Pillars of Eternity. Unless you're playing on Path of the Damned the game is pretty easy. It's nice to get lost in the pretty visuals and amazing music while casually questing.

The Hexcells series is VERY relaxing.

I find Warframe very relaxing, you can turn off your brain and kill stuff and it's free.

I'm gonna endorse the above suggestions of Black and White, Elder Scrolls (if you turn off the cliff racers in Morrowind), Cities Skylines, Stardew Valley.

I find sailing about admiring the scenery in Skellige in The Wither 3 to be very relaxing. So is exploring London in Ass Creed Syndicate.

Firewatch is the obvious choice for me though. If you enjoy exploration and hiking it'll grab you for sure. The environments are beautiful and interacting with all the little objects strewn around is fun. I never understood the complaints about this game regarding it's gameplay, the exploration and story made it well worth a playthrough for me.

I would also suggest Starbound. Although it can get hectic, once you sequestered a little area for yourself its relaxing to build a little friendly enclave in a hostile environment.

cities skylines. diablo 3. rocket league. There's probably an argument for all of these games to require some sort of brain power but these are the games i play when i want to turn my brain off and just play.

I used to relax a lot while playing Knight Online, it was repetitive grind for the most part and some sweet music. Now the game is old and likely uninteresting for any gamer.

League of Legends is a game in which you can put your brain off pretty much, at least if you don't take competition seriously. No Man's Sky probably is relaxing too, exploring different planet in a sci-fi setting. There are a lot of exploration games that focus on the ambiance and immersion, with amazing landscapes and sweet music. On Steam it shouldn't be too hard to find one, maybe even for free.

The Talos Principle is pretty relaxing.

@scarfaceninja: I definitely join others in recommending Proteus. Here's the Quick Look if you're interested http://www.giantbomb.com/videos/quick-look-proteus/2300-6998/

Mini Metro stresses me the hell out, I'm surprised to see so many recommendations.

Floating Point

Splice

Civilization V

I'll reiterate what has been said quite a bit already, and recommend Stardew Valley. It's been my ultimate relaxing game this year. There's no pressure to do anything on a deadline which is really nice.

I just got Portal and Portal 2 on PC. I haven't play either before. I'm way more impressed with them than I thought I would be. Its been very relaxing to pick apart the puzzles at my own pace and appreciate the nifty tricks to progressing. Also, the writing is hilarious. Its so nice to finish a puzzle and get rewarded with a little chuckle. Its a fantastic gameplay loop.

Also, Pinball Arcade. If you really want to turn your brain off and just enjoy fun noises and pretty flashing lights.

Play Puzzle Quest: Challenge of the Warlords with the in-game music off and some of your favorite music on instead.

Grim dawn has been taking my mind off stuff again lately, running new builds can be a bit frustrating at first though but the amount of thought that goes into everything coupled with the hack and slash ends up being pretty relaxing for me

Vanilla WoW

I really find myself going back to the Sims games when looking to just relax. Another one is always the Civilization series as well.

WoW leveling an Alt.

People I'm sure will laugh at some in the list I'll give haha.. its okay though (brushes the hate off)

No Man's Sky (yes, I play this game as a zen game, one of the most relaxing and chillout games I own regardless of the shit storm people give it)

Diablo III

Golf With Friends

Worms W.M.D

Stardew Valley

Switchball (might be hard to find now)

Planet Coaster

Astroneer (I find it quite relaxing)

Any sim game really like Anno 2205 / Cities: Skylines / Sim City / Sims 4

The Golf Club

I'll hop on the Stardew Valley train here, great for having a relaxing time, so long as you are not worried about min/maxing your days.

A Sims game could be relaxing, the game practically plays by itself.

I sometimes find "stressful" games like DOOM or Thumper to be relaxing in certain ways. Depends on the mood or which part of the brain you need to relax, I guess.

@scarfaceninja: hidden object games

Sandbox RPGs like Fallout and The Elder Scrolls, and simulation/management type of games like Cities: Skylines and The Sims 3. Hell, the hours just few by when just building houses in Minecraft.

Taking a mellow flight in DCS has always done the trick for me.

Grinding in Diablo 3 listening to a good podcast does it for me.

Aimlessly wandering around skyrim. Download A couple sound mods for the forest and you'll be zoned out in no time.

For me Pixel Puzzles Ultimate is super relaxing.

I hate the Puzzle Challenges though, too hard for me :P

Try Rymdresa. It's a non-violent rogue-like set in space, with poetry. Soothing colors, too.

Solar 2 is a great relaxing game.

I should also mention FTL: Faster Than Light.

Stardew Valley does it for me. The soundtrack really helps too. Otherwise I tend to play games with good feedback-loop when I'm stressed, like Overwatch, Dead Rising and Civ 5.

@scarfaceninja:

You could check Oracle, it was just released a few days ago on Steam: http://store.steampowered.com/app/576310/

Farming Simulator 17 GIANTS and Euro Truck Simulator 2. They are very funny.

Superflight on steam. Costs something like two dollars.

@gundogan said:

Totally agree with this!!

Cities Skylines is so good for this, especially in a sandbox setting with Unlimited money. Still some brain power with traffic management and things like that but you know you can build whatever you want and just chill. Highly recommend!

Try Unravel. A little bit of thinking involved

@oursin_360: I came to suggest Grim Dawn as well. I just started my first run. Playing a glass cannon Arcanist. It's nice to just click on stuff and watch it die.

I hear this is good for winding down and relaxing..

Hunie Poops. Or Nekopara... or Dead Space 2.

FortNite is fun as hell to play around with some buddies!

Doing a puzzle in Opus Magnum is a low key experience and i find it soothing, like doing a crossword.

Here are the ones that jump out at me based on my Steam list.

• Cities: Skylines - great soundtrack, you can pause time if you feel any pressure, and it's just so damn charming
• Grim Dawn - grindy, but straight-forward and fun. You can just run through lower level areas if you don't want anything too intense or complicated
• Planet Coaster - nothing more satisfying than some good, ol' fashion coaster building
• Minecraft - I don't enjoy this game as much, but I know A LOT of folks that have this game permanently installed for just this - mindlessly chilling out
• Steep - hit the slopes and just cruise. You don't even need to do objectives if you don't want to...
• Sea of Thieves - cruising the ocean is actually really satisfying. It's a beautiful looking game too. I don't recommend it at $60, but the $10 game pass subscription includes it which is a steal.
• Slime Rancher - collect cute slimes, raise them in pens, and turn their poop in for money. The music is relaxing, the slimes are charming, and you can go at your own pace. It's a fantastic, affordable game.

Also just realized we are reviving what's a very old topic. But I guess it's still a good thing for people to refer to! :P

I am finding Sea of Thieves extremely relaxing, just pootling about in my sloop. Sloopootling.

As strange as it sounds: Super Hexagon. That's my go-to relaxation game. It is so twitchy that I have to turn my brain off to play it well and it ends up being really soothing.

Myst is a pretty trippy game if you like older games and would probably fall into relaxing

AER Memories of Old is a pretty short and relaxing exploration game.

Glass Masquerade its a puzzle game about building stain glass clocks the art is great and its relaxing as hell.

For me, they're Tetris and Geometry Wars