For decades, some of the most popular games have been shooters. There’s something intense and exciting about a solid shooter, and it doesn’t matter if it’s a downloaded application, a disc-based game, or one of the best browser shooters you can find online, you’re almost guaranteed to have fun. There are challenging browser shooters and basic ones, and all of them offer entertaining gameplay that can keep the average gamer engaged for hours on end. In this list, we’re breaking down the best online shooter games that you can find anywhere today.
If you’ve been hurting for some free, simple games to play, then read on. This list contains the best online shooter games you can play in a browser. It doesn’t matter if you’re looking for something super simple or a complex shooter with skill-based elements, we’ve got something for everyone here. There are tens of thousands of browser games, and many of the best ones are based around weapons, gunfire, explosions, and extreme action.
Are you ready to play some of the best browser shooters we can pull together into one great list?
What Is A Browser Game?
In case you’re not familiar with the term, a ‘browser game’ is a game that you can play in an internet browser, such as Microsoft Edge, Mozilla Firefox, Google Chrome, or Opera. It’s a full-fledged type of game that might be ‘slimmed down’ slightly to accommodate technology-based limitations, but it’ll still offer entertaining gameplay, challenges, collectables, and quite often, the ability to play against other gamers around the world.
For the most part, browser games are hugely diverse. There are plenty of genres that you can play, ranging from MMORPGs, farming games, racing games, and of course, online shooters. It doesn’t matter what you prefer to play, you’ll find a browser game to suit your needs. While we at Insider Gaming have other guides for different types of browser games, this one is geared exclusively towards the best online shooter games.
There’s a rich history behind browser games that stretches back more than two decades. That’s how long people have been playing games on their internet browsers. It was a trend that picked up speed at the turn of the millennium, with some big-budget games emerging into the space and spearheading the growth of browser games, like RuneScape. When Flash games became popular in the mid-2000s, a boom occurred, and many of the best online shooter games were born.
What Features Do Browser Shooters Have?
As you might imagine, a browser-based shooter game boasts the same features as a regular shooter, for the most part. They’re regular games, but most of them will be ‘shrunken down’ a little to account for the fact that they’re being played on a webpage. Here are some of the core features you can expect to enjoy in some of the best no-download shooter games out there:
- Leaderboards: Many of the best online browser shooters will have leaderboards and ranks that you can climb as you get better at the game.
- Skill Gap: Most online browser shooters will have an obvious skill gap, which means that there will be both novice and highly talented players in the game.
- Loadouts: There may be a feature that allows you to create customised weapons and loadouts for certain browser shooters.
- Multiplayer Modes: If you’re playing a typical multiplayer browser shooter, you’ll find there are different modes, like Team Deathmatch, Capture The Flag, and so on.
- Character Creation: Some of the best browser FPS games might have character creation elements, allowing you to design your character.
- Levelling Up: Almost every top-tier online shooter game will have ways of levelling up and getting better skills over time.
- Innovative Mechanics: Some online shooter games might have unique mechanics like parkour, base building, superpowers, or bullet time.
- Clans: For the more advanced shooter games, there might be clan or guild systems written into the game’s ecosystem.
As you can see, there’s plenty to uncover in the best online shooter games – they’re not just small-time, minor adventures, which you were probably thinking would be the case.
Do Browser Games Save Your Progress?
Understandably, you might not want to play a game that doesn’t save your progress, but is that the case with browser games?
Not always.
For the most part, browser games are what’s known as ‘session-based’, which means that you’ll be using fresh data every time and not relying on past saved data to continue from where you left off. Typically, these games are short-form, small-scale games that offer quick releases of entertainment and energy and aren’t meant to be played for a long time.
However, some of the best online shooter games have saving mechanics built in. That might be as simple as storing saved data in a browser cache or, more commonly, making use of a log-in system to store your data on a cloud server somewhere. This is the case with many of the top MMORPG browser games out there, as they are made to be played for a very long time, and losing your data on those would eventually be heartbreaking.
Some of the best browser shooters we’ve listed below have data-saving mechanics written into them, and some don’t. It really is on a case-by-case basis.
Best Online Shooter Games
This is it – this is our breakdown of the best online shooter games on the market right now.
Rush Team
Rush Team is a free-to-play, online shooter that can be loaded into a web browser with ease. It’s one of the best-looking browser games ever made, boasting clean graphics and realistic weapons. It was first released way back in 2012 and enjoyed a rapid rise to online gaming fame. With classic objective-based modes, an iconic class system, and an unlock path that sees players pick up more weapons over time, there’s plenty to enjoy about Rush Team. It’s one of the most entertaining online shooter games – and it also features real-world weapons, which is another massive win.
Superhot Prototype
Superhot is a fantastic shooter that is available on all platforms – including the best game consoles. It’s a unique and innovative shooter with time control elements that will leave you puzzled and desperate to work out the best way to resolve a challenging combat scenario. In Superhot, time only moves forward when you move, which means that every step you make is important. It’s highly enjoyable and it’s available in a ‘Prototype’ format as a browser game, making it one of the best online shooter games you’ll ever play. It’s a very entertaining game but light on the visuals – which doesn’t take anything away from the game at all.
Krunker
Krunker is one of the best browser shooters, without question. It was released in 2018 and quickly climbed up the popularity charts, drawing in hundreds of thousands of players with ease. It has since become a monumental title with a wide array of maps, modes, weapons, and options. It requires no downloads, no investment, and no sign-up – it can be played at the press of a button. It’s so simple that anyone can enjoy it – even those who are new to gaming. It features graphics reminiscent of Roblox or Minecraft, but it’s a charming palette that still pleases gamers the world over.
Madness Combat FPS
Madness Interactive was one of the most popular browser-based games ever made until it was taken offline when Flash was deprecated. In its place came Madness Combat FPS, an all-new game set in a first-person perspective that uses the same elements, visuals, and character models from the old Madness games. It’s a fantastic and highly enjoyable game with brutal combat, brilliant effects, and a wide range of movement mechanics. It’s the same Madness that we used to know and love but from a different perspective. It’s bursting with humour and tongue-in-cheek comedic references, which is classic Madness through and through.
Pixel Warfare
Pixel Warfare is an entertaining shooter with a charming, simple aesthetic that pulls in gamers and retains them without any issues. It features a wide range of weapons and maps and accommodates both public play and private matches. There’s a Discord server that has been set up specifically for the game so players can find competitors to fight, but if you don’t want to go to those lengths, you can simply hit ‘Quick Play’ and get right into the action. It’s a top-tier browser shooter with plenty to offer.
1v1.LOL
1v1.LOL is the best alternative to Fortnite you’ll find anywhere, and it’s also one of the best online shooter games, which is why it has found its way to this list. In 1v1.LOL, you’ll get to play something that looks and feels like Fortnite. That means it has large, open maps, battle royale elements, and the ability to build on the move. It features intriguing combat mechanics, the ability to team up with other players, and everything else that you’d expect from one of the best browser shooters on the internet. It’s hugely popular for good reason.
Is That Enough To Get Started?
As we’ve said, there are tens of thousands of free online shooter games for you to play. Some countless websites and platforms host them, and many of them are just sitting there, ready and waiting to be played. If you want to immerse yourself in a fantastic shooter but perhaps you don’t have much time or money to do so, then by playing one of these top-tier browser shooters, you’ll achieve everything you’re aiming for, no pun intended.
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