Joe Hindy / Android Authority
Tablets are excellent devices for mobile games. Their larger screen sizes allow you to enjoy the graphics more. It also lets developers spread the controls for a more accessible, better feel. Android tablets aren’t the most popular devices in the world. Many developers are making games that play in portrait mode and make more sense on phones. However, some games are just plain better on tablets. Here are the best Android tablet games.
We’d also like to give an honorable mention to emulators. They work great on tablets, especially if you have a controller. You can see our best list of Android emulators here. We’d also honorably mention Papers, Please (Google Play). It isn’t much better on a tablet than a phone, but it originally came out on a PC, so it feels better on a tablet.
The best Android tablet games
How we chose the best Android tablet apps
So, what makes a game better suited for tablets than smartphones? Well, it’s a more straightforward determination than one would expect. We looked at all kinds of things, including controls, orientation, and how much information was displayed on the screen.
Every game on this list is in landscape orientation, has simple and accessible controls, and doesn’t require players to reach into the middle of the screen during action sequences if the game has action sequences. Once we disqualified games that aren’t friendly to larger displays, the list came together reasonably quickly.
Alto’s Odyssey
Price: Free to play
Alto’s Odyssey is one of the best runners of 2018. It features simple but beautiful graphics, easy gameplay and mechanics, and a simple premise. You ski down a hit while making massive jumps and avoiding obstacles. Players collect coins along the way to unlock stuff in the in-game store. The game also has 180 goals to complete, various levels to play through, and even small extras like dynamic lighting and weather. It’s easily one of the best infinite runners of all time, and its landscape mode orientation makes it even better on tablets than on phones. The game is free, but you probably won’t even notice. Most of the in-game purchases are for cosmetics anyway.
Beamdog games (seven games total)
Price: $9.99 each
Beamdog is a developer on Google Play. They specialize in porting old PC games to Android. Beamdog currently has seven titles out right now. They are Baldur’s Gate I and II, Icewind Dale, Neverwinter Nights, Seige of Dragonspear, Axis & Allies 1942, and Planescape: Torment EE. The six RPG games have similar mechanics. They are massive, hardcore RPGs with tons of skills, bad guys, dungeons, loot, and long stories. Axis & Allies 1942 is a mobile version of the classic Hasbro board game. The UI is often cramped on even larger phones. Thus, tablets are the best devices for these games. They run for $9.99 for the entire game. There are also optional in-app purchases like voice packs and other customizations.
Bloons TD 6
Price: $6.99
Bloons TD 6 is arguably the best tower defense game on mobile right now. The game features a few dozen levels where you place monkeys to pop balloons. It seems small initially, but you can scale things up heavily over time. Plus, the developers do an excellent job adding new content in updates over time. Some other features include a four-hour co-op mode, challenge levels that take some creativity, and offline gameplay. It plays well on phones, but tablets give you more screen real estate, which is nice considering how much you can bunch together in a tight space. This is a good one, and it’s relatively family-friendly as well.
Genshin Impact
Price: Free to play
Genshin Impact is one of the best mobile gachas that you can get. It’s an action RPG in an open world. Players can roam around, complete missions, kill bad guys, and level up their characters as they see fit. You summon heroes to help increase your power, but it isn’t nearly as predatory as some other games. The large, open world looks better with a bigger screen, and the controls are tucked safely in the corners, so you can still play even on a tablet. Tower of Fantasy is also quite good in this space if you want to try something different.
The developers also released Honkai: Star Rail in 2023. It’s an excellent landscape gacha RPG with turn-based combat and friendly F2P mechanics. It’s also worth a shot if you want something less action and a little more turn-based.
League of Legends: Wild Rift
Price: Free to play
League of Legends: Wild Rift is a MOBA and one of the few good ones left on mobile. It’s also a PvP game, so you’re playing against other players. The game features 5v5 battles in the style of a MOBA game. That means pushing lanes, countering abilities, and working with your team. Each champion has its skills, and you can’t buy them, so there’s no natural way to pay to win in this one. Like most good tablet games, this one plays better with more screen real estate since you can see things better, and it spreads out the controls a bit. Besides some crashing bugs and optimization issues, this one is among the best.
Levelhead
Price: $6.99
Levelhead is an outstanding platformer and one of the best Android tablet games. The base game features over 90 levels with smooth gameplay and extra features to speed-run the game. However, the game’s hallmark feature is the ability to design and upload your stories, similar to Mario Maker. You can also download other people’s levels and play them. A tablet gives you more space for editing levels, so it’s a decent way to play the game. The game is free with Google Play Pass and is also available on iOS, PC, and Nintendo Switch with full cross-save capabilities. The developer’s other title, Crashlands, is another excellent tablet game.
Minecraft
Price: $6.99 with in-app purchases
Minecraft dropped the Pocket Edition moniker in 2017. It’s not the full-fledged version of the game. That means it’s playable with the game’s Xbox One and PC versions. We recommend this one for tablets because of all of the controls. There is a ton to do in Minecraft, including exploring, crafting, building, and doing other stuff. Microsoft sells servers at a monthly cost in case you don’t want to make your own. Additionally, the mobile version is cheaper than the console or PC versions. In any case, it’s one of the excellent Android tablet games.
Old School Runescape
Price: Free / $10.99 per month / $99.99 per year
New School Runescape (OSRS for short) is one of the most popular MMORPGs in the world. You can play it on mobile, tablets, web browsers, and desktop. There is a massive world to explore, a healthy player base to interact and trade with, and plenty of quests to complete. Unlike most, this one works on a subscription basis. Members get some additional benefits like a more extensive bank. It’s up to you if you want to play the free or subscription versions. This is probably the best mobile MMORPG and has a landscape mode that works very well for tablets. The developers finally released an official RuneScape client (Google Play) for Android, which would also be better on tablets.
Pocket City
Price: Free / $3.99
Pocket City is a city-building simulator similar to Sim City. That’s a rough sentence to say out loud. Anyway, this is a reasonably primary city sim. You build various buildings, roads, and utilities to make your town run smoothly. It features weather disasters and positive things like parties that make your city feel alive. Players progressively unlock more land, buildings, and stuff as they play. The free version is just the base game. The premium version includes more features, a dedicated sandbox mode, and no advertising. This is a surprisingly good Sim City-style game, and we love that it isn’t a free-top-lay game. You can also play in either landscape or portrait mode.
Rebel Inc
Price: Free to play
Rebel Inc. is an excellent game on tablets. It’s by the same developers as Plague Inc, so you know this one will be good. You drop into a region in unrest, and you must fix the problem. The game includes seven scenarios, many insurgent strategies to overcome, and a branching story based on your decisions. The developers researched most of these things as they made the game to make it as realistic as possible. There are also eight governors with different abilities to try out. It’s a free-to-play game, but it’s one of the better.
Rocket League Sideswipe
Price: Free to play
Rocket League Sideswipe is up there with Alto’s Adventure as an excellent tablet arcade game. You engage in 1v1 or 2v2 matches that last about two minutes each. The goal is to drive the car into the soccer ball so that it winds up scoring a goal. The action-oriented gameplay is addicting, and the short matches let you play anywhere. Some other game features include offline games against bots, a casual mode where you can play without affecting rank, and private matches. It’s not the deepest game on the list, but playing on a larger tablet screen is certainly more fun.
SpongeBob SquarePants Battle for Bikini Bottom
Price: $4.99
SpongeBob SquarePants Battle for Bikini Bottom is an adventure platformer with some puzzle elements. You play as SpongeBob, Patrick, and Sandy as you foil Plankton’s evil plot to take over the town. The game is a remaster of an earlier console game. Includes the entire action-platforming experience from 2003, but with better visuals, full hardware controller support, and Google Play Games services. It’s a tad expensive at $4.99, but we prefer premium tablet games since it feels better not to scroll menus for in-app purchases. This is an excellent game.
Square Enix games
Price: Free to play / Varies
Square Enix is one of the best game developers on mobile. They have a vast collection of tablet games that range from console ports to made-for-mobile titles. You can find eight Final Fantasy games, Chrono Trigger, Secret of Mana, Adventures of Mana, Tomb Raider, Tomb Raider II, Chaos Rings 3, and many other great titles. Most of them play perfectly fine on the phone, but having a tablet helps the experience shine. The prices vary from free to-play to over $20, so there is a little something there, no matter what you’re into. Their latest big release was Final Fantasy XV: Pocket Edition, an excellent addition to your tablet games lineup. Square Enix also has free-to-play games, such as Final Fantasy Brave Exvius or Final Fantasy Record Keeper. However, those are best suited for phones, not tablets.
Stardew Valley
Price: $4.99
Stardew Valley is one of the best new tablet games from 2019. It’s a farming simulator with many additional features and things to do. Players start by turning their overgrown fields into functional farms and expand from there. You can also get married, attend town events, raise and breed animals, and even fish if you want to. There are many ways to customize the old farm, all unlocked through gameplay. This is a strong contender for the best of 2019, and it plays beautifully on a tablet. The game is also free via Google Play Pass if you use it.
Streets of Rage 4
Price: $8.99 + $2.99
Streets of Rage 4 is another port of a console game that we quite like. It’s a 1990s-style beat ’em-up game where you select a character and walk through the level. The goal is to beat up the bad guys and bosses without being defeated. It’s a simple premise, but the gameplay is quite nice on a tablet. This version includes a few game modes, 13 playable characters, pixel graphics settings, and more. There is also a $2.99 DLC that adds a survival mode and some other goodies. We think it plays wonderfully on modern tablets.
