Heroic Games Launcher
Hacker ApprovedThe most recommended of 8 game launchers
Free open source launcher for running GOG and Epic games alongside Steam, with easy setup. Common caveat: less polished than Steam.
Free open source launcher for running GOG and Epic games alongside Steam, with easy setup. Common caveat: less polished than Steam.
59 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 50
- criticize it
- 9
- approval share
- 85%
Recommended in 12 of 13 months
- November 2025: recommended
- December 2025: recommended
- January 2026: recommended
- February 2026: recommended
- March 2026: recommended
- April 2026: recommended
- May 2026: recommended
- June 2026: recommended
- July 2026: recommended
- August 2026: recommended
- September 2026: recommended
- October 2026: recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it carries the badge
- 50 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, met.
- 5.6 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
- Recommended in 12 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Easy setup and play, like Steam
“Just download and run the AppImage file from their site, login to your GOG account and it'll download any dependencies automatically.”
Comment from 29 Dec 2025 in “GOG is getting acquired by its original co-founder: What it means for you” “The experience is more or less the same like in Steam, at least as far as downloading and playing games is concerned.”
Comment from 29 Dec 2025 in “GOG is getting acquired by its original co-founder: What it means for you” “On Steam or Heroic Launcher, running a game has mostly become as simple clicking install and later play.”
Comment from 29 Jun 2026 in “CachyOS June 2026 Release” - Comment from 22 Nov 2025 in “Helping Valve to power up Steam devices”
- Comment from 13 Nov 2025 in “Steam Machine”
- Comment from 6 May 2026 in “Valve releases Steam Controller CAD files under Creative Commons license”
Runs GOG and Epic games
“if you use the Heroic Launcher, you can get your games from the Epic store without using their awful launcher”
Comment from 24 Mar 2026 in “Today's Layoffs” “It's trivial to add games from GOG using Heroic and play them alongside regular Steam games.”
Comment from 3 Sep 2026 in “Sony makes bold claim about game ownership” “I have Heroic Launcher on mine, running games from GOG and Epic alongside Steam games.”
Comment from 13 Nov 2025 in “Steam Machine” - Comment from 5 Nov 2025 in “72% of devs believe Steam has a monopoly on PC games, according to study”
- Comment from 7 Jan 2026 in “Everyone hates OneDrive, Microsofts cloud app that steals and deletes files”
- Comment from 1 Jul 2026 in “Sony will no longer produce discs for PlayStation games starting in January 2028”
Works on Steam Deck
“Heroic also works great on Deck and can automatically add your GOG games to Steam as well.”
Comment from 4 Aug 2026 in “Xbox goes down. You can't play games you own on disc” “I'm able to use the custom controller stuff with it without much problem”
Comment from 3 Dec 2025 in “Valve reveals it’s the architect behind a push to bring Windows games to Arm” “I'm pretty happy with running EndeavorOS w/ KDE, Steam, and Heroic.”
Comment from 30 Nov 2025 in “Bazzite: Operating System for Linux gaming” - Comment from 16 Nov 2025 in “I don’t need a Steam Machine”
Adds games to Steam library
“It's a little jank to switch to Heroic to install the game but I haven't had problems once it's added to Steam”
Comment from 4 Aug 2026 in “Xbox goes down. You can't play games you own on disc” “Heroic also works great on Deck and can automatically add your GOG games to Steam as well.”
Comment from 4 Aug 2026 in “Xbox goes down. You can't play games you own on disc” “the excellent Heroic game launcher lets you mark the game to show up in Steam”
Comment from 28 Jan 2026 in “Microsoft forced me to switch to Linux”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Less polished than Steam
“The experience using Heroic Games Launcher is a good bit less polished than Steam IME.”
Comment from 20 Nov 2025 in “Gaming on Linux has never been more approachable” “the install process has left me less than impressed”
Comment from 19 Nov 2025 in “Gaming on Linux has never been more approachable” Cloud save support unreliable
“Heroic's cloud save support is flaky; I've had it upload saves to the wrong path so Galaxy on another machine can't download them.”
Comment from 29 Dec 2025 in “GOG is getting acquired by its original co-founder: What it means for you” “I consider this cloud save support to be less than stellar”
Comment from 29 Dec 2025 in “GOG is getting acquired by its original co-founder: What it means for you” Rough on handheld and Deck
“Heroic is the best attempt so far, but when comes to handheld UX, it's meh.”
Comment from 30 Jan 2026 in “GOG: Linux "the next major frontier" for gaming as it works on a native client” “that has not been a smooth experience on Steam Deck”
Comment from 4 Aug 2026 in “Xbox goes down. You can't play games you own on disc” Older games need troubleshooting
“Trying to run older windows-only games bought on GOG with launchers like Heroic is a bit of a hit or miss”
Comment from 30 Jan 2026 in “GOG: Linux "the next major frontier" for gaming as it works on a native client” “but I needed to do troubleshooting with a few of the games I owned”
Comment from 30 Jan 2026 in “GOG: Linux "the next major frontier" for gaming as it works on a native client” “Had various issues with Heroic”
Comment from 30 Jan 2026 in “GOG: Linux "the next major frontier" for gaming as it works on a native client”
Other game launchers people recommend
The four most recommended other game launchers, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
| Product | Recommend | Criticize | Approval | Months | Owned | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Heroic Games LauncherThis page | 50 | 9 | 85% | 12 | — | Approved |
| Lutris | 33 | 12 | 73% | 8 | 10 yrs4 owners | Approved |
| GOG Galaxy | 18 | 24 | 43% | 5 | — | — |
| Battle.net | 12 | 8 | 60% | 7 | — | — |
| Steam Big Picture | 8 | 5 | 62% | 5 | — | — |
What people said
40 of the 76 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“It's trivial to add games from GOG using Heroic and play them alongside regular Steam games.”
“Heroic launcher makes it easy and even logs into GoG if you don't have them backed up locally.”
“It's a little jank to switch to Heroic to install the game but I haven't had problems once it's added to Steam”
“that has not been a smooth experience on Steam Deck”
“store-agnostic open source game launcher / library. They should just officially support efforts like Heroic instead.”
“Heroic also works great on Deck and can automatically add your GOG games to Steam as well.”
“about 90% of video games I tried ran with zero issues through Heroic Launcher and GE-Proton”
“If you want to make it even easier you could try loading it via Heroic Launcher which supports game porting toolkit.”
“lets you easily download/install GOG games via Proton”
“On Steam or Heroic Launcher, running a game has mostly become as simple clicking install and later play.”
“makes it even simpler, also for non-DOS Windows games (both very old and newer)”
“Heroic and other launchers make it pretty effortless”
“Setup is easy thanks to Steam and other launchers (e.g. heroiclauncher)”
“Heroic launcher showed that you can easily make an Epic store wrapper and launcher work on Linux.”
“if you use the Heroic Launcher, you can get your games from the Epic store without using their awful launcher”
“but I needed to do troubleshooting with a few of the games I owned”
“Had various issues with Heroic”
“Heroic even streamlines the app updates so you don't have to figure that out.”
“Heroic is the best attempt so far, but when comes to handheld UX, it's meh.”
“GOG bought games handled by Lutris/Heroic/Mini Galaxy trump Steam in convenience almost every time”
“Trying to run older windows-only games bought on GOG with launchers like Heroic is a bit of a hit or miss”
“It'll mean GOG has to do less work, and the programs people are already using will get better.”
“the excellent Heroic game launcher lets you mark the game to show up in Steam”
“GOG and Epic games play just fine via the Heroic app on Bazzite”
“Heroic's cloud save support is flaky; I've had it upload saves to the wrong path so Galaxy on another machine can't download them.”
“I consider this cloud save support to be less than stellar”
“Given it says "Use the Windows version instead", I am quite wrong, it clearly does support them for Windows games.”
“Heroic Launcher supports both cloud saves and achievements. I've been using them for a long time on Deck now.”
“The experience is more or less the same like in Steam, at least as far as downloading and playing games is concerned.”
“Just download and run the AppImage file from their site, login to your GOG account and it'll download any dependencies automatically.”
“And they are open source, I can go and talk to the people making these clients directly”
“I'm able to use the custom controller stuff with it without much problem”
“I'm pretty happy with running EndeavorOS w/ KDE, Steam, and Heroic.”
“You can use Proton there too, automatically downloads and everything, same as Steam.”
“The experience using Heroic Games Launcher is a good bit less polished than Steam IME.”
“the install process has left me less than impressed”
“I use Heroic Launcher to install them, and Steam mode to play it.”
“it was EASY installing Steam and Heroic Games Launcher”
“I have Heroic Launcher on mine, running games from GOG and Epic alongside Steam games.”
“thanks to Heroic Launcher I can even play my games from Gog and Epic on it”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.