Apple Watch is a fantastic wearable that lets you set your activity goals, track your sleep, and monitor your activities. Well, that’s not all. The newest models are loaded with powerful chipsets, stunning graphics, user-friendly controls, and capable innards so you can play games right from your wrist. Be it a short coffee break or your daily travel to work, there are a bunch of exciting Apple Watch games you can play to kill time, and here are some of the best games we’d recommend.
1. Pocket Bandit – Best Quick Game on Apple Watch
Pocket Bandit is one of my favorite paid games for Apple Watch, purely because of its excellent gameplay and the way it makes such good use of the watch’s Taptic engine and Digital Crown.
In the game, you will find yourself breaking into vaults to steal money, jewels, and other valuable items while carefully avoiding the anti-theft devices installed on some of the vaults. This is an excellent game to kill some time on your Apple Watch.
Pricing: $0.99
2. Tiny Armies – Best Mini Strategy Game
I love playing strategy games on my iPad, and if you’re also a fan of strategy games, you should give Tiny Armies a try on your Apple Watch. The game brings a ton of game modes, including solo play and friend-battle, and even has an iMessage app that you can use.
You use simple swipe gestures to play the game, but the levels add more complexity with the introduction of environmental objects such as lakes and mountains. Since this is a turn-based strategy Apple Watch game, you have to plan ahead because every move matters.
Pricing: $0.99
3. Rules! – Brain Game Worth the Buzz
If you are looking for the best puzzle games for Apple Watch, Rules! is a captivating game that you might want to try. It delivers stimulating puzzles that challenge and sharpen your brain. Developed by TheCodingMonkeys, this game has been the Editor’s Choice on the App Store as well, which is high praise.
In this game, you basically have to follow the rules to clear out levels. However, the rules from previous levels are applicable in new levels as well and are simply mentioned as “Rule 1” or “Rule 4” etc. So you have to keep track of all the rules you’ve learned in the previous levels in order to clear out more levels. Needless to say, this game gets pretty difficult, pretty fast.
Pricing: $2.99
4. Snappy Word – Best Word Game for Apple Watch
If you are a fan of the popular word game Wordle, it won’t take much time for Snappy Word to become one of the best Apple Watch games for you. It is a really simple game. You are given a grid of four letters with the task of making a meaningful word from it, and you’re racing against a timer.
You’ll need to swipe the letters to make the word. The highly addictive game has more than 400 challenging levels and the difficulty level rises with each level.
Pricing: Free
5. Ping Pong – Classic Pong, Watch-Style
The game of Pong needs no introduction, and this title brings that fun to your wrist. Ping Pong for Apple Watch, as the name suggests, is a game that allows you to play pong on your wrist.
Controls are simple and managed through the digital crown, making for impeccable control that you always need in a game of pong. You can enjoy this Apple Watch game for free, which makes it just that much better!
Pricing: Free
6. Snake.io – Retro Snake Game, Reborn for Apple Watch
Can I make the mistake of not mentioning Snake.io on this list? Absolutely not, as it’s a cult millennial classic. You take on the challenge to become the biggest serpent on the Apple Watch. But, this one has an additional twist; in order to grow, you must take on other snakes attempting to accomplish the same. You can increase your speed by ejecting masses. This is a great trick to use in a battle with snakes.
Develop your skills to dominate the game and rise to the very top of the current leaderboard. Play offline or online on your preferred Apple devices.
Pricing: Free
7. Lifeline 2 – Best Text-based Game for Apple Watch
Here comes a text-based adventure game that you can play on your Apple Watch, iPhone, as well as iPad. So, you won’t have to miss a beat. Lifeline 2 is the second installment in the Lifeline series that took the world by storm when it was first released.
The game’s style is very similar to Timecrest but with better graphics, a lot of original content, and no in-app purchases. The downside is that while Timecrest was free, this will set you back a buck.
Pricing: $2.99
8. Jellyfish Tap – Tougher Than It Looks
If you once found Flappy Bird addictive, wait until you play Jellyfish Tap. In this Apple Watch game, you have to avoid obstacles like a jellyfish and move ahead to get higher scores. While it may sound easy, this tap game gets tough really quickly.
Its vibrant theme and highly responsive control will turn you into an addict, and in no time, it will be your favorite game on Apple Watch.
Pricing: Free
9. Dare the Monkey: Go Bananas! – Cute Platformer Game on your Wrist
If you love playing platformer games, you just cannot miss Dare the Monkey on your Apple Watch. As the name suggests, you play as a monkey in this game, and your aim is to traverse the various traps and enemies to get to the end of the level. It’s a surprisingly fun and challenging game, with really adorable graphics, and it seems perfect for the Apple Watch’s screen.
Pricing: Free
10. Chess – Smartest Game for your Apple Watch
For fans of brain games, there’s good news – you can play Chess on your Apple Watch. And not just against the computer, you can actually even play chess on watchOS 10 against other players around the world.
The game is free to download and will match you against other players. The interface is simple, obviously, but you get a leaderboard to keep track of your score and where you stand. The game also hosts different events to keep things interesting.
Pricing: Free
11. Jupiter Attack – Arcade Shooter on the Go
Did you love playing Space Invaders as a child? Well, then you would love playing Jupiter Attack on your Apple Watch. In this game, you’re piloting a spaceship and you have to face off against hordes of enemy ships that are hell-bent on destroying Earth.
The controls are simple, and you can use the touch screen and the Digital Crown on your Apple Watch to move your ship around and make sure you defeat the enemies before they defeat you.
Pricing: $1.99
12. Octopuz – Quick Memory Workout
Octopuz is a memory-based Apple Watch game for people who like to exercise their brain cells while gaming. The basics of the game are really simple. You’re shown a pattern on the screen of your Apple Watch, and you have to replicate it. But remember that there’s a timer within which you have to finish replicating the pattern shown to you.
Basically, the game helps build memory as well as dexterity in your fingers as you try and complete patterns as fast as you can from memory.
Pricing: Free
13. Arcadia Watch Games – Arcade Hits in One App
Do you miss the feeling of going to your local gaming arcade and playing classic games on those big, big arcade machines? Well, here’s an Apple Watch game that brings back the nostalgia. Arcadia brings multiple games like Snake, Galaxy Invaders, Pong, and more, straight to your watch. The best part is that there are no ads, no IAPs, and no user tracking, so you can simply zone out and play in peace.
Pricing: $1.99
14. Retro Twist – Old School, New Vibes
If multiple games in one package is your thing, and you’re already tired of Arcadia, you should check out Retro Twist. Similar to Arcadia, Retro Twist brings a selection of retro games for your Apple Watch, but as the name suggests, these games have a twist.
You can play Super Jump, which is now an endless runner. Contra Pang is a fun game for fans of the classic Contra game, and you can also enjoy games like Moon Snake, Retro Racer, Circle Break, and more. All for a really reasonable price to boot.
Pricing: $0.99
15. 2048 🙂 – Best Number Games on Apple Watch
If you’ve never played 2048 :), you might be mad at me for sharing the game because once you begin playing, it is extremely difficult to stop. It offers a grid of 4×4, and you must swipe it across or down to move numbers on the grid. If two numbers with the same numbers meet the grid, they’re replaced with one number, which is the total of both. The only thing you need to do is continue until you’ve made the block with a value of 2048. This sounds easy; however, it can be extremely challenging.
Pricing: Free
That sums up our list of the best Apple Watch games that you should check out in 2025. I have tried to include a fair number of free and paid games for watchOS 10 from multiple genres. Still, if you know of an Apple Watch game that I should have included in this list, let me know about it in the comments.
