- There are plenty of ways to play games online in your web browser without having to pay or download software.
- Explore your creative side with online activities like making pixel art, playing with virtual instruments, or starting a blog.
- Watch or listen to live streams and recordings, both audio and video. You can watch storm chasers, listen to podcasts, view wild animals cams, and so much more.
Play free games in your web browser.
Whether you want to play alone or with a friend, there's no shortage of free online games. The best thing about these games is that you don't have to download anything to play them, which is great if you're using a school computer! Flash By Night is home to 45 free games you can play alone in your web browser. Addicting Games specializes in, well, addictive games! You'll find all kinds of single- and multi-player games, including puzzle games, adventure, sports games, and more. If you have a Facebook account, Facebook Games is home to plenty of free online games, including Words with Friends, Farmville, and Uno. If you like the board game Risk, try Warzone, a browser-based world domination game with both single- and multi-player options. Play games in Google! Just search Google for Pacman, Quick Draw, Soccer, Champion Island, Cricket, Hip Hop, Rockmore, or Garden Gnomes to play games instantly right on the Google search page.
Stream movies and TV shows.
With so many streaming services available, there's no shortage of things to watch online. While options like Netflix, Hulu, and Max have subscription fees, you can also watch TV for free at Pluto TV, Tubi, and Crackle. Did you know you can stream movies and your favorite TV show episodes with friends online? Not only will the movie or show stay in sync for everyone, you can also chat while you watch! Check out our guide for watching Netflix with friends, which also includes other platforms like Prime Video, Disney+, Max, and more.
Explore the Internet Archive.
Want to see what the internet used to look like? Or maybe you want to find some free books, movies, software, or music? Play arcade games in your browser? The Internet Archive is a completely free archive that has endless activities for you to explore. You can head over to https://www.archive.org to check it out, or head right over to these especially cool areas of the site: Wayback Machine: Enter any URL and explore old versions of the website. If you've ever wondered what Amazon.com and Apple.com looked like in 2001 or want to see Apple.com from 1998, you're in for a treat! Internet Arcade: Play games like Sonic the Hedgehog 2, Street Fighter, Mortal Kombat, Pacman, Galaga, and thousands more in a browser-based emulator. Open Library: Read free library books online without a library card. Computer Magazines: Check out old magazines about computers from a long time ago to see how wild technology used to be. Zines: Explore underground fanzines devoted to topics like music, politics, fanfiction, feminism, and more.
See what's trending on YouTube.
YouTube's Explore page can help you find new videos to watch. If you're used to searching for specific things to watch on YouTube, why not try something new? Head over to https://www.youtube.com/feed/explore in your web browser to see categories like Trending, Music, Learning, and Movies & Shows to find all sorts of new content you'll love. You can even check out the Live category to watch live streams from all over the world.
Make AI art with DALL-E.
Use artificial intelligence to create art based on the words you type. Ever wanted to see a dog playing guitar in space? A giant snail taking over Portland, OR? A fuzzy orange monster on a tropical island? Just type a description of what you want to see and watch it come to life! Just head over to https://openai.com/dall-e-2 and create an account to get started.
Discover a new webcomic.
There are so many great digital comics to explore. If you're into gaming, check out Penny Arcade, a long-time webcomic focused on gaming culture. Some other great webcomics to peruse are xkcd, False Knees, Cryptid Club, What's Up Beanie?, and Sarah's Scribbles. You can find hundreds more comics at https://www.webtoons.com.
Listen to a new podcast.
With thousands of podcasts to choose from, you'll never be bored again. People create podcasts for all sorts of topics, so you're bound to find something that interests you. Whether you want to hear video game reviews, political commentary, strange news, from gaming to political commentary. You can listen to podcasts on your computer using Google Podcasts, Spotify, or using the Podcasts app on your Mac. Take your podcasts on the go using the Podcasts app for iPhone and iPad, Google Podcasts for Android, Spotify, or Pocket Casts. Want to start your own podcast? Check out Anchor, a free podcasting platform that's great for beginners and experts alike.
Create music in Chrome Music Lab.
Play a shared virtual piano, create rhythms, morph your voice, and more with these fun Google-created music-making tools. Music Lab was designed to make learning music accessible to all—you can learn piano chords, play with oscillators, make melodies, and even compose a rhythm using different drum sounds. Check it out at https://musiclab.chromeexperiments.com.
Find the best sites on the web using Stumbleupon & Mix.
Check out Stumbleupon (and its new app Mix) to discover new and exciting web content. Stumbleupon has always been one of the best ways to come across fun content on the web that you might not find linked elsewhere. You can spend hours browsing curated web content that's bound to entertain you, both in your web browser at https://www.stumbleupon.com or using the new Mix app on your Android, iPhone, or iPad.
Challenge your friends to a music guessing game.
Is music your thing? Show off your music-guessing skills alone or with friends by playing any of these free name-that-tune-style games. Songl.io lets you chat with your friends while you try to guess artists and song titles in 20 seconds or less. Heardle is a music-guessing game based on Wordle, which means there's only one new song to guess each day. If you have an iPhone or Android, you can install the Songpop app for endless amounts of song-guessing fun. Bring your friends or make new ones in the app!
Test your geography skills with GeoGuessr.
Do you think you can identity a city or country based on a photo? GeoGuessr is a fun geography trivia game that drops you into a random Google Maps Street View location and lets you guess where you are.
Do today's Wordle puzzle.
Wordle, the viral word-guessing game, is a great way to exercise your brain. To play, just point your browser to https://www.nytimes.com/games/wordle/index.html and guess a 5-letter word. If you correctly guess a letter in the right place, that letter will turn green. If you guess a letter that's in the word but it's in the wrong place, that letter will be yellow. Once you guess the entire word, you can share your results on Twitter, Facebook, via text message with your friends.
Watch live animal cams.
Wildlife cams are a great way to pass the time. Many animal-focused cams also have built-in chats for viewers, which means you can join the conversation and possibly even make friends. You might get lucky and see a panda bear cuddle session or catch an eagle hatching from an egg! Mangolinkcam is a central database of worldwide wildlife cams, including marine animals, African wildlife, birds, and even insects. Earthcam is home to many live streaming cameras at worldwide zoos, sanctuaries, and wildlife preserves. Kitten Rescue Cam isn't exactly wildlife, but what could be better than watching a live stream of kittens?
Listen to music from another era.
Step into a virtual time machine to hear music from other decades. Want to hear music people loved in 1970s Iran? Maybe check out some Thai music from the 1920s? Radiooooo is a fun free tool that lets you select a country and decade to see what people in that region were listening to at the time.
Become bilingual.
Learning a new language can be fun when you don't have to sit in a classroom. Plus, not only will learning a new language help you in the job market, you'll also be able to use your new skills to make friends all across the world! Duolingo is a fun way to learn a new language for free! You can learn Spanish, French, Japanese, Arabic, Navajo, and dozens of other languages on your computer or by installing the mobile app on your Android, iPhone, or iPad. Babbel is a subscription-based language learning program with simple lessons designed to teach you a new language in just 10 minutes a day. While Babbel isn't free, you'll also get access to online classes, original podcasts, games, videos, and more. If game-style quizzes and lessons aren't your thing, check out Lingopie, a unique language service that encourages you to learn a new language by watching TV programming from around the world.
Become a vlogger or live streamer.
Create your own vlog to talk about your favorite topics or broadcast your day-to-day life. Whether you want to try vlogging on YouTube, Facebook, or another platform, creating a vlog is easy and a fun way to pass the time. If you're a gamer, you can become a Twitch streamer to live-stream your gameplay and make friends with other people who love the same games.
Take personality quizzes to learn about yourself.
Want to know your attachment style or what vibes you give off? wikiHow Quizzes is a great place to start, as our quizzes are totally free and won't harvest your information. You can also try Buzzfeed for hundreds more fun quizzes, with tons of celebrity content.
Discover new music you'll love.
Your new favorite artist or band is still out there. If you use a service like Spotify or Pandora, you can explore their recommended playlists or dive into a random genre you've never heard. You can also discover new independent artists on Bandcamp or SoundCloud. Sites like Gnoosic and Musicroamer will recommend artists you might like based on your current favorites. Want to explore new genres like glitter trance, soviet synthpop, and Indonesian shoegaze? Visit Everynoise to hear types of music you may not have heard of and discover new artists in the process.
Track sharks and other tagged animals as they migrate.
OCEARCH Tracker offers a way to track the locations of tagged sharks as they swim around in the ocean. Head over to https://www.ocearch.org/tracker/ in your browser and click the name of any shark in the right column to see its details. Right now, Freya, an 11-ft long white shark who weighs 883 pounds, is off the coast of Newfoundland after spending the summer in the Bahamas! Reef Tracks lets you follow the locations of sea life around the Great Barrier Reef, including turtles, sharks, and manta rays. You can also check out https://www.movebank.org/cms/webapp to view data from all sorts tagged animals in the wild, including migratory birds, feral pigs, turtles, and vipers.
Browse live streams on social media.
Want to see what other people are doing right now? Social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok all have live streaming platforms that you can easily browse. Check out somebody's live stream and join the conversation! To browse live streams on Facebook, click Watch on the left side of the page, then click Live. Or, on a phone or tablet, just tap the menu and select Live Videos. To see live streams on YouTube, just head over to the Explore page and click or tap Live. On TikTok, just scroll through your feed until you find a Live video, which will be clearly marked. On Instagram, just check the story carousel at the top of your feed to see which friends of yours are live right now!
Use MapCrunch to travel the world without leaving your chair.
MapCrunch's Random Street View feature lets you explore various locations in the world with the click of a button. You can use your mouse to pan around the image to see what's around you, then click Go to jump to a totally new location. This is also a great way to choose your next travel destination! Check it out at https://www.mapcrunch.com.
Listen to live police, fire, EMS, and airplane scanners.
You can listen to public live scanners all over the world right in your browser. Head over to https://www.broadcastify.com/listen, select a country from the drop-down menu, and choose a location and scanner type to hear about events as they unfold.
Draw some pixel art.
Pixel art is fun to make, and you can do it in your browser! Whether you're designing a 90s-style website, want to explore video game design, making a sprite, or just want to play around, try out a free pixel art maker to see what you can create from individual colored pixels. Pixilart MakePixelArt.com Piskel App
Watch storm chasers stream live.
Ride along with storm chasers as they track down tornados and other extreme weather events. In the height of the stormy season, you can watch real storm chasers as they film their close encounters with funnel clouds, wild lightning, hurricanes, and more! Just head over to one of these storm chasing sites to find out who's broadcasting live, then click a stream to join the chase. Severe Studios Live Storm Chasing
Make a beat in Pattern Sketch.
Play with a virtual drum machine in your web browser. Pattern Sketch lets you create your own beats visually using virtual drum machine kits like the Roland TR-808 and TR-909, as well as a variety of other drum sounds. Crafting a beat is as easy as clicking the grid where you want to hear certain drum sounds. You can even save your beats as a WAV, OGG, or MP3 and share it with your friends.
Find a Discord server to join.
Chat with people who share common interests on a Discord server. On Discord, you can use a text-based chat as well as voice chat to talk about your favorite topics. If you haven't installed Discord yet, it's easy—just go to https://discord.com/download and click the Download button. Once you're signed in, you can click the compass icon and choose Explore Public Servers to browse servers by category. You can also browse public Discord servers at https://discord.com/servers in your browser, and find lesser-known servers at https://disboard.org/search.
Install Steam and play a new game.
Steam is an app that gives you access to almost 30,000 games. Installing Steam is like gaining access to a huge arcade full of games you can play alone or with other people. While there are many premium games, you'll also find incredibly popular free options like Counter Strike Global Offensive, Lost Ark, and PUBG: Battlegrounds. To get Steam for Windows, Mac, or Linux, head over to https://store.steampowered.com/about/ and click the INSTALL STEAM button.
Explore Reddit topics and join the conversation.
If you're craving social interaction without the need for video chat, explore your favorite topics on Reddit. Reddit is broken into thousands of subreddits, or forums, dedicated to different topics. You can use Reddit with or without signing up, but you'll need to create an account if you want to comment on posts or follow subreddits. For endless laughs, check out /r/funny, /r/blunderyears, /r/crappydesign, and /r/dadjokes. To read people's interesting, funny, or absurd stories, questions, and thoughts, check out /r/Showerthoughts, /r/explainlikeimfive, /r/AskReddit, /r/todayilearned, and /r/talesfromtechsupport.
Color your boredom away using an online coloring book.
Coloring isn't just for kids. In fact, coloring can people of all ages practice mindfulness, melt away stress, and relieve feelings of depression and anxiety. Thanks to online coloring books, you won't even need a printer. Check out these free coloring websites for great pictures to color no matter your age: Coloring Pages Only Coloring Online Super Coloring
Read or create a blog.
Sign up for an account on a blogging site and start logging your thoughts. Blogging is a great way to meet like-minded people online. Whether you just want to check out some existing blogs or create your own, the best place to start is by creating an account on a community blogging platform. Sites like Tumblr, Wordpress.com, Blogger, and Medium make it easy to create your own account and start following interesting blogs right away. You can also write your own blog posts and have a better shot at other users finding you on platforms like these. Run an internet search for blogs you may be interested in. For example, if you like gardening, search for “gardening blogs.” Take some time to explore the blogs and see if you find one that interests you.
View random Wikipedia articles.
Use Wikipedia's "Random article" finder to learn about interesting (or bizarre) topics. Just head over to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page and click Random article in the left panel to jump to a random Wikipedia article. Keep clicking to load something new every time. You never know what you'll find!
Try a new social media platform.
If you're bored with your current social media platforms, try another. If you've been loyal to Facebook and Instagram, why not try TikTok or Snapchat? You can also explore BeReal, the latest photo sharing app to take the world by storm. Through social media, you can exchange messages, pictures, videos, and news stories with friends.
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