Most PC gamers don’t choose one launcher anymore — they end up running four or five simultaneously, because publishers have spent the last several years pulling their catalogs into their own storefronts. Steam remains the center of gravity, but Battle.net is mandatory for Blizzard and Call of Duty, EA App is required for FIFA/EA Sports FC and Battlefield, and Ubisoft Connect gatekeeps Assassin’s Creed and Far Cry. Since you likely can’t avoid running several of these, the real question is which ones are worth your attention beyond the bare minimum, and which one deserves to be your actual home base.
Steam: Still the Default for a Reason
Steam holds roughly 74% of the PC gaming storefront market, and that dominance isn’t just inertia — it’s the deepest feature set of any launcher. The Steam overlay, Workshop mod support, granular cloud saves, a mature achievements and trading card system, and the “Add a Non-Steam Game” function (which lets you launch EA App, Ubisoft Connect, or Battle.net titles through Steam’s overlay and controller configuration while the underlying publisher launcher still runs for authentication) make it the practical hub even for games it doesn’t technically sell. Its refund policy — 14 days and under two hours of playtime, no questions asked within those limits — remains the industry benchmark other stores are measured against. The downside is that Steam’s overlay and background services do add some resource overhead compared to leaner competitors, and Steam takes a standard 30% revenue cut from developers, a cost that indirectly shapes pricing across the industry.
Epic Games Store: Free Games and a Better Developer Cut
Epic’s headline consumer feature is its weekly free game giveaway, released every Thursday at 8 AM PST — you get seven days to claim it, and once claimed it’s yours to keep permanently. Over the years this has handed away a substantial number of legitimately full-price titles at no cost, and for a lot of PC gamers it’s reason enough to keep the launcher installed even if they rarely buy anything through it. Epic also takes a smaller cut from developers (12% versus Steam’s 30%), which is part of why some titles launch as timed Epic exclusives. Where it lags is basic launcher features: no native user reviews, a thinner social/friends system, and fewer of the community features (Workshop, trading, forums) that Steam has built up over two decades.
GOG Galaxy: DRM-Free and a Universal Library View
GOG’s core promise is DRM-free games — no online check-in, no launcher requirement to play a game you’ve bought, and files you can archive and reinstall years later without an account check. GOG Galaxy 2.0, its optional launcher, goes a step further for organization: it can integrate with Steam, Xbox Game Pass, PlayStation Network, Ubisoft Connect, EA App, and Battle.net to build one unified library view, consolidated playtime tracking, and cross-platform achievement and friend-activity feeds. It’s less useful as a storefront on its own (the catalog skews older and indie-heavy, though it carries plenty of major titles too), but as an organizational layer sitting on top of every other launcher you’re forced to run, it’s arguably the most useful non-Steam tool on this list.
Launcher Feature Comparison
| Launcher | Cloud Saves | Free Games | DRM | Overlay Quality | Required For |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Steam | Yes, robust | Occasional promos | Yes (standard) | Best-in-class, full controller support | Valve titles, majority of PC releases |
| Epic Games Store | Yes | Weekly, keep forever | Yes | Basic | Fortnite, some exclusives |
| GOG Galaxy | Yes (via Galaxy) | Sporadic, sale-tied | None (DRM-free) | Aggregates other launchers | GOG catalog, classic re-releases |
| Battle.net | Yes | Rare | Yes | Functional, minimal | Call of Duty, Diablo, Overwatch, WoW |
| EA App | Yes | Via Game Pass tie-in | Yes | Basic | EA Sports FC, Battlefield, The Sims |
| Ubisoft Connect | Yes | Occasional | Yes | Lightweight | Assassin’s Creed, Far Cry, Rainbow Six |
Battle.net: Lean and Purpose-Built
Battle.net remains the required hub for Activision Blizzard’s biggest franchises — Call of Duty, Diablo, Overwatch, and World of Warcraft — and its main strength is that it stays out of your way. It’s a comparatively lightweight client without the bloat of storefront features it doesn’t need, since most players are there for one or two specific games rather than browsing a catalog. Cross-play and account linking across Battle.net titles is solid, but as a general-purpose launcher it’s narrow by design.
EA App: The Origin Successor, Now Tied to Game Pass
EA App replaced Origin and is required for current EA titles including EA Sports FC, Battlefield, and The Sims. Its most relevant 2026 feature is deep integration with Xbox Game Pass for PC, letting Game Pass subscribers access EA Play’s catalog directly through the app rather than juggling a separate subscription interface. It’s functional but has a history of rockier launches and bugs at release compared to more mature launchers, and its overlay and social features remain the thinnest of the major publisher clients.
Ubisoft Connect: Best-in-Class Among Publisher Launchers
Among the single-publisher launchers gamers are forced to install, Ubisoft Connect has quietly become the most polished — it’s lightweight on system resources, has a genuinely useful cross-game rewards system (Ubisoft Connect Units earned across titles redeemable for in-game content), and its interface has been steadily cleaned up over the past few years to the point that current reviews rank it ahead of EA App and Battle.net on resource use and interface discipline. It’s mandatory for Assassin’s Creed, Far Cry, Rainbow Six, and the rest of Ubisoft’s catalog, and unlike some competitors it doesn’t feel like it’s actively working against you while it sits in the background.
Cloud Saves, Overlay Performance, and Resource Overhead
All six launchers now support cloud saves for most titles, so the days of losing progress to a fresh Windows install are largely over — though sync reliability varies, and Steam and Battle.net have the most consistent track record. On overlay performance, Steam’s remains the gold standard for controller remapping and screenshot/recording tools, while EA App and Battle.net offer more minimal overlays that some gamers actually prefer because they add less overhead. If you’re running a lower-spec machine, having five launchers auto-launching at Windows startup is a real, measurable drag — going into each client’s settings to disable “launch on startup” is one of the single highest-value tweaks you can make on a modest gaming PC.
The Bottom Line
Steam remains the right default hub for the vast majority of PC gamers thanks to its unmatched overlay, mod support, and the ability to at least partially fold other launchers’ games into its interface via non-Steam game shortcuts. Keep Epic Games Store installed purely for its weekly free games — there’s no real cost to claiming them even if you rarely buy anything there. If DRM-free ownership matters to you, or you want one dashboard tracking playtime and achievements across every store you use, GOG Galaxy is worth adding as an organizational layer rather than a primary storefront. Battle.net, EA App, and Ubisoft Connect aren’t really optional if you play their flagship franchises, but of the three, Ubisoft Connect is the one that currently gets out of your way the best. Realistically, most serious PC gamers in 2026 end up running three or four of these side by side — the goal isn’t picking one winner, it’s knowing which to actually launch games through and which to just tolerate in the background.