15 best Android tablet games that work better on big screens

Tablets are excellent devices for mobile games. Their larger screen sizes allow you to enjoy the graphics more. It also lets developers spread out the controls for an easier, better feel. Android tablets aren’t the most popular devices in the world. Many developers are making games that play in portrait mode and make more sense on phones. However, some games are just plain better on tablets. Here are the best Android tablet games.

We’d also like to give an honorable mention to emulators. They work great on tablets, especially if you have a controller. You can see our best list of Android emulators here. We’d also like to honorably mention Papers, Please (Google Play). It isn’t all that much better on a tablet than a phone, but it originally came out on PC, so it feels a bit better on a tablet.

How we chose the best Android tablet apps

So what makes a game better suited for tablets than smartphones? Well, it’s actually an easier determination than one would expect. We looked at all kinds of things, including controls, orientation, and how much information was displayed on the screen all at once. Every game on this list is in landscape orientation, has simple and accessible controls, and doesn’t require players to reach into the middle of the screen during action sequences if the game has action sequences. Once we disqualified games that aren’t friendly to larger displays, the list came together fairly quickly.

Alto’s Odyssey

Price: Free to play

Alto’s Odyssey is one of the best runners of 2018. It features simple, but beautiful graphics, easy game play and mechanics, and a simple premise. You ski down a hit while making massive jumps and avoiding obstacles. Players collect coins along the way to unlock stuff in the in-game store. The game also has 180 goals to complete, various levels to play through, and even small extras like dynamic lighting and weather. It’s easily one of the best infinite runners of all time and its landscape mode orientation makes it even better on tablets than it does on phones. The game is free to play, but you probably won’t even notice. Most of the in-game purchases are for cosmetics anyway.

Beamdog games (seven games total)

Price: $9.99 each

Beamdog is a developer on Google Play. They specialize in porting old PC games to Android. Beamdog currently has seven titles out right now. They are Baldur’s Gate I and II, Icewind Dale, Neverwinter Nights, Seige of Dragonspear, Axis & Allies 1942, and Planescape: Torment EE. The six RPG games have similar mechanics. They are massive, hardcore RPGs with tons of skills, bad guys, dungeons, loot, and long stories. Axis & Allies 1942 is a mobile version of the classic Hasbro board game. The UI is often cramped on even larger phones. Thus, tablets really are the best devices for these games. They run for $9.99 for the full game. There are also optional in-app purchases for stuff like voice packs and other customizations.

Bloons TD 6 is arguably the best tower defense game on mobile right now. The game features a few dozen levels where you place monkies down to pop a bunch of balloons. It seems small at first, but you can scale things up pretty heavily over time. Plus, the developers do a good job of adding new content in updates over time. Some other features include a four hour co-op mode, challenge levels that take some creativity, and offline gameplay. It plays well on phones, but tablets give you more screen real estate, which is nice considering how much you can bunch together in a tight space. This is a good one and it’s relatively family-friendly as well.

Genshin Impact

Price: Free to play

Genshin Impact is one of the best mobile gachas that you can get. It’s an action RPG in an open world. Players can roam around, complete missions, kill bad guys, and level up their characters as they see fit. You summon heroes to help increase your power, but it isn’t nearly as predatory as some other games in this space. The large, open world looks better with a bigger screen, and the controls are tucked safely in the corners, so you can still play even on a tablet. Tower of Fantasy is also quite good in this space if you want to try something different.

League of Legends: Wild Rift

Price: Free to play

League of Legends: Wild Rift is a MOBA, and one of the few good ones left on mobile. It’s obviously a PvP game as well, so you’re playing against other players. The game features 5v5 battles in the style of a MOBA game. That means pushing lanes, countering abilities, and working with your team. Each champion has its own set of abilities, and you can’t buy them, so there’s no real way to pay to win in this one. Like most good tablet games, this one plays better with more screen real estate since you can see things better, and it spreads out the controls a bit. Other than some crashing bugs and optimization issues, this one is one of the best.

Levelhead is an outstanding platformer and one of the best Android tablet games. The base game features over 90 levels with smooth gameplay and some extra features if you want to speed run the game. However, the game’s hallmark feature is the ability to design and upload your own levels similar to Mario Maker. You can also download other people’s levels and play them. A tablet gives you more space for editing levels so it’s actually a decent way to play the game. The game is free with Google Play Pass and is also available on iOS, PC, and Nintendo Switch with full cross-save capabilities. The developer’s other title, Crashlands, is another great tablet game.

Minecraft

Price: $6.99 with in-app purchases

Minecraft dropped the Pocket Edition moniker in 2017. It’s not the full-fledged version of the game. That means it’s playable with Xbox One and PC versions of the game as well. We recommend this one for tablets because of all of the controls. There is a ton to do in Minecraft, including explore, craft, build, and do other stuff. Microsoft sells servers at a monthly cost in case you don’t want to make your own. Additionally, the mobile version is cheaper than the console or PC versions. In any case, it’s one of the excellent Android tablet games.

Old School Runescape

Price: Free / $10.99 per month / $99.99 per year

Old School Runescape (OSRS for short) is one of the most popular MMORPGs in the world. You can play it on mobile, tablets, a web browser, and on desktop. There is a massive world to explore, a healthy player base to interact and trade with, and plenty of quests to complete. Unlike most, this one works on a subscription basis. Members get some additional benefits like a bigger bank. It’s up to you if you want to play the free version or the subscription version. This is probably the best MMORPG on mobile and it has a landscape mode that works very well for tablets. Additionally, the developers also finally released an official RuneScape client (Google Play) for Android, which would also be better on tablets.

Pocket City

Price: Free / $3.99

Pocket City is a city-building simulator similar to Sim City. That’s a rough sentence to say out loud. Anyway, this is a fairly basic city sim. You build various types of buildings, roads, and utilities to make your town run smoothly. It features weather disasters along with positive things like parties that make your city feel alive. Players progressively unlock more land, more buildings, and more stuff as they play. The free version is just the base game. The premium version includes more features, a dedicated sandbox mode, and no advertising. This is a surprisingly good Sim City-style game and we love that it isn’t a free top lay game. You can also play in either landscape or portrait mode.

Rebel Inc

Price: Free to play

Rebel Inc is an excellent game on tablets. It’s by the same developers of Plague Inc, so you know this one is going to be good. You drop into a region in unrest, and you must fix the problem. The game includes seven scenarios, tons of insurgent strategies to overcome, and a branching story based on your decisions. The developers researched most of these things as they made the game to make it as realistic as possible. There are also eight governors with different abilities to try out. It’s a free-to-play game, but it’s honestly one of the better ones.

Rocket League Sideswipe

Price: Free to play

Rocket League Sideswipe is up there with Alto’s Adventure as a great arcade game for tablets. You engage in 1v1 or 2v2 matches that last about two minutes each. The goal is to drive the car into the soccer ball in such a way that it winds up scoring a goal. The action-oriented gameplay is addicting, and the short matches let you play anywhere. Some other game features include offline games against bots, a casual mode where you can play without affecting rank, and private matches. It’s not the deepest game on the list, but it’s certainly more fun to play on a larger tablet screen.

SpongeBob SquarePants Battle for Bikini Bottom

Price: $9.99

SpongeBob SquarePants Battle for Bikini Bottom is an adventure platformer with some puzzle elements. You play as SpongeBob, Patrick, and Sandy as you foil Plankton’s evil plot to take over the town. The game is a remaster of an earlier console game. Includes the entire action-platforming experience from 2003, but with better visuals, full hardware controller support, and Google Play Games services. It’s a tad expensive at $9.99, but we prefer premium games on tablets since it feels better not to have to scroll menus for in-app purchases. This is an excellent game.

Square Enix games

Price: Free to play / Varies

Square Enix is one of the best game developers on mobile. They have a vast collection of tablet games that range from console ports to made-for-mobile titles. You can find eight Final Fantasy games, Chrono Trigger, Secret of Mana, Adventures of Mana, Tomb Raider, Tomb Raider II, Chaos Rings 3, and many other great titles. Most of them play perfectly fine on a phone, but having a tablet really helps the experience shine. The prices vary from free to play to over $20, so there is a little something there, no matter what you’re into. Their latest big release was Final Fantasy XV: Pocket Edition, an excellent addition to your tablet games lineup. Square Enix has free-to-play games as well, such as Final Fantasy Brave Exvius or Final Fantasy Record Keeper. However, those are best suited for phones, not tablets.

Stardew Valley

Price: $7.99

Stardew Valley is one of the best new tablet games from 2019. It’s a farming simulator with a bunch of additional features and things to do. Players start by turning their overgrown fields into functional farms and expand from there. You can also get married, attend town events, raise and breed animals, and even fish if you want to. There are a ton of ways to customize the old farm itself, and all of them are unlocked through gameplay. This is a strong contender for the best of 2019, and it plays beautifully on a tablet. The game is also free via Google Play Pass if you use it.

Streets of Rage 4

Price: $8.99 + $2.99

Streets of Rage 4 is another port of a console game that we quite like. It’s a 1990s-style beat ’em up game where you select a character and walk through the level. The goal is to beat up all of the bad guys and bosses without being defeated. It’s a simple premise, but the gameplay is quite nice on a tablet. This version of the game includes a few different game modes, 13 playable characters, a pixel graphics setting and more. There is also a $2.99 DLC that adds a survival mode and some other goodies. We think it plays wonderfully on modern tablets.