Game On! Here Are the 30 Best Tower Defense Games To Play in Your Downtime

Tower defense games are a great way to keep yourself entertained for hours. Not only are TD games exciting, but some of the best tower defense games in 2023 are also visually stunning, have a killer soundtrack and/or require you to strategize, which doubles the fun and good times.

Stuck on which online defense game to play next? Take a peek at our guide to see the 30 best tower defense games ever made!

Whether you're looking for new games to play or want to learn more about the top games everyone's been raving about, this list compiles all of the very best tower defense games for 2023 into one spot.

Related: 250 Best 'Never Have I Ever' Questions for a Fun Game

30 Best Tower Defense Games for 2023

1. Bloons TD 6

Bloons TD 6 is the latest installment in the Bloons Tower Defense game series. Like the predecessors before, the game is played by popping as many balloons (or Bloons) as you can by using a combination of your monkey heroes’ special abilities. This version offers new HD animations, visual effects, plus 37 brand new maps to keep you entertained for weeks on end!

2. Kingdom: Two Crowns

Live your inner Game of Thrones fantasy with this tower defending game! Kingdom: Two Crowns can be either played solo or with friends. In this fantasy game, you’re tasked with creating a nation that has to defeat an army of enemies, The Greed. To beat the bad guys and establish peace in the kingdom, you’ll have to travel throughout the land acquiring gold and recruiting followers to help your reign reach its full potential.

3. Minion Masters

If you like fast-paced, strategy tower defending games check out Minion Masters! To defend your side, you’ll pick cards to gather an army of minions to fight in battle. While they’re doing their bidding, you’ll be able to analyze your opponents’ weaknesses and plan your next attack!

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4. Bad North

If you’re obsessed with the likes of Thor and Loki, take a peek at this game! In Bad North, you’re tasked with defending your small island kingdom against armies of Viking invaders. Similar to Minion Masters, you will be positioning and relocating troops in order to counter different Viking enemy types.

5. Frontline Zed

Do you have a zombie apocalypse escape plan figured out? If you do, check out Frontline Zed! In this tower defending game, players will explore a zombie infested United States. The days are spent searching for weapons, ammo and other supplies while also getting ready for battle. Once night falls, zombies will appear and you have to defend your barricade.

6. Orcs Must Die! 2

While we anticipate the release of Orcs Must Die! 3, now is the perfect time to visit its most recent predecessor. In Orcs Must Die! 2, you and a buddy will defeat orcs while defending either your fortress, dwarven mines, and more special places from droves of fantastical monsters.

7. Dig or Die

If some of your favorite tower defending games include a bit of survival tactic, Dig or Die is the game for you! In this game, players take on the role of an employee at CRAFT & Co., an automated tool manufacturer who’s given you the job to do some planet-to-planet sales. After an accident causes your ship to crash on a hostile alien planet, you find yourself having to use the same tools you sell in addition to the planet’s natural resources to keep yourself alive long enough to escape.

8. OTTTD: Over The Top Tower Defense

OTTTD is a strategy tower defense game that is played in which players command a squad of heroes as they travel through trans-dimensional rifts to battle alien creatures. You’ll be able to choose three of seven available classes to bring into battle, unlocking new combat abilities and skills as your characters gain XP and level up in addition to unlocking new weapons.

9. Aegis Defenders

Aegis Defenders is a tower defense game where you control a team of heroes called Ruinhunters as they search for the legendary Aegis weapon. Set in the wondrous world of Elam, the game sees you exploring ruins and combating hordes of ferocious beasts and monsters by building various blocks, turrets and traps.

10. Sleep Tight

Entertainment Weekly says that Sleep Tight is “something straight out of a storybook.” In this game, you’ll play as a child who spends their days building the ultimate base from pillows and bed sheets in addition to collecting ammo for your dart gun. Once night arrives, you’ll find yourself in epic battles as hordes of scary monsters begin to spawn inside your room.

11. X-Morph: Defense

In this tower defending game, it pays to destroy the Earth. You’ll control the X-Morph which is a race of aliens that have invaded Earth with the intention of harvesting its resources and reshaping the surface. X-Morph: Defense missions have you carefully placing extraction towers and various defenses in order to create maze-like paths for your human enemies to follow

12. Zombie Builder Defense

One player of this game reviews Zombie Builder Defense as the ultimate activity: “Game is a fun time burner with your friends! Group up, grab some beer and defend yourself against the zombies. $2 well spent!” To play this tower defending game, zombies will storm your base. After you successfully ward them off, you will be transported to a shop where you can spend money you’ve collected on defense mechanisms for your barricade, turrets, traps, weapons and upgrades for your character.

13. Grim Nights

To play Grim Nights, you gain control of an entire village and assign townsfolk different tasks such as chopping trees for wood and exploring mines for gems. When night falls, monsters will appear and try to invade your village, requiring your village people to combine their strengths and hold off the enemy until the morning.

14. Dungeon Defenders II

If you’re looking for a game with great visuals, Dungeon Defenders II might be the game for you. Even PC Gamer reviews it with “I can't think of a game that looks more like an honest-to-god cartoon.” To play, you or three other friends will fight to protect the land of Etheria by building a variety of traps designed to destroy hordes of monsters.

15. Mindustry

When you’re playing Mindustry, you’ll be focusing on how to manage resources while also fighting to defend your tower. In this game, you’ll chain together multiple conveyor belts to supply your tower with ammo and building materials to defeat swarms of enemies while dealing with random misgivings like accidental fires and enemy ambushes.

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16. Dungeon Warfare 2

One Steam reviewer said Dungeon Warfare 2 is “one of my favorite tower defense series of all time.” In this strategy-based tower defense game, you will take on the role of Dungeon Lord and try to prevent greedy adventurers from stealing all of your loot by filling dungeons with deadly traps and obstacles.

17. Wrack: Exoverse

If you ever dreamed of starring in your Marvel comic, take a peek at Wrack: Exoverse to add to your tower defending game collection! Each round, you’ll construct defenses with turrets and walls in order to slow incoming enemies and prevent them from reaching your beacon before you can be defeated. Once you are ready for battle, the game switches to a first-person perspective where you’ll be tasked with holding off waves of enemies using different weapons like pistols, shotguns, rifles and alien blasters.

18. They Are Billions

Advertised as a “steampunk apocalypse,” in They Are Billions, you’ll be tasked with guiding Earth’s remaining humans to victory as they fight flesh-eating zombies.  Included are two game modes—Campaign, which sees you building and defending colonies from waves of the undead while also researching new technologies and learning more about the zombie virus. In Survival mode, players are thrown into a randomly generated world with its own unique events, weather, geography and infected population.

19. Plants vs Zombies: Game of the Year Edition

According to Steam’s top 150 tower defending games of all time, Plants vs Zombies: Game of the Year is number one. Playing the game is simple, you simply plant flowers and watch them attack the zombie swarms. In order to plant more zombie stopping foliage, you must collect falling suns or plant sunflowers. Once you acquire a certain number of suns, you can plant more defensive plants.

20. Go Home Dinosaurs!

In this fun cartoon tower defending game, Go Home Dinosaurs!, you get to hop back to fun prehistoric times! Todd Rex wants your steak dinner and it’s up to you to keep him away! To defeat the massive beast, you need to unlock powerful towers that act like little weaponized puzzle pieces.

21. Kingdom Rush Frontiers

With this fantasy action tower defending game, Kingdom Rush Frontiers, you’ll get to command troops through epic adventures as you defend your land from dragons, man-eating plants, and ghastly ghouls of the underworld.

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22. GemCraft — Chasing Shadows

An archdemon looks to conquer the world and rule over all in GemCraft — Chasing Shadows. But only you can stop her! To become the hero in this single-player tower defending game, you’ll summon magical gems to use their power against swarms of monsters.

23. Rise to Ruins

Taking inspiration from games like Black and White, Rimworld, and Dwarf Fortress, Rise to Ruins will have you playing for hours on end. In this game, you’ll fight off hordes of hideous monsters by night, and expand and update your village by the day.

24. Ratropolis

Build the largest Ratropolis and put your name into the rat hall of fame! This virtual game combines building cities, deck building, and tower defense with live strategy gameplay. Lead your small rat army to safety and defend your rat citizens from evil predators and monstrous creatures.

25. Rock of Ages

One Steam reviewer describes Rock of Ages as if "someone threw Monty Python, Tower Defense, and Marble Madness in a blender, turned it on high for a few minutes, arranged it into a delicious dessert, and sprinkled some history on top for flavor enhancement.” The story of the game is there are two castles in the kingdom. One is yours and the other is your enemy’s. To defeat your enemy, you’re going to try to destroy their castle by using an enormous boulder. But beware! There’s a giant boulder headed your way too.

26. Infested Planet

Fight alien scum and protect humanity with Infested Planet! As you play, you’ll command a team of five soldiers against an alien army of 100,000. Since you are surrounded, you must outmaneuver and outsmart the enemy.

27. Barbarian

One day, Brad the Barbarian woke up to his town under siege by enemies. However, he'd rather go down a different path than the one involving the usual bloodshed. Play as him in Bardbarian and save the city in the most bizarre ways!

28. Space Run

GameSpot gave this tower defending game an 8/10 and it’s easy to see why! Space Run is a live spaceship construction strategy game. Meaning you’ll be challenged to manage and protect a spaceship and its cargo against the perils of space!

29. Terrorhedron Tower Defense

In this tower defense game, you’ll defend your tower against wave after wave of colorful Terrorhedron spheres within attractive grid landscapes. You can also play it solo or with friends, making it a fun party game.

30. Rock ‘N’ Roll Defense

Defend the power of rock with this hardcore game. In Rock ‘N’ Roll Defense, you’ll try to beat 40 stages counting with multiple types of speakers (AKA towers) and get all the 250 achievements.

If you're looking for even more online fun, here are 12 of the best games to play with kids over Zoom.