Here at My Dpad, I’ve been writing about video games, and particularly mobile games, for over 5 years. In that time I’ve played a lot of mobile games for articles I’ve written here, and I’ve played a lot more games that I haven’t written anything about. In other words, I’ve spent a lot (and I do mean a lot) of time combing the Google Play store for the best games on there, and I’ve played some great games and a lot of duds.
Luckily, since I’ve spent all that time doing this, that means you don’t have to. These are the 10 best free mobile games that are not pay to win that you can get right now from the Google Play Store as of this writing (in early April 2022). I’ve listed a genre for each game to try to get a good mix of games, but I didn’t necessarily try to pick “the best [insert genre here] game” or anything like that. I’ve also included 10 alternatives for each game, so really it’s a list of the 20 best free Google Play games. There are probably some games you’ve already heard of, but there should also be some hidden gems in here for you.
Again, all of these games are free, and while I think they all have in-app purchases, I can personally say that you can enjoy each and every one of these games without spending a penny, and if you do decide to support the developers, you can do so cheaply. These games are not designed to drain you of every penny you have, which seems to be the end goal for a large majority of the mobile games that you regularly see promoted on the Google Play store and elsewhere.
Still, in most cases, you’re better off buying a $3-$5 premium game with no IAP, or finding a free game with a $3-$5 premium upgrade to remove ads and microtransactions. You can see my companion piece with my recommendations for the best paid games right here. When you just need a free game though, and you don’t want to spend money until you’ve had hours of fun (if you want to spend money at all), this list has something for everyone.
In alphabetical order:
Battle of Polytopia (Strategy)
Battle of Polytopia basically shrinks 4X/Civilization-type games into something more suitable for mobile. You start in a fog-surrounded enclave and build out your empire through military strength, cultural achievements, or just plain exploration. Battle of Polytopia is a must-have for anyone who likes turn-based games.
As an alternative, the classic Plants vs. Zombies is an oldie but goodie.
Battle Racing Stars (Racing)
Battle Racing Stars is not your typical racing game. Rather than looking like Need for Speed, it looks more like a 2D platformer. The plus side is that this means you can truly test your lightning reflexes, since most phones should be able to handle these graphics no problem. From the same studio that made Fruit Ninja, Jetpack Joyride, Magic Brick Wars, and others, Battle Racing Stars is a great way to get your competitive juices flowing and truly see how much worse your reflexes have gotten with age.
As an alternative, Crash Bandicoot: On The Run! is an infinite runner featuring Crash Bandicoot; if you think about it, the original games weren’t that different than modern infinite runners in the first place.
Download Crash Bandicoot: On The Run!
CUE Cards (Cards)
CUE Cards might just be my favorite mobile game ever, and I’ve felt this way for a few months now. CUE stands for Cards, Universe, and Everything, and it’s exactly what it sounds like. This is a card game where your deck can have Amelia Earhart, a Tyrannosaurus Rex, and a Chupacabra all in one deck, and it might even be a good deck! On top of that, the cards have valuable information about every topic on the back, so this is like playing Magic the Gathering and browsing Wikipedia all at once. I bought a $2.99 “welcome pack” right when I started and have not spent any money since through hours of play, since you can get any card through currency you earn in-game, and since you can always trade for cards. This is basically the feel of playing your favorite card game back at the schoolyard, except you have a few thousand more people to trade with than just your class. Play this game!
As an alternative, Animation Throwdown is a fun game featuring Futurama, Bob’s Burgers, King of the Hill, American Dad, and Family Guy, though it’s way more pay to win than CUE.
Hoop League Tactics (Sports)
As you might have been able to tell from my racing recommendation, I like games that understand the limitations of mobile devices. This is another example. While NBA 2K and Live are surprisingly good on mobile, this takes a more tactical approach that feels like an extremely lite version of Football Manager that you can actually play (though the turn-based basketball is something like chess). You can also get custom rosters from the robust community online, so the lack of licensing here isn’t as bad as you think. I do know I paid $3 or so for a premium upgrade for this game, but as far as I remember the free offering is pretty robust.
As an alternative, New Star Soccer is a classic sports RPG where you can rise from a promising amateur to a global superstar, one situational kick at a time.
OneBit Adventure (Action RPG)
OneBit Adventure is always gonna be my mobile version of Diablo, even once Immortal comes out. OneBit Adventure streamlines an ARPG looter into its essentials, meaning you can play for one minute or 6 hours. The developer is constantly updating this game and giving away free currency, though I’ve only used my currency to switch up the color themes. This is definitely not a pay-to-win game, and the only thing about it that feels like a mobile game is its general UI/graphics.
As an alternative, Hoppia Tale is a fun throwback-feeling game that is still not bad at all in terms of monetization.
Pixel Starships (Strategy RPG)
While I’ve listed Pixel Starships as my favorite mobile strategy RPG, it’s also my favorite mobile MMO. This is a game where you get to design the interior of your ship exactly how you want, which means you can truly customize your tactics. You can load up on engines and try to overpower your opponents with brute strength and missiles, you can focus on deploying light crafts for both offensive and defensive purposes, or you can just teleport your crew into the opponent’s ship and take them down from the inside. There’s plenty of single player content here to let you build up your ship and your strategy before you have to focus entirely on PvP, but the PvP is also accessible and seems to have pretty good matchmaking (where you can choose who to attack while previewing their strength). Of all the games on this list, this might be the one that most makes your phone feel like a console.
As an alternative, Futurama Worlds of Tomorrow is definitely more filled with mobile pay-to-win garbage, but if you love Futurama like I do it’s still okay, and shares certain gameplay similarities with Pixel Starships is one combat type.
Download Futurama Worlds of Tomorrow
Plato (Social)
Plato is the best social game for Android I’ve found yet. If you’ve ever been jealous of iMessage games, Plato if the perfect way to bring your Android up to par. With a wide range of games ranging from 2-player and small group games like Gin Rummy, Chess, Go, Ludo, Table Pool/Billiards, and Table Soccer to larger group games like Euchre and Werewolf, Plato really shines in its execution. It’s a free app that does not demand any money from you, but it feels incredibly polished in every way, so if a game’s on there, you can trust it’ll actually be fun to play.
As an alternative, Chess.com is everything you need if chess is the only game you’re interested in playing with friends.
Pocket Mortys (Creature Catching)
While Plato, listed above, has “Match Monsters”, its own creature catcher, Pocket Mortys is the real deal. A surprisingly great licensed game, Pocket Mortys has you play as one of many versions of Rick who use many different versions of Mortys to fight other Ricks with other Mortys. This setup actually works considering the show itself, which is a nice bonus. Anyways, I haven’t played much of the multiplayer, so I can’t personally say whether that aspect is pay-to-win or not, but the single player is great for hours and hours of fun without spending any money. I know a lot of people hate Rick and Morty, but if you’re a fan (or just neutral, I guess) this is a hell of a game.
As an alternative, mobile juggernaut Kairosoft has Beastie Bay, which is one of their best free games.
SEGA Forever Games (Arcade)
Okay, I’m cheating a bit here because I couldn’t pick one arcade game. SEGA Forever is a set of a bunch of classic SEGA games that are mostly from its golden age in the 80s and 90s. Unfortunately, each game is its own app. I would love if this was one platform app that worked a bit more like an emulator, but oh well. Whether you want to play old school Sonic the Hedgehog, Golden Axe, Crazy Taxi, Comix Zone, Super Monkey Ball, Virtua Tennis, or one of a bunch of other games, just search for “SEGA Forever” in the Google Play store and you’ll see all the free options. I think there are some in-app purchases so that you can save offline or something, but you can decide whether or not that’s worth it after getting your fix of nostalgia.
Download Sonic The Hedgehog Classic
As an alternative, if you associate arcades with pinball, you can try Zen Pinball (though who knows who long you’ll be able to access purchased tables, based on how they’ve treated their desktop series).
Zookeeper Battle (Puzzle)
Finally, if you’re a mobile gamer, you’re more likely than not to at least sometimes play puzzle games. Instead of playing something like Candy Crush that’s mostly designed around monetization, try playing Zookeeper Battle. This is the multiplayer version of Zookeeper Touch DX, which I highly recommend, though I can’t list here because it costs $0.99, but it is certainly not one of those money-hungry match 3s. It does unfortunately still limit your lives, which is why I suggest just spending a few bucks instead if you really want a puzzle game.
As an alternative, Puzzle Quest 3 is the latest mainline offering in the series that brought us Marvel Puzzle Quest and Magic the Gathering Puzzle Quest, but its monetization is pretty rough.
From these 10 (20 when counting the alternatives) games, I can almost promise that you’ll find something you like, no matter what type of games you like or how good your smartphone is. If you want to check out my companion piece for paid games, you can do so here. Finally, feel free to list some of your favorite free Android games in the comments so that people have even more options to choose from!
