We Are Halfway Through 2026. These Are the VR Games That Actually Mattered.

Today is the last day of June, which means the first half of 2026 is done, and I have been doing this long enough to know a strong six months when I have lived through one. This was a strong six months. Not because of one earth-shattering release, but because of depth, a steady drumbeat of games across PCVR, PSVR2, and Quest that were actually worth putting the headset on for. So before the second half buries us in new announcements, let me look back at the games that mattered most to me, the ones I would hand to someone as proof that VR gaming is in a good place right now.

This is my list, which means it is opinionated. Your mileage will vary, and that is the fun of it. Here is what defined the first half of my 2026.

The PCVR crown: Into the Radius 2

If I had to pick one game that represented the high-water mark of the half, it is Into the Radius 2, which left Early Access and hit its 1.0 release in April. The original is one of the most atmospheric survival experiences in all of VR, a lonely, tense walk through an anomaly-ridden zone where every piece of gear is manually managed and every gunshot feels consequential. The sequel delivers everything that made the first special and deepens it. This is PCVR-first design in an era where so much gets built mobile-first, and you feel the difference in every meticulously simulated weapon and every quiet, dread-soaked moment. It is the game I point to when someone asks what a serious VR experience looks like.

The PSVR2 saviors: Myst and Riven

PSVR2 spent a long time searching for must-play software, and in May it got two at once when Cyan brought its full remakes of Myst and Riven to the headset. I wrote at the time about why these matter so much, and a month later I stand by every word. These are the games that invented the adventure puzzle genre, rebuilt in stunning fidelity, and in VR you are not looking at the mechanical age or Riven's islands, you are standing inside them. Puzzle adventure is one of VR's quietly perfect genres because the entire loop is looking, touching, and figuring things out, and nothing on PSVR2 demonstrates that better. If you own Sony's headset and skipped these, fix it before July.

My personal favorite: Compass

Every half-year has a game that gets its hooks in me beyond what the spec sheet justifies, and this time it was Compass, Trebuchet's open-world VR flight adventure that launched in late May. I gushed about it in my preview, and the real thing largely delivered on the dream: piloting a cargo ship through pastel skies, leaving the cockpit to grapple across floating islands, chasing an airborne caravan across a stylized world. It is not the most technically demanding game on this list, but it captures something flight games in VR are uniquely able to capture, the pure joy of moving through a beautiful space. It is the game I loaded up just to decompress, and that counts for a lot.

The multiplayer swing: Forefront

VR has wanted a true large-scale multiplayer shooter for years, and in April Forefront took the biggest swing at it yet, launching its 1.0 on Quest and PCVR with 32-player matches, destructible environments, vehicles, and class-based combat. I had questions going in about whether VR could actually hold a battle that big together, and while it is not flawless, the ambition alone made it one of the most important releases of the half. When 32 people are fighting over a collapsing building in VR and it works, you are seeing a glimpse of where the medium can go. I want more studios taking swings this big.

The horror wave

I just wrote a whole feature on why VR is the perfect horror machine, and the first half of 2026 is exactly why that was on my mind. Three releases carried the genre. Little Nightmares: Altered Echoes arrived in April with its signature dread and sense of scale intact. Evil Inside rebuilt its psychological horror specifically for VR in May. And Five Nights at Freddy's: Secret of the Mimic finally came to PC VR, putting one of horror's biggest franchises in the headset where it always belonged. No single one redefined the genre, but together they made the first half a genuinely great stretch to be a horror fan with a strong stomach.

The sim moment: Microsoft Flight Simulator on PSVR2

Not every milestone is a new game. In April, Microsoft Flight Simulator officially came to PSVR2, and for the simulation crowd it was one of the most significant things to happen to the platform in a year. Sitting in a cockpit, flying anywhere on a photorealistic recreation of the planet, in VR, on a console, is the kind of experience that sells headsets to people who never thought they wanted one. Sims are a quiet pillar of VR's value, and this was the half's biggest sim arrival.

The honorable mentions

A few more earned their spots on my drive. Virtual Hunter brought a genuinely deep hunting sim to PSVR2 and Quest with smart use of each platform's hardware. Omega Pilot Evolution chased the VR Wipeout dream I have wanted for a decade. The first Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles VR game showed up. And Maestro let me conduct Duel of the Fates with a lightsaber, which is a sentence I did not expect to write this year and absolutely loved.

What the half adds up to

Here is what strikes me looking back. There was no single game this half that dominated the way an Alyx once did, and I know that is the stick people use to beat VR with. But run your eye back up this list. A PCVR survival masterpiece, two reborn puzzle legends, an open-world flight adventure, a 32-player shooter, a horror trio, a console flight sim, and a stack of honorable mentions, across every platform, in six months. That is not a dying medium. That is a healthy one with a deep bench, and a deep bench is more durable than any single hit.

If you want the always-current rundown, our best VR games of 2026 page stays updated. But this was my half, these were the games that earned my evenings, and based on what the summer showcases just teased, the second half is going to make me work even harder to keep this list short. Bring it on. See you in the back half of 2026.