The Best Mobile Games Of 2023

It's absolutely wild to think that the gaming platform the most number of people own is the one that fits in their back pocket. And yetit's even wilder to consider how far the games we play on these palm-sized devices have come.

Though we have it on good word that Candy Crush Saga is still going strongeach year developers prove that there's more to mobile gaming than match-3 games and solitaire (though you can bet we still have both on our phones--the classics are classics for a reason). Phones and tablets are now capable of incredible featswith Dead by DaylightNeed For SpeedInjusticeFortniteGenshin ImpactAlien: Isolationand countless other graphically intensive games proving it through their presence and popularity on App stores.

2023 brought with it a new collection of games to add to the ever-growing list of great mobile titles. And while nearly all of the games on this list are available to play elsewherethese are titles that we felt were either best experienced on mobileor were ported over with mind-blowing finesse. From Pocket Card Jockey: Rid On! to Honkai: Star Railthese are the best mobile games of 2023.

Ready to set your phone down and play something new on PC or console? Be sure to check out our coverage on the best games of 2023 for Nintendo SwitchPlayStation 5Xbox Series X|Sand PC. You can also read up on our top games of 2023 overallas well as our game of the year: Baldur's Gate 3.

Pocket Card Jockey was an overlooked little gem of a 3DS gameand a successful non-Pokemon game from developer Game Freak. Its revival this year on mobile devices finally gave it the staying power it always deserved. It immediately became a mainstay on our phones and it won't be leaving anytime soon.

Pocket Card Jockey: Ride On takes the gonzo premise of the original. You're a particularly unskilled jockey who immediately dies in your very first raceonly to be miraculously revived and given the power to tie your race performance to the one thing you actually are good at: playing solitaire. Thus the genre mash-up is bornas you play quick hands of card matching to boost your horse's performancewin racesand slowly gain reputation and access to better horses that can be ridden and then put out to stud. It's a fiendishly compelling loop that compels you to play one more raceand it feels right at home on mobile deviceslike this was always where it was destined to go. Like a beloved horse with a broken legit's hard to put down. -- Steve Watts

While Resident Evil Village isn’t the first AAA game to come to mobileit is among the first to not simply be a port that has been tweaked to run on a phone; this is the same build that Capcom developed for macOSjust on iPhone. What playing the game on iPhone lacks in scale and fidelity compared to the console experience on a TVit makes up for with portability and convenienceall without the need for a stable internet connection to stream it.

As long as you are playing with a controller or controller gripVillage can at times be just as compelling on mobile as it is on consoleand while you currently need an iPhone 15 Pro to play it on a phonethe game can also run on any M1 or higher iPad as wellwhich are a couple of years old at this pointwith even better performance than with the iPhone 15 Pro’s A17 Pro chip. As mobile chip technology progressesand less expensive devices gain the ability to run full-blown AAA titlesit will have a colossal impact on the gaming industry as we know itand Resident Evil Village will be recognized as the game that started it all. -- Tom Caswell

In the grand scheme of thingsthere's a surprising lack of Animal Crossing clones out thereand even fewer good ones. Some games emulate aspects of Nintendo's beloved social/wholesome chore-simbut precious few manage to capture the same charm. This isin large partbecause the cast of characters that Nintendo has created for the series is unmatchedthere are precious few collections of iconic fictional animal friends people want to spend hours with. Butthat's exactly what Sanrio hasand it's one of the main draws of Hello Kitty: Island Adventure.

Hello Kitty and friends being thrown together in a little game where players get to hang out and go on adventures sounds like a winning formula andin executionit totally is. You only have to look at the name of who is writing this testimonial for proof of how effective a mixture it is. Relating to Badtz Maru's general vibe and enjoying the Aggretsuko series on Netflix can be enough to spark curiosityand Hello Kitty: Island Adventure will happily pour fuel on to develop a raging fire of Sanrio love built upon chatting with memorable charactersdoing simple but charming taskssocially engineering friendships (in a non-problematic way)and even delving into the odd dungeon crawling session. While Island Adventure may not become a cornerstone of your daily life like Animal Crossing often doesit has enough feel-good moments and cute interactions to cement itself as one of the memorable mobile game experiences of the year. -- Tamoor Hussain

The team behind Genshin Impact thought it’d be a good idea to tap our pockets for more pulls on a wave of new favorite anime boys and girlsand you know whatthey were right. All jokes aside about the gacha elements that seep its way into games like theseHonkai: Star Rail is a legitimate contender to be among the best RPGs of the year. While it’s available on PCPS4and PS5the game looks and runs wonderfully on mobile. And the novelty of having a full-fledged RPG experience on mobile with solid controls and few compromises made it even easier to enjoy.

Honkai: Star Rail contains some captivating stories for many of its charactersand traveling across the galaxy to see different worlds and understand where they come from propel you beyond just farming for resources to get more gacha pulls. Stories of uprisingclass struggleand political power dynamics make this a more fascinating game than Genshin Impactand the space opera-esque sci-fi setting serves as a strong foundation for these narrative elements.

The turn-based combat system is quite impressive as well. With each character sporting a specific elementsimilar to Genshin Impactparty composition for certain enemies creates some satisfying and challenging battles. Every character has unique properties in their special abilities and give variety to an extensive roster you’ll quickly be building upand their attack animations are a visual treat that add flair to the grind.

It’s a free-to-play gacha game and that comes with caveats about how we spend money in games designed like this. Underneath thathoweveris an RPG that stands on its own merits and one that’s just as great on mobile as it is on more powerful systems.

In a GameSpot's feature on Honkai: Star RailEthan Anderson wrote: "Honkai: Star Rail is a game thatat least at this pointrespects your time. It channels some of the best parts of Genshin Impact while cutting out a lot of what could be considered barriers to entry for newcomers or those with time constraints." -- Michael Higham

Puzzmo is like a nice cup of coffee on a cold Sunday morning. Puzzmo is like being wrapped up in a comfy blanket. Puzzmo is bliss.

Puzzmo is not a single gamebut instead more of a game collection/platform that brings together former creations of puzzle game maestro Zach Gage (such as SpellTower and Really Bad Chess) with entirely new puzzle games and slight twists on classics like crosswords. It's also not strictly a mobile app; insteadit's played through your browserwhich works out nicely for easily accessing it in multiple placesbut it's particularly well-suited to playing on mobile. On iPhonetry adding it to your Home screen--it's hard to distinguish from a native app.

Wherever it's playedPuzzmo is a wonderful collection of puzzle games and brainteasersbut by wrapping it all with social elementsleaderboardsstreak-trackingand ample hint systemsit lends these both a sense of community and a complete lack of pressure. You can play each of these at your own paceshooting for high scores and fast completion timesor slowly agonizing over your every move. Each included game could merit being its ownstandalone thing (and as noted aboveseveral of them have existed previously in that fashion)but in combining it all and structuring it all in the Wordle-one-of-each-game-per-day mannerPuzzmo lends itself a wonderful sense of timelinessdaily excitementand a nonstop string of "a-ha!" moments. -- Chris Pereira