50 Best iPhone games to make your commute 97% better Mark Delaney. But for our money, the best is still the old one. Sure, visually, it doesn't hold a cotton candy - er, candle - to the newer. Tap to gain money, and build a whole city to help make that money turn big. Exchange bitcoins to US dollars, and the spin for fortune( my favorite when the x100 comes in) which makes you stay on that extra bit of time to make that money pile up faster. All and all very good game.
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These days the best iPhone games space is so rich with innovative and exciting ideas that it's proof that you no longer should expect a lesser experience than consoles or PC, but these days the best iPhone games space is so rich with innovative and exciting ideas that it can sometimes be hard to put your favorite mobile games down to switch to those other platforms. Our list of the best iPhone games is a great example of how impressive mobile gaming has become.
Each month, we count down the 50 best games to play on iPhone and iPad with considerations from all genres, like puzzlers, narrative adventures, shooters, and more. If you need more, don't miss our best Apple Arcade games too, but if you're more of the play-in-piecemeal kind of player, here are our picks for the best iPhone games to play on your commute, at home, or anywhere really.
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50. Angry Birds 2
Genre: Puzzle
Price: Free with in-game purchases
Sure, it seems a bit obvious, but can you really disagree? Angry Birds was one of the earliest mega-hits of the smartphone era and today it's branched off into a multimedia titan with movies, books, and even Lego sets. Though Angry Birds Classic is no longer on the store, this numbered sequel is the purest rendition of the game in the App Store today.
49. Trials Frontier
Genre: Platformer
Price: Free with in-game purchases
You may know Trials from its console and PC versions, or better yet, from the broken controllers they've caused you. Those expert runs are grueling for sure, but a fun upgrade tree and seamless mobile controls make Trials Frontier a mobile spinoff worthy of its brand name. The art style is more cartoonish than the other game in this sneakily long-running series, making it feel friendlier even if it still hopes to tease you with a punishing learning curve.
48. Wordscapes
Genre: Puzzle
Price: Free with in-game purchases
Few mobile experiences offer the comfort of a word puzzle game and Wordscapes is one of our favorites in a crowded field. The rules are simple: take the letter bank in front of you and spell as many words as you can from them. In the background are pleasant still photos, desktop wallpaper-style quaint images of flowers, beaches, and other things to ease you into a work commute.
47. Into the Dead 2
Genre: Auto-runner
Price: Free with in-game purchases
Stick around with me and you'll quickly learn how much I love zombies. Mobile developers love them too, but few seem to love them as much as PikPok, the team behind the Into The Dead series. Into The Dead 2 is the best in that franchise as a runner game that gives players the maneuvers and munitions to dispatch the zeds in their way. It's fast-paced and skill-based and packs all the zombie gore and lore genre fans adore.
46. Moonlighter
Genre: Roguelite RPG
Price: $7.99 | £11.99
Moonlighter is a lovely mix of old and new RPG mechanics and narrative tropes, taking the hero's journey and assigning it to the shopkeeper of your standard fantasy story. You aren't meant to be the savior of the realm. You're just trying to see quality goods at reasonable prices, but that still means you'll need to venture into dangerous lands at times to find the hot new items for your shelves. If you think you've seen it all in the genre, Moonlighter provides a fresh spin.
45. Forgotton Anne
Genre: Adventure-platformer
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Price: Free with in-game purchases
This cinematic platformer plays like a 2D Studio Ghibli movie, where the titular 'Forgotton' (yes we thought it was a typo too) Anne finds herself in a fantasy world full of normally inanimate objects that were left behind the couch, under the driver's seat, or stranded on a plane. Forgotten things now living in something like harmony until Anne arrives to discover the truth of the situation. It's a quirky story only anime could feel home to, and it may make fans out of even naysayers.
44. Disney Sorcerer's Arena
Genre: RPG
Price: free with in-game purchases
There are more turn-based RPGs in the App Store than we could ever possibly count accurately, but as we march toward playing them all one day, one of our early favorites is Disney Sorcerer's Arena. It's a fun mash-up that spans all of Disney and Pixar's illustrious histories with beloved characters and pits them in family-friendly battles imbued with magic. There's a simple irresistible joy seeing Buzz Lightyear, Ariel, Captain Hook, and Sully lined up as a team.
43. Gris
Genre: Puzzle / platformer
Price: $4.99 | £4.99
This narrative puzzle-platformer feels like a dream and looks like one too, though its subject matter is much more restless, dealing with heavy themes like grief, loss, and moving on. Gris is available on almost every platform but it translates well to the smaller screen on your iPhone or iPad thanks to its simple controls and forgiving mechanics that don't rely much on skill, more on problem-solving, and above all, just giving the player the chance to let the game wash over them.
42. SpongeBob Squarepants: Battle for Bikini Bottom
Genre: Platformer
Price: $8.99 | £8.99
2020's remake of this classic SpongeBob console game is now on phones and might even bea better fit this way. Its gameplay harkens back to the heyday of 3D platformers while the upgraded visuals look marvelous. SpongeBob has always been a colorful, energetic, bouncy series, and no game in its long history captures that as well as Battle for Bikini Bottom.
41. Trivia Crack
Genre: Trivia
Price: Free with in-game purchases
You may have already had your Trivia Crack phase years ago, but this multiplayer Trivial Pursuit-like still holds up. With user-generated questions constantly extending the shelf life and tons of different ways to play and tournaments to enter, Trivia Crack is among the best social trivia games out there right now.
Turn to page two for our top 40 best iPhone games...
40. Ministry of Broadcast
Genre: platformer
Price: free with in-game purchases
Inspired by retro narrative platformers like Another World, Ministry of Broadcast throws players in a dystopian hellscape and tells them to escape, they must survive a deadly 'game show' where citizens are thrown into obstacle courses. Dripping with atmosphere and fun platforming in equal measure, this is a game that bridges the gap between old and new schools of thought in the genre.
39. Hot Wheels Infinite Loop
Genre: Racing
Price: Free with in-game purchases
No matter how far away we get from our Hot Wheels years, we still find ourselves pacing more slowly down that aisle at the store. When we're not shopping, Hot Wheels Infinite Loop is the next best thing. Hot Wheels experimented with a few different mobile games over the last few years but seems to have landed on Infinite Loop as its marquee gaming experience, and for good reason. It captures the youthful excitement of the toys better than any before it.
38. Battleship
Genre: Board game
Price: Free with in-game purchases
Virtually every board game you may have loved as a kid has been adapted into a mobile game, but they don't all translate so well. (I see you using anagram solvers to play Scrabble, cheaters!) Battleship, however, is a natural fit. You can't see my pieces, I can't see yours, let's see who sinks first. It's a timeless setup now redone with the bells and whistles of modern mobile gaming.
37. Donut County
Genre: Puzzle / Adventure
Price: $4.99 / £4.99
In Donut County, you play a hole that eats everything in its way. Though it may sound eerily like my experience in the pandemic, it's actually cuter than that. With a cartoonish style and fun critters like raccoons and the wrong-place-wrong-time goose in the image above, it's a short but oddly charming game that doesn't overstay its welcome. See for yourself how being the absence of anything can be a really fun thing. The only downside is now I want donuts.
36. Brawlhalla
Genre: Fighter
Price: Free with in-game purchases
Though Super Smash Bros. isn't on mobile devices, Brawlhalla is the next best thing. Ubisoft agreed so much that it bought the game and now serves as its distributor. Brawlhalla is full of its own mash-ups too, like The Walking Dead's Rick and Michonne, and even Lara Croft from Tomb Raider, among many more. If you love the genre, Brawlhalla is a solid look at an alternate take from Nintendo's genre-leader.
35. Fallout Shelter
Genre: Builder
Price: Free
When Fallout Shelter was introduced, it was ridiculed by some potential players who didn't see the point. But who's laughing now? With regular updates and an addicting strategy/simulation gameplay loop, Fallout Shelter has proven to be, against all odds, perhaps the best-reviewed Fallout game of the last several years.
34. Rolling Sky 2
Genre: Auto-runner
Price: Free with in-game purchases
Auto-runners are a dime a dozen on the App Store, so one really has to stand out to earn a spot here. Rolling Sky 2 does just that. This musically-charged auto-runner is brilliantly scored with orchestral music covering different genres and performed by real musicians for this game. There's nothing pre-canned about any of it, and across several different mood piece-type stories, you'll see (and especially hear) it all.
33. Telling Lies
Genre: Adventure
Price: $6.99 | £6.99
Sam Barlow's live-action games have been huge hits on mobile, partly because of how they smartly use the format to tell stories, but also just because they're great games on their own, as evidenced by how they've succeeded on other platforms too. Still, if playing a cool game that will get your coworkers or fellow train or bus riders looking over your shoulder is worth anything, few turn heads quite like Telling Lies.
32. The Room: Old Sins
Genre: Puzzle
Price: $4.99 / £4.99
Escape rooms are another of those genres that never seem to be in short supply, but the simply titled series The Room has long been the best of them. Old Sins is arguably the best in the series, though if you're new to them, you can start anywhere and feel at home with these ingenious puzzles.
31. Microsoft Solitaire Collection
Genre: Card
Price: Free with in-game purchases
Once upon a time, Solitaire came pre-installed on some electronic devices. Somewhere, it probably still does. If it's not already on your iPhone, it still deserves to be. As one of the most low-maintenance games of all-time, this collection of Solitaire and its spinoffs provide the solo mode relaxation you may seek when your brain is too fried from the work week or even just other busier, louder games.
Turn to page three for our top 30 best iPhone games...
30. Roller Coaster Tycoon Classic
Genre: Simulation
Price: $5.99 | £5.99
This might be controversial. There are several Roller Coaster Tycoon games on mobile, and they each have their fans, but for our money, the best is still the old one. Sure, visually, it doesn't hold a cotton candy - er, candle - to the newer ones, but we think it holds up even without the nostalgia factor. And if you do have that, prepare to remember just how fun it is to turn up the speed too much on your roller coaster and watch those patrons take flight.
29. The Simpsons Tapped Out
Genre: Simulation
Price: Free with in-game purchases
The Simpsons is in a strange place right now. Modern TV watchers don't seem to catch it anymore, or they pick on it when they do, but you can't deny its prior grip on the zeitgeist. Tapped Out does well to keep America's favorite cartoon family relevant by giving fans and newcomers a deep city sim and mini-game collection that feels unique and looks great.
28. Reigns: Game of Thrones
Genre: Puzzle
Price: $3.99 / £3.99
Don’t you just love it when a game takes its name totally literally? Love You to Bits sees you play as a young astronaut whose robot girlfriend gets blown to pieces before his eyes in a crash. Her various parts - from head to feet and everything in between - get scattered across the galaxy in precarious positions, and you’ve got to go retrieve them in order to put her back together again. It’s a futuristic Humpty Dumpty love story all wrapped up in a brilliantly whimsical puzzle game full of strange critters, kooky planets and even the odd robot disco.
27. The Walking Dead: No Man's Land
Genre: RPG
Price: Free with in-game purchases
The Walking Dead is one of those properties which, rather appropriately, refuses to die. I like it that way as a big zombie fan, and thus I also love the official RPG based on the AMC series. With all the characters you'd expect to find, plus a multi-pronged approach to building your characters and your settlement, it's currently the closest iOS games can get to simulating the zombie apocalypse, not that I'm rooting for the real thing or anything...
26. New York Times Crossword
Genre: Puzzle
Price: Free with in-game purchases
Calling all coastal elites, your app is ready. Kidding! The New York Times Crossword is famously tough and rewarding and now you can access its puzzles whenever you want without needing to carry around one of those old-fashioned newspapers or whatever they were called. Download this and you'll be asking your friends and coworkers what a five-letter word for 'serious' is in no time.
25. Bloons TD 6
Genre: Tower defense
Price: $4.99 | £4.99 (with in game-purchases)
History would reveal otherwise, but some part of me attributes Bloons with starting the tower defense genre. So many sequels later, it's still one of the very best you can find on iPhones. Bloons' top-down, cartoon monkey-heavy approach to tower defense is second to none, and each sequel has been better than the last. This will likely be on our list until Bloons TD 7.
24. Her Story
Genre: Adventure
Price: $3.99 | £3.99
Her Story blew up a few years ago thanks to its innovative gameplay that cast players as investigators watching interrogation tapes of a woman and trying to determine the truth of the matter. It's brilliant because it never holds your hand and really doesn't even care to resolve things for you. Once you think you've pieced it together, you signal that in-game and… that's it. Unorthodox, and likely never to be repeated, Her Story is one of the best narrative games ever seen on iPhone.
23. Hyper Light Drifter
Genre: Action-RPG
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Price: $4.99 | £4.99
Hyper Light Drifter is one of those games where you'd be hard-pressed to find someone who doesn't enjoy it. A killer soundtrack, gorgeous visuals, precise, engaging melee gameplay and fun RPG elements make it one of the most well-rounded games on all its many platforms, but sometimes that makes it even better on mobile, when it feels like nothing was compromised for mobile delivery.
22. Stardew Valley
Genre: Simulation
Price: $4.99 | £4.99
The indie scene has played host to numerous spiritual successors that outperformed their inspirators. The Harvest Moon-inspired Stardew Valley is one of the biggest success stories in that field. It's got everything farm life sim fans want, like relationship dynamics, fishing tournaments, a big corporate bad guy, and crop rotation. You know, the essentials.
21. Oddmar
Genre: Platformer
Price: $4.99 | £4.99
Oddmar has been one of my favorite surprise hits as of late, offering levels intricately crafted and visuals unlike anything else I've seen on iPhones. It's an action game with platforming elements, or maybe a platformer with action combat? It's hard to say, it straddles that line really well, and wow does it play great doing it.
Turn to page four for our pick of the top 20 best iPhone games to play right now...
20. Hearthstone
Genre: Card
Price: free with in-game purchases
Royalty among collectible card games, Hearthstone has earned its throne with some of the deepest, most rewarding systems to play with and cards to chase in all the genre. Sure, being a Blizzard product gives it a good start too, but naturally it's earned that head start because Blizzard so often delivers something excellent. If you like CCGs, this is likely going to be your new obsession.
19. Pokemon Go
Genre: augmented reality
Price: free with in-game purchases
It probably needs no introduction, but let's pretend it does. Pokemon Go is the game that brought catching Pokemon halfway into the real world. Thanks to satellite map data and the entire Pokedex to chase, Pokemon Go became a worldwide phenomenon five years ago and is fending off all AR competitors today too. If you love Pokemon or just need an excuse to go on more walks, nothing will serve you better.
18. Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp
Genre: Sim
Price: Free (with in-app purchases)
Because no one wants to wait any longer for Animal Crossing on Switch. It doesn’t quite have the infinite joys of its handheld cousins but there’s adorable charm to be found here as you design your own campground and play host to your favourite Animal Crossing stars. Plus, there’s no real reason to invest with actual cash either as you fish, catch bugs, pick fruit, design your camper, and even water flowers to pass the time before a full game arrives.
17. Limbo
Genre: Platformer
Price: $3.99 | £3.99
Hopefully, you've played Limbo by now, but if you missed it, it's right at home on mobile. This black and white cinematic platformer is full of deadly traps, creepy shadow kids, and giant spiders. Assuming you can stomach all of that, it's also one of the best platformers, and indies in general, of the past 20 years. Play it, then find Inside and play that too.
16. Very Little Nightmares
Genre: Puzzle-platformer
Price: $6.99 | £6.99
If you've already loved and finished Little Nightmares and Little Nightmares 2 on PC and consoles, this mobile spinoff captures the essence of the series while providing a different, third entry in the series that fans shouldn't miss. It lacks some of the qualities of the main games, but the atmosphere in this puzzling side-story is still rich here just like it famously always has been.
15. Monument Valley 2
Genre: Puzzle
Price: $4.99 | £4.99
Take the Escher-like art of the first game, make it prettier, more challenging, and grander overall. That's the blueprint for Monument Valley 2, it seems because it seems the team at Ustwo Games nailed it. While the sequel didn't light the mobile world on fire the same way the original did, it's actually the better game overall, though both are worth playing so maybe start with the first one if you haven't tried them yet.
14. PUBG Mobile
Genre: Battle royale
Price: Free with in-game purchases
PUBG lit the fuse for the gaming world's obsession with battle royale, and though today it's often been supplanted by other games in the genre, for the purists, there's still nothing better. PUBG Mobile is a bit of a strange entity when compared to the console and PC versions, as the in-game events get much wackier than the grounded main game ever does, but the tough-as-nails survival and gunplay is still there in all its admittedly janky beauty.
13. Madden NFL 21 Mobile
Genre: American football
Price: Free with in-game purchases
Not many sports sims translate to mobile so well, but Madden is the best of the good ones. With plenty of crossover content between Madden Mobile and the main game, diehards can keep pace with the competition no matter where they're playing, and there are some unique modes that allow you to experiment with new ways to play when you're away from your PC or console. If it's in the game, it's on your iPhone.
12. Jeopardy!
Genre: Trivia
Price: Free with in-game purchases
Maybe it's old-fashioned, but I find Jeopardy to still be the very best game show out there. Its longevity implies it's doing something right, and I attribute that largely to its breadth of categories and the depth of knowledge one must have to compete. Jeopardy on iPhone translates all of that to a live multiplayer experience that is packed with fun challenges and bragging rights too.
11. Genshin Impact
Genre: RPG Price: Free with in-game purchases
We'll probably never get Breath of the Wild on mobile phones, but Genshin Impact is the next best thing. This open-world gacha game draws heavily from Zelda, especially in the world design, but the anime makeover and deeper item and leveling systems make it stand out as its own worthwhile game too. It's one of the finest examples of a true open-world game on mobile.
Turn to page five for our top 10 best iPhone games...
10. Call of Duty Mobile
Genre: Shooter
Price: Free with in-game purchases
Call of Duty has dominated the console sales charts annually for the better part of two decades straight, and now mobile game studios have to contend with it taking over their platform too. COD Mobile burst onto the scene and quickly became a hit thanks to excellent mechanics and unlockables as deep as the ocean. With constant content updates, it's the sort of live-service game console and PC players are used to, translated perfectly to their iPhones.
9. Among Us
Genre: Social deduction
Price: Free with in-game purchases
This Little Game That Could was built by just three people in 2018 (the team now numbers four) but during the pandemic, its fun blend of deception and deduction caught on with millions of players around the world. If you've ever played Werewolf, think of Among Us like that but in space with silly little spacepeople avatars. It's wicked when played right and can be as casual or strategic as your group makes it out to be.
8. GTA: San Andreas
Genre: Open-world action-adventure
Price: $6.99 | £6.99
The classics never really fade away, and San Andreas, GTA's biggest of its PS2-era games, is still a classic well-deserving of playtime today. With a story that starts serious about a street gang torn apart before getting into wild missions like stealing secret jetpacks from Area 51 analogs, GTA San Andreas is the biggest and often considered best of the yesteryear GTA collection. Then again, if you're more of a Vice City fan, that's available on iPhone too.
7. The Jackbox Party Pack
Genre: Party/trivia
Price: Various
It's the most expensive game on this list no matter which of the seven (and counting) Party Packs you buy, but consider that the $30 or so it'll cost you will turn a profit of countless hours laughing with friends, we think Jackbox is a strong investment. These party game collections work whether you're a comedic genius or not, as the setups they give you so often end up in hilarity no matter what you do.
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6. A Normal Lost Phone
Genre: Adventure
Price: $1.99 | £1.99
As one of the cheapest paid experiences on this list, A Normal Lost Phone has the most bang for your buck. This adventure game inventively pretends your phone is someone else's and asks you to snoop around to solve the story of who's phone it is and what their life is like. It's a one-off tale, so don't expect some procedurally-generated mysteries, but that one story is a memorable one. I think of it as if Gone Home was told through a fake phone interface instead of a first-person story.
5. Sky: Children of the Light
Genre: Adventure
Price: Free with in-game purchases
If you've seen Sky in action, you were maybe reminded of Journey. That's because they're made by the same team, thatgamecompany. This is its mobile follow-up and could be considered a spiritual successor. The social dynamics of interacting with others and exploring the gorgeous dunes of a fantasy world are all there, but there's a longer tail to draw players in and keep them there this time. You won't find many games as beautiful as this one on iPhone.
4. Mario Kart Tour
Genre: Racer
Price: Free with in-game purchases
Who doesn't love Mario Kart? Seriously. I don't know anyone who would sayso, do you? While this isn't a 1:1 translation of Mario Kart 8, it's a great mobile spinoff that still contains the charm and deceptive skill ceiling of Nintendo's best-seller. It's also one of the best-supported games on this list, with regular updates adding new courses and events to keep you drifting around the next turn forever.
3. Minecraft
Genre: Simulation
Price: $6.99 | £6.99
The indomitable Minecraft of course deserves a spot high on our list, especially when it's not compromised by the platform at all. With crossplay and the full range of features on offer, this is the pure Minecraft experience players would want. Bring to life unique worlds full of contraptions, landmarks, and plenty of mobs to fight - or go into creative mode and just build, build, build. If you can think it, you can create it.
2. Geoguesser
Genre: Trivia
Price: Free
There is something so addicting about GeoGuessr's odd gameplay loop. It's truly unlike anything else on this list. You're shown an image from Google Maps data somewhere in the world. Then you guess where it's from. The closer you are, the more points you score. It's simple, yet irresistible. Sure, it's probably just a program to train AI location services or something, but I don't mind giving our robot overlords a hand in exchange for the thrill of nailing a bullseye.
1. Florence
Genre: Adventure
Price: $2.99 | £2.99
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Most games on this list are built to be played forever. Florence is built to be played once, and depending on how long your commute is, perhaps even in just one sitting. At about 40 minutes long, this relationship drama rethinks gameplay by giving players WarioWare-like tasks to simulate daily life, like brushing teeth, going to school, and sadly breaking up with your partner. It's a human story full of rich art and music and despite its brevity, may stay with you for a long time.