Gaming websites that are not on the big portals
Search for browser games and you get the same four aggregators, each showing the same hundred titles wrapped in advertising. That is not the whole web, it is the commercially organised part of it.
The interesting games are elsewhere: on their own domains, made by one person, with no portal, no ads and no account. They are hard to find precisely because nobody is paying to put them in front of you.
- 1
Infinite Craftinfinite-craft.org
Combine two elements, get a third, repeat until you have invented something absurd. Its own domain, no portal, no ads.
Open it here → - 2
Cookie Clickercookieclicker.com
The idle game that defined the genre, still hosted by its own author.
Open it here → - 3
- 4
- 5
Quakeemupedia.net
A full 1996 shooter recompiled to run in a tab. Not on any portal, because no portal would host it.
Open it here → - 6
Wolfenstein 3Dmsiorr.github.io
The same trick with an even older game, and it works just as well.
Open it here → - 7
Doodle Champion Island Games Googlegameblabla.github.io
Google built a genuinely substantial sports game as a doodle and then left it up.
Open it here → - 8
Run 3lekug.github.io
The endless runner that a generation played instead of doing coursework.
Open it here →
A word on the obvious: none of this is about getting around a network filter. These are simply games that live on their own domains rather than a portal, which makes them harder to find and better once you do.
Questions
What are secret gaming websites?
In practice, browser games hosted on their own domains rather than on the large aggregator portals. They are not hidden — they are simply not promoted, because there is no company behind them buying placement.
Every site above was loaded in a real browser and verified working before this was published. See the full catalogue.