4 year old interested in PC gaming, where do I even start?

My daughter is turning 4 this year and she’s already super interested in PCs. She loves moving the mouse around and watching the cursor on the screen move, but that’s about as far as I’ve let her use my setup so far.

I tried letting her play Breath of the Wild on the Switch and she absolutely loved it, but after a while she started acting out like Link at home and hitting things, so I took it away about 5 months ago. Since then I haven’t given her any games because I started wondering if she’s just too young for that kind of stuff, I even took away all screens including YouTube kids for the same reason.

Growing up, I started on old DOS games like Commander Keen, Doom, Maniac Mansion, Prince of Persia, then later moved on to Red Alert 2, Warcraft 3, Civilization, racing games, and eventually WoW, CoD, etc. Part of me is thinking maybe old-school PC games might actually be better to start with since they’re slower paced and in some cases less intense/aggressive. But I’m honestly not sure if that’s the right direction.

For the parents here (Or anyone that has young siblings):

What did you start your kids on around 4 years old?

Are there good PC games that focus more on creativity or problem solving rather than combat?

Just looking for advice on how others have handled introducing PC gaming to young kids. Thanks in advance.

Posted Feb 22, 2026, 5:06 PM UTC

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