The best clicker games to play in 2026: background tasks

til you can make the process more efficient and lucrative. Once relegated to the dark corners of Itch.io and Kongregate, the genre has grown in popularity in recent years, and marketplaces like Steam are bursting at the seams with new idle, clicker, and incremental games for you to try.

Luckily, you have us to help you find the best clicker games worth playing. The very best ones manage to distill high-complexity concepts into a series of single clicks and automation, and while they might not be known for their depth or storylines, they can be incredibly relaxing to play for hours on end.

Clicker games, also known as 'idle' or 'incremental' games, portray certain expectations from the name alone: click your mouse, get a tiny reward like a pixelated cookie or a little frog, and repeat until you can make the process more lucrative. Previously relegated to the dark corners of Itch.io and Kongregate, the clicker genre has grown in popularity, and marketplaces like Steam are bursting at the seams with these idle, incremental games for you to try.

To narrow things down, we've scoured the internet to find you the best clicker games worth your time playing. The very best clicker games around distill some pretty high-complexity concepts into a series of single clicks and automation. And while they might not be known for their depth or storylines, they can be incredibly relaxing to play for hours on end.

Here are the best clicker games on PC in 2025:

1. Cookie Clicker

One of the originators of incremental clickers, Cookie Clicker is synonymous with the genre. You start by clicking on a large cookie, earning a single cookie per click. Bake enough of them, and you can purchase new cursors to click for you. You can also hire grandmas to make cookies, plant a field of cookie seeds, and upgrade the efficiency of your clicks.

Once you earn enough cookies, you can restart your game and aim for new upgrades like heavenly chips, play new minigames to earn many cookies, and even barter with the Cookie Dragon. There are also seasonal events that offer temporary chances to boost your cookie count. If you enjoy idle games at all, you owe it to yourself to give Cookie Clicker a try.

2. Rusty's Retirement

If there's ever been a game out there to while the day away without needing to click away from whatever it is you're doing on your desktop, Rusty's Retirement is the one. Sitting comfortably at the bottom of your screen (or to the side, if you prefer), since it launched in Spring 2024, it's received an 'Overwhelmingly Positive' score on Steam - so this idler should be one that's on your radar.

Featuring the titular Rusty and an ambling lo-fi soundtrack, you'll work together to build up your very own farm in an initially slow-paced way, with an army of customizable robots gradually growing to make the process even more idle-friendly. After you plant your crops, Rusty and your little robots will do almost all the work for you, so you can get back to whatever it is you're doing IRL while keeping an eye on things like the omnipotent overlord you are.

3. Croakoloco

Like frogs? Who doesn't? Crokoloco is a cute creature collection clicker game in which you gather and watch frogs. You can sit back and watch your adorable frogs just going about their business, but to progress, hop into froggy mode, take control of your frogs, and eat rare and valuable flies. This earns you coins, you can use coins to buy more valuable frogs, and so on the journey continues.

The more frogs you buy and coins you earn, naturally, the better frogs you can unlock. Go shiny hunting, sell your most valuable frogs for even more coins, and eventually prestige your terrarium to earn coins and level up even faster.

4. The Farmer Was Replaced

If you're after an idle game with just a hint of education, The Farmer Was Replaced offers both, all in a delightful idle package. You're tasked with looking after a farm - or rather, programming drones to look after a farm for you. The Farmer Was Replaced teaches you a basic Python-like language to program these drones, and as you progress, you'll unlock more workers, and better equipment, and will undoubtedly watch your farm prosper.

5. Chillquarium

Chillquarium is the epitome of a relaxing idle game: buy adorable fish and raise them in colorful aquariums before selling them off for a profit. Repeat. Most of your time in Chillquarium is spent watching pretty fish swim around, and there isn't anything we can think of that's more calming than that. While Chillquarium is one of the few games on this list that isn't free, there is a free Steam demo to try so that you can check it out without commitment - and probably get hooked.

6. (the) Gnorp Apologue

(the) Gnorp Apologue is a little bit like Lemmings if they were obsessed with accumulating mass wealth rather than throwing themselves off cliffs. In this case, the object of your Gnorps' desires is an enormous rock that releases highly valuable shards when struck. All you have to do is lead them to the rock and let them do all the hard work. Simple, right? The satisfaction of this clicker is twofold: watching the endless shower of multicolored shards that fly out of the rock and gathering them from the pile of shards that endlessly grow as your Gnorps work.

Once retrieved, these shards can be spent to upgrade your Gnorps, so you can outfit them with weapons, jetpacks, and even psychic powers to improve their production. You can even create and build structures and unlock talents to help your Gnorps accumulate shards faster than ever. (the) Gnorp Apologue has a simple premise, but its depth of strategy and capacity for build customization elevates it beyond the typical clicker game experience without losing the defining premise of the genre: click on an object and watch the numbers get bigger.

9. Idle On

Idle On - The Idle MMO markets itself as the only MMO where your characters continue to level up while you're away. An adorable MMO where your character appears as a feature-less, Morph-style humanoid, Idle On features detailed bosses, multiple classes, terrifying dungeons, increasingly powerful attacks, and more. Leave your character idling away, and you'll return to bonus loot and experience, which can be spent on increasing your character's power.

8. Melvor Idle

Runescape? An idler? Surely not. Ah, but you would be wrong. Developed by Games by Malcs and published by none other than Runescape's very own Jagex, this clicker game inspired by the MMO is as close to the iconic game as you can get. You know, without actually playing it. Just as is the case in Runescape itself, there's loads of skills - over 20, in fact - starting off small by chopping wood, then moving to creating fires, and eventually cooking the food you've caught. Alternatively, you can head down the route of thieving to earn yourself some gold, or go out and defeat some chickens. Or goblins.

Players looking for a simple UI will be right at home here, as it's all entirely menu-based with no visual representations or characters wandering about your screen. It's entirely cause-and-effect-based, too - if you do this one thing, you'll get a resource that feeds into another resource that lets you do this thing. Drawing a good line between idler and clicker, gamers who prefer a more active playstyle, and those who want to be a bit more hands-off should both feel at home here.

9. AdVenture Capitalist

AdVenture Capitalist casts you as an enterprising entrepreneur looking to make it big in the investment game. You start with a single lemonade stand, but before long, you'll make pizzas, manage hockey teams, make movies, and even run banks. Each business you buy increases your profits and the speed at which you can produce goods, but it also makes it tough to split your attention across all of your ventures. Luckily, you can hire managers to automate each business so that the money keeps rolling in while you focus your attention elsewhere.

That snowball effect is at the heart of AdVenture Capitalist. Watching each business operate on its own while you expand your ever-growing stable of ventures manages to capture the addicting essence of clicker games. Adventure Capitalist also takes the term "idle game" to heart as you continue to generate profits even when not playing the game. If only capitalism were this accessible to everyone.

10. Idle Champions of the Forgotten Realms

Idle Champions of the Forgotten Realms is a clicker game for Dungeons & Dragons and RPG game fans that puts you in the shoes of iconic D&D characters. Battle your way through Waterdeep, Avernus, and Icewind Dale, among other classic D&D locations, clicking through the ranks and leveling up your heroes.

Idle Champions might not be as idle as some of the other games on this list, but the recognizable characters and places make it a joy to play, and you certainly won't get bored, as there are still new content updates regularly, adding cosmetic items and new champions. In one DLC, you can now even bring your other half from Baldur's Gate 3 into your Idle Champions party as Astarion, Lae'zel, and more of your favorite BG3 companions make their debut.

11. Microcivilization

If the omnipotency of something like Rusty's Retirement or (the) Gnorp Apologue wasn't on a grand enough scale for you, you'll likely be able to fulfill all those dreams in Ondrej Homola's Microcivilization. Starting from the Stone Age up to the far-flung future, you'll build up your tiny civilization bit by bit (or uh, click by click). You'll decide what to focus on as they grow, with available upgrades, military, and different bonuses at your disposal.

It won't all be smooth sailing, though, as everything from natural disasters to invasions will arise to try and foil your godly little plans. The replayability factor is here in spades, too, with an Ascension tree full of challenges to unlock additional features, enemies, powerful heroes, and more requiring you to visit earlier time periods again. What's more, refraining from being a little too click-happy is a good idea here - unless you're a glutton for punishment.

12. Mr Mine

Farming, mining, and resource-gathering games like Minecraft and Stardew Valley are some of the best games out there, so if you want a clicker version, then Mr Mine might be the idler game for you. Hire miners and put them to work, gathering valuable resources for cash. The more you earn, the more you can upgrade your equipment. Then there are scientists to research hidden relics you dig up, quests and achievements, and creative machines to help you ease the work for your hard-working miners.

13. AFK Journey

From the creators of AFK Arena, AFK Journey is the latest RPG game with clicker mechanics. In it, you'll amass a team of heroes as you journey across the world, taking in the sights of Holistone and Ryeham, visiting the Lucent Tree, and exploring many dungeons. There's also plenty of treasure, including a bunch of AFK artifacts to boost your characters' stats.

If that all sounds appealing to you, we have a bunch of AFK Journey codes to help you get started. This is a gacha game, so we recommend building a roster based on the pulls you get for free first and see how long that lasts you. You can also see the best AFK Journey team comps and where your characters appear on the AFK Journey tier list for some party-building ideas.

And there you have it, the best clicker games on PC. If you're looking for something that requires a bit more interactivity, then why not try one of our favorite relaxing simulation games? There's also our list of the best PC games to check out when you've got more time on your hands.

Additional contributions from Ava Thompson-Powell