Best Mobile Strategy Games for Android and iOS

Strategy games have long since stopped being a PC-only genre. Modern smartphones and tablets are now fairly close to gaming consoles in terms of performance, which means mobile devices have access both to full ports of iconic PC games and standalone hits designed around touchscreen controls and short play sessions. In this list, we have collected the best mobile strategy games for Android and iOS — from deep turn-based 4X titles like Civilization to free online battles, tower defense games, offline projects you can play without an internet connection, and less obvious indie releases. On a phone, it is convenient to play a couple of turns while travelling; on a tablet, you can settle in for a thoughtful evening-long session; and with friends, you can battle together in co-op.

If you are looking not for a casual mobile game but for a full-fledged strategy experience with no compromises, start here. These are complete versions of legendary PC games brought to phones and tablets without cutting down their content. On a large tablet screen, they feel especially close to the originals.

The full version of Civilization 6 on a smartphone or tablet is not a simplified mobile adaptation, but the same Firaxis masterpiece available on PC. You found a civilization, develop cities, which now occupy multiple tiles, compete with neighbouring nations through science, culture, religion, and warfare, and try to lead your people to victory. The game is available on both iOS and Android, with all major expansions, including Rise and Fall and Gathering Storm. The base version lets you play up to a certain turn for free, allowing you to evaluate the game before purchasing it. At present, this is the deepest strategy game on mobile devices and the best option for long, thoughtful sessions. It also supports local multiplayer.

The complete XCOM 2 experience, with all expansions including War of the Chosen, is available on your phone or tablet — the game has been released for both iOS and Android. XCOM 2 Collection is a benchmark for turn-based tactics: you command a squad of resistance fighters in a war against alien occupiers, research technologies, manage your base, and lose soldiers because of every mistake. The mobile version has not been stripped down — it is the same tense, deep game as on PC. It can be demanding on weaker devices, but runs very well on modern smartphones.

Feral Interactive brought the legendary Rome: Total War to mobile devices in its entirety, on both iOS and Android, and later added the Barbarian Invasion and Alexander expansions as well. It remains one of the best grand strategy games, combining turn-based strategy on a global map with massive real-time battles just as it did on PC: you oversee the development of an ancient empire, manage diplomacy and the economy, and then personally command thousands of soldiers on the battlefield. The touchscreen controls have been adapted surprisingly well — moving legions around with your finger proves quite comfortable. On a tablet, this is almost a full PC-style experience.

This outstanding World War II RTS also made its way to mobile devices thanks to Feral Interactive — the game is available on both iOS and Android. Company of Heroes retains all the tactical depth of the original: cover, suppressive fire, flanking manoeuvres, and destructible environments. This is a serious strategy game that requires careful calculation in every battle. It plays best on a tablet, where the larger screen makes controlling squads more convenient.

The largest segment of mobile strategy games: base building, army upgrades, alliances, and battles against real players from around the world. Tens of millions of people play these games, and you can start for free — although many of them offer in-game purchases to speed up progress.

For many players, this was the game that introduced them to mobile strategy. Supercell's Clash of Clans was released back in 2012, but it remains one of the most popular games in the world, with more than 600 million downloads. You build and develop a village, train an army, attack other players' bases, and join clans for cooperative wars. This was the game that created an entire subgenre of multiplayer base-building strategy titles. It is free to play and continues to receive regular updates more than a decade after release.

For anyone looking for competitive real-time strategy, Supercell's Clash Royale is one of the defining examples of the genre. It combines RTS, card game, and tower defense elements: you build a deck of units and spells, then destroy the opponent's towers in short 1v1 or 2v2 matches. Battles last only a few minutes, but beneath its apparent simplicity lies a serious esports title. It is free to play and heavily focused on multiplayer.

One of the most elaborate free-to-play strategy games about building a civilization. In Rise of Kingdoms, you choose one of several real historical nations, develop a city on a seamless world map, explore the fog of war, recruit legendary commanders such as Julius Caesar and Joan of Arc, and unite with other players in powerful alliances. What sets it apart from most competitors is that battles take place directly on the shared map in real time rather than on separate screens. It is deeper than most mobile base-building strategy games.

If you have grown tired of traditional medieval settings, State of Survival offers a strategy game about surviving a zombie apocalypse. You rebuild a settlement, rescue survivors, research technologies, and defend yourself against hordes of infected creatures and other players. It combines base building, RPG-style hero progression, and PvP battles in a post-apocalyptic world. The game is free to play, with regular events and crossover content.

A classic medieval MMO strategy game from the German studio Goodgame, proven over many years. In Empire: Four Kingdoms, you build and fortify a castle, develop your economy, raise an army, and wage wars or conduct diplomacy with thousands of other players. There is no storyline — only direct competition for power and resources.

A stable internet connection is not always available — when travelling, on a plane, or in the subway, offline strategy games come to the rescue. These games do not require a network connection while still offering full-fledged, deep gameplay.

If Civilization feels too cumbersome for a phone, The Battle of Polytopia is its brilliantly streamlined mobile alternative. It is a compact 4X strategy game where an entire match fits into 30 turns: you choose one of several tribes, explore the territory, develop technologies, and conquer your neighbours. There are no menus with a hundred buttons — just pure strategy. It is the perfect game for a single sitting, yet it can still keep you engaged for dozens of hours. A free version is available, while multiplayer works both online and in pass-and-play mode.

What if, instead of saving humanity, you became its downfall? In Plague Inc., you develop a pathogen — a virus, bacterium, fungus, or a more exotic type of disease — and try to infect and wipe out the entire population of the planet, evolving transmission methods and symptoms while overcoming scientists' efforts to create a vaccine. It is an unusual, darkly compelling strategy game with a realistic model of disease spread that works entirely offline. Updates are still being released.

From the creators of Plague Inc. comes a strategy game built around the opposite objective. In Rebel Inc. — its PC version is also known as Rebel Inc: Escalation — you are not destroying a region but trying to stabilise it, balancing military operations against insurgents with civilian reforms: restoring the economy, healthcare, and public trust. Lean too far in either direction, and you fail. It is a smart, unexpectedly relevant strategy game that works perfectly without an internet connection.

One of the most naturally mobile-friendly strategy subgenres: place towers and squads in the enemy's path and repel wave after wave of attackers. Easy to start, difficult to master — an excellent format for short sessions on a phone.

The definitive mobile tower defense game from Ironhide Game Studio. In Kingdom Rush, you defend a kingdom from orcs, trolls, and other monsters by placing four types of towers, upgrading them, and using hero abilities and spells. It offers an ideal balance of accessibility and depth, excellent humour, and dozens of hours of content. This is the best place to start exploring the genre — before moving on to the sequels, Frontiers, Origins, and Vengeance.

Do not let the cartoon balloons and monkeys fool you — beneath them lies one of the deepest tower defense games on mobile devices. In Bloons TD 6, you place monkey towers that pop balloons, upgrade them along three development paths, and combine their abilities. It features a colossal number of maps, modes, and heroes, regular updates, and four-player co-op. Behind the unserious appearance lies genuine strategic depth.

Another outstanding game from Ironhide Game Studio, the creators of Kingdom Rush. Iron Marines proves that classic RTS gameplay can work wonderfully on a touchscreen. You deploy a squad of space marines, capture objectives, complete different types of missions — from rescuing civilians to hacking supercomputers — and command heroes with powerful abilities. It has excellent visuals, impressive sound, and a carefully tuned balance between micromanagement and accessibility. It is arguably the best RTS created specifically for mobile devices.

A cult-classic tower defense game that introduced an entire generation of players to the genre. In Plants vs. Zombies, you defend your home from a zombie invasion by planting shooting plants, resource-generating sunflowers, and dozens of other species with different abilities in your garden beds. Deceptively simple, endlessly charming, and highly addictive, it is a textbook example of how to make a strategy game accessible to everyone without sacrificing depth. It is also one of the most famous titles about the living dead. Incidentally, our site has a list of the best zombie games, which may be worth checking out even if you do not play on PC or consoles: projects such as the latest Resident Evil instalments, for example, have received iOS ports.

These games rarely appear in major roundups, yet receive exceptionally high ratings from players. If you want something fresh and less obvious, take a closer look at them.

A brilliant combination of tower defense and Factorio-style factory automation, available completely free of charge and with open-source code. In Mindustry, you extract resources, build conveyor lines to process them and produce ammunition, and then defend your base against waves of enemies. The more complex your logistics become, the stronger your defenses grow. It offers immense depth, co-op, and a map editor.

A minimalist yet absorbing mixture of RTS, tower defense, and roguelike gameplay, nominated for a D.I.C.E. Award as Strategy/Simulation Game of the Year. In Bad North, you defend islands from advancing Vikings: position squads, use the terrain to your advantage, and try to preserve as many fighters as possible between levels, since death here is permanent. Its understated visuals conceal surprisingly deep tactics — each island is a small puzzle in itself. It is perfectly suited to short sessions.

An unusual tactical roguelike described as “turn-based chess mixed with a fighting game.” You play as a samurai on a path to the shogun, and every battle is a puzzle: enemies stand in a line, while you plan chains of attacks, movements, and combos, knowing in advance who will strike and where. Shogun Showdown is an indie game with a Metacritic score of 88 and “Bestest Best” status from Rock Paper Shotgun. It will last for dozens of runs.

For everyone who misses the classic Heroes of Might and Magic games, Hero's Hour offers a similar formula in your pocket. You explore the map, develop castles, recruit armies, and lead heroes to victory, but with an intriguing twist: tactical battles unfold not in turns but in real time, with hundreds of units clashing automatically while you influence the fight through spells and commands.

A cosy yet dark city-building simulator with survival elements from solo developer Darenn Keller, who previously worked at Ubisoft on the Ghost Recon and Assassin's Creed series. In Dawnfolk, you bring light back to a world consumed by darkness: rebuild a settlement tile by tile, gather resources, make moral decisions, and fend off threats. Minimalist pixel art, gameplay that is easy to understand from the first minutes, and 94% positive Steam reviews. The game has been released on iOS and Android and is an excellent choice for anyone who wants a thoughtful strategy experience without spending hundreds of hours learning it.

Civilization 6 and XCOM 2 Collection are the deepest and most fully featured mobile strategy games. Essentially, these are complete PC versions, and both are available on iOS and Android. For large-scale battles, choose Rome: Total War or Company of Heroes, especially on a tablet. For long, unhurried sessions, a tablet with a large screen is the better option.

Yes, and there are plenty of them. You can play Clash of Clans, Clash Royale, Rise of Kingdoms, State of Survival, Empire: Four Kingdoms, The Battle of Polytopia, and Mindustry for free. However, many online strategy games offer in-game purchases to speed up progress. PC ports such as Civilization 6, XCOM 2, and Rome: Total War are paid games, but do not feature intrusive microtransactions.

Civilization 6, XCOM 2, Rome: Total War, Plague Inc., Rebel Inc., The Battle of Polytopia, Bad North, Kingdom Rush, Plants vs. Zombies, and most of the indie games in this list work offline. Online strategy games such as Clash of Clans, Rise of Kingdoms, and State of Survival, however, require a constant internet connection.

PC ports — Civilization 6, Rome: Total War, Company of Heroes, and XCOM 2 — are noticeably more convenient to play on a tablet, whether it is an iPad or an Android tablet: the larger screen makes squad control more precise and the map easier to read. Games such as Polytopia, Clash Royale, Bloons TD 6, and Bad North work equally well on a phone.

Yes. Many of the strategy games in this list can be played with friends. Bloons TD 6 features co-op for up to four players, Mindustry lets you defend a base together, cooperative clan wars are at the heart of Clash of Clans, while Clash Royale and Polytopia let you battle against each other. If the genre is not that important and you simply want to play together, we have a separate extensive list of the best mobile games for two players on iOS and Android.

Which mobile strategy games do you play? Perhaps we missed your favourite Android or iPhone game? Share your picks in the comments — we may add the best discoveries to this list in the future.

If that is not enough, take a look at several more worthy mobile strategy games that did not make the main list.

FTL: Faster Than Light — a cult-classic roguelike spaceship management simulator where every decision could be your last.

Kingdom: Two Crowns — an atmospheric RTS with survival elements, pixel art, and co-op, where you rule a kingdom from horseback.

Northgard — a strategy game about Vikings settling harsh lands, combining economy management, exploration, and warfare with an excellent touchscreen adaptation.