Looking for games for my friend. She’s mostly looking for a casual timewaster for a bit of enjoyable escapism. She historically liked some of the “merge games” where it’s about merging icons on a grid, and a couple of the more traditional idle games but its so hard to find any without summy practices like dark patterns and abusive monitization.
So, what are some good casual mobile games? Ideally, the sort of thing your grandma could enjoy, but without the scummy practices that are widespread.
Edit: I’m looking for more “pure” casual games, rather than ones that are primarily puzzle or arcade games. Something more akin to Cookie Clicker, those old shovelware hidden object games, or Bejeweled’s zen mode rather than Tetris or Brickbreaker.
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I’ve been mildly addicted to Threes for nearly 13 years now. It’s my go-to when having to wait for anything, which is especially handy when you’re as impatient as I am (getting old). Also keeps me from doom scrolling. Just best score chasing, run based, number matching goodness.
Not exactly on topic, but depending on the phone hardware, GameNative may allow to run PC games. I think, it’s worth mentioning because hardware becomes more performant, and emulation support improves over time, and I didn’t expect to be able to play something from Steam on my phone, and yet recently I started doing just that (in my case it’s Slay the Princess, the game is great, but doesn’t fit the bill of what you’re looking for)
Infinite Minesweeper.
balatro and ballxpit. Both very fun time-wasters.
I second Balatro. Best $10 I ever spent
Yes! Balatro!
In that vein, does anyone know if Monster Train 1 or 2 has been ported to mobile?
Monster Train 1 has been for sure. Works pretty well and switching between the levels of the train is fine too. Some text can be a little small depending on your phone screen size
f droid has some free time waster games.
I like Breakout 71, it’s deceptively simple but gets addicting https://f-droid.org/packages/me.lecaro.breakout
I just got this, it’s amazing
I’ve found Ricochlime to be a fun one
Pirate Solitaire is very casual too
Simon Tantham’s puzzles
Löve Solitaire
Hole Down
Gridland is less casual, but I enjoy it. Turn off the music at first opportunity tho.
Vector Pinball
I’m really enjoying 2048. I set the board to 7x7 and have been playing the same game for weeks. Current largest block is at 131072.
https://f-droid.org/packages/org.secuso.privacyfriendly2048/
Unciv is a pretty cool game! It’s basically FOSS civ 5 that can be played on mobile. Huge timewaster haha
Clues by Sam. It runs on a website, do no installation necessary. Perfect for a quick round on the commute.
Another one that I found fun to start with and it grows with your skill is shattered pixel dungeon
Walkscape is a fun mobile analog to runescape where xp in a dozen skills is gained by real-world steps.
It’s still being built and expanded but its alpha stage is very playable and besides the skills has exploration, challenges, items, apparel, pets and a lot of fun stuff going for it, all while being a casual, healthy game.
Looks like signups are open now.
Have they added support for any watches yet? I have had my eye in this for ages as I’d love to try it but haven’t checked in a while!
ios wearables are supported according to their roadmap
Oh, shame, but thanks for the info!
Atomos is a simple game about combining atoms to make higher value atoms, a bit like 2048 but in a circle. Very easy to pick up and put down, have kept it on my phone for years and years.
On Android, there’s a good collection called Offline Games that has a lot of decent ‘grandma friendly’ mini games inside it.
Good choice - I was going to suggest Simon Tatham’s Puzzle Collection.
Yes. Always Simon Tatham’s Puzzle Collection.
It’s freaking fantastic. Anyone sleeping on it needs to check it out.
It runs on just about anything, too, including some eReaders.
There’s so many free open source games that fit your need.
Check out this search on F-Droid: https://search.f-droid.org/?q=game
And
Unfortunately, I’m looking for more “pure” casual games, rather than ones that are primarily puzzle or arcade games. Something more akin to Cookie Clicker or Bejeweled’s zen mode rather than Tetris or Brickbreaker. F-Droid doesn’t seem to really have much like that.
There’s less, but still some great ones.
Since you asked for non-predatory games, I still recommend spending some time searching F-Droid. It’s the only place I find most non-predatory mobile games.
On f-droid, I would try out:
- Burger Party
- Breakout 71
- Duck Run
- Gurgle (Wordle)
- Gridle (Wordle variant)
- Luanti
- SuperTuxKart
And on Google Play or Aurora, check out (paid, but nice if they haven’t enshitified yet):
- Mini Motor X
- You Must Build A Boat
Ridiculous Fishing
Ridiculous Fishing
“As of December 10, 2025, the Android version is no longer downloadable from the Google Play store.”
:(
Bummer!
Anuto tower defence?
Zen Koi - You are a koi (fish). You eat, grow, breed, ascend to your final dragon form. Collect different combinations of fish colors and patterns. Very chill, soothing music.
I don’t think I saw this game mentioned here yet, so I’ll recommend SmashHit. It’s a game about throwing metal balls at glass and not getting hit by said glass. It’s not a typical “casual” game but it still fits the criteria pretty well, especially with its “ethereal” atmosphere.
It’s unfortunately only on the Play Store, but you should be able to get it through the Aurora Store no problem.
