30+ Best Games to Play This Autumn

After a summer full of activities and sun, there’s nothing better than the cool, cozy autumn and settling down to play your favorite game as the wind howls, the rain falls, and the leaves turn all those lovely colors.

And of course, you might have an autumn favorite, or something nostalgic you like to come back to, but there are some games that just feel designed to be played in the cozy (or spooky) season. As a big lover of fall, I tend to gravitate towards these games, even in other seasons, and so I’ve tested out hundreds. These are the best of the bunch, and my personal favorites. 

This list features something for everyone, whether you see autumn as this cozy, slow life season, or the one with the big Halloween/Horror label on it, plus some new releases I know we’ve all been waiting for!

Cozy, Comforting Autumn Games

If you want more cozy games, check out my list of 60+ options here! And if you enjoy mobile games more, I have a list of best cozy games on mobile here.

Stardew Valley is my favorite life sim game, and one of those that feels perfect for autumn. There’s something slow and cozy about it, no matter what the season is in-game. I love how the gameplay allows you to do things at your own pace, and there’s no need to rush at all.

If you’re not sure what Stardew Valley is, here’s a summary: you’ve inherited a farm in the small town of Pelican Valley and you move there from your boring big city job. Your task is to rebuild the farm, help rebuild the town and the community, get to know the people (maybe even marry one?), and just live that cozy, slow life. 

Spiritfarer is a cozy management game in which you’re the ferrymaster to the dead and your job is to transport them to the afterlife. To do this, you build your boat and travel the world, do regular life sim activities like farm, harvest, craft, and cook, but you also have to listen to the spirits’ stories and help them resolve their unfinished business. 

This is the perfect game for fall because it’s both cozy and it deals with the season’s main theme: death. But it does it in such a soft, heartfelt way that it’ll melt your heart. I cried when I first played this, mainly because the stories are so good, but also because this game understands grief on a level you wouldn’t expect, and it can definitely make you feel better, more ready to live your life well after playing it. 

If you just want something chill and relaxing that you can play while cuddled up in a blanket, something that doesn’t require all of your brain power, but will entertain you still, this is the game. Coffee Talk is one of my favorite games to play when I want to do something but not really (if that makes sense), and I always love it. 

In this one, you run a little coffee shop in Seattle, and get late night customers of all sorts. Serve them the right drink, and they might share their story, and you can then help them unravel their thoughts and follow their journey. It’s really lovely and the stories are varied, so you won’t get bored easily!

If exploring is your thing, and you like games where you can just roam around and see different sights, a Short Hike will be your new favorite. Here, you play a bird trying to get to the top of a summit and along the way you meet various other creatures, just chilling or doing something. This isn’t a particularly long game (it’s in the name) but it does feel perfect for a lovely autumn afternoon.

This is a very soft, very cozy game where you follow a character through different stages of life and help them unpack. Each item holds a story and your job is to place it in the right place. It’s kind of a blend between a puzzle, story game and house design game, so if your interests are somewhere at a cross-section of all three, I highly recommend this one!

Cozy Grove is exactly what the name says, and with perfect autumn vibes. In this game, you’re on an island inhabited by spirits, and your job is to help these spirits solve their unfinished business and move on. It’s a life sim as well, and you’ll help the island restore its color and vibrancy. I played it on my phone because it comes free with a Netflix subscription and it was a really fun, meditative experience with a fantastic soothing soundtrack!

The Wild at Heart deserves more love than it gets, because it’s a lovely indie game inspired by (and looking like) childhood storybooks. I thoroughly enjoyed it and found it super calming to play, plus it looks very autumnal and sweet, so I highly recommend playing it!

In this game, you get to explore a wonderful world, collect spritelings (and let them help you), collect loot, fight enemies, solve puzzles (some of which were unexpectedly hard!), and more. It’s a really delightful little game and you won’t regret giving it a chance!

In Wytchwood, you’re a mysterious witch living in the woods, and you explore the world and the countryside, collecting ingredients, crafting weird recipes, and casting your judgement on the locals. It’s a weird, gothic fairytale-like game, with beautiful art that feels autumn inspired. I loved my time in it, but I wouldn’t recommend trying to play it linearly, or you’ll get bored. There’s a lot of fetching and collecting, so try to play it in a more fun way and it’ll work like a charm!

Spooky autumn games (read: horror games)

This is a horror-platformer where you play as Mono, a little boy in a raincoat, trying to escape a world that’s rotting from the inside out, alongside Six (the protagonist from the first game), who you meet along the way and who becomes your only real companion in all this bleakness.

The whole game is puzzle-platforming with a horror atmosphere. You’re sneaking past terrifying, oversized adults, solving environmental puzzles, and constantly feeling like something is about to grab you from off-screen. I loved the unsettling mood and the creepiness of it all, plus it’s not horror in the traditional blood and gore sense, but more psychological.

In Alan Wake 2, you’re playing as two characters: Saga Anderson, an FBI agent investigating a string of ritualistic murders in the small town of Bright Falls, and Alan Wake himself, a writer trapped in a nightmarish alternate dimension called the Dark Place, trying to write his way out of it. The two storylines run in parallel and slowly bleed into each other.

You get a bit of survival horror, a bit of a detective game where you have to piece together clues, which is just perfect if you ask me. There’s a small town, rainy weather, secrets, flickering lights, and more. So if you feel like some horrorish mystery, this is your game!

If you want horror that’s more about dread and heartbreak than jump scares, Signalis is the one to pick up this fall. You play as Elster, a Replika (basically an android built to look and act human) who wakes up on a frozen, alien planet after her ship crashes, searching for her missing partner, Ariane. From there, it’s classic survival horror: resource management, limited inventory, creepy corrupted enemies, and a facility full of secrets you’re slowly uncovering.

It’s set in a bleak, totalitarian sci-fi world (very Eastern Bloc-inspired visually) and it borrows a lot from Silent Hill and Lovecraftian horror. There’s also a love story underneath, which I really enjoyed, and I adored how melancholy and unsettling it feels. You’ll get a bit sad, but also a bit scared, which is a perfect combo for the darker autumn days.

This one is perfect to play with friends. It’s a co-op ghost huntung game where you and your friends play paranormal investigators across a bunch of places (haunted houses, asylums, etc.). You get the real ghost hunting equipment and your job is to gather evidence of what kind of ghost you’re dealing with before it gets to you.

It’s really fun in a group because you have to whisper so the ghost can’t hear you and any arguments have to be solved quietly. My husband hates horror but I talked him into this one, and let me tell you, he struggled to fall asleep later.

This one might be the most stressful entry on this list. You play as Henri Clément, a French soldier during WWI who wakes up in a bunker with no memory of what happened, only to discover the rest of the garrison has been slaughtered by something that’s still down there with you. Your goal is to find dynamite and a detonator to blow open the sealed exit and get out alive.

The monster hunting you isn’t scripted and it reacts to noise, to light, to how long you’ve been standing still. I found it very bleak and claustrophobic, but you know what, sometimes that’s just what you need on one of those equally bleak and claustrophobic autumn days (or nights).

In Death’s Door, you play as a small crow working for the Reaping Commission, a bureaucratic afterlife office whose job is reaping souls from beings who’ve overstayed their welcome in the world of the living. On your very first assignment, the soul you’re sent to collect gets stolen by another reaper, and to get it back (and avoid dying yourself), you have to track down three giant souls scattered across strange, oversized realms.

It plays like an isometric action-adventure with sword fights, a bow for ranged attacks, a handful of magic abilities, and boss fights against creatures who’ve grown monstrous from living far too long. It’s also less scary, but nevertheless still spooky, so it’s perfect if you want the vibes of horror but maybe not the nightmares that come with it. I really liked this one, so I highly recommend it!

Atmospheric and Moody Autumn Games (here for the vibes)

Hollow Knight follows Knight, a small, silent bug who wanders into Hallownest, a once-thriving insect kingdom that’s now collapsed into ruin, overrun by a mysterious infection, and full of forgotten history you have to piece together yourself. And this game is so haaard. But worth it!

I loved the music, the art, the vibes, everything is perfectly placed and well-crafted. Because it’s so hard, it’s also very long, but it’s one of those games you can play offline and even on the most low-spec devices.

I don’t know about you, but something about Elden Ring gives me such strong autumn vibes. Maybe it’s because I first played it during autumn, or just the look of the game overall, but either way, I would still highly recommend it.

You play as a Tarnished, an exile who’s called back to the Lands Between, a shattered kingdom once ruled by Queen Marika, after the Elden Ring itself was broken and its power splintered among her demigod children, all of whom are now warring over the pieces. Your goal is to gather those pieces, defeat the demigods holding them, and ultimately become Elden Lord yourself. This one is also so, so hard, but you’ll love it anyway (as most people do). And if you already played it, I have a few games here that you might enjoy!

Kentucky Route Zoo is more like an interactive movie than game, but I find that this is sometimes exactly what I need. So, cozy up and try this one out.

Here, you’ll be Conway, a truck driver making one last delivery of antiques to an address that doesn’t seem to exist. So he has to take a mysterious highway Route Zero which goes beneath Kentucky and is basically a maze of caves. There, you’ll interact with talking skeletons, android musicians, find abandoned places and more. To me it felt a bit fever dreamy but I did like that. However, this game won’t be for everyone, but if you enjoy this genre, it will be an unforgettable experience.

This one’s technically set in the middle of a hot, dry summer, but its mood is exactly what autumn afternoons are made for. You play as Henry, a man who takes a job as a fire lookout deep in the Wyoming wilderness after his wife’s health takes a devastating turn, mostly just to get away from his own life for a while. His only real contact with the outside world is his supervisor, Delilah, a fellow lookout stationed at a tower across the valley, who you talk to constantly over a handheld radio.

The whole game is essentially a conversation. You explore the forest, investigate strange happenings , and report everything back to Delilah, and it’s through those conversations that you two grow closer. There’s a mystery and a smidge of horror, but I feel like this game is more about the atmosphere itself. I found it really enjoyable but also creepy, so give it a go if you need something slower.

Death Stranding feels like an autumn game simply based on the mood. You play as Sam Porter Bridges, a courier tasked with reconnecting isolated cities and survivors across a devastated, post-apocalyptic America, after a supernatural event called the Death Stranding tore open the boundary between the living and the dead. The world is now full of invisible, ghostlike creatures called BTs, and eerie rain called Timefall that ages everything it touches, and your job is to carry cargo across this place.

To be perfectly honest, I didn’t love this game, but my husband enjoyed it and it’s an excellent game to watch someone else play. You walk a lot, everything looks deserted, and it’s almost meditative. But give it a go, you might like it!

This one’s a little tricky to sell without spoiling it, but I’ll try: you’re the newest recruit of a small, scrappy space program, setting out in a rickety little ship to explore your solar system for the first time. About 22 minutes into that first flight, the sun goes supernova and wipes out everything, and you wake back up at your campfire, right where you started, with all your memories intact. From there, it’s a time loop you have to use to your advantage, piecing together the history of an ancient, long-vanished civilization and the mystery of why this solar system is stuck resetting itself.

Every planet you go to is its own puzzle and all of them are changeable. I found Outer Wilds quite sad and isolating, but it’s a very good mystery in my book, and I recommend it if you want something interesting and unique.

I truly believe that autumn is the perfect time for mystery, detective, and whodunnit media, from TV shows to games, and Disco Elysium is probably the best detective game you can get. You play as Harry Du Bois, a detective who wakes up in a trashed hotel room with no memory of who he is or what happened and gets pulled into investigating a murder in Martinaise, a grim, war-scarred district of the city of Revachol. His only real partner is Kim Kitsuragi, a calm, deadpan officer from another precinct who’s stuck babysitting him through the case.

Disco Elysium is entirely dialogue and skill checks, and you can play it in many ways. I think this is one of the best written games ever made, and I found it so funny at times. The whole vibe is melancholic, decay, noir mystery, with a beautiful soundtrack. This game will steal your heart and your whole autumn if you give it a chance.

I can’t point to what specifically makes this game autumny, but it just is, trust me on this one! You control a small squad of time-traveling mech pilots sent back to defend a doomed world against the Vek, giant insectoid monsters tearing through what’s left of civilization. Every failed timeline sends your pilots (and their memories) further back to try again.

It’s kind of like a board game, where you have to think about your moves and you don’t need quick reflexes. The sessions are short, so you can play this easily whenever you have time.

Great Autumnal Stories in Games

Autumn is also time for good stories, and Baldur’s Gate 3 has those aplenty. Not only is it one of my favorite games, but it’s practically universally beloved, and I highly recommend it if you want something that will give you a great story, good combat, unforgettable characters, and hundreds of hours of fun. Check out my full review here!

This is my husband’s favorite game, it’s absolutely gorgeous, and he reviewed it here! You play as Jin Sakai, one of the last surviving samurai on Tsushima Island in the late 13th century, after the Mongol Empire invades and slaughters nearly all of the island’s defenders in a single brutal battle. Left for dead but saved by a thief named Yuna, Jin has to set aside his rigid samurai code and become “the Ghost,” using stealth, subterfuge, and unconventional tactics to fight back against an enemy that traditional honor simply can’t defeat.

I loved how you can just ride the horse through the world and let the wind guide you, watch the red maple leaves, visit shrines, sit and meditate. This is a beautiful game that feels windy, autumny and almost like a movie where you’re the main character (or Jin Sakai, but whatever).

Another thing that feels like autumn to me is Harry Potter and everything Wizarding World-related. So, I present to you: Hogwarts Legacy. This one lets you create your own witch or wizard and start as a late-blooming fifth-year student at Hogwarts in the 1890s, decades before Harry Potter’s time, guided by your mentor, Professor Fig, as you catch up on years of magical education you missed. It doesn’t take long before you’re pulled into a much bigger plot involving a goblin rebellion, a mysterious dark wizard, and your own unexpected connection to a powerful, ancient form of magic.

The open world around the castle is stuffed with side content, so if you just want to wander the grounds, fly around on a broom, or pet a hippogriff instead of following the main story, you absolutely can. It felt very cozy and nostalgic to me, and if you’re a fan of this franchise, it’ll feel the same way to you! Find my full review here.

This might be the most literally “autumn” game on this whole list. You play as Mae Borowski, a college dropout who moves back to her dying, former mining hometown of Possum Springs, hoping to slot back into her old life and reconnect with the friends she left behind. Except everything’s changed a little: her friends have grown up, the town’s economy has collapsed, and Mae herself is clearly avoiding whatever made her drop out of school in the first place.

Most of the game is just wandering around town, hanging out with friends, and having conversations in a small town setting full of autumn vistas and falling leaves. But as the story goes on, Mae starts having strange dreams and seeing things that shouldn’t be there, and what starts as a slice-of-life hangout game slowly pulls in something much stranger and darker underneath.

It’s a wonderful story about growing up and going back home without feeling like you truly belong to it, which made it so relatable to me personally. Give it a chance, and it might steal your heart too!

This is another mystery, but as I said, autumn is the time for mysteries for me. You play as Edith Finch, the last surviving member of a family believed to be cursed, returning to her family’s strange, sprawling home in Washington State to figure out what happened to everyone before her. As you explore the house, you unlock the bedrooms of deceased relatives, each perfectly preserved like a little museum exhibit, and each one lets you actually live through that family member’s final moments, told in a completely different style every time.

It’s short (you could finish it in an afternoon), but it packs an enormous amount of feeling into a small number of hours. It’s also melancholy, talks about death with curiosity and treats every character well. I really enjoyed this one, so I can’t recommend it enough.

New This Autumn (2026 releases worth watching)

Of course, the game everyone will be playing this autumn: GTA VI! We’ve waited through several different release dates and now finally, officially, it’s coming on November 19th, 2026. It’s right after my birthday too, and I have it preordered, so you can expect tons of GTA VI content from me.

It follows Jason and Lucia, a Bonnie-and-Clyde-style criminal couple who get pulled into a much bigger conspiracy across Leonida, Rockstar’s sprawling, neon-drenched take on Florida and Vice City, after a simple score goes sideways.

Now, for the game that I’m personally waiting (impatiently) for, Dressmaker! It’s written by one of my favorite authors and I’ve learned about it through her newsletter, so I am deeply excited to play it. It comes out on September 21st, 2026, so this gives me a good month or so to enjoy it before GTA takes over.

Dressmaker is a cozy simulation game where you’re, well, a dressmaker so you sketch designs, pick fabrics, cut patterns (paying attention to things like grain and bias, just like actual sewing), and stitch everything together to satisfy the quirky townsfolk who come to you for custom outfits. And there are also lots of interesting stories here as well, based on what I’ve seen. Can’t wait!

This drops September 15, 2026, on PS5. It follows Wolverine teaming up with Jean Grey to protect vulnerable mutants from Bolivar Trask, a militant industrialist who’s hired a cybernetic mercenary group called the Reavers to hunt them down, with familiar faces like Sabretooth and Omega Red woven into the mix. It’s a standalone story, not pulled directly from existing comics, but built in the same universe as Insomniac’s Spider-Man games.

Silent Hill: Townfall is releasing September 24, 2026. This one’s the first fully first-person entry in the series, moving away from the American town of Silent Hill entirely and instead following Simon Ordell, a man who wakes up soaking wet on the docks of St. Amelia, a fog-drenched Scottish coastal town, with no memory of the place or why a nurse named Zoe keeps calling him back to it. As he explores, fragments of a buried past start surfacing, in classic Silent Hill fashion.

Silver Pines (Releases October 8, 2026) is shaping up to be one of the most intriguing horror games to play this autumn. This atmospheric survival horror metroidvania follows private investigator Red Walker as he searches for a missing musician in the eerie, half-abandoned town of Silver Pines. It’s moody and hand-drawn, so you’ll enjoy it if you like mysteries and horror (that also looks good).