Best Open-World Games You Can Play On Android And Other Mobile Devices

We often take digital technology so much for granted that open-world games have become underappreciated these days. Sometimes, you just have to sit back and take in the bigger picture. It's a living and breathing world in a digital space. Put it on a mobile phone and that world easily fits in the palm of your hand or your pocket. That's how far gaming has come from the 2D days of Pong.

How viable a platform is for gaming is sometimes measured by how fun its open-world games are. In that regard, mobile phones are very much a fully-fledged gaming platform. Of course, to save yourself from the trouble of weeding out which of those games best represent the open-world genre in mobile, then take a vacation to these top contenders' worlds.

Updated on July 06, 2024, by Sanyam Jain: With time, Mobile gaming has become one of the important parts of the industry, bringing in various big titles to your devices. The list has been updated to showcase some of these titles!

Please note that the 'Most Recent Update' segment of our information tables is relative to July 2024 , meaning there's a very real chance the games in question will have been updated beyond what we've written if you're reading this article anytime from August 2024 onward. We've included it as a contemporaneous effort to showcase how active the various developers have been as of this writing!

16 BotWorld Adventure

This colorful romp, crafted by Featherweight, allows you to venture through the colorful wilds of Botworld. While doing so, you'll tackle a diversity of quests and contracts and assemble automatons that are pitted against other bots. It can partly be described as a robotic Pokemon, as you'll gather and exploit these bots to get useful items and beef up your squad and take on baddies.

It's a delightful adventure that's more detailed and vast than its cute aesthetic lets on, though it's also a great introductory RPG for newcomers on mobile.

15 Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas

One of the biggest phenoms for the PS2 has since seen endless iterations, including a far more recent mobile release. Though a few elements are missing or stripped down (multiplayer Rampage missions), most of the same endlessly-gripping sandbox gameplay is here. You'll find it hard to put down the phone or tablet as you plow through various run-and-gun as well as driving missions.

GTA — and particularly the renowned San Andreas — is one of those deep titles that's just fun no matter what you do. This version also goes out of its way to provide a fairly smooth, intuitive experience, with a bold interface and clear-cut map system.

14 Terraria

Re-Logic's mega-hit Terraria manages to translate well to mobile devices despite its complexity, huge biomes, and combat-heavy gameplay. This is thanks to its retro style of sidescrolling Metroidvania action. This engrossing adventure has you venturing out to slay monsters, gather items, craft gear, and build structures a la Minecraft in 2D.

With a number of quality-of-life tweaks and sharp, clear interface inputs, the game feels surprisingly great with even a small touchscreen on mobile. And you can still utilize the game's social co-op features with relative ease, allowing for another player to jump in and fight or plunder alongside you.

13 LifeAfter

LifeAfter mixes in a little bit of everything. It has the graphics of PUBG and Fortnite, and also has the gameplay elements of the most compelling zombie survival games. As always, the game is all about fending for yourself in a zombie apocalypse where every former bastion of civilization is now littered with military hardware.

It's up to you to shore up your base defenses and scavenge for some precious resources. LifeAfter merely takes an old concept and makes it more ambitious by turning it into a mobile open-world game for Android and other devices. The best part is that it's also an MMORPG and you can team up with other players.

12 EVE Echoes

EVE Echoes does the impossible and puts one of the most complicated, vast MMORPGs ever in a pocket-sized computer. EVE was known for its vast open space where thousands of players can wage war with one another with their armadas in tow.

EVE Echoes brings that exact experience into smartphones but is more streamlined and more accessible. It's also free, though that can be a downside, as the game has a premium currency that you'll have to work hard for if you don't want to spend real money.

11 Wuthering Waves

Wuthering Waves has been one of the most anticipated titles ever since its first announcement, and while this was partly because of its resemblance with Genshin Impact, most of it was still because of the game's beautiful character and world design alongside the intricate combat that relies on timed dodges and parries.

You get to play as a Rover from the beginning as you attempt to uncover the various secrets of this world including your true identity. You also get to meet various characters that you can acquire by engaging in the Gacha system, though it's not a necessity, and you can very well just enjoy the beautiful world exploration story at your own pace.

10 Perfect World Mobile

Before Gacha Games (software that encourages virtual item purchases) became big, traditional Korean MMORPGs were what best represented the Eastern online RPG market. Among them was Perfect World, and it was one of the finest ever made as it allowed unprecedented freedom with character creation, which was impressive for its time.

Fast-forward to today, and we can thankfully relive that experience once more with Perfect World Mobile. It's a mostly identical setup except it's a lot easier to play now with all the automation mechanics that ensure you get to the meat of the game if you don't have much time to play.

9 Wilderless

Don't let those relatively tiny download numbers fool you. Sometimes all those quests and enemy-slaying can be numbing when all you really want is to appreciate the scenery and relax. Wilderless is all about that kind of casual, passive gameplay. In what can be described as a "nature simulator", there are no missions to save the world, no evil creatures, and no pressure to become powerful.

There's just you and the wide open world made for your viewing pleasure and curiosity. All you have to do is explore the boundless and beautiful nature presented right before your very eyes, except it's all in the comfort of your smartphone.

8 Frostborn

Frostborn is right for you if you prefer your open-world games to have some Norse or Viking flavor. It includes many intricate open-world systems and mechanics and is an amalgam of many genres such as RPG and survival with many multiplayer elements.

In Frostborn, you assume the role of a Viking hero who must rally his friends to rebuild the once-great Viking nation after Midgard fell to the undead. To do this, you'll have to harness the power of the gods while also attending to your settlements. With the grindy combat and isometric perspective, this RPG feels delightfully retro, but modern in its scope and depth.

7 Second Galaxy

For something that's wholly unique and very rarely achieved before on mobile, Second Galaxy should sate your craving for novelty and epic sci-fi. It's a space simulator that lets you commandeer your own spacecraft as you find your place in the vast galaxy.

There's plenty to do in this 3D maneuverable universe where your ship also serves as your character and the one where you will progress. You can do missions for galactic factions, hunt down pirates, or simply bask in the majesty of the open space.

6 Minecraft

You just can't get rid of this juggernaut no matter how hard you try. Minecraft is both an exercise in creativity and freedom. Not many games can achieve the same level of modularity and customization that Minecraft readily gives.

It's not free though, and that's alright; the PC and console counterparts weren't that generous anyway. Regardless, this is just about the same experience as on bigger and beefier platforms, complete with multiplayer. Blockiness aside, it's quite impressive to be able to explore and plunder an endlessly-vast world, building and crafting most anything to your heart's content on mobile.

5 Goat Simulator

Some games tend to forget that the best thing they can give their players is devious, destructive, and dumb fun. That's what Goat Simulator offered when it was released as a seemingly dysfunctional game about a wayward goat in a small town.

Now, that same goat can terrorize the small screen of your Android or iOS phone. The graphics weren't that demanding, to begin with, anyway, so they easily fit into mobile hardware. It's a good way to blow off some steam and get a few laughs in the process.

Check out Goat Simulator 3 if you dig what the first game is putting down. The sequel brings some new bahhhs to the table, though there's a certain undeniable charm to the awkwardness of the first title.

4 Stardew Valley

"Blowing off some steam" with more sophistication and with less nihilism is an ever-present allure in the hit farming game/dating simulator, Stardew Valley. The game has seen a lot of success on PC and console.

On mobile, it gives the same features all in the comfort of your hands. The graphics are the same, and you can treat the game as your dream retirement in some remote farmland brimming with hot single countryfolk stereotypes straight out of romance anime. And the intuitive touchscreen features prove a great fit for this interface-heavy title.

3 Grand Theft Auto: Vice City

Even before Grand Theft Auto 5's massively popular multiplayer mode transformed the way we look at the series, bringing in ceaseless boatloads of cash and handily becoming the game so many purchase with new consoles, Grand Theft Auto was already a huge name in the gaming scene. The single-player campaigns have long been celebrated for their blend of cutting wit and compelling escapades.

Grand Theft Auto: Vice City, the second in the old PlayStation 2-era trilogy, has particularly stood the test of time. Its hero, Tommy, is a captivating guy with a story worth experiencing. More to the point, Vice City's celebration-slash-defamation of everything 1980s gives it the kind of vibe you can't find elsewhere in the franchise — and scarcely in the gaming scene at large.

2 Genshin Impact

As far as great Zelda-esque games go, Genshin Impact is far and away one of the most successful. It took all that made Breath of the Wild a unique RPG and put its own twist.

It throws the player character in the world of Teyvat after a peculiar god exiled them. Now it's an open-world co-op RPG that compels people to spend hundreds of dollars just to get the best characters they can find. This certainly shows the game is doing something right.

1 Pokemon Go

Forgive us. But truly, there is no open-world game playable on mobile devices quite like Pokemon Go. Sure, it may belong to a separate genre of gaming altogether. Yet, is there anything more adventurous than a quest to catch them all? For that matter, is there any world more open than the one we live in?

Granted, you can't exactly go anywhere, or do everything you want. But when you distill things down to snagging fictional monsters in real-world cities, towns, forests, rivers, and more, the possibilities feel endless. Unlike most open-world, or for that matter, any game, Pokemon Go encourages you to go exploring in real life. Though some features have been added that allow for more stationary play. Pokemon Go is all about the 'out and about', and it's an unrivaled open-world experience for it.