With 2022 coming to an end soon, now is a good time to unwind, power down, and play some fun games to enjoy your holidays. While there are several amazing options for console and PC users everywhere, as the years pass, mobile users have been gaining access to several titles new and old. The mobile gaming scene is slowly growing as we speak.
While many familiar faces make their appearance on Google Play, Android users have been graced with new titles that originated on the mobile platform itself. With so many options available, we have curated a list of the best games that the Android platform has to offer. You don’t have to worry about saving up to buy any of these games, since they are all free to play.
Apex Legends Mobile
Respawn Entertainment’s masterpiece made its way to the Android and iOS platforms in May this year. While initially released on consoles and PC, Apex Legends became so popular that it was ported to mobile phone platforms for even more accessibility. This has only helped the game’s popularity soar, increasing its already massive player base even further, with over 60 million players across all platforms.
Apex Legends Mobile stays faithful to the original, having many of the same battle-royale features that its progenitor was known for. While the graphics have understandably been scaled back, and heirlooms are not a part of the mobile version, the game still maintains its aura of excitement and fast-paced combat that the series has become known for.
Candy Crush Saga
From a fast-paced battle-royale game to a more relaxing turn-based match game, Candy Crush Saga has been a staple on everyone’s mobile phone at least once in their lifetime. Developed by King in 2012, Candy Crush was initially created as a browser game for Facebook. The game’s popularity exploded so much that King made another version of Candy Crush for handheld devices called Candy Crush Saga.
As expected from its previous success, Candy Crush Saga is still one of the most-played Android games today. Whenever players want to take a break from their action-packed battle-royale sessions, there are few games as relaxing as Candy Crush Saga with its calming music and radiant colors. With several thousand levels and a handful of other iterations, such as Candy Crush Soda Saga and Candy Crush Jelly Saga, the series is still going strong after 10 years.
Call of Duty: Mobile
Gearing back up to fast-paced titles, Call of Duty: Mobile is a battle-royale-style game with all of the chaos and arsenal that the Call of Duty series has become known for in the past decade. With the series eventually shifting its perspective from its extensive single-player mode to a battle-royale genre, that sentiment carried over to the Android platform as well with CoD: Mobile.
While the game features an extensive battle-royale mode with up to 100 players, CoD: Mobile also includes the classic multiplayer mode from its older iterations. Players can choose to play unranked or ranked games from a matchmaking queue. CoD: Mobile also provides players with COD Points, which is an in-game currency used to purchase several different character and weapon skins to further customize their experience.
Genshin Impact
The unexpected sleeper hit of 2020, Genshin Impact is miHoYo’s crowning glory and one of the most-played online games in the world today. It is a beautiful anime-style open-world online RPG that puts players in the shoes of The Traveler as they make their way through the lands of Teyvat, looking to free their sibling from the clutches of a dark god.
The lands of Teyvat are split into distinct continents, each with its own topography and association with one of the seven elements in the game. The Traveler also gets to specialize in their own element while they battle the forces of Teyvat with the help of a massive roster of playable characters. Genshin Impact is also monetized through a gacha system, but with minuscule involvement compared to other games of its genre.
Hearthstone
Hearthstone is Blizzard Entertainment’s addition to the collectible card game genre, featuring several heroes from their super-popular Warcraft franchise. The game expands upon the already extensive lore of Warcraft by using a lot of the same elements and characters previously seen in their series. The popularity of the game soared in the last few years, spawning a successful Android version.
Hearthstone supports cross-platform play as well as cross-progression, so you can seamlessly switch between your handheld device and PC as per your needs. The variety of different cards and strategies with consistent updates over time makes Hearthstone a fresh experience for new and returning players alike.
League of Legends: Wild Rift
Riot Games’ most successful game of all time, the highly-popular League of Legends cemented itself as one of the best MOBAs of all time. The success of the game spawned an Android version called League of Legends: Wild Rift for handheld devices. The game contains a lot of everything that made the original game popular, with a handful of new features sprinkled into the gameplay.
Like its predecessor, League of Legends: Wild Rift is also a multiplayer online battle arena game where you and four other players team up to destroy the opposing five-man team’s base. The game plays pretty much like how League of Legends plays, but faster and more compact. The map size is reduced while the gold and experience gain is accelerated, leading to faster-paced and more exciting games where every little decision matters and mistakes are easier to punish.
Legends of Runeterra
Heading from one Riot Games’ offerings to another, Legends of Runeterra is Riot’s answer to Hearthstone, a collectible card game that pits players against each other. Unlike League of Legends, players fight each other in the battle zone with a deck of cards. These cards contain several famous faces from Riot’s retinue of characters that players familiar with their games will recognize.
Legends of Runeterra is inspired by the wildly popular Magic: The Gathering, which many players of the genre know as the most recognizable card game. Runeterra is not far behind though, with the game already carving out its own identity and amassing a loyal player base who keep coming back to the game every day. The most praised aspect of the game is its highly accessible nature, with a wiser range of options for free-to-play players than other games of its genre.
Pokémon GO
Pokémon GO is the only augmented reality game in the franchise and thus stands out from the rest of the games, which have primarily been RPGs of some kind. The collecting aspect of the Pokémon games is still a huge part of the experience, but since it is an AR game, players will have to use their phone’s GPS to physically move around to find Pokémon. This feature added to the immersion of the capturing aspect and even made Pokémon GO one of the most-played games in 2016.
From its humble beginnings featuring the original 151 Pokémon, Pokémon GO brings over six generations of Pokémon to its roster. Since players are able to capture Pokémon literally anywhere, all you need is your phone and a working internet connection to play to your heart’s content. The walking grind has even been made easier in recent years with several autocatchers that do the bulk of the heavy lifting while you search for your favorite Pokémon.
PUBG Mobile
Currently leading the charge for the most popular mobile game is PUBG Mobile. With the initial success of PUBG Battlegrounds on consoles and PC, the developers decided to port the game to the handheld platforms, which significantly increased its player base. Widely considered to be the pioneer of the battle royale genre, the game has players competing against each other solo or in teams to survive and be the last man standing on an unknown island.
PUBG Mobile takes everything that the original game has and makes it better. The mobile version features additional login bonuses, additional missions and goals, as well as an auto-loot system, while the premise of the main game remains the same. With over 1.3 billion downloads to date, and still counting, there has never been a franchise more successful on the handheld platform than PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds.
Roblox
Roblox is an interesting choice because it is the only entry on this list that is not a game in itself. Roblox is a platform created by Roblox Corporation that allows its users to create games and worlds of their own, providing ultimate freedom to everyone utilizing their platform. The creation tools are also quite user-friendly and easy to get into, making the game highly accessible to all players.
While the platform itself is quite dated, Roblox observed a resurgence in the last few years, giving rise to a highly popular mobile platform. It is the ultimate sandbox experience where worlds of any kind can be developed, supported by a friendly community that generally tends to help out other users if need be. With so many options available to its users, Roblox has something for everyone.
