Illustration of an army besieging a castle as spaceships fly overhead
Illustration: an army besieging a castle as spaceships fly overhead.
Project Entropy: free to play. Sponsored link Play free

Free strategy games on Steam do not rate alike, and in this sample the split lines up with what "free" covers. The four with no purchase flag, a donation model or a free base game plus DLC sit between 89.9% and 94.2% positive, led by Battle for Wesnoth (94.2%) and Zero-K (93.7%). The six with an in-app purchase flag run from 46.9% to 74.6%. All figures are all-languages Steam ratings, and they describe ten games, not a rule. Everything here comes from public Steam data, official pages and two press reports read on October 4, 2026. Nobody at GamiPrime played these games for this page.

Updated October 4, 2026: an earlier version of this page said the free strategy games on Steam are all rated Mixed. That came from a sample of three titles: Infinity Kingdom, Project Entropy and RAID: Shadow Legends. The fuller list below does not support it. In all languages, "Mixed" still applies to Infinity Kingdom, Project Entropy and Stormgate, but not to the rest.

How we picked ten free strategy games on Steam, and what we left out

A game made the table if it met four conditions on October 4, 2026: it is listed as free on Steam (or has a free base game), Steam files it under Strategy, the build is released, and it has user reviews. That rule is why the old three-game sample is gone. Ratings are positive reviews divided by total reviews, from Steam's public review API, with both the all-languages figure and the English figure where they differ in a way that matters. Steam's own labels (Very Positive, Mixed) are quoted as shown. Store pages follow store.steampowered.com/app/ plus the app ID (599390 for Battle for Wesnoth, 2012510 for Stormgate).

Left out, and why:

  • RAID: Shadow Legends. Steam tags it Strategy as well, but describes it as a collection RPG; we left it out as an editorial choice.
  • Dota 2, Yu-Gi-Oh! Master Duel and MTG Arena. They show up on some "strategy" ranking pages through a very wide definition of the word, and we did not count MOBAs or card games.
  • 0 A.D., OpenRA, Unciv and Freeciv. We found no Steam listing for any of them, so they have no Steam rating to compare. 0 A.D.'s own site calls it free and open source with "no freemium model" (play0ad.com, read October 4, 2026), and Freeciv's site lists version 3.2.6 dated September 4, 2026. We have no spec floor for either. Unciv's GitHub page says "Steam has decided that they don't want to host Unciv."
  • StarCraft II. Its free status, included content and platform could not be confirmed from the Blizzard page we opened, so we are not naming it as a pick.

We then sorted by what "free" covers, because that is the question a price tag does not answer:

  1. Free with nothing to buy: Battle for Wesnoth, Warzone 2100.
  2. Free with optional donations: Zero-K.
  3. Free base game with paid DLC and a subscription: Crusader Kings II.
  4. Free to play with in-app purchases: the three Supremacy titles, Infinity Kingdom, Project Entropy, Stormgate.
  5. Not on Steam yet: Beyond All Reason.

For how in-app purchase models work in general, see our guide to how free-to-play PC games make money.

Illustration of a top-down view of a walled medieval city by a river
Illustration: a top-down view of a walled medieval city by a river.

Free strategy games on Steam compared: rating, reviews and spec floor

Steam data read October 4, 2026. "All" is all languages; "EN" is English reviews only. Spec floor is the minimum RAM and storage Steam lists.

Game Steam genres, as listed What "free" covers Rating, all (reviews) Rating, EN (reviews) Min. RAM / storage Steam release Status
Battle for Wesnoth Indie, Strategy Free, no DLC, no purchase flag Very Positive, 94.2% (6,027) 94.2% (3,226) 2 GB / 800 MB May 1, 2018 Active
Zero-K Indie, Simulation, Strategy Free; 3 optional donation DLCs at $9.99, $24.99, $49.99 Very Positive, 93.7% (4,404) 94.0% (3,216) 4 GB / 6 GB Apr 27, 2018 Active
Crusader Kings II RPG, Simulation, Strategy Free base game; 32 DLCs; subscription at $2.99 per 30 days Very Positive, 90.5% (73,709) 91.0% (47,775) 4 GB / 2 GB Feb 14, 2012 Active
Warzone 2100 Strategy Free, no DLC, no purchase flag Very Positive, 89.9% (1,631) 86.4% (797) 1 GB / 1 GB Feb 18, 2020 Active
SUPREMACY: WORLD WAR 3 Indie, MMO, Strategy Free; in-app purchases; 3 DLCs Mostly Positive, 74.6% (6,005) 72.2% (3,181) 4 GB / 512 MB Mar 15, 2018 Active
Supremacy: 1914 MMO, Simulation, Strategy Free; in-app purchases; 4 DLCs Mostly Positive, 73.7% (4,361) Mixed, 68.5% (1,275) 2 GB / 500 MB Jul 16, 2019 Active
Supremacy: Call of War 1942 MMO, Simulation, Strategy Free; in-app purchases; 10 DLCs Mostly Positive, 71.3% (6,393) Mixed, 64.4% (2,268) 4 GB / 500 MB Oct 21, 2017 Active
Project Entropy Adventure, MMO, Simulation, Strategy Free; in-app purchases Mixed, 52.1% (267) 51.4% (109) 4 GB / 8 GB Apr 16, 2024 Active
Infinity Kingdom Adventure, MMO, Strategy Free; in-app purchases Mixed, 49.9% (1,307) 43.4% (807) 2 GB / 2 GB Jul 1, 2021 Active
Stormgate Action, Strategy Free; in-app purchases; 6 DLCs Mixed, 46.9% (9,269) 50.1% (5,598) 16 GB / 15 GB Aug 5, 2025 Multiplayer modes disabled May 1, 2026; later status unknown

"Active" only means the game is listed and reviewed on Steam on that date. It is not a player count, and we cite none.

The split is clean. All four games with no purchase flag, a donation model or a free base game plus DLC land at 89.9% or above (all languages), and none of the six with an in-app purchase flag does: three are Mostly Positive and three are Mixed (all languages). Steam reviews do not say why players score a game the way they do, and ten games is not enough to claim a rule.

Free with nothing to buy: Battle for Wesnoth and Warzone 2100

Steam calls Battle for Wesnoth an "open source, turn-based strategy game with a high fantasy theme" and lists 17 single-player campaigns and dozens of multiplayer maps; both counts are the publisher's claims. It has 94.2% positive across 6,027 reviews in all languages, no DLC and no in-app purchase category. Its Steam floor is 2 GB of RAM and 800 MB of storage, among the lower RAM floors in the table, but Steam also lists Windows 10 version 1903 or later (64-bit), so we do not call it a pick for an old PC. Its Steam release date is May 1, 2018.

Warzone 2100 is the other no-purchase entry: Steam lists it as free, Strategy, single-player and multiplayer, with 89.9% positive across 1,631 reviews (86.4% in English, 797 reviews). The English score is the lower of the two. It asks for 1 GB of RAM, the lowest RAM floor in the table, and 1 GB of storage; the three Supremacy titles list less storage (500 to 512 MB).

Illustration of a space fleet battling around a giant orbital structure
Illustration: a space fleet battling around a giant orbital structure.

Free with optional donations: Zero-K

Zero-K's Steam page says "Really free, no paid advantages, no unfair multiplayer." That is the publisher speaking, and we did not test it. What we can report is what the page shows: three donation DLCs, and no in-app purchase category. It sits at 93.7% positive across 4,404 reviews in all languages, 94.0% in English. Steam's own description counts "100+ truly unique units" and battles of up to 32 players, again as publisher claims. The spec floor is heavier than Wesnoth's: 4 GB of RAM, 6 GB of storage and a 512 MB GPU, and the page warns that "integrated cards may not work."

Free base game, paid extras: Crusader Kings II

Steam lists Crusader Kings II as free to play. On October 4, 2026, the page showed a DLC subscription at $2.69 for a first-time purchase, auto-renewing every 30 days at $2.99, plus 32 DLCs. What the free version includes or leaves out is not spelled out on the page, so we do not say. Steam describes the game as covering "one of the defining periods in world history" and calls it grand strategy. It has by far the most reviews here: 73,709 in all languages, 90.5% positive (91.0% in English, 47,775 reviews). Spec floor: 4 GB of RAM, 2 GB of storage.

Free to play with in-app purchases, from Supremacy to Stormgate

Six of the ten games carry Steam's In-App Purchases flag. Steam does not describe what any of their stores sell, so nothing here says what you would be asked to buy.

The three Supremacy games from Bytro Labs and Dorado Games (SUPREMACY: WORLD WAR 3, Supremacy: 1914, Supremacy: Call of War 1942) are, in our editorial view, the surprise in the sample: the best-rated of the six with an in-app purchase flag. They are rated Mostly Positive in all languages (74.6%, 73.7% and 71.3%), and the English figures for two of them drop to Mixed (68.5% and 64.4%). If you came looking for Conflict of Nations: WORLD WAR 3, that is the legal line on the Steam page of SUPREMACY: WORLD WAR 3, and a Steam search for "Conflict of Nations" returns only an unrelated paid game, Reign: Conflict of Nations.

Infinity Kingdom (49.9%, 1,307 reviews, all languages; 43.4% in English) and Project Entropy (52.1%, 267 reviews; 51.4% in English) are the two MMO-style titles behind our earlier claim. Steam calls the first a "cartoon-style mmo strategy game" and the second a sci-fi role-playing game with battles in space. Project Entropy is multiplayer only, and its 267 reviews are a small sample next to the others here.

Stormgate gets its own box, because the number alone would mislead.

Stormgate, status as of October 4, 2026. Steam lists Stormgate as a free-to-play real-time strategy game with a single-player campaign, 3-player co-op and PvP, and its description has not caught up. DelistedGames reported on April 1, 2026 that online modes would end that month after its server partner Hathora was acquired. A Steam announcement dated May 1, 2026 says the patch "disables live service Versus and Co-op modes" for a time and adds offline support to the Campaign, AI Skirmish and Custom game modes, and adds that "no confirmed plans yet" exist for bringing back the ladders. The latest post we found is dated May 1, 2026; what happened after, we do not know. Rating: Mixed, 46.9% across 9,269 reviews in all languages, 50.1% in English. It also has the highest spec floor in the table: 16 GB of RAM and 15 GB of storage.

Not on Steam yet: Beyond All Reason

Beyond All Reason, status as of October 4, 2026. We found no Steam listing for it. The project's own roadmap page (beyondallreason.info/development/steam-release) marks the Steam release as "Alpha" and warns that it "will be rewritten/overwritten" with the team's upcoming new master plan. Per the BAR team, as relayed by GamingOnLinux on June 17, 2026, the open-source RTS signed a publishing deal with Hooded Horse: multiplayer stays free through the project's own launcher, a paid Premium Edition on Steam is planned with a single-player campaign as its main addition, the code stays under the GPL, and the contract has safety provisions meant to keep the free version going if the partnership ends. These are the team's statements, not something we verified. Neither source publishes the Premium Edition price or a Steam date. It is not in the table because it has no Steam rating to put there.

Which free strategy game to play, by player type

Choose Battle for Wesnoth if you want turn-based strategy with solo campaigns, nothing to buy, and a modest spec floor (2 GB / 800 MB on Steam, plus Windows 10 1903 or later). Skip it if you want real-time play.

Choose Warzone 2100 if RAM is your tightest limit: 1 GB is the lowest floor in the table, with 1 GB of storage and no purchase flag. Skip it if you go by English-language reviews and want the highest rating; its English score is 86.4%.

Choose Zero-K if you want large-scale multiplayer strategy from a donation-funded game (battles up to 32 players, per the page) and your PC clears 4 GB of RAM and a 512 MB GPU. Skip it if your only graphics are integrated, since the page itself warns they may not work.

Choose Crusader Kings II if you want grand strategy and you are fine with a base game that sells extensions through DLC and a $2.99-per-30-days subscription. Skip it if you need to know what the free version includes before starting, because the page does not say.

Choose one of the three Supremacy games if you want a persistent online strategy title and accept the in-app purchase flag; the all-languages ratings are Mostly Positive, with Mixed in English for two of the three. Skip them if you do not want a store in your free game.

Skip Infinity Kingdom and Project Entropy if you want a Very Positive rating or no in-app purchase flag: both are Mixed and both carry the flag.

Skip Stormgate for now if you want multiplayer, since its Versus and Co-op modes were disabled on May 1, 2026 and we have no later confirmation. Its offline modes were shipped in that patch, but we did not check them.

Watch Beyond All Reason if you want a free multiplayer RTS outside Steam; our information on it is limited to the two sources in the box above.

If you are not sure strategy is the right genre, the best free-to-play PC games roundup covers every genre in one place. If a spec floor is the deciding factor, our guide to the spec floors of free PC games has the detail on RAM, storage and GPU.

What this comparison does not show

No one at GamiPrime played these games for this page, so nothing above says how any of them plays: balance, difficulty, AI quality, matchmaking times and server health are all outside what we checked. A Steam score is the share of reviewers who recommended a game, mixed across languages and play time; it is not a quality ranking, and it moves. Ratings and review counts were read on October 4, 2026 and will differ later.

  • Left out: everything without a Steam rating, including Beyond All Reason, 0 A.D., OpenRA, Unciv and Freeciv, so the table says nothing about how those compare.
  • Not described by Steam: what the Infinity Kingdom, Project Entropy and Supremacy stores sell.
  • Unknown to us: what the Crusader Kings II free version lacks, what Stormgate's state is after May 1, 2026, and when and at what price Beyond All Reason reaches Steam.

We cite no search volumes and no player counts.

Frequently asked questions

Which free strategy game on Steam has the best rating?

In this ten-game sample, Battle for Wesnoth, at 94.2% positive across 6,027 reviews (all languages, read October 4, 2026). Zero-K follows at 93.7%.

Are there free strategy games with nothing to buy?

Yes. Battle for Wesnoth and Warzone 2100 have no DLC and no in-app purchase flag on Steam. Zero-K sells only optional donation packs.

What is the best free strategy game for a low-RAM PC?

By listed RAM, Warzone 2100: it asks for 1 GB of RAM and 1 GB of storage. Battle for Wesnoth asks for 2 GB but also needs 64-bit Windows 10 version 1903 or later.

Can you still play Stormgate online?

Not as of the last post we found. A Steam announcement dated May 1, 2026 says the patch disabled the live Versus and Co-op modes and added offline support to the Campaign, AI Skirmish and Custom modes. GamiPrime has no later confirmation.

Sources read

All pages below were read on October 4, 2026.

Maya Lindqvist
Games Editor · editorial byline

Writes the genre overviews and best-of rankings across strategy, MMORPG, gacha and shooters from publicly documented information.

What an editorial byline means at GamiPrime