Idle games that play at the bottom of your screen

In April 2024, a little farming game called Rusty’s Retirement sold 100,000 copies in five days. It doesn’t take over your screen. It sits in a strip along the bottom, where robots water and harvest the crops while you get on with your work, and you glance down now and then to plant more.

Idle games suit people with little time, because nothing bad happens when you look away, and one that lives at the edge of your screen asks for even less. Two years on, Steam has a whole “Desktop Companion” tag, with 184 games in it. These are the ones worth a corner of your screen. Every price is from the game’s Steam page, as of 30 September 2026.

At a glance

Game	Price	Where it sits	What you do	Mac
Rusty’s Retirement	$6.99	A strip at the bottom, or up the side	Plant crops; robots do the rest	Yes
Tiny Pasture	$5.99	A strip you can move and stretch	Raise and breed animals	Yes
Maltese’s Fluffy Onsen	$5.99	The bottom	Run a bathhouse for animals	Yes
My Little Life	$5.99	The bottom	Look after a little person’s life	No
Cornerpond	$2.99	A corner	Fish, sell, upgrade	No
Fish to Dish	$5.99	The bottom or a corner	Fish, make sushi, sell it	No
Tiny Aquarium	$7.49	The bottom, in Tiny Mode	Breed fish, visit friends’ tanks	Not the strip
PC FISH	Free, paid decor	The taskbar	Breed, merge and trade fish	Yes
TBH: Task Bar Hero	Free, paid classes	A tiny window on the taskbar	Heroes fight and loot by themselves	No
Crusaders Quest: Hero Town	$6.99	The side	Heroes guard a town you build	Yes
Desktop Defender	$4.99	A corner	One tower against endless waves	No
Ropuka’s Idle Island	$3.99	A see-through island, anywhere	A frog cuts grass for upgrades	No
Birdwatching Notebook	$9.99	A postcard in a corner	Photograph the birds that visit	Yes
Bongo Cat	Free, paid extras	On the taskbar	Every key you press is a tap	Experimental
Desktamer	$9.99 once	Pets walk the bottom; Quest is a window	Pets earn gold, then star in an idle RPG	Yes, and Linux

The one that started it

Rusty’s Retirement is a farm in a see-through strip along the bottom of your screen, or up the side in its vertical mode. You plant, robots water and harvest, and the crops become biofuel you sell to grow the farm. Focus Mode slows everything down, so it pulls at you less. $6.99 for Windows and Mac, and Overwhelmingly Positive on Steam.

Animals

• Tiny Pasture ($5.99, Windows and Mac): buy baby animals, raise them, collect the coins they drop, and breed them. The pasture is a strip you can drag anywhere and stretch, and a middle-click makes an animal follow your pointer.
• Maltese’s Fluffy Onsen ($5.99, Windows and Mac): run a bathhouse for animals at the bottom of your screen, with baths of different temperatures, snacks and staff.
• My Little Life ($5.99, Windows): a little person lives along the bottom of your screen. You choose their career, order their furniture and invite more people in.

Fishing

• Cornerpond ($2.99, Windows, with a free demo): your angler fishes in a corner of your screen by itself, and now and then a big catch needs you. More than 100 fish, in five places.
• Fish to Dish ($5.99, Windows): your boat fishes at the bottom or in a corner, and typing or clicking makes the fish bite sooner. Turn them into sushi and sell it. It can keep fishing while it’s closed.
• Tiny Aquarium ($7.49): breed and sell fish, fish for more, and visit friends’ tanks. The fish grow even while it’s closed. It runs on Mac and Linux too, but its Tiny Mode, the strip at the bottom, is Windows only.
• PC FISH (free, with decor from $3.99, Windows and Mac): an aquarium on your taskbar. Breed and merge fish, and trade them on the Steam Market.

If you’d rather have a proper fishing game that can also idle, Cast n Chill ($14.99, Windows and Mac) has an idle mode and a vertical mode for the side of your screen.

Heroes and monsters

• TBH: Task Bar Hero (free, Windows): pixel heroes fight through three acts in a tiny window on your taskbar, by themselves, even while you’re away. You choose classes, skills and gear. Extra classes cost $4.99, and loot can be traded on the Steam Market. It needs an internet connection, and its reviews are Mixed. The developer has paused Market listings and punished cheaters, and PC Gamer reported bot farming and players wrongly flagged by its anti-cheat.
• Crusaders Quest: Hero Town ($6.99, Windows and Mac): heroes guard a town at the side of your screen. You recruit and promote them, and build and decorate the town.
• Desktop Defender ($4.99, Windows): a single tower in a corner fights endless waves, and you ascend for upgrades that last.
• Deskrawl ($6.99, Windows), out on 28 September 2026: a hero grinds monsters for loot at the bottom of your desktop and captures them, bosses too, as minions.

Small and calm

• Ropuka’s Idle Island ($3.99, Windows): a see-through island you can put anywhere and resize, where a frog cuts the grass. Grass buys upgrades and decorations, to lofi music and nature sounds. The smallest and calmest one here.
• Birdwatching Notebook ($9.99, Windows and Mac, with a free demo): a postcard in a corner of your screen. Decorate it, and birds come by on their own schedules for you to photograph and write up.

Tap along: Bongo Cat

Bongo Cat sits on your taskbar and taps with every key you press and every click. The taps open chests with hats, and friends’ cats can join yours. It’s free, with paid packs and a monthly pass. The Mac version is experimental, and there’s no Linux one yet. Here’s every way to get Bongo Cat, and how its Paw Pass works.

For focus

Two cozy rooms that keep you company while you work, with the tools to do it: Spirit City: Lofi Sessions ($11.99, Windows and Mac) has a focus timer, a to-do list and a habit tracker, and spirits to collect. Mini Cozy Room: Lo-Fi ($4.99, Windows) has a Mini Mode for your taskbar, a focus timer, and rooms to share with friends. There’s more in a focus timer with a pet.

Desktamer: your pets, and their quest

We make Desktamer, and it’s a little different. It isn’t a strip game. What lives at the bottom of your screen is your pets: they walk along it (and a Mac’s menu bar), nap, and keep you company. While they’re out, the happiest three earn gold.

Open Quest, a small idle RPG in Desktamer’s window, and your pets are the heroes. Any pet can join the party, its class comes from what kind of creature it is, and the care you give it makes it stronger in battle. Fights play themselves while the window’s open. You spend the gold on levels, gear at the blacksmith, merges and alchemy, take on bounties, and fill a monster book. When you’ve gone far enough, Rebirth starts you over with stars that carry on.

Nothing plays while Desktamer is closed or the computer’s asleep. Your pets earn while they’re out with you.

There are no in-app purchases. You can watch a Quest fight on this site first.

On a Mac, or Linux

Most of these games are Windows only. On a Mac, you can play Rusty’s Retirement, Tiny Pasture, Maltese’s Fluffy Onsen, PC FISH, Crusaders Quest: Hero Town, Birdwatching Notebook, Cast n Chill and Spirit City, and Bongo Cat as an experiment.

On Linux, none of the strip games has a Linux build that keeps its strip. A Steam Deck plays several of them, but not at the bottom of your desktop. Desktamer runs on Linux too, through XWayland on a Wayland session: see desktop pets on Linux.

How to choose

• The original, a farm: Rusty’s Retirement.
• Animals to raise: Tiny Pasture.
• Fishing in a corner: Cornerpond, or Fish to Dish.
• Heroes and loot, for free: TBH: Task Bar Hero. For Windows and Mac: Crusaders Quest: Hero Town.
• The smallest, calmest one: Ropuka’s Idle Island.
• A cat that taps along: Bongo Cat.
• Your own pets as the heroes, on Mac, Windows or Linux: Desktamer.