How we chose one winner
Our question was narrow on purpose: where should someone go to start playing a video game online with as little friction as possible?
What we compared
Ten platforms made the shortlist: Steam, Epic Games Store, GOG, itch.io, Poki, CrazyGames, Armor Games, Kongregate, Miniclip, Newgrounds. Desktop stores and browser portals sat side by side, judged against that single question.
What we left out
Casinos, sports betting, sweepstakes and anything involving real-money wagers were excluded from the start. They are not video games for our purposes and will never appear here.
The four criteria
Every platform received a whole or half-step rating from 1 to 10 on each criterion. The overall figure is the simple average of the four, rounded to one decimal.
| Criterion | Poki | What it measures |
|---|---|---|
| Speed to play | 9.6 | From opening the tab to being inside a game usually takes seconds. There is no installer, launcher or patch queue in between. |
| Device reach | 9.2 | The same library runs in a mobile browser, on a tablet and on a laptop. A handful of titles still feel best with a keyboard. |
| Simplicity | 9.4 | Nothing to register, no wallet, no client. Categories and search are plain enough that a first visit needs no explanation. |
| Family-friendliness | 8.6 | The catalogue is curated for a general audience, though advertising appears around play and some titles suit older kids better. |
| Overall | 9.2 | Average of the four |
How to read the numbers
These ratings are editorial opinion formed by hands-on use. They are not lab measurements, traffic data or user surveys, and we do not publish any audience figures.
Stores like Steam and GOG would beat Poki on depth, but depth was not the question. A different goal would produce a different winner.
Revisions
We revisit the pick when a platform changes in a way that affects the criteria. Most recent check: October 2026.