If you’re looking to play sports games on PC, you’re in the right place. As you might expect from such a diverse and welcoming gaming platform, the PC has plenty of sports games you can play. You might even say the PC sports game cup runneth over, such is your choice; whether you want to bet on real sports via the PowerPlay website or indulge in some fictional, made-up sporting endeavours, you can bet the PC will offer you the chance to do it. Here are our favourite sports games on PC in 2021.
Rocket League
“Car combat meets football” isn’t the strongest elevator pitch, but boy does Rocket League add up to more than the sum of its parts. The gameplay at the core of Psyonix’s game is remarkably simple; you are a car, hit the ball into the goal to score. Despite this, the esports scene for the game has taken off in a major way, largely thanks to the many physics tricks you can pull off with the complex engine. Rocket League is the very definition of easy to learn and hard to master.
Fire Pro Wrestling World
Since Yukes and 2K have shown that they’re not interested in keeping up the quality of their WWE 2K series, it’s up to games like Fire Pro Wrestling World to pick up the mantle of “best wrestling game around”. Fire Pro Wrestling World features a whole host of thinly-veiled fictional allegories to real-life wrestlers, a heck of a lot of gameplay modes, and a surprisingly deep core wrestling system. It’s not big or clever, but it’s extremely fun, especially with others.
FIFA 22
Despite some overly predatory microtransactions dragging proceedings down, FIFA 22 is arguably the best EA’s simulation of the beautiful game has been in many years. It’s a slower, more considered game of football than its predecessors; you’ll need to consider each play carefully if you want to prevail. There are a range of modes and options to get stuck into as well, so if you love football and you don’t mind EA shouting at you to buy things, FIFA 22 should be on your list.
Football Manager 2022
If you prefer to be shouting orders to your players rather than being on the pitch yourself, Football Manager 2022 is the best way to experience that side of football. The fanbase for these games is notoriously difficult to please, so that Very Positive Steam rating shouldn’t be taken lightly. It offers simulation gameplay with a dizzying level of depth and complexity; pretty much any part of the experience of being a football manager you can imagine is represented here.
Golf With Your Friends
As the title suggests, Golf With Your Friends allows you the chance to indulge in some, well, golf with your friends. It’s a minigolf game with powerups and absolutely no interest in achieving golfing realism. Courses are well-structured and always fun to play, and if you’re behind, you can influence your opponents’ games by freezing their ball or making the track slippery. If you want to play some golf on PC but you don’t want a complex simulation, Golf With Your Friends is a great option.
Riders Republic
Imagine Forza Horizon, but instead of cars, you’ve got access to bikes, wingsuits, and all manner of other outlandish vehicles and transportation methods. That’s exactly what Riders Republic is. Okay, the tone is excruciating; it’s very much a “hello, young people” sort of affair. However, the gameplay is unimpeachable, offering a huge variety of challenges and a dizzying sense of speed and verticality. If you can stomach the awful writing, Riders Republic is a great time.
Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 1+2
After the utter disaster that was Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 5, many feared this venerated skating franchise (which had, admittedly, been dropping in quality for many years) was done for. Thankfully, Vicarious Visions and Activision knocked it out of the park with these two excellent remasters, which take the two best games in the series and give them a new coat of paint. The best you can say of a remaster is that it makes you feel like the game you played as a child was always perfect, and that’s true of this package.
DiRT Rally 2.0
Remember the Colin McRae Rally series on PlayStation? The DiRT series represents the continuation of that classic rally driving franchise, and DiRT Rally 2.0 is an excellent entry. It offers the same kind of realistic simulation gameplay fans have come to expect from these games, as well as a high level of realism elsewhere (including teams to maintain your car and realistic weather conditions). If you love racing that hews close to real life, DiRT Rally 2.0 is the game you should be playing.
Pyre
We’re concluding this list with an odd one. Pyre is a sports game from the creators of Bastion and Hades, which is to say it’s not really much of a sports game at all. At its core, Pyre is basically a basketball sim mixed with a BioWare-style party-based RPG. The characters are compelling and well-rounded, and the sports sim at the centre of Pyre is surprisingly accomplished, even if it’s not what you should focus on. If you haven’t played Pyre yet, you owe it to yourself just to celebrate the oddity of what Supergiant Games has accomplished here.
