Games32 picks
The best games for iPhone and Mac
Stardew Valley is the iPhone game most people should buy first, and Vampire Survivors is the best free one.
Stardew ValleyPick it if you want a relaxing game you can play for 50+ hours in 5-minute bursts.$4.99Stardew Valley is the full cozy farming RPG for $4.99 once, and auto-save makes 5-minute sessions work. Vampire Survivors is the best free pick, with short roguelite runs and optional ads. Apple Arcade subscribers should start with Balatro+ and Stardew Valley+, and Mac players who want a big game should look at Cyberpunk 2077 or Lies of P.
How we chose
- 1One price with no in-app purchases
- 2Sessions that fit a short break
- 3Apple Arcade or a one-time buy
Compare at a glance
Tap a name to jump to its write-up.
| App | Price | How you pay | Mac | iPhone | iPad | App Store | Arcade | Rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Stardew Valley | $4.99 | Pay once | 4.8 | |||||
 Balatro | $9.99 | Pay once | 5 | |||||
 Slay the Spire | $9.99 | Pay once | 4.3 | |||||
 Minecraft | $6.99 | Pay once | 4.5 | |||||
 Balatro+ | Apple Arcade | Apple Arcade | 4.9 | |||||
 Stardew Valley+ | Apple Arcade | Apple Arcade | 4.2 | |||||
 Vampire Survivors | Free to start | Free, with paid upgrades | 4.6 | |||||
 Bloons TD 6 | $6.99 once | Pay once | 4.9 | |||||
 Mini Metro | $3.99 | Pay once | 4.9 | |||||
 Monument Valley 2 | $3.99 | Pay once | 4.7 | |||||
 Terraria | $2.99 | Pay once | 4.5 | |||||
 Dead Cells | $8.99 | Pay once | 4.8 | |||||
 Retro Bowl | Free to start | Free, with paid upgrades | 4.8 | |||||
 Sneaky Sasquatch | Apple Arcade | Apple Arcade | 4.9 | |||||
 Mini Motorways | Apple Arcade | Apple Arcade | 4.1 | |||||
 What the Car? | Apple Arcade | Apple Arcade | 4.8 | |||||
 Good Sudoku | Free to start | Free, with paid upgrades | 4.2 | |||||
 Threes! | $5.99 | Pay once | 4 | |||||
 Baba Is You | $6.99 | Pay once | 4.6 | |||||
 A Little to the Left | Free to start | Free, with paid upgrades | 4.6 | |||||
 Hello Kitty Island Adventure | Apple Arcade | Apple Arcade | 4.8 | |||||
 Grindstone | Apple Arcade | Apple Arcade | 4.7 | |||||
 Geometry Dash | $3.99 | Pay once | 4.6 | |||||
 Cyberpunk 2077 | $82.90 | Pay once | Too few ratings | |||||
 Lies of P | $59.99 | Pay once | Too few ratings | |||||
 Resident Evil Village | $39.99 | Pay once | 3.9 | |||||
 Really Bad Chess | Free to start | Free, with paid upgrades | 3.8 | |||||
 NBA 2K26 Arcade Edition | Apple Arcade | Apple Arcade | 4.8 | |||||
 Crossy Road Castle | Apple Arcade | Apple Arcade | 4.7 | |||||
 Sonic Dream Team | Apple Arcade | Apple Arcade | 4.7 | |||||
 Angry Birds Reloaded | Apple Arcade | Apple Arcade | 4.7 | |||||
 Fruit Ninja Classic+ | Apple Arcade | Apple Arcade | 4.5 |
Swipe the table sideways to see more
The picks, in order
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Pick it if you want a relaxing game you can play for 50+ hours in 5-minute bursts.
For $4.99 once with no in-app purchases, you get the full farming RPG with the 1.6 update content, 50+ hours of crops, animals, caves and a town where 12 locals can become your spouse. Auto-save and phone-friendly controls make 5-minute sessions work. Multiplayer isn't supported on iPhone and iPad, and if you already pay for Apple Arcade, Stardew Valley+ there costs nothing extra.
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Pick this if you like poker or solitaire and want to own the game outright for $9.99.
If you like poker or solitaire and enjoy breaking a game's rules, Balatro is the card game to put on your phone. You play poker hands to beat a run of blinds, and over 150 Jokers stack into absurd scoring combos that change every run. It is $9.99 once with no in-app purchases, but Apple Arcade subscribers get Balatro+ on iPhone, iPad, Mac and Apple TV at no extra cost.
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Pick it if you enjoy strategy card games and want 1 you can replay for hundreds of hours.
Card games on your phone usually push packs and ads at you, and Slay the Spire costs $9.99 once with neither. You build a deck as you climb a tower, picking cards and relics after each fight, and every run brings a new map, enemies and bosses. It's touch-only and single-player, and if you'd rather bend poker hands than build decks, Balatro has a similar run-based hook at the same $9.99.
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Pick this if you want 1 game the whole family plays together across different devices.
Mine blocks, craft tools and build anything, either in Creative mode with unlimited resources or in Survival mode where you have to make it through the night. The iPhone and iPad version is Bedrock Edition, so kids can play with friends on other platforms, and it costs $6.99 once. A private Realms world for the family adds $3.99 a month, and Terraria at $2.99 is the cheaper 2D take on digging and building.
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Pick it if you already pay for Apple Arcade, since it is the same poker roguelike at no extra cost.
More than 150 Jokers rewrite how plain poker hands score in this roguelike, and stacking them into combos is where every run is won or lost. Balatro+ is the Apple Arcade edition, with no ads or purchases, on iPhone, iPad and Mac with controller support. If you don't subscribe to Arcade, the standalone Balatro at $9.99 once is the better buy.
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Pick this if you have Apple Arcade and would rather not pay $4.99 for the regular version.
Next to the $4.99 App Store version of Stardew Valley, this Arcade edition is the same farming RPG with the 1.6 update, so it only makes sense if you already pay for Apple Arcade. You turn an overgrown farm into a thriving one season by season, fishing, mining monster-filled caves and courting 1 of 12 villagers along the way. Neither mobile version supports multiplayer, so you farm alone.
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Pick it if you want a free game where 1 short run fits any break.
Most games are too fiddly to play with 1 thumb on a short break, and too shallow to still be fun months later. Here you only steer, your weapons fire on their own, and gold from each run buys upgrades that push the next one further. The full base game is free with optional ads, expansions cost $0.99 to $3.99, and the App Store privacy label lists tracking.
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Pick this if you like tower defense with real depth and want co-op with up to 4 players.
For $6.99 once you get 26 monkey towers with 3 upgrade paths each, 18 heroes and roughly 6 big content updates a year, with offline play and 4-player online co-op. The paid version still sells Monkey Money and every tower at once as in-app purchases. If you already have Apple Arcade, Bloons TD 6+ is the edition with no ads or in-app purchases, and it runs on the Mac too.
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Pick it if you want a thinking puzzle where 1 round fits a single train ride, for $3.99.
Most strategy games need an hour to get going, but a round of Mini Metro fits in a commute: draw subway lines, then redraw them as new stations appear and passengers pile up. You decide where a few spare trains and tunnels go before a station overflows, across over 2 dozen real cities and a daily challenge. It costs $3.99 once with nothing to buy, though there is no controller support.
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Pick this if you want a short, gorgeous puzzle game to finish offline on a flight, for $3.99 once.
The sequel to Apple's 2014 Game of the Year, this puzzle adventure has you twist and slide impossible buildings to open a path for a mother and her child. It is a standalone story, so you can start here, and the calm, short levels suit a few evenings or a long flight offline. The trade-off is length: the levels are handcrafted and fixed, so there is little reason to replay once you finish.
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Pick it if you like digging and building but want bosses and loot, with up to 8 friends in co-op.
Dig through caves, build a base, craft from more than 5,000 items and fight bosses with up to 7 friends, all for $2.99 with no in-app purchases. The mobile version still gets big updates, and 1.4.5 added Dead Cells and Palworld crossover content. Compared with Minecraft it leans much harder on combat and loot, and the touch controls take practice, so a controller helps.
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Pick this if you want hard, fast console-style action on your phone, with controller support.
Fight through a castle that rebuilds itself every time you die, picking up different weapons and skills on each run and opening new paths with every death. On iPhone you can move and resize the touch buttons, turn on Auto-Hit or plug in a controller, all for $8.99 with no ads. It is hard and needs both thumbs, so Vampire Survivors is the friendlier roguelite if you want to play casually.
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Pick it if you follow American football and want to call plays 1 drive at a time for free.
Run a pixel-art football team off the field and play quarterback on it, sliding a finger to aim every pass. Between games you sign and cut players, answer the press and keep big egos calm, and a full season fits into short sessions. It is free, collects no data, and $0.99 adds team editing, though defense plays out mostly on its own, which bothers fans who want full control.
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Pick this if you have Apple Arcade and want a funny life sim that kids and adults both enjoy.
If you already pay for Apple Arcade and want a game the whole family will fight over, this one has you sneaking around a campground as a Sasquatch, stealing picnic food and dodging the park ranger. It grows into a full life sim with fishing, golf, skiing, racing and odd jobs in town, with no ads or in-app purchases. It isn't sold on its own, so it only makes sense with an Arcade subscription.
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Pick it if you have Apple Arcade and want the calmer road-building cousin of Mini Metro.
If you liked Mini Metro, Mini Motorways comes from the same studio and swaps subway lines for roads you draw between homes and businesses until the traffic finally wins. Upgrades like highways and roundabouts give each run real decisions, Endless mode takes the pressure off and Daily and Weekly Challenges add leaderboards. It is a quiet puzzle with no story, and you need Apple Arcade to play it.
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Pick this if you want a silly Arcade racer anyone in the family can pick up in 2 minutes.
If you have Apple Arcade and a family that likes to laugh, this is the game to put on first: you're a car with legs, and each of its hundreds of short levels turns that into something new, from climbing buildings to singing CAR-aoke. It's from Triband, the studio behind What the Golf?, and a level editor lets you build and share courses. You can't buy it on its own, and it's single-player.
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Pick it if you play Sudoku and want hints that teach the next technique instead of giving answers.
More than 70,000 puzzles come with Good Sudoku, but the reason to pick it over the ad-filled free Sudoku apps is a hint system from Zach Gage that teaches you the technique instead of filling in the square. Optional tools strip out the busywork, and 3 daily modes get harder through the week. Daily puzzles and Good mode are free, and $4.99 once adds Arcade, Eternal, Custom and stats.
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Pick this if you want a quick number puzzle for waiting rooms that never shows an ad.
Most free puzzle games interrupt you with ads and timers, and this one has neither. You swipe numbered cards around a small grid to merge them, learn the rules in about 30 seconds and spend weeks chasing a high score. Free 2048 plays a similar idea, but $5.99 once gets you Apple's 2014 Game of the Year, shareable with up to 6 people through Family Sharing.
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Pick it if you like puzzles that need sideways thinking and don't mind being stuck for a while.
Most puzzle games stop surprising you once you learn their rules, and here the rules themselves are the pieces you push around. Words like WALL IS STOP sit on the board, and rearranging them can turn you into a rock or change what winning means. It costs $6.99 once with no in-app purchases and syncs progress between iPhone and iPad, but the later levels can leave you stuck for days.
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Pick this if tidying a messy drawer sounds relaxing and you want to try 9 puzzles free first.
Unpacking makes tidying a story, while A Little to the Left makes each mess its own logic puzzle, like stacking books, lining up pencils or fitting objects back into a drawer. Many puzzles have more than 1 right answer, and a cat keeps knocking things out of place. The free download gives you 9 puzzles to test the idea, and $9.99 once opens over 100 more plus a Daily Tidy puzzle.
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Pick it if you want a gentle Animal Crossing-style game on Arcade to play alongside your kids.
Compared with Animal Crossing, the loop is close: you restore an abandoned island, befriend Hello Kitty, Kuromi and Cinnamoroll with quests and gifts, then cook, craft and decorate cabins. The difference is that it runs on iPhone, iPad, Mac and Apple TV with controller support, and a friend can visit your island to play along. It needs an Apple Arcade subscription and does not play offline, so it is no plane game.
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Pick this if you like match-3 puzzles but want sword fights and strategy instead of coin shops.
Free with Apple Arcade and with nothing else to buy, Grindstone skips the coin shops and lives systems that pad out most match-3 games. You drag your hero through chains of same-colored monsters, and long chains drop grindstones that switch colors for bigger combos, across more than 200 levels plus daily modes and a boss rush. You can't buy it outside Arcade, so it only makes sense if you already subscribe.
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Pick it if you love short, brutal reflex levels timed to music and don't mind 50 retries.
If you love reflex games where you die 50 times and still hit retry, this rhythm platformer fits: your cube runs on its own and you tap to jump, fly and flip on the beat. Practice mode with checkpoints helps on the hard stretches, and the level editor plus levels from other players keep it going long after the main set. Try the free Geometry Dash Lite first, because instant deaths drive some people away.
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Pick this if you have an M-series Mac with 16 GB of memory or more and want a huge story RPG.
Lies of P costs $59.99 on the Mac App Store, and Cyberpunk 2077 asks $82.90, but that buys the Ultimate Edition with Phantom Liberty included. You play V, a mercenary in Night City, building a character from perks and cybernetic implants and taking contracts that change the city around you. It needs an Apple silicon Mac with 16 GB of memory and about 160 GB of free space, so an 8 GB Mac is out.
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Pick it if you like Soulslike boss fights and want a full console-sized game on your Mac.
Like Dark Souls, it makes you die and relearn every boss, but Lies of P sets that formula in a grim Pinocchio retelling inside the puppet city of Krat. Weapon combinations, a mechanical Legion Arm and choosing when to lie keep the fights and story varied, and Apple named it Mac Game of the Year in 2023. At $59.99, plus $29.99 for the Overture expansion, it is priced like a console game.
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Pick this if you own an A17 Pro iPhone or Apple silicon Mac and want console horror you can try free first.
Next to Balatro or Terraria, Resident Evil Village is a different kind of mobile game: Capcom's full console horror entry, running natively on iPhone, iPad and Mac. You can play the opening part free before paying $39.99, which is the smart way to check how it runs on your device. It needs an A17 Pro iPhone or newer and about 16GB of storage, Capcom recommends a controller, and iPhone and Mac copies are bought separately.
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Pick it if regular chess feels too serious and you'd like a random army every game.
Start a game with 8 knights, 4 bishops and only 3 pawns, because every match deals you random pieces and makes opening theory useless. That makes it fun for people who know the rules but never studied chess, and daily and weekly challenges give you a fresh puzzle to beat. It won't make you better at standard chess, and the free version has ads, with $3.99 once adding 2-player Versus Mode on 1 device.
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Pick this if you have Apple Arcade and want a full basketball game with a career mode.
Included with Apple Arcade, this edition of NBA 2K26 skips the ads and coin packs that fill most mobile sports games. You can take a player from rookie to legend in MyCAREER, run a franchise in The Association, replay classic eras with period rosters, or play 3v3 Blacktop against a friend on iPhone, iPad, Mac or Apple TV. It needs a connection to play, and the console version still looks far better.
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Pick it if you want a chaotic co-op tower climb for couch sessions with kids or friends.
Included with Apple Arcade at no extra cost, Crossy Road Castle is a co-op platformer where you and friends climb an endless spinning tower full of traps and an oversized angry eagle. Every tower is randomly generated, players can share 1 device with controllers or join from their own, and everything except Challenge Events works offline. Solo play works, but the game is designed for groups, so families get the most out of it.
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Pick this if you grew up on Sonic and have a controller to play it on Apple TV.
SEGA built a brand new 3D Sonic platformer for Apple Arcade, with 6 playable characters who each have their own abilities. You race through dream worlds with wall-running and gravity flips, collect toys and fight Eggman on iPhone, iPad, Mac and Apple TV. Touch controls work, but fast 3D platforming plays far better with the PlayStation, Xbox or MFi controllers it supports, so budget for one if you don't own one.
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Pick it if you miss the original Angry Birds and want its 2,000+ levels without ads.
Fling birds at wobbly towers across more than 2,000 levels, including the originals and Angry Birds Space, with no ads or in-app purchases getting in the way. Angry Birds Reloaded is the Apple Arcade version, gets new episodes and events every month and plays on iPhone, iPad, Mac and Apple TV with a controller. It isn't sold on its own, so it only makes sense if you already pay for Arcade.
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Pick this if you want a 2-minute swipe game to hand a kid with nothing popping up.
Handing a kid your phone for a quick game usually means handing them ads and purchase prompts too. Fruit Ninja Classic+ is the Apple Arcade version with none of that: slice flying fruit, dodge bombs and pick from the original Classic, Arcade and Zen modes. 2 players can go head to head on the same device, but it needs an Arcade subscription, and the free Fruit Ninja plays the same if you don't mind ads.