this post was submitted on 16 Mar 2025
340 points (99.1% liked)

Android

18992 readers
137 users here now

The new home of /r/Android on Lemmy and the Fediverse!

Android news, reviews, tips, and discussions about rooting, tutorials, and apps.

🔗Universal Link: [email protected]

💡Content Philosophy:

Content which benefits the community (news, rumours, and discussions) is generally allowed and is valued over content which benefits only the individual (technical questions, help buying/selling, rants, self-promotion, etc.) which will be removed if it's in violation of the rules.

Support, technical, or app related questions belong in: [email protected]

For fresh communities, lemmy apps, and instance updates: [email protected]

💬Matrix Chat

💬Telegram channels / chats

📰Our communities below

Rules

  1. Stay on topic: All posts should be related to the Android OS or ecosystem.

  2. No support questions, recommendation requests, rants, or bug reports: Posts must benefit the community rather than the individual. Please post to [email protected].

  3. Describe images/videos, no memes: Please include a text description when sharing images or videos. Post memes to [email protected].

  4. No self-promotion spam: Active community members can post their apps if they answer any questions in the comments. Please do not post links to your own website, YouTube, blog content, or communities.

  5. No reposts or rehosted content: Share only the original source of an article, unless it's not available in English or requires logging in (like Twitter). Avoid reposting the same topic from other sources.

  6. No editorializing titles: You can add the author or website's name if helpful, but keep article titles unchanged.

  7. No piracy or unverified APKs: Do not share links or direct people to pirated content or unverified APKs, which may contain malicious code.

  8. No unauthorized polls, bots, or giveaways: Do not create polls, use bots, or organize giveaways without first contacting mods for approval.

  9. No offensive or low-effort content: Don't post offensive or unhelpful content. Keep it civil and friendly!

  10. No affiliate links: Posting affiliate links is not allowed.

Quick Links

Our Communities

Lemmy App List

Chat and More

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
340
Free Android Games (incl. FOSS ✅️) - no ads, no IAPs, no gacha. (lemm.ee)
submitted 1 month ago* (last edited 1 week ago) by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
70 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

Latest entries - 3 May, 2025:

Other recent entries

Introduction

(scroll down for the actual list)

I recently realized there are still, to this day, some actual "hidden gems" in the Play Store. Not the fake ones everyone talks about which, in a way or another, often have a catch or aren't very "hidden". I mean free games with no ads or IAPs of any kind that are fun to play.

So I was thinking maybe it's time to compile a list of them. Please suggest the ones you've found and enjoyed!

Edit: I'm now including free games (no piracy) from other sources beside the Play Store (which will be specified within brackets), such as github or F-droid. If they're also FOSS, like all F-droid games, they'll have this green checkmark ✅️. For the games that have both F-droid and Play Store versions, the green checkmark is for the F-droid version.

I won't try them all as I did with my premium games list, because you could simply download and try them for yourself without spending a dime. I'll simply list them.

‼️Also, please do checkout MiniReview - Game Reviews for more free games that match the following criteria (use the "Browse" tab and select the correct filters). The same app for iOS - App Store - is here.‼️

I've saved this post so to keep it updated over time, for my own reference and for your benefit. So feel free to save it and check out new entries every so often.

Entry Criteria

  1. FREE
  2. NO ADS
  3. STRICTLY NO IAPs (except donation buttons, but I'll have to check first)
  4. NO PIRACY
  5. it has to be a legit, full game you've played and liked. No demos, no emulators (everyone knows RetroArch anyways)
  6. no entire repositories. You can recommend them in the comments if you really want, but this list is for games you'd like to recommend
  7. if it's a Play Store game, it should be compatible with the latest Android version at the time of entry
  8. must include a link to the game, especially if from sources outside the Play Store. Not direct-download links, just links to the page
  9. sketchy sources won't be considered. Play Store, GitHub, and F-droid are welcome

[If you want to recommend paid games, without ads or predatory microtransactions, here is the list for you.]

THE LIST

 

Legend

✅️ - FOSS (Free and Open-Source Software). Listed on top in their respective categories

☕️ - includes option to donate, with or without minimal cosmetics only

~~[Game title]~~ - delisted

 

Shooter

 

Stealth

 

Platformer

 

Rhythm

 

Arcade

 

RPG

 

Roguelike dungeon crawler

 

Deck builder

 

Adventure

 

Puzzle

 

Tower defense

 

Strategy

 

Management

 

Racing

 

Simulation

 

Casual

 

Visual novel

 

Educational

 

Delisted or outdated

 

Happy gaming ;)

ps: please let me know if there's any wrong information about the games included in this list (especially regarding the ones with free donations) so that I'll fix the post, if necessary.

(page 2) 21 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

Underhand seems to be outdated.

Can I suggest Drill Down as an automation game? I've lost so very many hours to that game.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

Underhand seems to be outdated

What does it say? It looks good on my end, with Android 14.

Can I suggest Drill Down

Yes, I'll add this as it's also FOSS. Thank you!

If you have other suggestions, next time please also provide a link to the game. This one has been delisted fron the Play Store so I found it on itch.io

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Achikaps

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 month ago

I think it's paid on the Play Store and called Achikaps Pro?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 month ago (2 children)

Hey, thank you for this great list! Do you think you could maybe add a small description for every game?

load more comments (2 replies)
[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 month ago

Saving this for later. Great list!

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (1 children)

A memory match game made by me, fully open source, made with small (2-6) kids in mind. Comes in two flavours, one of them contains all the assets bundled and thus doesn't even need access to the internet.

Available on GitHub and Play Store (screenshots available on both):

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 week ago (1 children)

I'll add it now. Thanks!

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (1 children)

Thank you! Just FYI, you're linking directly to a specific release, it would be better to either link to the main repo, or to the https://github.com/RikudouSage/KidMemoryGame/releases/latest link which automatically redirects to the latest release (which is probably what happened here - you copied the URL after redirect).

Additionally, if I may ask, I'm in the middle of renaming the app to Memory Match for Kids, could you please name it such? In a day or so it should pass the Google review and it will be official.

load more comments (1 replies)
load more comments
view more: ‹ prev next ›