The 25 Best Offline Games for iOS and Android

Alto's Adventure is a must-download casual endless snowboarder and is easily one of the most stylish and melodically soothing games on mobile. With its one-touch controls and procedurally generated mountains, each serene descent in Alto's Adventure feels unique. While deceptively simple at first, the game surprises as the runs gradually increase in speed and difficulty, offering an addictive challenge. Between the crisp visuals, responsive gameplay, and relaxing vibe, Alto's Adventure is an essential experience. An equally exceptional sequel, Alto's Odyssey, brings the game's enjoyable formula to sandboarding across beautiful desert landscapes.

With its minimalist design and intuitive controls, Mini Metro is an absolute must-play for any fan of strategy simulators. As your city's subway network expands, connecting new stations that pop up each day, the clean interface miraculously never feels cluttered. No two games of Mini Metro play the same, as you strategically lay down tracks, reroute lines, and ponder your next upgrade to stave off commute chaos. Addictively challenging and endlessly replayable, Mini Metro's refined subway simulation gameplay is a smooth ride.

The acclaimed farm sim Stardew Valley has found a perfect home on mobile, making its addictive gameplay loop and mountain of content perfect for touchscreens. Tending crops, crafting goods, mining caves, even fishing - it all handles smoothly whether you have five minutes or five hours to spare. Portability only amplifies the charming 16-bit graphics and audio, making Pelican Town an idyllic world you can immerse in anywhere.

With its wacky plant abilities and charming zombie enemies, Plants vs. Zombies succeeds as an addictive take on tower defense. Strategically placing peashooters, sunflowers, and vine launchers to halt advancing undead is easily one of mobile's most enjoyable experiences. Though cutesy in appearance, PvZ offers several layers of strategy in how players utilize limited space and resources across each time-pressured level. Accessible yet filled with depth, Plants vs. Zombies encompasses the best qualities of a great mobile game, delivering lighthearted fun in either short bursts or hours-long sessions. The game's winning formula evolves even further in the content-packed sequel Plants vs. Zombies 2.

With its retro-tinged pixel art and simple tapping controls, Downwell delivers an addictive, fingertip-perfect descent that's equal parts reflex test and arcade-style high scoring. Randomly generated rooms keep each plummet fresh as you blast enemies, grab gems, and try to survive longer falls. There's real nuance in managing limited ammo and health between stages, with new abilities and enhancements ensuring endless replay value. Deceptively deep despite its straightforward premise, Downwell is a stellar verticle platformer ideal for quick offline mobile sessions.

To the Moon's acclaimed story-driven adventuring makes a seamless transition to mobile, translating its emotional narrative wonderfully to iOS and Android touchscreens. Navigating nostalgic memories to fulfill a dying man's last wish retains its incredible poignancy in this excellent pocket-sized port. The pixelated visuals and somber score beautifully convey the game's bittersweet tones, with its minimal puzzles making for ideal shorter play sessions on your phone. By preserving the heart of the original while smartly adapting it for offline mobile play, To the Moon's stirring and intimate journey can now go with you anywhere.

80 Days captures the spirit of adventure beautifully on mobile, transforming Julius Verne's classic novel Around the World in Eighty Days into an interactive fiction epic tailor-made for on-the-go enjoyment. Making choices and navigating Phileas Fogg’s race around the late 1800s world translates well into short play sessions. Streamlined writing and simple mechanics allow the game’s countless branching narratives to unfold effortlessly on your phone. With near-endless replayability, each globetrotting journey feels new thanks to randomized characters and events. This allows 80 Days to distill the romance and excitement of its literary influence into an imaginative pocket-sized experience that's perfect for traveling. With all that being said, it's easy to see why this game has earned a spot here among the best offline games on mobile.

Fireproof Games' The Room brings inspired puzzle box design and chilling atmosphere to touchscreens, its tactile mysteries perfectly suited for intimate mobile play, with the game's superbly crafted puzzle box rewarding hands-on interaction. Meticulous construction and clever challenges await within the eerie, sprawling rooms of this splendidly designed virtual escape room experience. Perfectly optimized for shorter on-the-go sessions, The Room provides some of the most engrossing and brilliant escape room puzzling on iOS and Android. The series only expands its addictive formula further through three excellent sequels from Fireproof.

Townscaper delivers a blissfully relaxed and imaginative city-building experience optimized for mobile. Its vibrant seaside voxel aesthetic and calming music create a serene backdrop for visual experimentation. Intuitive tile placement lets charming towns organically take shape without complex management or demands. This allows the gameplay to encourage creativity through limitation, with visual appeal taking priority over function. If you're looking for an understated yet addicting sandbox city-builder for offline mobile play, then Townscaper is a great bet. 

Thumper's intense rhythm violence translates flawlessly to touchscreens with this stellar mobile port. Blast through its pulse-pounding set pieces and confront colossal bosses as you build momentum and avoid devastating crashes. Expertly tuned tap and swipe controls perfectly match the game's hypnotic beats and nightmarish psychedelic visuals, and the game's quick and intense gameplay loop is optimized for shorter offline mobile play sessions. Rhythm game fanatics will get everything they want here and more, which is why we chose to consider it here for inclusion on this list of the best offline games on mobile.

Terraria's expansive 2D sandbox and action-adventure gameplay thrive on mobile devices. The touch controls handle mining, crafting, building, and combat smoothly, allowing you to delve deep underground or construct elaborate bases with ease. Portability makes the randomly generated worlds even more engaging, with endless content and possibilities while on the go. Tailored well to touchscreens, Terraria offers one of the deepest and most rewarding open-ended mobile games for crafting, survival, and exploration.

Don't Starve skillfully distills its PC survival experience for mobile devices with Don't Starve: Pocket Edition. The responsive touch controls make gathering, crafting, and evading the surreal horrors of the wilderness engaging whether you have minutes or hours to spare. With procedural generation ensuring fresh challenges and permadeath raising the stakes, each attempt provides its own story of hard-fought survival. Don't Starve: Pocket Edition condenses its ominous and macabre atmosphere into one of the deepest yet most digestible wilderness offline survival games on iOS and Android.

Papers, Please translates brilliantly to mobile through incredibly designed touch controls that capture the PC experience's tense, bureaucratic gameplay. Reviewing documents and travelers at the border remains compelling and fraught with indecision, even in shorter mobile sessions. Moral dilemmas and shifting politics offer meaningful choices that drive the compelling dystopian narrative. A superb port that loses none of the original's complexity, Papers, Please provides perhaps the most novel and thought-provoking gameplay possible on iOS and Android.

ScourgeBringer's slick roguelite platforming and combat slice their way smoothly onto mobile devices in this outstanding port. The smooth touch controls have you acrobatically dispatching enemies and bosses within ScourgeBringer's stylish cyberpunk setting. With daily challenges and unlockable abilities adding variation, its addictive hack-and-slash dungeon crawler gameplay is ideal for pick-up-and-play on your phone. Fast-paced, polished, and endlessly replayable, ScourgeBringer's excellent mobile port delivers a must-play roguelite experience.

Minecraft: Pocket Edition translates the legendary creative sandbox gameplay of Minecraft to mobile with excellent touchscreen controls. Gathering resources, crafting items, and building imaginative structures is easily engrossing in shorter sessions on the go. Exploring varied biomes captures Minecraft's spirit of adventure, now available anytime thanks to offline play with some feature limitations. With depth and possibilities rivaling its PC and Xbox versions, Minecraft: Pocket Edition makes boundless building and survival crafting available wherever you roam.

Warhammer 40,000: Mechanicus - Mobile adeptly translates the tactical combat and distinct cyber-gothic aesthetic of its PC and console counterparts for mobile devices. The touch controls feel natural whether upgrading your "Tech-Priests" or executing tactical maneuvers across vivid battlefields. Approachable yet challenging missions and compelling Warhammer lore make it engaging for 40K fans and newcomers alike. Streamlined yet incredibly strategic, Mechanicus brings the grim dark future of the 41st millennium to life in one of the most rewarding mobile tactical game ports around. Turn-based strategy fans will have plenty to enjoy here with this latest selection on our list of the best offline games.

Crypt of the NecroDancer's brilliant rhythmic dungeon crawling translates seamlessly to touchscreens with easy-to-learn tap and swipe controls. Moving and attacking to the dynamic soundtrack remains as addictive on the go as ever. A catchy array of music, clever enemy designs, and customizable characters and modes provide endless replay value. Ably recrafted for mobile play, Crypt of the NecroDancer provides one of the most inventive, engaging, and melodically enjoyable roguelikes on iOS and Android.

GRIS brings its breathtaking watercolor visuals and poignant wordless storytelling to mobile devices with impeccable grace. Despite simplified controls, navigating its dreamlike landscapes and imaginative puzzles remains deeply affecting. Somber piano melodies complement the minimalist yet evocative aesthetic and themes of loss and recovery. An artistic masterpiece adeptly transitioned to touchscreens, GRIS delivers a unique and emotional exploration ideal for playing through headphones on your phone.

Machinarium brings its clever puzzles, eccentric robots, and retro-futuristic charm to mobile devices with this successful port. The game has you effortlessly combining and using items and manipulating contraptions to save your robotic girlfriend. Logical but creative conundrums complement the imaginative hand-drawn art style and quirky worldbuilding. Perfectly recapturing the PC experience, Machinarium shines as a must-play point-and-click puzzle adventure on iOS and Android.

Once Upon a Tower is a charming puzzle platformer that puts a fairytale spin on block-pushing mechanics. With a storybook aesthetic and lively orchestral soundtrack, players will feel fully immersed in this storybook world. While the gameplay doesn't reinvent the wheel, the developer's creative touches like character designs and environmental puzzles make Once Upon a Tower feel fresh. Fans of indie puzzle games should definitely check out this enchanting adventure and see why we've chosen it for inclusion on our list of the best offline games on mobile.

The best entry in the acclaimed tower defense series, Kingdom Rush Vengeance delivers more of the addictive strategic action that made its predecessors so successful. With a variety of new towers, heroes, and abilities to master, Vengeance offers considerable replay value even for franchise veterans. While the core gameplay remains familiar, new foes like Vez'nan the Lich King and fearsome dragons make protecting your kingdom as challenging as ever. Kingdom Rush fans craving more will find Vengeance a worthy installment packed with hours of tactical tower defense mayhem.

The dark and haunting world of Limbo transitions seamlessly to touch screens in this mobile port of the iconic indie puzzle platform. With its chilling spider-filled forests and clever environmental puzzles intact, the distinctive black-and-white aesthetic looks great on mobile. However, the touch controls aren't as tight as the original, making tricky jumping sections more frustrating. Fans eager for on-the-go Limbo will largely be satisfied with this version, even if the controls could be better optimized for mobile.

The quirky painting simulator Passpartout: Starving Artist makes its way to mobile, letting you unleash your inner artist anywhere. With well-optimized touch controls, you can paint expressive masterpieces to wow gallery critics or creative disasters to elicit their scorn. However, the smaller mobile screen makes it hard to see your canvas clearly, undermining some of the fine control needed for painting. Still, mobile artists will find hours of enjoyment in crafting and selling their works, even if the screen size isn't ideal. This highly artistic mobile experience is definitely another one of the best offline games for gamers to consider.

The indie hit Vampire Survivors sinks its teeth into iOS and Android with an addictive, pick-up-and-play mobile port. With one-touch gameplay, you'll frantically fight against swelling hordes across randomly generated maps to survive until dawn. However, the port lacks some PC features and customization, which may disappoint veterans. Still, mobile gamers looking for arcade action on the go can't go wrong with this port of the gothic survival hit.

The award-winning roguelike Dead Cells slays on mobile with tight touch controls and full feature parity with console and PC. Skillful dodging, frantic combat, and addictive run-based progression have made the transition to mobile smooth. However, the significant file size and battery drain may frustrate mobile gamers without the latest devices. Overall, Dead Cells is a must-buy for fans of challenging roguelike action platformers looking for premium game quality on mobile.