Honestly, I fire up the Xbox and play the original Halo on easy difficulty. It's like hanging out with an old friend.

You should check out Stardew Valley. Super chill game that evolves at your own pace.

Don't like to fish on the game? Don't fish.

Don't like to go in the mines and fight stuff? Don't go in the caves.

Play on a PC and want to spend hours just modding the hell out of the game? Go for it.

Don't overthink it. Minecraft. Vanilla survival world. Don't try to optimize and automate everything (unless you find that relaxing). Make your farm look like a farm. Mine until until your inventory is full. Build towards an Ender Dragon or Wither fight if you have time. Go mining or fishing or do base chores or a beautification project if you don't.

Solitaire oddly enough. Just sit there, throw up a YouTube playlist on my second monitor, open up the game on my main, and just unwind.

RimWorld. It's so fun watching your colonists at work, peacefully farming, and suddenly one of them gets hit by a chunk of steel followed by a hundred bear raid.

Very relaxing.

Especially in the winter,I like to fire up The Long Dark. I put on the exploration setting where the wildlife doesn't attack. You still have to deal with the need for food and warmth, so there are still stakes. Just not the anxiety inducing animal attacks. There's a sort of bleak beauty to the game.

No Man's Sky has a very chill vibe. I don't play it super often, but it's probably the chillest game I play semi-regularly.

Personally, i just need a game that lets me do something pretty. Satisfactory was mentioned, or City Skylines. Or something that is highly nostalgic and familiar, like Skyrim, Halo or Minecraft. I don't intrinsically need to think in these cases, which is my goal. I'm a programmer, so anything that lets me shut my brain off and just exist is great. Sometimes BloonsTD is also a great game for this, but it's situational.

Counter intuitively, most "casual" games like Stardew don't really fit this vibe for me because of the daily time limit. I need to pick and choose what tasks to do in a day, and I always fall into a min-max schedule, which requires effort. Much as I love them, I also avoid story driven games like Baldur's Gate when I need to unwind, because I really need to pay attention to progress, and there kinda isn't any mindless grinding. Multiplayer games with randos is also strictly out. No League, COD, Battlefield, Fortnite etc... Just in general. Don't like 'em, never did, hate that they are so prolific. They're just stressful.

Skyrim. Meme mods aside, the vibe and soundtrack are just...chef's kiss

I’m going to go with Satisfactory.

Burnout Paradise

There are few games where winning and losing are equally fun, but Burnout Paradise pulls it off flawlessly.

You hit that turn with the perfect drift? Hell yeah. Oh shit, there was a car waiting for you at that intersection and now you have to watch your car and their car get smashed, crumpled, and tossed like a bag of moldy tangerines in slow motion? Hell yeah.

Breath of the Wild. I mean, yes, there are quests, bosses, temples, shrines, minigames and whatnot, but it is also completely fine to just fetch your favorite horse from the stable and ride across Hyrule, hunting wildlife, watching the sunset, cooking food for your character, maybe have Wolf Link accompany you on a hunt, just taking in the scenery, foarge for mushrooms, looking for shooting stars at night ... a little bit of reality escape helps to unwind after a long, hectic day. And this game is unreasonably beautiful as well, despite the simplyfied graphics.

Stardew Valley. It's chill if you let it be. There aren't really hard time limits and you can always farm things and complete challenges on your own time

The latest Zelda games for me, I just wander around aimlessly and it helps me relax.

No Man's Sky.

After the mildly stressful intro (which isn't bad, just uses more sticks than carrots in the tutorial section), you basically just pick a direction and go.

If you wanna quest, there are quests available in (almost) every system.

If you wanna farm, pick a nice planet and get to building.

If you wanna fight, go find a planet with hostile Sentinel presence.

There's always something interesting to do, but you can also just find a nice view on some planet, build a couch and just watch the iridescent grass blow in the wind for a bit.

FTL, Stardew valley, No mans sky, Minecraft, Old rpgs like Chrono Trigger

Dorfromantik

Factorio, Minecraft, and... Counter Strike. I exclusively play with a full squad of friends and even if we have a bad game, at least I'm spending time with my friends. Keeping contact with your friends is super important and getting harder every year. So it's quality time.

I have a few.

Zelda on the switch. (BotW and TotK)

Terraria and Stardew Valley are pretty fun to play for relaxing.

Valheim with console options enabled so I have unlimited resources and can kill any enemies if I'm feeling lazy. I mostly like to just build and I'm slowly building an entire island with buildings, and other features.

I got deeply into this (genre?) when I burned out on a combination of playing big/tough games and the stresses of life. I also enjoyed the pace of Outer Wilds and Subnautica. Some other favourites:

• Supraland 1/2 (low combat, light hearted metroidvania, I loved it)
• Psychonauts 2 (amazing adventure game, big but not hard. I loved collecting everything, it was a great balance)
• Tinykin (similar adventure, a bit like Pikmin, which is also great. Lots of chilled collecting)
• Spiritfarer (lots of freedom, loose plot, not overwhelming)
• Breath of the Wild (do what you want, very nice discovery elements)
• TOEM, A Short Hike, GRIS and Cocoon (light adventure / puzzle games, peaceful but could be boring if you want action)
• Yokus Island Express (lovely metroidvania, chilled gameplay, not overwhelming)
• It Takes two (humour, light combat - played with my young son)
• Unravel 1/2 (easy-ish puzzles)
• Weirdly, I found Sniper Elite 4/5 fairly chill, lots of scoping out areas
• Overcooked 2 (zero stress if you play practice mode a ton before attempting a level. I found it a very zen/flow game)
• Peggle 1/2 (can be frustrating, but is very low stakes and arcadey. Lovely for short sessions)
• Wilmots Warehouse (can be stressful if you take the timer seriously, but I loved all the organising. Very satisfying)
• Vampire Survivors (can get a bit much, but pretty simple and disposable)

There are tons more, I deal with a lot of anxiety!

Some games I was recommended for this purpose that didn't land for me:

• Powerwash sim / other simulators (these feel like a second job for me. Constant grind and focus on perfection wasn't helpful)
• Tetris Evolution / Lumines (either gets too fast / hard, or gets boring)
• Stardew / Terraria (in theory these look great, but I find huge sandboxes too overwhelming. Always feels like I should be doing more stuff / doing it better)
• Roguelikes (I like Hades, Dead Cells, etc, but they're very stressful and frustrating when so much hinges on survival)

Finally, I'd suggest trying a solo board game. More tactile and relaxing alternative to screen time.

It's my bike, I ride my bike.

Indoors, I've got Zwift, which looks a bit like a game.

Outdoors the resolution is better, but the NPCs can be belligerent.

Skyrim. I played vanilla a bunch and now I'm working through the Living Skyrim 4 mod. I had to tweak a bunch of the settings, but I really enjoy it. I also love the Witcher 3, both actively playing quests and just wandering across the map listening to the howling wind and the soundtrack. I've loaded into that game after a long day with every intention of playing and just sat there with my headphones on and stared into space while the trees crackle together in the wind and the music plays.

Warframe, it's my "no thought, head empty, just shoot things" game

Rim world on low difficulty

Weirdly, Satisfactory, a game about thanklessly building a factory for a faceless corporation to exploit an alien wilderness.

But you get a coffee mug and there are lizard doggos.

Witcher 3, I love riding roach around and exploring and listening to the music. I like cruising in cyberpunk 2077 listening to the radio stations. There's also spiritifarer.

Animal Crossing. I still play NH for 15 minutes a day just to go round my island and see what’s happening. My island is pretty much how I want it and I have collected nearly everything I want, but to take 20 minutes out the day just to walk around catch a bug or two and talk to an islander is a great way to relax.

Roguelikes.

I played Rogue Legacy 1 and 2 for the longest time. Some dead cells. Enter the gungeon, and currently testing the humble roguelikes bundle, really digging Wall World.

Lately I have been playing Crypt of the Necrodancer. It was quite chill until I reached zone 4. It doesn't get me worked up or anything, but the last level of zone 4 does get me a bit tense with the speed.

In general, Deep Rock Galactic is pretty chill. If I really just want to take it easy I can pick up a mission on Hazard 3 or 4.

Farming simulator 22 or Euro truck simulator 2, just driving my tractor around plowing some fields, or driving my truck through Europe to drop off something relaxes me well.

Civilization. While it CAN be a stressful game if you crank up the difficulty to Deity, at prince or king, it's just so much fun.

With the advanced setup options, you can set up a game for however you are feeling at the time, explore a large world (however full or empty you want it), expand and watch your empire cover the map, learn and find all the new stuff in the world, conquer everybody, be a neutral power broker, launch into space.

It just feels nice.

slay the spire

Noita is a good chill game. You will lose, and you will die a horrible death in the process, but if you can accept that, the journey to death is a fun one.

Forza Horizon 5. I like to just drive around the map for a while, and maybe do a race or two, until I inevitably get bored after an hour or so. Repeat every week.

(until I bought a real life motorcycle to scratch that itch, and no, I'm not racing or being dangerous on my motorcycle)

I play Trackmania at least once a day. The community is so nice and friendly and the racing at high speed is so calming for me.

Blast some bots in Quake 3.