The 21 best free Android games

We all know that free Android games aren’t always free these days, but many of them are very close if you have a little patience. Most free-to-play bottlenecks occur when players get impatient. Waiting it out can usually get around those pitfalls. What we have here are the best free Android games that you should be able to play comfortably without spending a dime, and we hope you enjoy them. For anyone who can’t handle free-to-play mechanics, check out our list of the best Android games, which includes paid titles. If you have a Netflix subscription, check out our list of the best Netflix games, which include some excellent titles without ads or additional fees.

The best free Android games

Alto’s Odyssey

Price: Free to play

Alto’s Odyssey is a natural choice for a free Android game. It features simple mechanics, gorgeous graphics, and a relaxing style. Players ski down a hill while avoiding obstacles and making massive jumps. There are also items to collect that can be traded in for various customization options. The game relies heavily on its wallpaper-worthy graphics. They are simple but effective and the dark, gradient colors add a good atmosphere to the game. As you progress further the scenery changes, but you can also select where to start if you want a more relaxing experience.

It’s completely free to download and play with some limited ads. There are in-app purchases, but they are all for customization stuff so it’s entirely optional and it doesn’t affect gameplay. It’s kid-friendly and fun. Noodlecake Studios also does Alto’s Adventure, the predecessor to this one.

Asphalt 9: Legends

Price: Free to play

The Asphalt franchise has some of mobile’s most popular racing games. Asphalt 8: Airborne and Asphalt Xtreme were the big ones in the series. However, Asphalt 9: Legends came out in July 2018. This is the most recent game, with Asphalt 10 expected in summer 2024. It includes 50 cars, a bunch of challenges, and a bunch of content to play with. That includes online multiplayer, single-player stuff, and more.

It uses an auto-go mechanism, so you can’t control your acceleration. It’s not the best implementation, but you get used to it. The graphics are good, and the social elements are good as well. It’s a freemium game. Thus, the online competitive aspect may be skewed a bit. However, the single-player stuff is good arcade racing. You can also skip in-app purchases with extra grinding. It’s tedious but entirely doable.

Brawl Stars

Price: Free to play

Brawl Stars is the latest in a string of hit games from Supercell, who also made the likes of Clash of Clans and Clash Royale. It’s very different from those games though, offering intense 3v3 battles with a colorful cast of characters to unlock as you play. It uses simple touch controls, and there are always new maps and game modes to keep things interesting.

Like Supercell’s other games, this is one of the best free Android games you can download, but it is fairly heavily monetized with a battle pass and other in-app purchases. You can get by without spending any money, but you’ll have to grind to unlock new characters. If you love short, competitive matches, this one is worth checking out.

Honkai: Star Rail

Price: Free to play

Honkai: Star Rail is a gacha RPG from the developers behind Genshin Impact. You and the other characters use the Astral Express to travel from planet to planet to help the people there deal with issues. It has excellent presentation, a good soundtrack, and the combat system is fun, albeit a bit too simple for some folks. This is one of those games where you can play it for months, and there will probably be new content for years. The game just has that thing about it where you know it’s going to be good.

It launched in 2023 to rave reviews, and it’s one of the best gacha games on the market right now. It has the same monetization methods you’d expect from any other gacha RPG, but the game is very generous with free pulls if you actively participate in events.

Disney Mirrorverse

Price: Free to play

Disney Mirrorverse is a surprisingly good mobile gacha. It uses action RPG mechanics where you run around the battlefield and hit your enemies with attacks. You collect an increasingly large cast of Disney characters, form a party, and progress the story. There are also side quests, online PvP, and event quests to help keep you occupied. It has flaws like any game, but it’s in active development and is continuously improving.

EA Sports games

Price: Free to play

EA has the market cornered on sports games. It is the only developer with yearly launches for most sports, including their Madden NFL Overdrive game, FIFA Soccer, NBA Live Mobile, EA Sports UFC, and others. These games all have very similar elements. You can play the actual sport and there is a sim mechanic. The graphics are usually pretty decent and the controls are generally good. However, EA sports games have heavy free-to-play elements. That is a frequent frustration for many players and it makes it difficult to recommend EA in general.

Unfortunately, EA is the only developer that consistently makes games for most sports, making them the best by default. There are a few decent soccer games here and excellent football games here.

Final Fantasy Brave Exvius

Price: Free to play

Final Fantasy Brave Exvius is perhaps the best Final Fantasy-themed freemium game out there. It features many elements from the original games, including actual town and dungeon explorations, hidden treasures, secret dungeons, and lore. The gameplay is simple to learn, but you’ll need to think critically in order to beat bosses and hard opponents. You’re frequently rewarded for logging in daily and additional missions, quests, and activities help keep the game fresh.

This is about as good as it gets for free-to-play titles. Square Enix launched a spiritual successor, War of the Visions: FFBE in early 2020 and it’s an improving strategy RPG game. It’s not nearly as good as regular Brave Exvius, though. You can find some other great gachas here.

Genshin Impact

Price: Free to play

Genshin Impact was a surprise release that’s grown into one of the biggest mobile games of all time. It’s a mix of an action-exploration RPG with gacha elements. Thankfully, you can play through all of the game’s content without spending a dime, including the massive story that spans across a rich, colorful world. It comes with a completely open world (although some areas are gated by quest/story progress) and some satisfying combat mechanics. The graphics and gameplay are both surprisingly good. Plus, you can play with people on PS4, iOS, and PC as well.

Despite its free-to-play mechanics and gacha label, this is a seriously good game that’s only gotten better over time. At this point there’s an absolutely enormous world to explore, and you don’t have to pay a penny to access all of it.

Call of Duty: Mobile

Price: Free to play

It should come as no surprise that Call of Duty: Mobile makes our list of the best free Android games. It includes classic online FPS PvP like any Call of Duty. However, it also includes a 100-player battle royale mode similar to PUBG Mobile and Fortnite. That puts it in a rare category of a good regular FPS game like Critical Ops as well as a good battle royale like PUBG Mobile.

The game has in-app purchases, but they seem to be solely for cosmetic gear and a good amount of it is available as in-game rewards. The gameplay is good and it’s really stood the test of time.

League of Legends: Wild Rift

Price: Free to play

MOBA-style games on Android used to be huge, but their popularity has waned in recent years. One welcome exception is League of Legends: Wild Rift, which is essentially the mobile version of the hit PC MOBA title. It pits teams of five players against each other to destroy the enemy team’s base. Thankfully, game times are significantly shorter in Wild Rift, making it much more mobile-friendly.

As expected from Riot Games, there’s a high level of polish here, and the roster of champions is constantly expanding. Everything will feel familiar if you’ve played the PC game, but certain skills have been tweaked to suit touchscreen controls. To be honest, some of the changes are for the better.

Legends of Runeterra

Price: Free to play

Legends of Runeterra is a card dueling game similar to Hearthstone (another excellent free-to-play game). Players collect cards, build decks, and duel each other until someone wins. You pick a champion and build the deck around it, which helps define your strategy. It’s honestly a lot like the Commander game type in Magic: The Gathering.

Apart from this game and the one above, Riot Games also makes Teamfight Tactics, another good free-to-play game.

Marvel Snap

Price: Free to play

Another great free mobile card game is Marvel Snap. As the name implies, it’s based in the Marvel universe, and you can collect and compete with your favorite characters. These include the X-Men, Fantastic Four, Avengers, and countless other pop culture icons.

The game itself is a fast-paced card battler, and it’s grown enormously in popularity since it launched in late 2022. Matches take roughly three minutes, with unique mechanics for anyone familiar with this style of game. The game is also available on PC via Steam, although it’s pretty much just a mobile port.

Nintendo games

Price: Free to play (usually)

Nintendo is an easy recommendation for free Android games. They have games in a variety of different genres and most of them tug at the nostalgia factor. Some Nintendo titles include Dragalia Lost, Fire Emblem: Heroes, Mario Kart Tour, and Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp. There is also a middling Dr. Mario World game if you like puzzles. Each game is cleanly done with smooth gameplay and colorful graphics. A few, like Dr. Mario World, are a bit rough around the edges with their free-to-play elements, but otherwise, Nintendo does a great job of delivering good experiences.

We recommend Fire Emblem Heroes to strategy RPG fans especially. Fun fact, Mario Kart Tour has the second largest mobile launch of all time behind only Call of Duty: Mobile.

Pocket City

Price: Free / $2.99

Pocket City is as close to SimCity as you can get on Android. The game starts out like many other city builders. You build roads, residential zones, commercial zones, and important buildings. There are disasters to deal with and surprisingly deep economic and crime mechanics to keep track of. The free version of the game doesn’t have quite as many features as the premium version and it has ads as well.

However, most of the extra features are just that, extras, and you can play the core game for free without paying for it. The core game is fairly limited, so don’t expect to get hundreds of hours out of it. Still, this is easily one of the best simulators on Android right now, even if it had a rough patch when it started.

Pokemon Go

Price: Free to play

Pokemon Go was the biggest mobile game of 2016, starting a worldwide AR craze that lasted for years. Even though its popularity has tapered off a bit, the game is still a very solid free option. Players can explore the real world around them all while catching Pokemon, taking down gyms, and finding Pokestops. New additions include legendary Pokemon, raid battles, trainer battles (with some caveats), and more. You can even trade Pokemon in the game now.

The game continues to evolve beyond what many remember it to be. When it eventually ends its run, it’ll go down as one of the greatest and most iconic mobile games ever. It stands alone atop the best augmented reality games list.

Pokemon TCG Pocket

Price: Free to play

Pokemon TCG Pocket is the digital version of the physical trading card game. Sure, it’s not a direct copy. Players still collect cards and there is a battle element, but it’s far more accessible to Pokemon stalwarts and beginners.

The game’s also extremely generous. You never have to spend a dime to receive a pack of cards, as the game hands them out every few hours. Yes, you can spend, but you don’t absolutely have to.

Roblox

Price: Free to play

Roblox is one of the most popular games in the world right now. It’s a sandbox game with a metric ton of content to play through. The game is ancient by mobile gaming standards, but the ever-increasing amount of things to do keeps it relevant to this day. Players can play games that other players create or create new games themselves.

The mobile app has complete cross-platform support with the other versions of the game and includes a chat function. The downloadable content is occasionally NSFW, so make sure to monitor your kids if you let them play.

Rocket League Sideswipe

Price: Free to play

Rocket League was a huge cultural phenomenon on PC, and the mobile version is one of the best Android games you can play today. In case you’re not familiar with the original game, it’s a competitive soccer-like game where you control cars and pull off some sick acrobatic maneuvers to try to hit a giant ball into your opponent’s net. Monetization is surprisingly light, and matches can be very intense.

Smash Hit

Price: Free / $1.99

Smash Hit is one of the best endless runners ever made. It uses a unique first-person perspective and you have to throw metal balls at glass panels to avoid taking damage. Your hit points double as your ammo count so there is a micromanaging aspect to the game to throw as few balls as possible while also being hit as little as possible. The free version of the game contains the full game from start to finish. The premium version adds saving and player stats.

Tower of Fantasy

Price: Free to play

Tower of Fantasy is a mobile RPG with gacha elements. Players hang out in an open world with tons of quests and story missions to do. Additionally, you collect various new characters, explore their backstories, and use them to defeat opponents. That’s the main gameplay loop, but there are other things to do as well.

The game competes with Genshin Impact in this space, and the two games are somewhat similar. The open-world aspect, the gacha aspect, and the exploration are all quite similar, so if you like one game, you’ll likely enjoy the other one as well. This one had some hiccups when it first launched, but it seems like the worst is well behind it. It’s a good game that’s worth playing if you like gacha RPGs.

Vampire Survivors

Price: Free to play

Vampire Survivors was a huge sleeper hit in 2022, and now it’s available completely for free on Android. It’s a very simple retro-style rogue-lite bullet hell game where you move a small character around a map with waves of enemies constantly spawning. Your character automatically attacks, and you get stronger by picking up items dropped by defeated enemies.

There are tons of characters to unlock, and the simplicity of the game lends itself very well to mobile. However, some levels can take up to 30 minutes to complete, and closing the game might make you lose your progress. Keep that in mind before you start a new run.

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