Game stores

Shops for buying and downloading games. We judge ethical game stores on who owns the store, how much of each sale reaches the people who made the game, and whether you really own what you buy.

Our top pick is itch.io, an independent indie store where creators choose what share of each sale it keeps; the trade-off is a ToS;DR grade of C, for social media pixels and fingerprinting. GOG sells DRM-free games you download and keep, and its co-founder bought it back from CD Projekt in December 2025, though its terms allow targeted third-party ads.

How we choose: we check every store against the 6 principles in our manifesto (who owns it and how it makes money, what it collects, how it treats people, honesty, openness and staying power). Last checked on 13 October 2026.