Quake Live similar games & best alternatives

Quake Live - Trailer
Quake Live - quake-live_1.avif
Quake Live - quake-live_2.avif
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Quake Live

PC (Microsoft Windows) • 2014

Should you play it?

Experience the most exciting and fast-paced FPS gameplay while competing with players from around the world in over 100 arenas, a dozen game modes, and with persistent career stats tracking, in this online features-focused successor to Quake III Arena.

What works

  • Pure and skill-based gameplay
  • Active and friendly community
  • Extensive custom maps and mods
  • High skill ceiling and rewarding mastery
  • Affordable price with good content

Things to keep in mind

  • Steep learning curve for newcomers
  • Small and aging player base
  • Some veteran players can be toxic
  • No story or single player campaign
  • Technical setup can be challenging

What to play next

Top picks

Games that feels the closest overall

  • Counter-Strike

  • Counter-Strike: Source

  • Warfork

  • Project Sparrow

  • Screencheat

  • Half-Life 2: Deathmatch

More fantastical

Games that feels like Quake Live but with more imaginative fiction

  • Quake

  • Turok 2: Seeds of Evil

  • Dystopia

  • Blood™ Fresh Supply

  • Double Action: Boogaloo

  • Dino D-Day

More story-driven

Games that feels like Quake Live but with deeper narrative immersion

  • STAR WARS™ Jedi Knight II - Jedi Outcast™

  • Return to Castle Wolfenstein

  • Sven Co-op

  • STRAFTAT

  • America's Army: Proving Grounds

  • Overload

Choose your own criteria ->

From the same developer

From the same developer, ranked by motivational fit.

  • Quake III Arena

  • Quake Champions

  • DOOM + DOOM II

  • Quake II

  • DOOM

Similarity map

How to use the graph

Similarity map

Each dot is a game placed from its motivation profile relative to this page’s game. Direction shows which motivation differs most; distance along that axis shows how large the gap is.

  • Purple star: this page’s game at the centre — everything is relative to it.
  • Direction: each axis is a main motivational difference vs this game (e.g. more / less competitive).
  • Distance on an axis: how large that difference is (ring scales show +/− points).
  • Coloured chips: click to highlight games that mainly differ on that motivation; click again to reset.
  • Dotted line: link between this page’s game and the one selected for comparison.
  • Hover a dot to preview that game in the panel on the right; click to keep that comparison.
  • Scroll or double-click the chart to zoom.

How to read the map This is a polar difference map: direction = which motivation differs, and distance = how much (same units as the sidebar deltas).

Quake Live: Broadly representative of its motivational profile, with a few distinct shifts. Motivations that often define this kind of title include Competition, Status, Fellowship, Domination. Here, the score leans higher than usual among comparable games on Domination. It leans lower than usual among comparable games on Fantasy, Story.

Last update: 04/08/2026