The Best Sniper Games

“One shot, one kill.”

This quote, and many others like it, occupy various FPS titles as proud boasts from Sniper characters. It comes off as a shame, then, when sniper rifles in many of these games are nerfed or made difficult to use, especially in multiplayer titles, where a powerful enough Sniper can be considered completely overpowered. Overwatch’s Widowmaker can’t even one-shot tank classes, for Pete’s sake!

If you want games that’ll give you genuinely satisfying Sniper experiences, you’re in the right place. We’ll be listing the best Sniper games below, and explaining why each one deserves its place on this list.

Our Recommendation

Sniper Elite 4

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Buy on Steam

Sniper Elite 4 is currently the pinnacle of Sniper games, built with massive maps, tons of detail, excellent stealth, and an engine built around sniping gameplay. By taking into account things like wind and heart rate, Sniper Elite 4 builds a highly-realistic, highly-satisfying core gameplay experience focused around sneaking into the perfect vantage point and firing the perfect kill-shot.

In addition to the deep sniping mechanics, there’s also plenty of weapon customization features, online co-op, and a great 6v6 multiplayer mode.

If all you want is to live out your greatest Sniper fantasies, Sniper Elite 4 is the game for you.

Runner Up

ARMA 3

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Buy on Steam

ARMA 3 is easily one of the most advanced, in-depth military simulator games out there. Featuring a huge open world, a ton of vehicles and weapons, solid story and multiplayer modes, and a content creation toolkit, ARMA 3 is full to the brim of gameplay possibilities.

Thanks to the super-deep gameplay on offer, ARMA 3 is a pretty full-featured game. Thanks to its roots as a simulator, the sniping- and the rest of the gunplay, for that matter- is much more in-depth than you can expect from pretty much any other title.

Because of that, it provides pretty compelling sniping gameplay. Unfortunately, its very realistic gameplay makes sniping much harder in this game compared to others, so it may end up being pretty difficult.

Everyone Else

Hitman

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Buy on Steam

The latest HITMAN title is pretty cutting-edge, boasting large, open areas for each episode, each with multiple assassination targets for Agent 47 to take out. There’s a ton of different ways you can kill your targets in this game- guns-blazing or stealthy- but among those options include sniping your targets. Finding a rifle, a vantage point, and studying your target’s movement to know when to take the shot is what you’ll need to do to snipe in this game.

If that kind of hitman fantasy sounds appealing to you…try it out. We recommend Sapienza if you’re already well-versed in Hitman gameplay.

Counter-Strike: Global Offensive

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Buy on Steam

One of the few multiplayer-centric titles on this list, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive offers a wide variety of weapons with advanced recoil mechanics and accuracy requirements.

While you probably can’t start sniping right out of the gate with each game, once you get the money to buy a sniper rifle, you’ll be in business. Weapons like the AUG and AWP provide excellent sniping experiences, each suited to different skill levels and personal preference. Playing smart and being skilled is the priority, and if you want to be pushed to your limits by other skilled players, CSGO is the game for you.

Sniper: Ghost Warrior 3

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Buy on Steam

Sniper: Ghost Warrior 3 follows similar gameplay goals as Sniper Elite, including stealth-centric gameplay. It also has generally-good graphics and physics, but it falls behind Sniper Elite in quite a few notable areas, namely in its story mode and voice acting.

However, it features a multiplayer mode, and is one of the cheapest options on this list, at only $19.99. The base gameplay is solid enough to be worth checking out, and if you simply can’t afford to drop $60 on a single game, this might be the one for you.

Far Cry 4

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Buy on Steam

Last up is Far Cry 4.

While Far Cry 4 doesn’t offer particularly deep sniping mechanics, it does offer an excellent story and fully-loaded, open-world gameplay. You won’t run out of things to do in Far Cry 4 particularly quickly, and if you want to take enemy camps by sniping them from afar, this is one of the most fun games to do it in.

If you want to live out the sniper fantasy, but without needing to account for a whole bunch of different mechanics…Far Cry 4 might be the right game for you.