The Best Mobile Puzzle Games
Thirteen puzzle games built for a phone first. Rank them, vote up the ones you actually finished, and push the padding down. The rule is strict and does most of the sorting: nothing here reached a PC or a console before it reached a phone or tablet. That is why Candy Crush Saga is absent, having opened on Facebook in April 2012 and only got to iOS later that year, and why Baba Is You (PC 2019, mobile 2021) and Mini Metro (PC 2015, mobile 2016) are absent too. The order runs on craft and on how much of the design only works with a finger on glass; games whose loop is a store or a treadmill sit at the bottom whatever their craft. Where both a game and its sequel are here, the sequel sits below it, and no series gets more than two slots. Where Steam sells only a later re-release, the entry is still the phone game and says so. Dates come from each game's Wikipedia entry, not from Steam.
The Room is #1 on “The Best Mobile Puzzle Games”.
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The Room
Fireproof Games shipped this on iPad in September 2012, and it is still the best argument for a touchscreen as a physical object. Pinching and twisting a locked puzzle box, then equipping the lens that shows Null markings you cannot otherwise see, does something a mouse cannot. It had sold over 1.4 million copies on iPad by March 2013. Every escape-room app I have played since is downstream of it.
The Room on SteamA mysterious invitation leads to the attic of an abandoned house. In the room is a cast-iron safe laced with strange carvings and on top, a note from your distant companion. It promises something ancient and astonishing concealed in the iron chamber - you need only find a way in.https://store.steampowered.com/app/288160/ - 2
Monument Valley
Ustwo put this on iOS on 3 April 2014, and mobile puzzle design has been chasing it ever since. You steer Princess Ida through Escher staircases by twisting the architecture itself with a fingertip, and the crow people shuffling along the walkways are the only thing that reads as an enemy. It had sold 2.4 million copies by January 2015, a month in which ustwo said 95% of Android installs and 60% of iOS installs were unpaid.
Monument Valley on SteamEmbark on a journey of forgiveness through impossible environments and illusionary puzzles. Experience this meditative and calming puzzle game by manipulating monuments and creating evolving paths to explore new, surreal, and mysterious worlds.https://store.steampowered.com/app/1927720/ - 3
Gorogoa
Border case, and worth saying plainly: it arrived on iOS, Windows and Switch on the same day, 14 December 2017. It never reached a PC ahead of a phone, so it stays. Jason Roberts drew the whole thing alone across nearly six years, and sliding one image of the four-panel grid over another until a doorway lines up is the entire verb. It won the Visual Design Award at IndieCade in 2012, five years before it shipped.
Save 75% on Gorogoa on SteamGorogoa is an elegant evolution of the puzzle genre, told through a beautifully hand-drawn story designed and illustrated by Jason Roberts. Winner of Debut Game at the 2018 BAFTA Games Awards, as well as Best Mobile Game and the Innovation Award at the GDC 2018 Choice Awards.https://store.steampowered.com/app/557600/ - 4
Threes!
Sirvo spent fourteen months on a game you can explain in one sentence: ones and twos merge into a three, and matching threes double from there. It reached iOS on 6 February 2014 and took an Apple Design Award that year. The swipe is the whole interface. Losing a board still feels like your own fault rather than the game's. Clones followed within weeks of launch, and not one of them got the feel.
Threes! on SteamA tiny puzzle that grows on you.https://store.steampowered.com/app/1818570/ - 5
The Room Two
Where the first game handed you one box, the sequel hands you a whole room: several puzzles sitting in different corners, and you move freely between them. That is a real loss of focus and a real gain in atmosphere, and I would not trade either. Out on iOS on 12 December 2013, past 1.2 million copies by March 2014, and nominated for two BAFTAs.
The Room Two on SteamUnique events transport you to the halls of a long-forgotten crypt. The only means of escape lies locked within a stone pedestal, along with a note from your mysterious ally. His words promise assistance, but only serve to entice you into a compelling world of mystery and exploration.https://store.steampowered.com/app/425580/ - 6
Cut the Rope
Physics puzzles got their mascot in October 2010. Slice the ropes in the right order, bounce the candy off a bubble, land it on Om Nom, and collect three stars on the way down. It was purchased one million times within nine days. ZeptoLab kept the original on phones, handhelds and browsers only, so there is no Steam page for it and the link goes to Wikipedia.
Cut the Rope (video game) - Wikipediahttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cut_the_Rope_(video_game) - 7
Monument Valley 2
Announced onstage at Apple's developer conference on 5 June 2017 and out the same day, which was a stunt the game earned. Ro and her child move as one until the story splits them, and suddenly you are solving two halves of a single impossible building at once. Shorter and softer than the first, deliberately so, and the ending lands because of it rather than in spite of it.
Monument Valley 2 on SteamDiscover illusionary pathways and delightful puzzles as you learn the secrets of The Sacred Geometry. Follow the heart warming story of Ro in her journey through motherhood. Rediscover independence through manipulating monuments and evolving paths to explore new, surreal, and mysterious worlds.https://store.steampowered.com/app/1927740/ - 8
Mini Motorways
Drawing roads with a fingertip is the correct way to play, which is why the Apple Arcade release on 19 September 2019 beat the desktop one by nearly two years. Houses feed shops of the same color; every week you pick one upgrade, and taking a motorway over a roundabout is where a run is won or lost. Wikipedia counts 24 playable cities as of March 2026.
Mini Motorways on SteamMini Motorways is a strategy simulation game about designing the road map for a growing city. Build a traffic network, one road at a time, to create a bustling metropolis. Redesign your roads and place your motorways to get everyone where they need to go. How long can you keep the city moving?https://store.steampowered.com/app/1127500/ - 9
Hitman GO
Turning a stealth series into a board game sounds like a licensing accident. Agent 47 moves one node per turn along interconnected lines, every guard on the board moves when he does, and the art came from architectural models and dioramas. Square Enix Montréal put it on iOS on 17 April 2014. The only Steam listing is the 2016 Definitive Edition, covering PS4, Vita and desktop but never a phone, which tells you the design never needed a touchscreen.
Save 80% on Hitman GO: Definitive Edition on SteamHitman GO is a simple to play, but difficult to master turn-based strategy game set in a stunning interpretation of the Hitman universe.https://store.steampowered.com/app/427820/ - 10
Lara Croft GO
Same studio, same turn-based grammar, richer raw material. You and the environment alternate: move once, and the snakes and giant spiders move once. Pulling levers shifts walls and platforms into fresh paths, which turns a Tomb Raider dungeon into something you can solve standing on a bus. Out on phones 27 August 2015, on Steam 4 December 2016, and it won best mobile or handheld game at The Game Awards 2015.
Save 85% on Lara Croft GO on SteamLara Croft GO is a turn based puzzle-adventure set in a long-forgotten world. Explore the ruins of an ancient civilization, discover well-kept secrets and face deadly challenges as you uncover the myth of the Queen of Venom.https://store.steampowered.com/app/540840/ - 11
Grindstone
Capybara Games launched this on iOS on 19 September 2019, day one of Apple Arcade; the Windows build followed in May 2021. Jorj can only hack one color of monster per chain, but smash through ten and a Grindstone spawns that lets him switch color mid-run. Three ability slots of unlockable powers wrap the puzzle in a treadmill, which is what holds it down here. Edge named it the best mobile game of 2019.
Grindstone on SteamGrindstone is a puzzle game where epic adventures are just your 9-to-5. It’s your job to mine grindstones from the Creeps that lurk on the mountain in over 600 levels of intricate puzzles and hazards, all in the hopes of saving up enough grindstones to take your family on a much needed vacation.https://store.steampowered.com/app/1818690/ - 12
Puzzle & Dragons
GungHo's orb-matching puzzle-RPG was the first mobile title in history to gross $1 billion, and the mechanic that earned it is dragging a single orb around the board for up to five seconds while combos cascade behind you. The dungeon waves wrapped around that drag are most of the game, which is what puts it down here. Out in 2012 for iOS, Android and Amazon Fire only, no PC build, no Steam page, so the link is Wikipedia.
Puzzle & Dragons - Wikipediahttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Puzzle_%26_Dragons - 13
Flow Free
Big Duck Games built the whole thing on numberlink puzzles and made them work on a small screen in June 2012. You join same-colored dots with pipes that cannot cross, and you have to fill every square, which is the rule that stops it being a doodle. Then the paid packs arrive. More than 100 million downloads by 2022, on phones and tablets only, never on Steam, hence Wikipedia.
Flow Free - Wikipediahttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flow_Free
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