Summary
- Google bundles some offline games with the Play Games app, including Solitaire and PAC-MAN.
- With paid titles, check their Play Store listings for offline support, although games with an upfront fee are more likely to work offline.
- Emulators support offline play as a rule, but they sit in a legal gray area at best.
If you’re here, it’s probably because you’ve discovered the hard way that a lot of Android games refuse to work if you don’t have an active internet connection. Usually, of course, that’s not a big deal — if Wi-Fi isn’t available, 4G or 5G cellular is almost certainly a fallback. But you may not have either option on an airplane, and in other scenarios, you may want to intentionally avoid the internet — say if a cruise line charges exorbitant fees for decent bandwidth.
The good news is that many Android games will work offline. It’s mostly a question of knowing what to look for, and in some cases, being prepared to pay more upfront for the privilege. A few games can be played offline for free, thankfully.
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Playing Android’s built-in offline games
Some favorites may already be on your phone
Bandai Namco
At a minimum, Google includes a few games for free with the Google Play Games app. You might be upset at the extra space these take up, but these are actually older classics with very little footprint — they were originally designed to fit on cartridges and floppy disks, not gigabytes of flash storage.
Specifically, Play Games includes these apps:
- Solitaire
- Minesweeper
- Snake
- PAC-MAN
- Cricket
- Whirlybird
The first four are probably the main attractions, particularly PAC-MAN, which you can still pay for on the Play Store if you want a more elaborate version. To access Play Games’ built-in titles, though, follow these steps:
- Find and open the Play Games app on your phone.
- Tap Home if you aren’t already there.
- Scroll until you see the Google Built-In Games section.
- Next to the game you want to launch, tap Play.
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Finding offline games on the Google Play Store
Expect to pay a little for quality
ConcernedApe
This is the tricky part, for a reason that’s both simple and complex: the economics of mobile games. Many gamers reject the idea of a mobile title costing as much as something on a PC or console, so instead, mobile developers often turn to ads or in-app purchases. Both of those options often demand an internet connection — even if you’ve already bought something in-game, a developer may want to verify that to deter piracy.
If it was easy to fake in-game currencies, fraud would be rampant.
You’re more likely to be able to play offline if a game has an upfront free.
Strictly speaking, short of downloading it yourself, the only way to know if a game can be played offline is to check its description, whether on the Google Play Store or on an official website. But you’re more likely to be able to play offline if a game has an upfront free, especially if it costs $10 or more. Some of those games may still have in-app purchases, but they probably won’t have ads, and even those extra purchases may only need occasional verification.
My personal recommendations would include Stardew Valley and Dead Cells (both below), although the latter is best played with a controller. Stardew may also be preferable if you want a slower-paced game, or something that’s family-friendly without being aimed exclusively at kids.
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What about emulators?
Treading into risky waters
Yes, if you’ve got a game emulator like RetroArch or Lemuroid on your phone, you should be able to play most or all of your emulated games without an internet connection. You won’t be able to take advantage of your emulator’s online modes or achievements, but that’s a small price to pay for accessing a classic gaming library on your next cross-country flight. Your 10-year-old self would be jealous.
There are three main issues to be aware of. The first is that emulators require you to download and install games — usually in the form of ROM files — before you go offline. On its own, an emulator is just an empty shell, and that’s by design. You’ll need to learn what game platforms your emulator supports, how to find sources of games, and then how you’re expected to load them, for instance by copying them into a specific file folder. Web searches should help with this.
Emulators exist in a legal gray area at best.
The second issue is legality. Emulators exist in a legal gray area at best, and if they’re suspected of using copyrighted technology, companies like Nintendo can force them off the Play Store. ROM files are outright illegal, technically, so online depositories will also come and go. I say technically because many emulated games are no longer on sale anywhere — they’re abandoned. Frequently, it isn’t worth it for companies to chase you or anyone else down.
The last concern is performance. The more recent the platform you’re emulating, the more demanding it’ll be on your phone. So while just about any Android phone should be able to emulate an SNES or Sega Genesis, you’ll probably want a newer model if you’re trying to emulate an older Xbox or PlayStation. Don’t expect to emulate a PS4, PS5, or Xbox Series X — aside from piracy questions, even the best Android devices don’t have enough processing power.
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