How to run games on a Chromebook
By David Nield
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Chromebooks were originally synonymous with lightweight, online-only, relatively inexpensive computing. Over time, however, they’ve become more and more capable, not only as useful day-to-day systems but as gaming machines, too.
In fact, there are actually more gaming options on ChromeOS than many people may realize. So we’re going to take you through the options.
To begin with, as well as giving you access to web games that run in a browser, ChromeOS supports Android games as well. Add in the Steam client for Chromebooks, plus the possibilities offered by cloud gaming services, and you’re really spoilt for choice.
You can pick some or all of these options, depending on your gaming needs and your budget.
ChromeOS has supported running Android apps and games for years at this point, and if you click on the ChromeOS Launcher button, open Play Store, and switch to the Games tab, you can see what’s available. Note that the Play Store lists games that are particularly suited to Chromebooks right at the top.
Not every Android game is built to run on ChromeOS, but a lot of them are: any games that aren’t compatible simply won’t show up in the Play Store. And if your favorite Android games are there, you can then take advantage of all that extra screen space to enjoy your games even more. (Having a physical keyboard comes in handy as well.)
Don’t ignore browser-based games, either. As browser technology has evolved and internet speeds have increased, so the sophistication of web games has grown as well. A lot of the games you’ll come across are free to play and load pretty much instantly, and they cover a host of
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