Are Chromebooks Good for Gaming?

Are Chromebooks good for gaming? The answer is a resounding YES, and somehow, no.

Granted, this is such an ambiguous answer, but the jury is still out there regarding this. Some resources show tens of games that you can play with Chromebook. Some resources say outright that Chromebooks are not good for gaming.

Well, the truth is that you can use this computer for gaming alright. It all depends on whether you have the latest one, and the types of games that you can play.

If you are hearing about Chromebooks for the first time, these laptops do not use the Windows or MacOS operating systems. Instead, they use Chrome operating system. This is just about the same as the Chrome browser that we have been used to. However, in Chromebooks, it is used as an operating system to run the whole computer. To work well, it comes with several extra features that make it an operational OS that you can use offline.

While you may not play PS4, XBox and Windows games since they will not run on chrome, you can play web-based and mobile games pretty well.

Reasons why Chromebooks may not be too good for avid gamers

There are some reasons not to buy a Chromebook purposely for gaming, but we shall look at just a few of them here. Chromebooks might be OK for casual gamers. However, if you are an avid gamer, this might not be the best investment for you.

Runs select browser based games only

One of the reasons why we say Chromebook is not good for gaming is that it only works with select games. Because it has Android support, you can play excellent mobile games on the Chrome OS.

An avid gamer will try their hand in everything. However, your Chromebook cannot allow you to test your mettle in every kind of game. It is only best for certain games.

Chromebooks are not very effective at downloading and running games

Another problem is that the games cannot run properly on Chrome OS because there are no compatible drivers. Assuming you get some games such as GTA5 or the newest Call of Duty, your computer would run slowly and keep on crashing.

Mostly, Chromebooks are made for regular office work and casual use at home. You cannot download your favorite games. Even if you could, there is not enough storage space considering that some games can take tens of gigabytes of space.

It is not all doom and gloom

It is not all doom and gloom when it comes to Chromebooks for gaming. You can still play many select games on Chrome. Some time in 2021, Google raised hope when they said they would make Stadia available on Chromebooks.

Stadia is a platform for streaming games, which many think could be the main competitor to Stream. Google launched Stadia on 20 November 2021. Therefore, from December 2021 going forward, the Chromebook that you buy can play more games than the older ones.

Today, you can play browser-based games, Android games and some games that come as Chrome extensions.

Popular games that you can play on Chromebooks

Quake – This 3D first person shooter game is compatible with Chromebook. This game has been around for some time and considering the number of people who play it, it seems it will not go out of fashion anytime soon. You work is to navigate the nasty corridors and kill grunts, turning them to giblets.

Democracy – Run a whole country with this wonderful game. It has interconnected bubbles that stand for government policy, political and social issues. It’s a thought provoking game, but very enjoyable at the same time.

Baldur’s Gate 2 - Get the enhanced edition of Baldur’s Gate 2 from Play Store. It is an exciting RPG game where you can lead a group of heroes on a quest in the rendered world. You cannot have enough of the game.

Town of Salem – This is a browser-based game that never fails to thrill. In the game, you will cooperate with other people to find the culprit for the nightly killings in your town. You could play the role of a killer in which case you need to avoid getting caught.

PUBG Mobile – Unfortunately, you need a newer, costlier Chromebook to play this game. It needs to have an Intel CPU too. If your laptop can play this game, you will have a lot of fun. It is a community game. You play it with 99 other players until you are the last person standing.

These are only five of the best games that you can play on Chromebook. As you can see, if you get the latest Chromebook models, you will have a great time playing online games. Therefore, the YES answer to the question of whether Chromebooks are good for gaming is stronger than the no.

Conclusion

The solution is to use Stadia game streaming platform, which is made to specifically run on Chromebooks. Some resources say you can install Linux and download Steam, but it is not very effective.