends, and release them into the afterlife. The Spiritfarer Farewell Edition includes the heartwarming base game and three major content updates.https://store.steampowered.com/app/972660/ - 15
Pizza Tower
Tour De Pizza, led by an artist working as McPig, launched their debut on 26 January 2023 after years of public demos. Pizza Time, the alarm that starts when you break the pillar and sends you sprinting the whole level backwards with Pizzaface behind you, is the finest use of an escape timer since Wario Land. Every frame is hand-drawn and visibly unwell.
Pizza Tower on SteamPizza Tower is a fast paced 2D platformer, with an emphasis on movement, exploration and score attack. Featuring highly stylized pixel art inspired by the cartoons from the '90s, and a highly energetic soundtrack.https://store.steampowered.com/app/2231450/ - 16
Unpacking
Witch Beam, based in Brisbane, put it out in early November 2021, with Steam saying the 1st and Wikipedia the 2nd, and it won two BAFTAs the following spring, including the publicly voted EE Game of the Year. Nobody speaks. The June 2010 move tells you everything when her diploma has no wall available and every shelf already belongs to him.
Unpacking on SteamUnpacking is a zen puzzle game about the familiar experience of pulling possessions out of boxes and fitting them into a new home. Part block-fitting puzzle, part home decoration, you are invited to create a satisfying living space while learning clues about the life you’re unpacking.https://store.steampowered.com/app/1135690/ - 17
DAVE THE DIVER
MINTROCKET shipped it on 28 June 2023 while still a Nexon subsidiary, which is why its Best Independent Game nomination started a fight and why the director told VGC there was nothing indie about the studio; the team separated from Nexon in September 2024. Spearfishing all afternoon and then plating the Bancho Sushi dinner rush at night should not work as one game.
DAVE THE DIVER on SteamDAVE THE DIVER is a casual, singleplayer adventure RPG featuring deep-sea exploration and fishing during the day and sushi restaurant management at night. Join Dave and his quirky friends as they seek to uncover the secrets of the mysterious Blue Hole.https://store.steampowered.com/app/1868140/ - 18
Mewgenics
Thirteen years after Edmund McMillen first announced it, he and Tyler Glaiel finally released the cat-breeding tactics roguelite on 10 February 2026. Every adventuring cat retires after its run, so the collars that assign each animal a class have to be handed down a bloodline you bred on purpose. Losing a good cat permanently is the mechanic, not the failure state.
Mewgenics on SteamBuild the ultimate cat army through tactical breeding and send them into deep, challenging turn-based adventures. Draft abilities, collect items, and manipulate genetics across generations in this roguelike tactics game from the creators of The Binding of Isaac and The End is Nigh.https://store.steampowered.com/app/686060/
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