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Games to Gift

The actual games worth giving — sorted by console and by who you're buying for, including the ones a total non-gamer will love. Every list explains how to gift a game the right way.

An actual game can be the best gift of all — if you pick one they’ll play and can actually run. The trick is matching the game to the person and their console, and knowing that a “great game” for a hardcore player is often the wrong gift for a beginner. These lists do that matching for you.

The two things that matter. First, the console: a game bought for a PlayStation won’t run on a Switch, so check what they own before you buy. Second, the vibe: a calm, cozy game and a fast, competitive one suit completely different people. We call out both on every pick, and we show the official ESRB age rating so you can match it to the recipient — important if you’re buying for a child.

Not sure they even like “gamer” games? Start with our games for non-gamers list — gentle, no-pressure titles that win people over. Buying for a couple? The co-op games for couples list is full of games two people play together, even if one of them barely games.

Worried about the mechanics of gifting a digital game? Don’t be — it’s easier than it sounds, and we walk you through it. See how to gift a Steam game, how to gift a Switch game, or how to gift an Xbox game — Xbox is the one console with a genuine gift button. When in doubt, read gift card vs a game to decide whether a store card is the smarter present. When you truly can’t call it, a store gift card for their console lets them choose — and you can’t buy a duplicate.

Buying for a whole room rather than one person? The party games list covers games four people can play together, and tells you how many controllers each one actually needs — the detail that catches people out on the day. If you’re buying for a child, our age ratings guide explains what the letter on the box means, and the label underneath it that matters even more.

New this month: the best racing games to gift, sorted by the console in their house and split between the kart racers a whole family can play and the driving games for someone who genuinely loves cars — and the best games for 6-year-olds, filtered on the three things that decide whether a child this age can actually play a game alone: the rating, how much reading it needs, and what happens when they lose.

Newest: the best Nintendo Switch 2 games for kids — which turns out to be a shorter list than people expect, because most of the new console’s headline games are rated E10+ or T rather than E. The page sorts what is actually suitable by age, and includes the two cheaper original-Switch games that run on a Switch 2 and beat most of the new ones for a young child.

Two more added mid-October 2026. The best games like Minecraft to gift is for the house where Minecraft has already been played for three years and the next present has to be something else — sorted by which half of Minecraft they actually like, the building or the surviving, because the right game for one is the wrong game for the other. And the best PS5 games for kids applies the same age filter we used for the Switch 2 to Sony’s console, where it matters more: of the eight PS5 games we cover, only two are rated E by the ESRB and three are rated T or M, which is the opposite balance to Nintendo’s shelf and the reason parents get caught out.

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