These are my picks for the best mobile games of 2025 that you should play in 2026

2025 was a crazy year for mobile games, with new releases offering console-quality experiences for the first time. With the Snapdragon 8 Elite chipset offering incredible performance in the year’s flagship phones, it’s great to see games finally take advantage of all that power.

We also saw a few great lightweight mobile games released in 2025, although again, they were mostly ports. The Steam Frame hasn’t even been released yet, and we’re already seeing a blurring of the lines between Android games and PC games, and that trend is set to continue in the new year. 

With all that said, here’s a list of all of my favorite mobile games that dropped in 2025 that you might want to pick up before all the new games of 2026 start to grab headlines. Note that the list isn’t in any particular order, since it covers a variety of genres and price points (including several that are free). The majority have full controller support, so they’re also great for Android gaming handhelds.

Our first pick needs no introduction. Rockstar Games’ Red Dead Redemption was a massive hit when it dropped in 2010 on the PS3 and Xbox 360, and now you can play the full game on your smartphone. What a time to be alive!

In case you have been living under a rock for the past two decades, Red Dead Redemption is an open-world action game set in the Wild West. It somehow succeeds in converting the Grand Theft Auto gameplay that put Rockstar on the map with an immersive cowboy narrative that will stick with you well after the credits roll. Or you can just play the game as a sandbox, riding around on your horse, hunting bounties, and navigating random world events.

The Android release features the full game and the zombified Undead Nightmare expansion, but it isn’t cheap. The game costs an eye-watering $40 to buy outright, but it’s included for free with a Netflix subscription, which is an incredible deal to experience this game.

Subnautica is yet another PC port, but it trades a Western open world for the watery depths. Nominally a survival horror game (especially if you suffer from thalassophobia, like me), it has you crash-land on an oceanic alien planet, foraging for whatever you can to find a way home.

Apart from being a fantastic game, the Android port of Subnautica is very well done. The UI is perfect for touch controls (it supports controllers, too), and performance is optimized enough that it can run on any flagship device from the past five years.

The full game runs just $10, but there’s no demo or trial before you buy. Considering you can dump literally hundreds of hours into this game, it’s worth the price of entry.

At first glance, you might think Persona 5: The Phantom X is a mobile port of the 2017 RPG, but it’s actually a gacha-styled revamp of the world and gameplay in a way that keeps things fresh and accessible. Most importantly, it still looks and feels like a full-fat Persona game, with alternate reality ties to the original Persona 5’s story and cast, but a brand new crop of Phantom Thieves to fight as and befriend.

P5X’s global rollout had a slightly rocky start as it followed the same beats and schedule as its Chinese release in 2024. That meant new players had to endure an opening storyline that mixed cringey dialogue and a ridiculously uninspiring villain who checks notes slammed into people on the subway (see the trailer above… it’s very silly). However, things have improved dramatically since then, with new characters and content dropping regularly, particularly since the debut of chapter three, which saw the introduction of a writing team that wasn’t a fan of subway slamming.

There’s certainly a lot of game here, and the Tokyo-hopping, dungeon-crawling, and social link aspects from the original have been smartly adapted to feel familiar but also fit the revised format. It even has full controller support, although the touch controls more than suffice due to the turn-based gameplay.

While the live service and gacha elements may turn off some Persona fans looking to play through a traditional Persona RPG, our resident Persona addict (our Managing Editor Ollie Cragg) says there’s enough DNA and style in there to keep fans of the series going, with no end in sight. It’s also very free-to-play friendly, with plenty of non-premium characters who are more than strong enough to get you through the story and the many other modes. In fact, it’s currently celebrating its one-year anniversary and is giving away a bunch of freebies. So if you like RPGs or beautiful anime-inspired worlds (and somehow aren’t already hooked on Persona), give this one a download.

My favorite mobile games of 2025 were dominated by PC ports, but Where Winds Meet is special because it’s more than just a port. It’s the same game as the PC and PS5 versions, launching less than a month later with full cross-progression support.

The open-world wuxia game puts you in the shoes of an unnamed protagonist, completing quests and helping locals by using a mix of martial arts and mystic arts. It definitely takes itself a little too seriously sometimes, but the scenery and graphics are among the best I’ve ever seen in a mobile game. It’s also fully controller-compatible, with a few quality-of-life improvements for mobile.

Unlike most NetEase games, monetization in Where Winds Meet is fairly light, and it’s mostly limited to cosmetics. The only downside is that it’s very demanding to run, with the devs recommending a Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 or above for the best experience. 

The indie darling DREDGE was adapted to mobile early in 2025, with the relaxing Eldritch fishing gameplay smoothed out with touch controls and simplified minigames to suit mobile devices. It’s also compatible with controllers, which remains my favorite way to play.

If you haven’t heard of it, DREDGE has you taking control of a fishing boat in a low-poly world. During the day, you leisurely reel in fish to sell on the market, but if you don’t make it back to shore before nightfall, a thick fog rolls in, bringing terrifying monsters with it.

The game is fun and innovative, but it’s also expensive. The base game runs $25 (not including paid DLC content), which is simply too much for a mobile game. Thankfully, the game is included as part of Google Play Pass. If you can’t get it on sale, a month’s subscription is more than enough to play through the whole game.

Cassette Beasts was first launched on PC and console in 2023, but it arrived on mobile as a premium title early in 2025. The colorful pixel art RPG is clearly inspired by Pokémon titles, with turn-based combat and a list of moves that grows as you level up.

However, instead of collecting the monsters themselves, you collect cassette recordings of them. Then, you and a companion transform into those monsters to fight first-hand. You also use abilities in the overworld to access new areas and progress through the game.

It’s a fun take on a well-worn genre, and you can play the first 20 minutes or so for free before having to shell out $5.99 on the full game. The game has controller support, but I found it to be a little wonky, so you’ll still need the touchscreen for some parts.

Fans of the FPS MMO Destiny 2 got a little treat in 2025, with Destiny: Rising bringing the series to mobile for the first time. It’s a remarkably faithful adaptation, with all of the menus and weapon customization of the main game, for better or worse.

The game looks great, and it plays very well with a controller. It’s also fully free-to-play, although it has the annoying monetization strategies NetEase is known for. Still, it’s a fun way to kill some time on your phone, whether you want to play casually or more seriously.

Enter the Gungeon and Exit the Gungeon dropped simultaneously on Android in 2025, bringing the addictive roguelike to your fingertips anywhere you go. The former is a top-down bullet hell game where everything is guns, and the follow-up swaps things up by bringing the chaos to 2D platforming.

I spent a lot of hours revisiting Enter the Gungeon, and if you haven’t played it, I’d recommend starting there. It’s addictive and fast-paced, with both touchscreen and physical controller support that mostly works well. You can play the first level as many times as you want, but the full game will cost you $8.99. Exit the Gungeon is cheaper at $4.99, but it doesn’t quite land the same as the original.

The Umamusume franchise has been around in some form since 2016, but in 2025, Pretty Derby launched globally on Android, iOS, and PC to astronomical success. The game, which is deeply rooted in Japanese horse racing, manages to transcend all cultural boundaries with one simple trick: Anime waifus.

Ok, so there are plenty of other themes that resonate here, like perseverance and overcoming obstacles. The characters are also based on real horses, with their storylines, personalities, and even looks tailored to match. But they also dance around like J-pop idols, so there’s a little something for every type of nerd here.

Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown might not have made waves when it landed on consoles and PC in 2024, but the slick 2.5D action platformer took less than a year to make the leap to mobile, where it stands out much more from the crowd.

The Lost Crown is the first new Prince of Persia game in over a decade, and it’s a notable departure from the 3D titles from the early 2000s. Instead, it combines the early titles’ platforming with Metroidvania elements to create a polished and satisfying experience that still feels at home on mobile. Not only does it have full controller support, it also has new quality of life and accessibility features exclusive to mobile.

You can play the first level of the game for free, but the full game is unlocked via an in-app purchase. It normally costs $15, but you can frequently get it for $10. It’s also fully playable offline, which is increasingly uncommon for mobile games.