TOP-30: Best Hunting Games on PC & Consoles

We’ve put together a selection of the best hunting games — from detailed hunting simulators to games where hunting is just one of many activities in a sprawling open world packed with things to do, as well as classic titles with more casual mechanics.

Hunting games are a fairly rare genre. They’re usually considered niche — something only a narrow circle of enthusiasts would enjoy. Passionate hunters who can instantly tell a black grouse from a capercaillie by sound alone and passionately debate which dog breed is best suited for duck hunting. What are they supposed to do when hunting season hasn’t started yet, or when their wife won’t let them leave the house?

Still, we’re convinced that hunting games can also appeal to ordinary players who have never gone hunting in real life, have no desire to spend hours sitting in bushes waiting for prey, and might even feel bad about shooting animals. They, too, can enjoy a good hunting game. After all, hunting is primarily about the thrill of the pursuit, testing your skills, and spending time in nature — and if you really need meat, you can always buy it at the store.

So, time to uncase those virtual rifles. Better for you, and safer for the wildlife.

Let’s start with the serious stuff — full-fledged hunting simulators capable of delivering emotions and excitement comparable to real hunting. Most of them recreate the process in meticulous detail, from preparing your weapon and tracking animals by footprints and flattened grass to timing the trigger pull between two heartbeats.

theHunter: Call of the Wild is the obvious flagship among hunting simulators on PC and the most popular game in the genre. Why? First, it recreates the core mechanics of real hunting with impressive realism. Story takes a back seat here — the main objective is to find, track, and harvest a rare trophy. While tracking animals, you must consider wind direction (animals can smell you), your noise and visibility levels, and examine flattened grass, droppings, and blood trails. Shooting blindly won’t work — you need to aim for vital organs. After every shot, the game even shows an “X-ray” of the animal so you can evaluate your accuracy. Distance and wind direction also affect bullet trajectory.

Second, the game knows where to stop with realism and doesn’t overload the player with excessive detail. There are no strict restrictions — you can explore the map at your own pace.

Third, the game has plenty of interesting touches. Animals follow daily routines involving sleep, feeding, and watering, the game penalizes you for hunting without a license or using the wrong caliber, and multiplayer allows for competition with other hunters. If you’re interested in hunting as more than just a shooting gallery — if you want slow, patient tracking, studying animal behavior, and careful preparation — then theHunter: Call of the Wild is impossible to ignore.

A good way to describe Way of the Hunter would be this: it’s theHunter: Call of the Wild if it had been made by an obsessive wildlife science student for other obsessive wildlife science students. And that’s not a criticism — it’s what makes the game stand out. It feels like a full-fledged wildlife ecosystem simulator, with even more realism and ballistic depth, placing a major focus on population management. Unlike its competitors, hunting here isn’t about trophies or entertainment but about breeding the “perfect” deer herd — animals with the largest antlers possible. To achieve this, players must track and cull weaker specimens so only the strongest animals reproduce.

The game also features a surprisingly deep storyline centered around the ethics of hunting. Wildlife behavior is highly realistic: animals are more skittish and less predictable, they age, and they eventually die of natural causes if hunters don’t harvest them first. Ballistics are even more demanding than in theHunter: Call of the Wild — for a clean kill, you need to carefully choose both distance and caliber so the bullet kills instantly rather than merely wounding the target. It’s an easy recommendation for fans of hardcore realism and strategic gameplay who enjoy the idea of carefully managing an entire herd over time.

Hunting Simulator 2 offers a more arcade-style take on hunting compared to its competitors. There’s less slow wandering through forests while patiently tracking prey, more focus on realistic gear, and the game’s defining feature is your canine companion — a Labrador, Beagle, or German Shorthaired Pointer. The dog is far more than decoration: you can train it to improve its tracking skills, pet and praise it, and in return it will pick up scents, locate game, and retrieve downed birds. Thanks to the companion system, tracking becomes much more streamlined — instead of spending hours following footprints, your dog confidently leads you toward the target. There’s no open world here: you choose a location, prepare your equipment, and head out on a specific hunting mission. Before each hunt, you’ll need to purchase a license for the animals you plan to shoot, and even for a limited number of shots. The equipment selection includes 160 types of real-world weapons and accessories, while the trophies you collect can be used to decorate your hunting lodge. There’s no “narrative noise” in the form of dialogues or quests — just you, your loyal dog, and the hunt.

theHunter Classic can be considered the patriarch of modern hunting simulators. The game originally launched back in 2009 and was later taken over by Avalanche Studios, the team behind the Just Cause series. The studio used it as an experiment with the free-to-play model. Yes, theHunter Classic is one of the rare genuinely free hunting games on PC. At the start, players receive five licenses and two firearms for free, while everything else can be purchased either with in-game currency or real money. The online community is still surprisingly active: even in its free format, it’s easy to find players to hunt with, compete against, or share ammunition with. Unlike many modern hunting games, it also has very modest hardware requirements.

Beyond that, it remains a detailed hunting-life simulator with a wide variety of locations and animals, skittish prey, a skill system, realistic caliber restrictions, no visual tracking aids, and long waits in ambush before taking the perfect shot. In other words — Classic.

Cabela's Big Game Hunter: Pro Hunts, much like the rest of the Cabela’s Big Game Hunter series, can be viewed as a kind of advertisement for the American outdoor retail chain Cabela’s. But that doesn’t mean the games were made cheaply or without effort. On the contrary, the series consists of solid hunting simulators that leaned more toward action before Pro Hunts shifted closer to realism. The developers even brought in real hunting experts — well-known figures from the hunting world — who provide tactical and equipment advice before each mission. There’s no overarching storyline; instead, the game is built around a series of hunting scenarios focused on legendary animals that terrorize local areas or have become regional myths.

The realism comes from its advanced ballistics system, which takes bullet physics, air resistance, and shooting distance into account, as well as the need to obtain hunting licenses, use licensed gear, and properly employ calls and scent eliminators. At the same time, the game leaves room for cinematic spectacle: it often feels like a high-budget hunting TV show, complete with slow-motion bullet cams and X-ray kill shots that display internal damage. The project is likely to appeal to players looking for a middle ground — a hunting game that feels realistic without becoming overly hardcore.

Open Country was developed by FUN Labs, a studio that spent many years working on the Cabela’s series. Drawing on that experience, the team created its own hunting simulator, but instead of simply copying its earlier games, it aimed for a different audience. Open Country is designed not for hardcore hunting enthusiasts, but for players who enjoy a variety of outdoor activities. The game blends hunting and open-world survival mechanics with a light RPG system. The protagonist isn’t a professional hunter, but rather an ordinary person who abandoned office life in search of freedom in the wilderness. Survival mechanics include crafting items from gathered resources, building campfires, and setting up campsites while managing hunger, thirst, fatigue, and body temperature.

The shooting and tracking systems are much simpler than those in theHunter or Way of the Hunter. The game assists players with a special “hunter’s instinct” mode that highlights animal tracks, while vehicles make traveling across the map quick and convenient. Beyond hunting, players can go fishing, drive off-road vehicles, and complete quests, giving the gameplay a broader range of activities. The result is something like an RPG about living in the wild, where survival can be tackled either alongside your dog or together with a partner online.

As the name suggests, Russian Hunter is a hunting simulator developed by a Russian studio that leans heavily into local atmosphere, harsh wilderness conditions, and accessibility. The core mechanics are fairly standard: track animals using footprints and sounds, travel to the hunting area by vehicle, and line up a careful shot while accounting for ballistics. What sets the game apart is its unmistakably Russian flavor — forest roads riddled with potholes, birch groves, and remote wooden cabins define the landscape. The weapons and gear are based on Russian brands, and one of the available vehicles is the iconic UAZ 3303. The game is well suited for newcomers and players looking for a more relaxed hunting experience: the learning curve is forgiving, while both tracking and ballistics are simplified. At the same time, it still offers a story campaign with quests, survival and economy mechanics, and a day-night cycle. It’s also worth mentioning that the game has modest system requirements compared to more high-profile titles in the genre.

Pro Deer Hunting 2 is an indie project that tries to strike a balance between modern hunting simulators and the classic hunting games of the early 2000s. The game focuses exclusively on deer hunting in the forests of North America — there are no other animals to hunt. Unlike many others in the genre, it emphasizes luring prey rather than tracking it through footprints. Players choose calls, place feeding stations, and then patiently wait in ambush for the perfect opportunity. The visuals are fairly modest and the game runs easily on low-end PCs, but it still includes the essential elements of a hunting simulator. Bullet physics are modeled, and a hit camera shows which organs were damaged by your shot. On higher difficulty settings, all interface elements and hints are disabled, turning the experience into a genuine test of patience and skill.

The Deer Hunter series is probably best known among mobile gamers. Deer Hunter: Reloaded was an attempt to bring the franchise to “big” platforms like PC and consoles. Its mobile roots are obvious: there’s no open world here, only a sequence of standalone mission levels. The gameplay is intentionally arcade-like to keep players constantly engaged — you can bag five deer in five minutes. Animals are usually already nearby or within sight, while markers guide you toward your target. When aiming, the game even displays the animal’s vital organs in an “X-ray” view.

To maintain the pace, the game constantly throws new challenges at you, rewarding completion with small bonuses. Progression is extremely fast — all the money you earn from missions immediately goes into buying new rifles, scopes, and magazines. At the same time, the game is far more dynamic and approachable than hardcore simulators like theHunter: Call of the Wild. If you’re not in the mood to spend half an hour tracking prey and would rather just “shoot some deer” after work without worrying about wind direction or ballistics, this game can be a lot of fun.

Hunting-and-survival games differ from dedicated hunting simulators in that tracking animals is not the main goal. Instead, hunting serves the more practical purpose of helping the player survive — gathering food and resources for crafting, upgrades, or equipment. In these games, hunting is usually just one activity among many.

Red Dead Redemption 2 is famous for its obsession with detail and grounded realism. You need to clean your weapons regularly, trim your beard so Arthur doesn’t turn into a scruffy drifter, and feed and calm your horse. Hunting receives the same level of attention. First, you track animals using Eagle Eye, while prey can detect the protagonist by scent, making odor-masking lotion a useful tool. To preserve the highest-quality pelt, you must use the proper weapon type and land a clean shot in a vulnerable area. Skinning is fully animated, and animal carcasses eventually begin to rot and attract vultures. Add in natural animal interactions — for example, a wolf hunting the same deer you’re stalking — and you get a hunting system detailed enough to rival many dedicated simulators.

And all of this exists in a game where hunting is technically just a way to gather food for camp, craft unique clothing, and make money. But this is Rockstar — that level of dedication is exactly why people love their games. In the cooperative Red Dead Online mode, you can even ignore the rest of the game entirely and focus on life as a hunter — tracking animals with friends, collecting meat and pelts, and selling them for profit.

The Long Dark takes an extremely hardcore approach to hunting. In this game, hunting is far from entertainment or sport — it’s a difficult and dangerous way to avoid freezing or starving to death. The player is stranded in a deserted, snow-covered wilderness after a geomagnetic disaster and must survive using scarce resources. Clothes falling apart? Food supplies gone? Then your only option is to hunt. The easiest prey is rabbits caught with traps, but if you decide to go after larger animals, remember — you’re not the only predator around. The smell of blood attracts wolves, and your odds in a wolf encounter are barely fifty-fifty. Add to that limited ammunition and daylight, improvised weapons, and a high chance of missing a shot and wasting precious bullets, and you get a survival simulator where the player is very much not at the top of the food chain. The game deservedly makes it onto lists of the best survival games, including our best survival games on PS4 and PS5. Best played in summer — otherwise you might freeze to death. In the game, of course.

Winter Survival borrows a lot from The Long Dark, but treats the player with a bit more mercy. As the title suggests, this is another survival game set in brutal winter conditions, though it strikes a balance between the harsh realism of The Long Dark and more modern action-oriented mechanics. There’s still freezing cold, hunger, hunting small game with traps, and highly aggressive predators, but surviving is ultimately less punishing. You can build shelters, climb cliffs, and sprint away from danger when needed. Winter Survival’s defining feature is its sanity system: loneliness, cold, and injuries gradually drive the protagonist insane, triggering hallucinations that manifest his deepest fears. It’s a game that should appeal not only to hunting fans, but also to players who enjoy psychological thrillers.

Far Cry: Primal is the Stone Age — literally. And no, that’s not meant as an insult toward Ubisoft, the long-suffering studio behind the game. On the contrary, Primal was a bold experiment for the Far Cry series, transporting players from the modern world into prehistoric times. What did humans do back then? Hunt and gather, just like the history books say. Naturally, hunting becomes one of the game’s core mechanics. Sometimes you hunt hostile humans, but more often you track herbivores to upgrade your gear, or take on predators like wolves and bears. And predators aren’t hunted just for their pelts — many of them can also be tamed, allowing you to recruit even a saber-toothed tiger as a companion. Like the rest of the Far Cry series, Primal focuses less on meticulous tracking and realistic ballistics and more on accessible combat and intense encounters with massive predators. Survival is also much more forgiving than in games like The Long Dark: with enough persistence, players will quickly start feeling like the ultimate hunter of the Stone Age.

Ranch Simulator is an unusual hybrid of genres. It’s not exactly a traditional building simulator, even though the story revolves around rebuilding an old family ranch. It’s not purely a farming game either, despite the fact that you’ll need to buy cows and build chicken coops. And it’s not a dedicated hunting simulator, although hunting and processing meat are essential parts of the experience. Ranch Simulator is, above all, a ranch-owner simulator, which means it includes a bit of everything. Hunting isn’t the main focus, but rather a way to feed yourself and earn the starting capital needed to develop your ranch. Meat and pelts can be sold, while the shooting mechanics remain fairly arcade-like: the important thing is simply landing the shot, with wind and realistic ballistics playing little to no role. Survival elements are also simplified — as long as you don’t starve, most of your concerns revolve around managing money and resources. Much of the gameplay consists of everyday routines typical for this kind of game: “hunt a deer, drive it back home, butcher it, sell the meat, buy some chickens.” The game also supports co-op for up to four players, which speeds up progression, makes it easier to fend off predators, and is simply more entertaining overall.

Think the title Green Hell is just a dramatic metaphor? Think again. This game is one of the most uncompromising and brutal survival simulators in the industry. Survival here is taken to the extreme and demands absolute concentration and attention to the smallest details. Stranded in the Amazon rainforest, the player must do more than simply satisfy hunger — you have to maintain a balance of proteins, fats, and carbohydrates. Eat raw meat and you’ll get parasites, followed by mental deterioration. At any moment you might run into a snake, a jaguar, or a cannibalistic tribesman. You constantly need to inspect your body to remove leeches or cauterize infected wounds. Survival can be tackled cooperatively, with players dividing responsibilities within the group, while hunting itself relies on traps, improvised bows, and spears. Spotting prey in the dense jungle is incredibly difficult — often you can only locate animals by sound. The game forces you to abandon sentimentality in the name of survival. Do you like capybaras? We’re sure you do. But do you know what they taste like? Hopefully not. Green Hell is ruthless enough to make you shoot a capybara with a bow, skin it, and roast it over a campfire.

Monster hunting games deserve a separate mention. They may not involve traditional hunting in the literal sense, but many of the core elements of tracking and pursuing prey are still there — only the target is a fantastical creature instead of a real animal. These games have effectively formed their own subgenre known as “hunter action.” Japanese developers dominate this space, particularly Capcom, the company behind the Monster Hunter series.

Monster Hunter: Wilds is one of the strongest entries in the Monster Hunter series. While traditional hunting simulators focus on patiently and methodically tracking real animals, hunting here is fast, intense, and centered around gigantic fantasy creatures with unique abilities. Tracking itself is heavily streamlined, with the real focus placed on lengthy battles against monsters — encounters that can drag on depending on the creature’s health and how consistently you strike its weak points. Why kill the monster at all? To carve materials from its body, craft stronger gear, and move on to hunting even tougher beasts. Yes, the gameplay loop is fairly straightforward: track, kill, craft, repeat. But that simplicity is balanced by a massive seamless world, deep and varied combat with a huge arsenal of weapons, a living ecosystem where monsters fight one another, dynamic weather systems, and environmental interactions during combat. The game offers a healthy amount of grinding, plenty of action, and lively multiplayer that encourages players to team up and divide combat roles while taking down massive monsters together.

Before Monster Hunter: World, the Monster Hunter series was considered niche and mostly appealed to Japanese players, particularly fans of punishing difficulty. Monster Hunter: World brought the franchise into the global mainstream by reducing the barrier to entry while massively increasing the scale. The result was a commercially successful action game where hunting became a spectacular showdown between players — solo or in teams of four — and gigantic monsters. If you're interested in good co-op games, check out our list with best Co-op games.

The protagonist has no innate stats of their own; everything depends on the weapons and armor chosen for a particular hunt. Preparation for battle even includes selecting the right meal beforehand, since every dish grants bonuses to stamina, health, or elemental resistance. Guiding scoutflies help locate monster tracks, after which players engage the beast directly, severing body parts to weaken it and collect rare resources. The environment can be used aggressively — collapsing a cave ceiling onto a monster or leaping onto its back from a ledge to turn the fight into a full-on rodeo. Gear upgrades through monster materials are practically endless, making the game ideal for hunters who feel realistic simulators lack meaningful crafting and the satisfying sense of power that comes from a perfectly optimized build.

Seeing the success of Monster Hunter, Electronic Arts funded its own hunter action title: Wild Hearts. Once again, players hunt gigantic monsters — known as Kemono — carefully prepare for battle in local eateries, and carve huge body parts off defeated creatures for crafting resources. And, just like in Monster Hunter, the prey fights back hard. The monsters embody forces of nature and draw heavily from Japanese folklore. The key difference from Monster Hunter lies in the Karakuri system — the ability to rapidly construct mechanisms and gadgets directly during combat. Need protection from a charging boss? Build a wall. The monster is flying or too tall to reach? Create a springboard to launch yourself upward. Want to ignite your weapon? Build a torch. Karakuri adds a tactical layer to combat and significantly diversifies encounters. Players can also construct permanent structures such as camps, ziplines, and towers, gradually transforming hostile regions into efficient hunting grounds. Wild Hearts feels faster and more aggressive than Monster Hunter, making it a strong choice for fans of dynamic monster hunting, especially in co-op. In three-player teams, hunters can not only support one another in combat but also create large defensive structures for the benefit of the whole group.

Hunt: Showdown 1896 is a unique blend of horror, western, and competitive PvPvE shooter set in the “Gothic South” of late 19th-century America. You play as a hunter tracking swamp monsters in Louisiana, while the core gameplay loop revolves around following clues to locate a creature’s lair, killing the monster, collecting the bounty, and escaping the map alive. On paper, that sounds straightforward. In reality, the most terrifying monsters in the game are not the swamp creatures but the other hunters, who will gladly shoot you in the back or ambush you at the extraction point. Killing the boss is only half the battle — afterward, you still need to fend off rival players eager to steal your reward. Even a snapped twig underfoot can betray your position, thanks to the game’s exceptional sound design. The weaponry fits the era, meaning firearms are slow and every missed shot can be fatal. Death is permanent: lose a hunter, and you lose all their gear as well. Having a teammate helps immensely, and the game is both easier and more enjoyable in co-op, whether in duos or trios, though the truly uncompromising can always choose the “solo versus teams” mode. Hunt: Showdown fans are players who crave high-stakes hunting and trust their ears as much as their aim.

Sorry, Bigfoot, but we don’t actually believe you exist, so we’re classifying the hunt for you in BIGFOOT as fantasy hunting. BIGFOOT is a cooperative horror simulator where players take on the role of hunters trying to track down and capture Bigfoot in the forests of North America. The game is designed around four-player co-op with distinct team roles. If you’ve played Dead by Daylight or Friday the 13th: The Game, you’ll quickly understand the core mechanics here. Bigfoot essentially fills the role of Jason Voorhees — first you have to track him using trail cameras, surveillance equipment, and baited traps, then locate footprints and victim remains to narrow the search zone before finally attacking together as a group. The catch is that the prey can easily become the hunter. Bigfoot is aggressive, fast, and incredibly strong. He can destroy cameras, smash through shelter doors, and drag players off into the woods. There’s also a mode where one player controls Bigfoot directly, turning the hunt into an asymmetric horror experience.

Horizon Zero Dawn feels like a fusion of Far Cry: Primal and Monster Hunter. Think about it: the story also places us in a kind of Stone Age, only this one emerged after a global catastrophe. Instead of hunting mammoths and saber-toothed tigers, however, you’ll be tracking robotic creatures — mechanical mammoths and predatory machines with primitive intelligence that mimic the behavior of wild animals. Much like in Primal, hunting is essential for gathering valuable survival resources. Creatures can also be tamed and turned into companions. A special device called the Focus reveals tracks and highlights weak points on enemy bodies — a clear nod to Monster Hunter. You can try to brute-force fights by firing wildly, or you can carefully target vulnerable areas and reduce enemies to scrap metal with a few precise shots. Larger enemies require actual tactical thinking and proper preparation. Add in elemental damage types, traps, stealth mechanics, and varied combat encounters, and you get a vibrant action game where hunting feels exciting rather than tedious, constantly testing both reflexes and strategy.

This section focuses on hunting games that don’t aim for a highly detailed or fully realistic recreation of hunting. These are simply open-world games with hunting mechanics rather than hardcore hunting simulators. The emphasis here is on action and entertainment: the games are more forgiving, faster-paced, and far less concerned with things like caliber choice, ballistics, or carefully reading tracks. And if you enjoy open-world games in general, check out our list of the best open-world games.

WolfQuest: Anniversary Edition began primarily as an educational science project: staff from Yellowstone National Park teamed up with developers to create a realistic simulator of a wild wolf’s life. And the result turned out to be genuinely impressive — a game where hunting isn’t entertainment, but a harsh necessity, because survival truly follows the law of the wild. You play as a wolf that must hunt to survive and feed its pups. Instead of rifles, you rely on fangs and close combat, where every fight risks serious injury or death. First, prey must be tracked by scent trails drifting through the air. Then, either alone or with a pack — which can be formed cooperatively with other players — you employ classic wolf tactics: isolate the weakest member of the herd, latch on, and hold until the prey collapses from exhaustion. After the kill, you’ll still need to defend the carcass from scavengers and rival predators. It’s a great example of how serious science and game design can complement each other.

The original Carnivores launched back in 1998, at the height of the dinosaur craze in video games. Carnivores: Dinosaur Hunter is a modern remaster of that title, transporting players to a distant planet inhabited by dinosaurs. Staying true to the spirit of late-’90s games, Carnivores doesn’t waste time explaining why you’re hunting dinosaurs in the first place. Here’s a rifle or a crossbow — now get moving. Hunting here feels more like a dangerous safari, though it’s anything but casual. You’ll face 15 species of dinosaurs, ranging from small herbivores to massive tyrannosaurs. One bite is enough to send you back to a checkpoint. Dinosaurs can hear your footsteps and smell you from a distance, so you’ll spend plenty of time crouching through bushes and moving carefully, much like in serious hunting simulators. To kill a tyrannosaur, you need an accurate shot directly to the eye — otherwise, all you’ll accomplish is making it very angry. But if luck is on your side, your trophy will end up decorating the hall aboard your spaceship. And if luck favors the dinosaur instead… well, that’s part of the experience. Either way, Carnivores remains an atmospheric hunting game that avoids both excessive realism and arcade simplicity.

The dinosaur theme continues in the hardcore survival simulator The Isle, where you don’t hunt dinosaurs — you are the dinosaur. Players can also choose to play as humans or mutants struggling to survive on an island filled with prehistoric predators. If you decide to play as a dinosaur, you’ll pick a species and then live out the entire life cycle of that creature, from birth to death, with your survival depending entirely on your own skill. The defining feature of the game is that hunting is inseparable from survival, and every dinosaur you encounter is controlled by a real player. The Isle is fundamentally a multiplayer survival experience, and that alone makes every encounter unpredictable.

Predators can smell blood and carrion, stalk prey from the bushes, and launch sudden ambushes. Combat features realistic bleeding and fracture systems: you may defeat an enemy only to bleed out moments later yourself. The hardcore aspect comes from the permanent death system — once your dinosaur dies, the character you spent hours raising is gone forever, and you start over from scratch. Multiplayer also allows players to form full dinosaur clans, hunt together, and even create families and raise offspring played by other users.

We already talked earlier about how strong theHunter: Call of the Wild is as a hunting simulator. But the game’s reputation also comes from the fact that it can be enjoyable even for players who don’t want to immerse themselves in hardcore realism. A sizeable portion of the player base treats it less like a hunting game and more like a form of virtual tourism. The game features several enormous regions, each with its own distinct ecosystem. You can track animals, or you can simply study migration routes, observe animal behavior, and explore habitats. The Apex engine delivers beautiful landscapes with realistic vegetation, weather systems, and environmental effects. Players who don’t want to shoot animals at all can even focus on wildlife photography, turning the game into a virtual nature reserve full of screenshot-worthy scenery. After all, not everyone sees hunting as competition or the thrill of pursuit — for some, it can be a meditative and relaxing activity, and theHunter: Call of the Wild understands that perfectly.

Spearfishing is an extremely rare theme in video games. Most of us associate hunting fish with regular fishing. Spearfishing may seem much simpler than hunting on land: there’s no need to worry about noise, scent, caliber, or ballistics when your weapon is a harpoon instead of a rifle. On the other hand, there’s always the risk of drowning. And unlike traditional hunting, you definitely can’t bring your loyal hunting dog along underwater.

Imagine that you own a sushi bar. Where do you get the fish for your dishes? In real life, the obvious answer would be to buy it — but in Dave the Diver, you catch it yourself. During the day, you dive and hunt fish; in the evening, you prepare your catch for customers. Small fish can be taken with a harpoon equipped with different tips, while larger prey requires underwater rifles, tranquilizers, or net guns. The method you use matters, because meat quality affects customer reviews. Caught a rare shark? That’s premium sushi material capable of bringing in serious money. To keep things fresh, the game occasionally throws giant sea creatures at you, forcing you to approach encounters more tactically. So if you’re tired of forests and deer, grab your scuba gear and head underwater with Dave the Diver. And if you're looking for more casual games, check out our selection of the best casual games.

Depth Hunter 2: Deep Dive takes a much more serious approach than Dave the Diver. This is a calm, realistic spearfishing simulator built around freediving — diving without scuba equipment. No giant squids here, just real fish species and authentic gear. There’s no survival system involving hunger or crafting; instead, the challenge comes from strict oxygen management. Stay underwater a little too long or move too aggressively at the wrong moment, and suddenly you’re running out of air. The sensation of underwater pressure is conveyed extremely well. Fish are cautious and easily frightened, so you have to approach them slowly and carefully, using rocks and underwater terrain as cover. Hitting them is also difficult: a harpoon travels much slower than a bullet and requires you to get much closer to the target. But since the game isn’t about survival, you can simply take your time and enjoy the scenery — it’s all about breathing control, precision, and the beauty of the underwater world.

Experienced hunting-game fans would never forgive us if we ignored the classics. Of course, realism in older hunting games was fairly limited. But remember: these titles became classics because they were made back when the pixels on screen were practically the size of ducks themselves. Even so, they can still provide a lot of fun and even help sharpen your reflexes and aim. These games are also perfect for low-end PCs and laptops, so if that matters to you, check out our selection of games for low-end PCs.

Back in its day, the Hunting Unlimited series was the main competitor to the Cabela’s games and was developed by SCS Software, the studio that later became famous for Euro Truck Simulator. Hunting Unlimited 2010 belongs firmly to the “old school” of hunting simulators — games focused more on variety and instant action than on hardcore realism or detailed simulation. Hunting here is fast-paced: there’s no need to spend hours studying tracks or setting traps. You simply choose a mission, an animal type, and a location, and the game places you close to the prey almost immediately. Then — bang! — another trophy ready for the wall.

The gameplay is simple, but not simplistic. There are more than 30 weapons available, including rifles, bows, and even revolvers, as well as ATVs and horses for transportation. You can hold your breath before taking a shot, and there’s even a mission editor that lets you place animals around the map to create your ideal hunting scenario. The game also features a wide range of mini-games and special challenges. One mission, for example, might ask you to kill two bears using only a revolver, turning the hunt into a kind of puzzle. That’s what old hunting games were like: fast, straightforward, and capable of running on practically anything — probably even a calculator.

Come on, admit it — who here remembers the days when you could shoot a plastic light gun directly at a chunky CRT screen? Ah, those were the times. These days nobody would even believe that technology like that actually existed. Light gun tech never truly disappeared, but it definitely lost its mainstream appeal. Still, if you grew up with the Dendy — the famous bootleg NES clone — then you definitely know Duck Hunt. There’s no open world here, no tracking mechanics, just a screen with pixel bushes and ducks flying out from behind them. Your task is simple: shoot the ducks before they escape off-screen. Each level gets faster, and you only get three shots per duck. Miss all three, and the duck flies away. Then comes the moment every player remembers: the smug dog pops out of the bushes and laughs at your failure. That laugh became a meme long before internet memes were even a thing. And before long, hearing it will make you want to shoot the screen with something a little more serious than a plastic toy gun.

The game is fun, surprisingly good for improving reflexes, and perfect for playing with a child: one player shoots while the other controls the duck’s flight path with the controller. Sadly, the original light gun doesn’t work with modern displays, so to experience Duck Hunt properly you’ll either need an old CRT television or one of the modern remakes.

Big Buck Hunter Arcade is a genuine relic from another era. It’s a PC and console port of the arcade cabinet game that became so popular in the United States that local and even national tournaments are still held for it. The game is essentially an on-rails shooting gallery — about as far from a hardcore hunting simulator as you can get — but it’s incredibly fun and does a great job testing your aim and reflexes. Animals such as moose and antelope dash across the screen, and the player (or two players competing side by side) must shoot all the males within the time limit while avoiding the females.

The shooting mechanics are simple and arcade-like, with no concern for wind, ballistics, or realistic weapon handling, but success still depends on fast reactions and a sharp eye. Between the main stages are goofy bonus mini-games focused on accuracy: shooting flying ducks (clearly inspired by Duck Hunt), clay pigeons, squirrels, or gophers. The game supports mouse and controller aiming, but it feels best when played with light guns or motion controls like the Wiimote or PS Move. It’s the perfect choice for parties or for anyone nostalgic for classic arcade shooting galleries.

What is the most realistic hunting game?

That depends on what you personally mean by “realistic.” If we’re talking specifically about realistic ballistics, then Way of the Hunter is probably the leader. The game not only simulates bullet trajectory in detail, but also accounts for kinetic energy, while the success of a shot depends heavily on exactly where the animal is hit.

In theHunter Classic, realism borders on hardcore territory: animals are extremely skittish and can hear the hunter from far away, while the game offers no visual aids or highlighted tracks whatsoever.

Meanwhile, theHunter: Call of the Wild stands out for its incredibly immersive atmosphere. Wind direction and vegetation noise feel convincing, and the damage system is highly detailed, even showing an “X-ray” view of the animal’s body after a successful shot.

Are there any free hunting games?

Real-life hunting certainly isn’t a cheap hobby, but there are still some solid free hunting games out there.

theHunter Classic uses a free-to-play model and offers a large selection of locations and animals, along with impressive realism and hardcore mechanics. However, progression is extremely slow, and getting advanced equipment often means either waiting for a long time or spending real money.

Deer Hunter World is technically free as well, but it relies heavily on aggressive monetization and features highly arcade-style gameplay that probably won’t appeal to fans of serious hunting simulators.

And finally, there’s always Duck Hunt or various browser hunting games. Sure, nobody would seriously call them hunting simulators — they’re basically shooting galleries — but they’re fun, accessible, and completely free.

What hunting game is good for a low-end PC?

For a weak PC or laptop, hunting games from the 2000s and early 2010s are usually the best choice. They’re well optimized, take up very little storage space, and their gameplay still holds up surprisingly well even compared to many modern releases.

You only need 4 GB of RAM to play theHunter Classic, which remains one of the most realistic hunting games ever made.

Hunting Unlimited 2010 offers a huge selection of weapons and animals, while also avoiding the “hours of tracking” approach. The game runs smoothly even on basic office hardware.

Deer Hunter: Reloaded, despite launching in 2017, is essentially a port of a mobile game, so its graphics are extremely lightweight. It still includes weapon upgrades and animal tracking mechanics, but the system requirements are minimal.

Can you play hunting games in co-op with friends?

Yes — many of the best hunting games support co-op multiplayer. For example, theHunter: Call of the Wild allows groups of up to eight players to explore together, ride ATVs, track animals cooperatively, and compete over who lands the most impressive trophy.

Way of the Hunter supports up to four players, while theHunter Classic allows up to eight — assuming you don’t scare every animal away with that many hunters stomping around.

Among monster-hunting games, Monster Hunter: World and Monster Hunter Wilds are standout examples. Both support four-player co-op raids against gigantic creatures, letting players divide combat roles almost like in an RPG.

Hunt: Showdown 1896 also supports three-player squads, where you hunt monsters while simultaneously defending yourself from rival players.

What hunting games are available on PlayStation and Xbox?

PlayStation and Xbox have no shortage of hunting games — everything from realistic hunting simulators to action RPGs about fighting fantasy monsters.

theHunter: Call of the Wild has been available on PlayStation and Xbox since 2025, while Way of the Hunter launched on consoles in 2022.

Hunting Simulator 2 also has console versions available.

Red Dead Redemption 2 is currently playable on PS4 and Xbox One, though many players are still hoping for dedicated PS5 and Xbox Series X|S versions.

The best monster-hunting games are also available on modern consoles, including Monster Hunter Wilds, Monster Hunter World, Wild Hearts, Hunt: Showdown 1896, and Predator: Hunting Grounds.

What’s the difference between theHunter: Call of the Wild and Way of the Hunter?

At first glance these games look very similar, but they actually offer very different approaches to hunting. theHunter: Call of the Wild is essentially a beautiful sandbox focused on collecting trophies, while Way of the Hunter is a far more serious simulation of hunting in the wild.

In theHunter: Call of the Wild, animals are plentiful and player mistakes usually aren’t too punishing. Ballistics are more predictable, and the key to a successful shot is hitting vital organs. Overall, the game feels like a polished, visually impressive hunting playground packed with weapons and frequent trophy opportunities.

Way of the Hunter takes a more methodical approach. Players are expected to plan strategically, identify genetically weaker animals, and selectively cull them to improve herd quality over time. Ballistics are significantly more complex and even account for kinetic energy. Animals are far more skittish, meaning you’ll spend plenty of time crouching through vegetation and constantly checking binoculars just to get within shooting range. This is a game for true enthusiasts willing to spend hours patiently tracking prey.

Are there games about hunting monsters?

Absolutely — and there are quite a lot of them these days. The Monster Hunter series is the undisputed king of the genre. In Monster Hunter: World, monsters fight over territory, hunt each other, and sleep like living creatures, while players use the environment itself to gain the upper hand. Monster Hunter Wilds follows the same formula but with newer graphics and an updated roster of monsters.

Wild Hearts adds a unique twist to giant-monster battles by allowing players to instantly construct traps, walls, and other devices right in the middle of combat.

Hunt: Showdown features a strong competitive element: while hunting monsters in the swamps of Louisiana, players must also defend themselves from rival hunters controlled by other players.

What hunting games are good for beginners?

If you’re new to hunting games, it helps to start with something that has a clear interface, doesn’t demand hours of patience for every result, and explains mechanics like ballistics and tracking in an accessible way. theHunter: Call of the Wild is probably the best starting point. The game provides plenty of assistance early on, highlighting animal tracks, showing wind direction, and indicating how visible you are to wildlife.

Way of the Hunter includes an “Explorer” difficulty mode where animals behave less cautiously and are generally more forgiving toward inexperienced players.

In Hunting Simulator 2, you also have a loyal hunting dog companion that can guide you straight to your target, leaving you to focus on making the shot.

And of course, you can always dive into Dave the Diver — where you don’t even have to worry about bullet calibers in the first place.

Which games did you like, and which ones would you like to add to this list? Let us know in the comments!

Hunting games may be a fairly niche genre, but even a top-30 list barely has enough room for all the worthwhile titles out there. Quite a few solid projects still ended up outside the spotlight.

Want even more hunting simulators? Then take a look at BULT: Hunting Simulator — a realistic duck-hunting game focused on studying terrain and animal behavior, paying attention to small details, choosing the right decoys, and carefully calculating every shot.

If you enjoy monster-hunting games and have already exhausted everything the Monster Hunter series has to offer, try God Eater 3 — a faster, more anime-inspired alternative to Monster Hunter with a stronger emphasis on flashy combos and story-driven gameplay.

The dinosaur-hunting theme certainly doesn’t end with the games in our list either. Among the newer releases, we should mention Deathground — a survival horror game where you hunt fast and bloodthirsty dinosaurs either alone or with a team.

And finally, there’s a rare example of a VR hunting game: Virtual Hunter, released in 2026.

There are plenty of great hunting games out there, so pick one, jump in, and enjoy the unique romance of the hunt. And if you ever want more gaming recommendations, feel free to ask. For example, if you enjoy adventures, we also have a top-40 list of the best action-adventure games.