If you’re like me, you can’t get enough of match 3 games. Something about their casual approach to strategy makes them the perfect games for mindlessly killing some time on your smartphone. The only problem is the same problem most mobile games have: the microtransactions. You’ll be going along, having a grand old time, and that’s when you’ll run into a paywall. This leads to the grand question, are there any premium mobile match 3 games that you can just pay once and play forever?
Update (November 1st, 2023): Anyone looking for unlimited match 3, block breaking, or merging puzzle gameplay should look no further than Collapsus, one of my new favorite puzzle games of any type, which is currently free for Windows and Android, and which promises to never have microtransactions or paid DLC (although it may eventually have a price of entry when it fully releases).
Update (October 6th, 2019): With the introduction of Google Play Pass, non-premium games have had their in-app purchases stripped away, so you can play without having to worry about spending more money. Currently, there is one traditional match 3 game included in Google Play Pass, Pastry Paradise. With Google Play Pass, you can play Pastry Paradise to your heart’s content without spending any extra money, and hopefully other match 3 games follow its lead.
Zookeeper DX
Zookeeper DX costs $0.99 off the bat, but that’s it. You can give it a free try, though, with the multiplayer version of Zookeeper Battle (iPhone or Android), which is basically the same game but with multiplayer. Zookeeper DX is a classic match 3 game, although there is a timer that can start to rush you as you hit the later levels. This can make it more or less fun, depending on how you feel about timed puzzle games. Zookeeper DX is a very basic match 3 experience where the replayability comes from trying to beat your high score, but for $0.99 you can play all you want, which is a welcome departure from the endless microtransactions that define most other match 3 games.
One note: Zookeeper Battle is optimized for the larger screen sizes you see on modern phones, while Zookeeper DX is not. This means that you have empty bars on the top and bottom of Zookeeper DX if you have a bigger phone (like most people do nowadays). That might not matter to you, but it’s worth noting.
Buy Zookeeper DX for $0.99 on iPhone or Android
10000000/You Must Build A Boat
10000000/You Must Build A Boat are both dungeon-crawling match 3 games from the same developer (EightyEight Games), which is why I’m including them together on this list. Now, to be clear, I haven’t played either of these games, while Zookeeper DX and Triple Town are both on my phone right now. However, they’ve been on my radar for a long time, and I can’t write about premium match 3 games without what some would consider the pinnacle of the genre. (Update: I have since played and beaten both of these games, and I have beaten YMBAB multiple times.)
10000000 and You Must Build A Boat are both dungeon crawling match 3s, where your puzzle action helps you defeat monsters and progress (if you have a Vita, think No Heroes Allowed: No Puzzles Either). They don’t have the prettiest graphics, but are by all accounts great, deep RPGs. The only thing is they both have set end points, unlike Zookeeper DX and Triple Town, which could make them less appealing if you’re searching for a match 3 to play forever. Still, their price tags are worth the hours you’ll get out of them, and some people might get more out of these than, say, trying to keep beating their high score on Zookeeper DX.
Buy 10000000 for $2.99 on iPhone or Android
Buy You Must Build A Boat for $2.99 on iPhone or Android
Buy them both for $4.99 on iPhone (not available on Android, no idea why)
Triple Town
Triple Town is nice because it lets you try it out before making you pay, and even then it’s still not a flat paywall like Super Mario Run, but rather the introduction of a play-restricting mechanic. To clarify, you start with a large number of turns (1,500), and once those run out, you have to wait to get more. What sets Triple Town apart, though, is you can then pay $3.99 to remove turns, basically buying access to unlimited playtime, and you get a bunch of new game modes in return.
Anyways, Triple Town is less of a classic match 3 and more of a board game take on match 3 where you lay down the pieces you’re going to be matching. Shrubs turn into bushes, which turn into trees, which turn into houses, and so on. Bears and rocks block off your path, though, and eventually you’ll run out of moves, ending the game with a nice little settlement. Triple Town is a slightly different take on match 3, but you can probably get more playtime out of Triple Town than any other game on this list.
UPDATE (1/10/2022): This is apparently now a yearly subscription, not a one-time purchase, as it was at the time of this writing.
Buy Triple Town for $3.99 for iPhone or Android
Pay Once, Play Forever Match 3 Action
Regardless of which of these games you choose, you can rest easy knowing that once you pay the price of entry you won’t be squeezed for a cent more and will be able to play to your heart’s content. On top of that, you’ll be supporting non-predatory mobile game development, which is something the landscape desperately needs. Now go off and play!
Triple town isn’t a flat fee, it’s a yearly subscription. Not quite what I was looking for on this topic. I don’t think that was made clear enough.
Hi Kat,
That’s disappointing to hear. When I wrote this it was a one-time buy, not a yearly subscription. The evolution of Spry Fox’s pricing model really makes it seem like their previous pricing didn’t make them enough money, but it’s still annoying to force people into yearly subscriptions for everything.