Card Games to Play by Yourself (That Aren't All Solitaire)

Fifteen solo card games, checked at their own official pages, split cleanly into two groups. Five are Solitaire variants — Klondike, Spider, FreeCell, Pyramid, and TriPeaks — all free, all playable straight in a browser, all with no opponent. Ten are not Solitaire at all — Slay the Spire, Balatro, Monster Train, Inscryption, Thronebreaker, Griftlands, SteamWorld Quest, Dream Quest, Card Crawl, and Card Crawl Adventure — and every one of them is a Steam or App Store product you install, mostly for a price, and every one of them does put a real opponent in front of you.

Nobody currently answers the obvious combination: solo, against an opponent, in a browser, nothing to install. That's the gap this article maps, and it's also where our own game, Gotcha Liar, sits.

How we checked this list

Every entry below was verified at its own official page — Microsoft's Zone site for the five Solitaire variants, each game's own Steam or App Store listing for the other ten — not taken from a third-party roundup. Where a page states a price, we quote that price. Where a page doesn't state something (most of the ten non-Solitaire titles never mention browser play either way), we say "not stated" instead of guessing. That's also why Balatro's "opponent" gets a caveat below instead of a clean checkmark: its own Steam page describes the antagonist as an escalating chip-requirement gate, not a card-playing rival, and we're not going to smooth that over.

The 16 solo card games at a glance

Solitaire, done properly

The head-term intent behind "card games to play by yourself" genuinely is mostly Solitaire, and that's not a knock — Klondike, Spider, FreeCell, Pyramid, and TriPeaks are five real, different mechanics, not one game wearing five names. All five are verified free and browser-playable on Microsoft's Zone, the one publisher that treats all five as named, official products. Bicycle's own rules page independently corroborates the Klondike ruleset — but only Klondike, and Bicycle's own "Play" link leads to a downloadable app, not a browser game.

Klondike

Klondike is "the timeless classic that many people just call 'Solitaire'": build four foundation piles Ace-to-King by suit from a 7-column tableau. Free, browser, no opponent.

Spider

Spider clears eight tableau columns by building same-suit descending runs from King to Ace — no foundation piles exist until a full run completes, which is a genuinely different puzzle from Klondike's. Free, browser, no opponent.

FreeCell

FreeCell deals all 52 cards face-up and gives you four open "free cells" to hold single cards temporarily while you sort everything into suited foundations. Nearly every FreeCell deal is solvable, which makes it the most information-forward variant here. Free, browser, no opponent.

Pyramid

Pyramid is a sum-pairing puzzle, not a sequencing one: clear a 28-card pyramid layout by pairing exposed cards whose ranks add to 13 (a King clears alone). Free, browser, no opponent.

TriPeaks

TriPeaks clears three peak-shaped tableaus by selecting cards one rank above or below the current discard card, in either direction, chaining for score rather than clearing to a foundation. Free, browser, no opponent.

One name mix-up worth flagging: Bicycle's own rules page for "Six Card Golf" describes a 2–4 player multiplayer game. That's not the same thing as Golf Solitaire, a single-player patience game — if you go looking for Golf Solitaire, Bicycle's Six Card Golf page isn't it.

Beyond Solitaire — the actual gap

This is where the "besides Solitaire" and "other than Solitaire" searches point, and it's real, if small: people specifically asking for a solo card game that isn't another Solitaire variant. Ten titles verified here answer that — but every single one is a paid or freemium Steam or App Store product, and not one states browser play anywhere on its own official page. That's a genuine, verified split from the Solitaire group above, not an oversight in how we checked.

Five of the ten are roguelike deckbuilders already covered in depth, mechanic-first, in our best deck-building games guide — we're keeping the entries here short and pointing there for the full review.

Slay the Spire

Slay the Spire is the deckbuilder that popularized the genre: climb a procedurally generated spire, fighting AI enemies and bosses in turn-based combat, for $24.99 on Windows, macOS, and Linux.

Balatro

Balatro scores poker hands with Joker cards to clear escalating chip-requirement "Blinds," for $14.99 on Windows and macOS. Its own Steam page frames the antagonist as those Blinds — a numeric gate, not a personified rival making decisions — so we're not counting it as a clean AI-opponent entry the way the others below are.

Monster Train

Monster Train has you build card synergies to defend a multi-floor train against invading AI bosses, for $24.99 on Windows; the page also notes an optional online PvP mode alongside the solo campaign.

Inscryption

Inscryption blends deckbuilding with escape-room puzzles and psychological horror, played against an opposing AI dealer across a card table, for $19.99 on Windows, macOS, and SteamOS/Linux — with a PC demo available if you want to try it first.

Griftlands

Griftlands runs two simultaneous decks — one for combat, one for negotiation — against AI bosses and NPCs, for $19.99 on Windows, macOS, and Linux, with a free demo available.

Two more sit outside the deckbuilder cluster entirely:

Thronebreaker: The Witcher Tales

Thronebreaker is a single-player story RPG built on CD Projekt Red's Gwent card-battle system, interleaving open-world exploration with tactical card battles against AI-controlled armies. Its list price is $19.99 on Windows — a promotional discount was showing at verification, so treat the list price as the stable number, not the sale.

SteamWorld Quest: Hand of Gilgamech

SteamWorld Quest leads a party through turn-based battles using a 100+ card deckbuilding system, for $24.99 on Windows, macOS, and SteamOS/Linux.

Dream Quest

Dream Quest is the early, genre-founding roguelike deckbuilder that the rest of this list traces back to: build a class-based card deck and fight procedurally generated monsters across randomized dungeon levels, for $9.99 on Windows and macOS.

Card Crawl and Card Crawl Adventure — the awkward middle

These two sit right on the article's own dividing line, and it's worth naming rather than smoothing over. Card Crawl's own listing calls it a "solitaire-style dungeon crawler": clear a fixed 54-card dungeon deck using item cards and limited inventory space to defeat monster cards. It's free to download, with a $4.99 "Unlock Card Crawl" purchase and a $0.99 seasonal challenge unlock, on iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, and Apple Vision. Its sequel, Card Crawl Adventure, calls itself a "solitaire-style roguelike" and describes itself as "puzzle-based rather than competitive" — free, with a $3.99 full-game unlock and $0.99 character unlocks, on iPhone, iPad, Mac, Vision, and Watch. Neither is a Klondike- or Spider-type variant, and in neither game are the monster cards an opponent making decisions against you — they're obstacles you sequence around, which is why we've grouped both with the non-Solitaire titles while flagging the "solitaire-style" label their own pages use.

Where Gotcha Liar fits

Line up the table above and the gap is visible without any editorializing: the five Solitaire variants are all free, browser, no opponent. The ten non-Solitaire titles all have a real opponent, and all of them are installs — none states browser play on its own page. Nothing verified here is solo, against an opponent, and playable in a browser with nothing to install.

Gotcha Liar is our answer to that specific combination. It's a single-player bluffing card game against three AI opponents: you play a card face down, claim a rank, and anyone can call LIAR — a challenge that reveals only the cards just played. Finish fourth and you lose the round. It runs in the browser with nothing to install. It has no hidden roles and isn't a social deduction game — if that's what you're after, our solo social deduction roundup is the right list, not this one.

The short answer

If you want free, browser, and no opponent, the five Solitaire variants above cover it. If you want an actual opponent and don't mind installing something, the ten non-Solitaire titles cover that, mostly for a price between $9.99 and $24.99. If you want an opponent without installing anything, that combination isn't covered by any of the fifteen games above — it's the one we built Gotcha Liar for. For the wider map of AI-adjacent games beyond card games specifically, our best AI games guide is the place to start.