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There are a ton of platforming games out there, whether you played Little Big Planet 2 on PS3 or Leo's Fortune on mobile. Platformer games can be experienced in many different ways, and every title on this list plays differently from the others. Some are 2D, some are 3D, some are cartoonish, and some are pure rage fuel designed to test your patience.
The great thing about platformers is that the genre has aged really well. A lot of the best entries are older indie titles that have dropped in price over time, which means you can build a solid library of cheap platformer games without ever spending more than the price of a pizza. Most of the games on this list also go on sale regularly, so wishlisting them is a smart move if you want to grab them for even less.
This list covers seven of the best platformer games under $10 that you can pick up on Steam today. Whether you want a beautiful story-driven adventure, a meme-level rage game, or a chill puzzle platformer, there's something here that fits. Let's get into it.
7. Ori and the Blind Forest
Ori and the Blind Forest is an indie gem and easily one of the best platformer games under $10 you can buy on Steam. From the graphical style to the smooth gameplay, everything about this title is near perfect. It regularly shows up on "best of the decade" lists for a reason.
The game follows a small orphan named Ori who's trying to revive a dying forest. The power of the world is slowly drifting away, and it's up to you to save it before everything is lost. The story hits hard for a game with barely any dialogue, and the emotional opening is one of the most memorable moments in modern indie gaming.
Ori was hand-designed, and that care shows in every single frame. The animations are gorgeous, the soundtrack is incredible, and the platforming mechanics feel tight and responsive. You'll be doing all sorts of movement stunts, wall jumps, air dashes, and slingshot maneuvers as you progress through the forest.
There's also a sequel called Will of the Wisps that expands on everything the first game did well. Both games are available for cheap during sales, and both are worth every penny. If you enjoy platformers, story-driven experiences, or hidden gems that you might have missed, Ori should be at the top of your list.
6. Getting Over It With Bennett Foddy
Getting Over It is one of those infamous meme games that exists almost entirely to make you angry. If you've never heard of it, the premise is that you play as a man sitting in a pot, using a giant hammer to climb over obstacles and eventually reach space. It's a weird concept, and the game is brutally unforgiving.
There are parts of the map that will send you all the way back to the beginning if you mess up a single swing. The entire game is played with your mouse, which means every movement requires precision and patience. On top of that, philosopher Bennett Foddy himself narrates your journey, offering strange commentary and quotes whenever you take a bad fall. It's either charming or infuriating depending on your mood.
This is one of the most viral platformer games under $10 thanks to streamers and content creators who built their early careers around rage compilations. Watching someone else play it is almost as entertaining as playing it yourself, and the community around the game is surprisingly wholesome considering how much pain it causes.
There's a golden pot reward for players who beat the game 50 times, which tells you everything you need to know about how dedicated some players get. If you have the patience for a serious challenge and the mental fortitude to avoid rage quitting, Getting Over It is a must-play. Just don't break your mouse in the process.
5. Grow Home
Grow Home is a small, fun exploration platformer about trying to get back to your spaceship. You play as a little robot named BUD who crash landed on a strange alien planet. Your mission is to use giant plants to grow a path all the way up to your ship floating in the sky.
The world is massive and full of things to explore. Each section of the planet has new collectibles to find, caves to search, and little animals and plant creatures to interact with. The vertical scale of the game is one of its biggest strengths. Looking down from the top of a fully grown plant is genuinely impressive, especially for a game at this price point.
The standout feature is the climbing system. You control each of BUD's hands independently, which makes scaling plants and cliffs feel deliberate and a little awkward in the best way possible. It's a physics-driven climbing system that would translate beautifully to VR, and it sets this apart from most other platformer games under $10 on Steam.
There's also a sequel called Grow Up that's worth picking up if the first game clicks for you. Both games are cheap, both are relaxing, and both offer a different kind of platforming experience than what you'd normally expect.
4. Pogostuck: Rage With Your Friends
Pogostuck is another rage-designed platformer in the same vein as Jump King and Getting Over It. The entire point of the game is to use a pogo stick to bounce your way to the top of a mountain, and every mistake can send you tumbling back down to earlier sections. It's frustrating on purpose.
Streamers latched onto this game early, and that exposure helped it explode in popularity. There's something about watching someone almost reach the top and then fall all the way down that makes for great content, and Pogostuck delivers that experience consistently. Playing it yourself is just as brutal, and every small victory feels earned.
What makes Pogostuck stand out from similar rage platformer games is the multiplayer mode. You can play with friends and watch each other suffer in real time, which adds a social element that most games in this category don't have. Raging alone is rough. Raging with friends is genuinely fun.
The mechanics are simple on paper. You aim, you jump, and you land. Executing those jumps perfectly across increasingly difficult terrain is where the challenge comes in. If you want one of the more challenging platformer games under $10 and don't mind yelling at your screen, Pogostuck is a great pick.
3. Refunct
Refunct is a puzzle platformer built around restoring color and life to a submerged landscape. The goal is to jump across giant rectangular pillars, press buttons to raise new platforms out of the water, and turn everything green as you parkour your way across the map.
The premise is simple, but the execution is what makes this one of the most satisfying platformer games under $10. Every jump feels tight. Every surface responds the way you want it to. And the world gradually transforms as you play, which gives you a real sense of progress even though the mechanics stay the same throughout.
Refunct isn't a long game. Most players finish it in under an hour, and completionists won't need much more than that to do everything the game offers. What you're paying for isn't length, it's polish. Every minute of Refunct feels intentional, and there's a meditative quality to the whole experience that's hard to find elsewhere.
At just a few dollars, this is also the cheapest entry on the list, and it's the kind of game you can install on a whim and finish in a single session. If you like puzzle platformers or parkour-focused movement, Refunct punches way above its weight for the price.
2. Super Fancy Pants Adventure
Super Fancy Pants Adventure is a nostalgic entry for anyone who grew up playing flash games on browser sites back in the day. The original Fancy Pants flash series was a huge part of early 2000s internet culture, and this Steam release takes everything that made those games fun and expands it into a full experience.
The premise is as strange as it sounds. You play as a stick figure with a giant pair of pants, parkouring through hand-drawn worlds to rescue your sister from pirates. The visual style is all hand-animated, which gives the game a unique personality that separates it from most other platformer games under $10.
Combat is simple but satisfying. You fight weird enemies like giant spiders, snails, and squid creatures using kicks, slides, and momentum-based moves. The level design rewards speed and flow, and experienced players will find themselves chaining together movements like a platforming speedrun.
The hand-drawn aesthetic deserves extra credit. When a developer puts this much effort into making their game look unique, it shows in every frame. If you enjoy fast movement, speedrun-friendly design, or just want a dose of flash game nostalgia, Fancy Pants is absolutely worth the install.
1. Bit.Trip Runner
Bit.Trip Runner is a rhythm-based platformer that originally showed up on the Wii years ago and has since become a staple of the genre on Steam. The gameplay is as simple as it gets. You run automatically, and you only have to jump and slide to survive. The catch is that everything happens in time with the music, which turns each level into a kind of rhythm test.
The goal of each level is to collect as much gold and as many power-ups as possible to maximize your score. If you collect every gold piece on a level, you unlock a bonus stage that can multiply your points significantly. That scoring system gives the game replay value beyond just finishing the campaign.
Comparisons to Geometry Dash aren't unfair. Both games blend music with reaction-based platforming, and both reward memorization and rhythm. Bit.Trip Runner leans into the retro aesthetic hard, with chiptune music and pixel art visuals that complement the minimalist gameplay perfectly. It's one of the most relaxing platformer games under $10 once you stop trying to fight the rhythm and start flowing with it.
This is the kind of game you boot up when you want to unwind for twenty minutes. The satisfying visuals, the clean audio design, and the simple mechanics all come together to create an experience that's surprisingly zen for how fast-paced it actually is.
Picking Your First Platformer Under $10
These seven platformer games under $10 all offer something different, which makes choosing where to start the most important question. If you want beauty and story, go with Ori and the Blind Forest. If you want pure rage, Getting Over It or Pogostuck will deliver. For something chill, Grow Home or Refunct fit the mood. For nostalgia, Super Fancy Pants Adventure is the pick, and for rhythm-based fun, Bit.Trip Runner is the way to go.
The best part is that all of these regularly drop even lower during Steam sales. Wishlist a few, watch for the next seasonal sale, and you can easily build a stacked platformer library for less than the price of a single full-priced game. There's never been a better time to dive into the genre on a budget.
Platformer games under $10 prove that you don't need to spend big to get a great experience. Install a few, see which ones click, and enjoy some of the most polished, creative, and replayable games the genre has to offer.
