6 Multiplayer Mobile Games That Aren’t Pay-To-Win
From co-op to competitive to MMO, there’s something for everyone.
When it comes to mobile games, wading through everything to find something worth playing can be difficult. It’s made even more difficult if you’re looking for something to play with other people that isn’t pay-to-win. There’s quite a bit of questionable stuff out there.
So, we decided to help a bit with that. After a good bit of digging, we’ve come up with six mobile games that offer multiplayer features and aren’t pay-to-win. Of course, we know that what’s considered p2w can vary from person to person so, for clarity, in this post, we’re specifically talking about games that offer no real advantage against another player when you spend money. Spending money isn’t considered pay-to-win on its own, nor is spending money on content that only affects your gameplay rather than anyone you’re competing against. So, if there are no competitive features, there’s no p2w.
The Battle Of Polytopia
Fans of the turn-based civilization strategy game genre who want something on the go might want to take a peek at this one. Yes, the art style is really simple. It’s a bit more than voxel-y. But for a light-weight civilization game to take with you, it’s not a bad option. As is common with this genre of games, players take on the role of a ruler and attempt to build a civilization. But they’re not alone, up to three other players can join them in competitive matches. Players describe the monetization as “healthy” and recommend it to others who ask for games without pay-to-win mechanics.
Sky: Children of the Light
To be fair, it’s a little difficult for thatgamecompany’s chill MMORPG Sky: Children of the Light to be pay-to-win when the company focuses on peaceful cooperative multiplayer over competitive. This is the same company that brought us Journey, Flower, and Flow. Their games are built around adventure, environment, and good vibes over everything else. Luckily for players, the adventures are well-crafted and interesting.
Vampire Survivors
Technically a single-player game, Vampire Survivors does offer a 1-4 player couch co-op in landscape mode. It’s a time survival roguelike RPG and is free with the exception of DLC packs. Players can watch an ad once per run to revive, but even that can be turned off in the settings.
Among Us
Guys… It’s Among Us. The only thing you’re paying to win is best outfit. Winning the deduction part is still on you. The mobile version of the game supports up to 15 players, so there’s more action than in some of these other games.
Unciv
Unciv is an open-source reimplementation of the strategy game Civilization for single and multiplayer. It offers a competitive mode as well. The game is free forever and even forgoes ads. It also boasts a lack of DRM. It’s also designed to be lightweight and fast.
Genshin Impact
Yes, yes. We know. Genshin Impact is a Gacha game. But the fact remains that players can go the whole game without spending money and still progress through the story. The fantasy role-playing adventure game provides enough free currency to obtain characters and weapons, provided you don’t have to obtain every single one. But even that is often just a matter of biding your time. As for the multiplayer, it’s co-op, so who are you trying to beat anyway?
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About the Author
QuintLyn is a long-time lover of all things video game related will happily talk about them to anyone that will listen. She began writing about games for various gaming sites a little over ten years ago and has taken on various roles in the games community.
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MMOs have never felt quite right on Steam Deck to me and I think TESO might feel even "less right."
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The absolute, undeniable fact is that if you spend money in Genshit, or any other gacha, you will be at an advantage over what you have, and how well you can do things, than someone that didn't spend money. Especially given that a significant part of any gacha game, is the collection aspect, particularly for a "game" where they have intentionally removed pretty much all difficulty, like they did in Genshit, making it more like an interactive ad for its gacha, than an actual game. Can you get all the stuff from the gacha, and get them to their max duplicate bonus without spending money? Absolutely not, and having all that would make doing its likely one "difficult" piece of content easier, plus make the collection aspect infinitely easier. That is basically what it means for a game to be pay to win, even by your own stated definition at the start. Then there doesn't need to be PvP, for a game to be pay to win.