Most of us have to juggle many tasks on a daily basis, including—but not limited to—holding down a full-time job, making time for self-care, socializing with our friends, catching up with family, and taking care of a pet or child. It’s almost like our hypothetical to-do list keeps getting longer every week, and eventually, we experience burnout.
While there are many ways to decompress, such as going to the spa, drawing, making a cocktail, or doomscrolling on social media, a short gaming session can provide the perfect balance of relaxation and engagement. With the accessible games listed below, all you need is a computer or mobile device and an internet connection to get started. And if you’re the type who enjoys games with a little wager on the side,
BonusFinder Canada makes it easy to find online casino bonuses that can help you stretch your bankroll and maximize your play.
Feeling overwhelmed or like your brain battery is close to 0%? Then make sure to try out these online games for a little refresh!
Wordle
In 2022, Wordle became a viral sensation due to its addictive gameplay and ability to create a sense of daily anticipation. It’s a word-based game that gives the player six chances to guess a five-letter word, with green tiles indicating a correct letter and correct placement and yellow indicating a correct letter but incorrect placement. Gray simply means the letter doesn’t exist in the word. There’s a new word to guess every day, which keeps players coming back for a quick mental break. Just a few months after its release, The New York Times bought Wordle for a seven-figure sum, adding it to its repertoire of fun and challenging word games.
A Dark Room
Not all detailed role-playing games have to be console-based—and A Dark Room proves that. This open-source text-based RPG is a mystery puzzle game that follows a plot that starts with the player waking up in a dark room, stoking a fire. The game progresses as the fire grows and the world expands alongside it, and the player can now explore their post-apocalyptic surroundings, build weapons, and uncover more about themselves and their past. It’s a surprisingly creative, odd, and intense game that will captivate you to your core.
GeoGuessr
GeoGuessr is a geography-focused game that invites players to explore the world and guess their location based on their surroundings. The basic mode drops you in a completely random location on Google Street View that you navigate around until you’re confident enough to deduce your location. It’s not only a super fun game but also an educational one as you become familiar with written languages, vehicle types, landscapes, and other distinctive characteristics of countries and cities over time. GeoGuessr has gained a
cult following now, with multiple game modes and competitions like Duels, Battle Royale, and a World Cup.
Gartic Phone
Looking for more of a social party game? Gartic Phone is a multiplayer game that starts by giving a player a prompt to draw. For example, “a baked bean dancing on a couch.” The player draws the prompt within the allocated time, and then it gets passed on to another player, who has to guess what the drawing is. Meanwhile, the former player receives another drawing and must guess the prompt, and so on and so forth. After all the rounds are complete, all participants get to see what happened to their original prompt, making for a hilarious and unpredictable experience. It’s almost like an elevated Draw My Thing or Pictionary!
Mini Metro
Subway maps are fascinating, especially when you’re in a city like Seoul, New York, or Tokyo, where the maps look like crazy webs of licorice. Mini Metro is an indie game that gives you the power to design your own subway system for a city. Starting off with three stations, you’re tasked with drawing routes between them to connect them with subway lines, helping commuters comfortably get around. As the city expands, you must build and rebuild to accommodate the busy commuters. The game features three modes, including Extreme for challenging gameplay and Endless for a
relaxing experience. There’s even a soundtrack that responds dynamically to your metro system.
Catan Universe
Catan is a famous board game that has
captured the hearts of table game fanatics all over the world. The premise revolves around settling on an island, building roads and cities, and collecting resources. With Catan Universe, you can play a faithful online adaptation, competing against others in leagues or basic multiplayer matches, with many game modes and expansions to choose from. Not feeling the pressure of multiplayer with real people? You can also play with AI opponents that let you set the pace.
Little Alchemy 2
Little Alchemy 2, like its predecessor, is an addictive game that simply requires you to discover new elements. It’s an incredibly simple game that doesn’t have any rules—all you have to do is drag and drop elements to combine them with each other and see what happens. Players start with four elements: air, fire, earth, and water. All of these elements can be combined, for instance, fire and fire into energy, a Tier one element. Eventually, you’ll discover more and more combinations that can then be combined into higher-tier elements. You’ll find more tangible and complex creations like an aquarium, the sky, and even a space station. While you likely won’t ever find all 720 elements in one sitting, you can always come back and continue your discovery.