8 Best Free Video Players (2026)

#1 BEST

VLC media player

VideoLAN

GPL-2.0 v3.0.23 39.3MB

4.8

6 reviews

VLC is the media player you install once and forget about. Throw any file at it - MKV, AVI, FLAC, MP4, H.265, AV1 - and it just plays. No codec packs, no "format not supported" popups. It has been around since 1996, when a group of students at École Centrale Paris built it as an ...

88 downloads

Windows 7/8/10/11/ARM

Official source

#2 GREAT

PotPlayer

Kakao Corp.

Freeware v26.04.01.0 29MB

4.0

6 reviews

PotPlayer is a free multimedia player for Windows that handles virtually every video and audio format without requiring external codec packs. It uses hardware accelerated decoding through DXVA, CUDA, and QuickSync to play high resolution content smoothly, even on modest hardware....

18 downloads

Windows 7/8/10/11

Official source

#3 SOLID

KMPlayer

Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd.

Freeware v2026.3.23.52 51MB

4.7

6 reviews

KMPlayer is a free media player by Pandora TV (South Korea) that plays video and audio files without requiring separate codec packs. It supports over 150 video formats and 50 audio formats out of the box. It runs on Windows, macOS, Android, and iOS. Playback features Open a video...

35 downloads

Windows 7/8/10/11

Official source

#4

GOM Player

GOM & Company

Proprietary v2.3.114.5384 27.7MB

4.8

5 reviews

GOM Player is a media player by GOM & Company (South Korea) that plays most video formats without needing extra codec packs. It built its reputation on automatically finding and loading subtitles, which made it popular in countries where subtitle availability matters more than du...

15 downloads

Windows 7/8/10/11

Official source

#5

Media Player Classic Home Cinema

MPC-HC Team

GPL-2.0 v2.7.0 15.6MB

4.6

5 reviews

Media Player Classic Home Cinema (MPC-HC) is a free, open source media player for Windows that plays virtually any video and audio format without requiring separate codec packs. It is extremely lightweight and runs well on older hardware. Development stopped in 2017, but the prog...

13 downloads

Windows 7/8/10/11

Official source

#6

SMPlayer

Ricardo Villalba

GPL-2.0 v25.6.0 44MB

4.3

4 reviews

SMPlayer is a free media player for Windows and Linux that plays virtually every video and audio format without requiring additional codec packs. It uses the mpv engine under the hood and remembers the playback position, subtitle track, and audio settings for every file you open....

12 downloads

Windows 8/10/11

Official source

#7

Kodi

XBMC Foundation

GPL-2.0 v21.3.0.0 82MB

4.6

7 reviews

Kodi is a free, open source media center (formerly XBMC) that plays video, music, photos, and podcasts from local drives and network sources. It organizes your library with metadata and cover art pulled from online databases. Addons extend it to stream content, watch live TV, che...

28 downloads

Windows 7/8/10/11

Official source

#8

BS.Player

Webteh

Freeware v2.79 10.66MB

4.5

2 reviews

BS.Player is a media player from Slovenia that was one of the most popular video players in the world during the 2000s. It plays video and audio files with built-in codec support, handles subtitles in multiple formats, and uses hardware acceleration to reduce CPU load. The free v...

13 downloads

Windows XP/Vista/7/8/10/11

Official source