The Most Relaxing Games On iOS And Android

Key Takeaways

• Mobile games are convenient for stress relief anytime, anywhere.
• From relaxing farming sims like Stardew Valley to cozy platformers like Gris, there’s something for all Android and iOS users who wish to unwind.

The best part about mobile games? They’re always with you, they’re easy to carry around, and they can be picked up at any time without the worry of reaching a save point. Because of that, they can also provide quick, reliable stress relief when you need it.

It’s no secret that we’re all a little stressed out these days. The world is a wild place, so we all need breaks to take care of our mental health, take deep breaths, and de-stress for a while. What better way to relax than with a fun game on your phone?

Updated on October 25, 2024, by PJ Molloy: Looking to unwind after a long day? We’ve added two relaxing puzzlers and a must-play platformer to help you de-stress.

Gris

Immerse Yourself In An Emotional Platformer

You’d be hard-pressed to find a platformer as visually stunning as Gris. The story begins when the main character is robbed of her voice as her world is stripped of color. What follows is a heartwarming journey through a monochromatic world as you solve puzzles and process your emotions to restore color to the land. What this story means is up to you to interpret.

In addition to its touching narrative, Gris excels thanks to its relaxing platforming gameplay. With no danger in your way, you’re free to explore the gorgeous hand-drawn world, take in the serene soundtrack, and reflect on the game’s themes at your own pace. If you’re up for an emotional adventure, Gris is definitely worth your time.

Unpacking

A Stress-Free Organizational Puzzle Game

Unpacking is a cozy puzzle game about organizing household objects. The story follows the life of a young woman as she moves into different living spaces. Using a mix of puzzle-solving and interior design, you must flip and rotate each object until you find a way to make everything fit.

On top of the calming gameplay, Unpacking delivers a fascinating narrative. Each apartment and belonging tells the story of the main character and where she is in life. It’s satisfying to see her grow as a person and even more rewarding to help her fit everything into her cozy homes.

Under Leaves

A Visually Stunning Hidden Object Adventure

Hidden object games are perfect if you want some relaxing puzzles, and Under Leaves is among the best on iOS and Android. The game has you travel across the world, from serene forests to calming lakes, to find food for various animals. To do so, you must investigate gorgeous watercolor environments and pinpoint each cleverly hidden piece of grub.

The stunning hand-drawn areas and soothing soundtrack create a peaceful yet immersive atmosphere that’s an absolute delight to get lost in. In short, Under Leaves is the ideal puzzle game if you need to shut off your brain after a tiring day.

Mini Metro

Build Transit Systems In This Charming Simulation Game

The best way to relax is to manage public transportation, right? This is at least true for Mini Metro, where your goal is to create a seamless transit system. Rather than being overwhelming with UI and realistic imagery, Mini Metro sticks to the classic, minimal style of transit maps.

The maps are based on real cities! Currently, there are 34 cities in the game, including Seoul, Berlin, Shanghai, and Paris, to name a few.

While your goal is to expand the system, there are a few game modes that you can enjoy, such as Normal and Extreme, which set the difficulty. Alternatively, you can play in either Endless or Creative mode, allowing your imagination to really run wild.

My Oasis

Design Your Own Paradise

My Oasis is the perfect anxiety relief game. The main point of the app is to cultivate a beautiful island, your own relaxing virtual oasis, through tapping, all designed to reduce your stress. It is very simple to play and easy to pick up when you need a break from your daily routine.

The game also contains gorgeous music meant to soothe and peaceful sound effects that will help reduce your anxiety. You also receive affirmations within the game to aid in stress reduction.

My Little Terrarium

Hang Out With Cute Animals In A Serene Garden

My Little Terrarium is an adorable game with low-effort gameplay. The app lets you design tiny terrariums filled with cute animals and lovely plants. You can create multiple terrarium settings, giving you more opportunities to customize and experiment with new layouts.

A little bit of strategy goes into the game as you figure out the best way to tend to your plants and find new animals to add to your gardens. The game also has a few simple minigames. All in all, it’s a relaxing game to pull out when you need a quick breather.

Penguin Isle

Create A Safe Haven For Adorable Penguins

If creating relaxing spaces is your favorite thing, but you want a winter aesthetic, look no further than Penguin Isle. In this game, you build a perfect paradise for penguins, drawing more of these cuddly creatures to your icy island as you grow it. The penguins are absolutely adorable and interact with the environments you create.

If that weren’t enough, the game also features soothing music and wave sounds, a great white noise combination to help you unwind.

I Love Hue

A Zen Puzzler About Matching Colors

I Love Hue is a delightful and unique game where organization meets tile matching. You’re presented with a color palette broken apart into smaller shapes (triangles, rectangles, or hexagons) and have to rearrange the tiles so they form a cohesive color arrangement once more.

When you complete a level, you’re rewarded with a beautiful color palette and a spark of joy. Plus, as you progress, the levels get moderately harder, though they never get so difficult that you want to throw your phone at the wall in frustration.

There are hundreds of levels to play, too, providing plenty of opportunities for relaxation.

Pack Master

Test Your Organizational Skills In This Cozy Puzzle Game

Pack Master won’t be for everyone, but if you’re a highly organized person and get a thrill out of arranging efficient spaces, then this game will likely help you relax. The premise is simple: you’re packing suitcases to fit a variety of odd items, with suitcases becoming more outlandish in shape as you progress through the levels.

Though Pack Master may come with its frustrating moments, it can be oh-so-satisfying when you master putting together that one ridiculous suitcase. The game’s puzzles can provide an engaging distraction when you need a minute to decompress.

Mars: Mars

A Relaxing Sci-Fi Platformer

Do you love space? You’re in luck; Mars: Mars isn’t about some heroic astronaut braving the surface of an alien planet. Instead, you play as an ordinary person who was given a jetpack and sent to Mars with no training. What could go wrong?

The minimal appearance of Mars: Mars can create quite a relaxing experience, and it successfully manages to capture the casual feel of a mobile game. While jumping from platform to platform to avoid death, you can also take selfies, which is pretty adorable.

Tiny Pixel Farm

A Delightful Farming Sim

Are you a fan of farming simulations? Then you’ll love Tiny Pixel Farm, the farm that fits in your pocket! Building off of common farming simulation elements, in Tiny Pixel Farm, you’ll grow crops, raise animals, and interact with unique characters.

This game makes the process stress-free, fitting the entire world on your phone screen.

Despite its simple appearance, Tiny Pixel Farm does have a surprising number of goals to work towards. From animals to collect to new characters to meet, there’s enough activity to keep you engaged in the game. Plus, who doesn’t love a relaxing farm life?

Happy Color: Color By Number

Color Beautiful Pictures

Happy Color will take you right back to your color page days as a kid. The app, as the name suggests, lets you color digital pictures. There’s a variety of designs to choose from, ranging from complex mosaics to animals to even Disney and Marvel properties.

Though Happy Color is simple and not as active as other games, it allows you to zone out a little as you focus on matching the colors to the right number. It’s the perfect way to take a breath after a stressful day.

Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp

Play The Iconic Cozy Series On Your Phone

Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp brings the joy of Animal Crossing right to your pocket! Capturing the spirit of the series, Pocket Camp features smaller versions of classic Animal Crossing gameplay to give you a relaxing but fun experience.

You can design a campsite, celebrate holidays and special events, dress according to your aesthetic, and build friendships with adorable Animal Crossing villagers. It’s a delightful game, a must-play for Animal Crossing fans, and a great stress-relieving tool for all.

Design Home: Dream Makeover

Decorate Houses To Your Heart’s Content

If interior decorating is your passion, then Design Home: Dream Makeover is the mobile game for you. In the game, you’ll place furniture in different rooms to create a cohesive look.

The game helps you relax by emphasizing creative expressions. You’re free to design spaces in whatever way seems best to you!

As you progress through Design Home’s challenges, you’re able to unlock more and more furniture. You’ll also get to vote on the best designs for each space, which earns you rewards and lets you get inspiration from others.

Cats And Soup

Manage The Cutest Kitchen In The World

Cats and Soup is exactly what it sounds like: cats making soup. In this cute kitten mobile game, you can place cats to focus on various soup-making tasks. If it gets too stressful for your cats, they will even take a break and do things like jump on a trampoline.

This mobile game is incredibly relaxing, with no intense situations. You can truly just sit back and watch your cats work. Over time, you can unlock new recipes and cooking stations for your cats. Oh yeah, you can also put adorable hats on them.

Two Dots

A Serene Matching Game

Two Dots is a dot-matching game that’s quite simple. Your goal is to match dots on the screen, which gets rid of them and brings in new dots from the top of the screen.

The simplicity of this game makes it relaxing. There is no busy UI or stressful timer. All you need to do is work your brain a little to connect the dots.

Each section of the game has a relaxing color palette that’s not too hard on the eyes. If you like matching games but can’t handle the brightness of Candy Crush, then Two Dots is perfect for you.

Townscaper

A Stress-Free City Management Sim

City management games can quickly become overwhelming. Oftentimes, there is a lot to focus on, including resource management, building space, design, and costs. Townscaper takes this a step back. In the game, you can build to your heart’s content in a stress-free environment.

Rather than budgeting time and resources, Townscaper is a sandbox experience that lets you do whatever you want. There are no goals or objectives, so you can sit back, relax, and make a cute little town.

Chrono Trigger

An Excellent Mobile Port Of A Legendary RPG

If you’re looking for something that’s charming as heck to the point of downright relaxing, but you have especially JRPG-ish tastes, the mobile version of Chrono Trigger is practically your calling card.

A fun adventure across time awaits, with great characters, an engaging battle system, and timeless character designs by the late, great, Akira Toriyama. Yasunori Mitsuda’s soundtrack is a winner, too.

Konami Pixel Puzzle Collection

A Relaxing Picross Game Featuring Iconic Konami Characters

Fans of Picross rejoice! Konami Pixel Puzzle Collection is essentially a Konami version of Picross. In this puzzle game, you have a blank grid with numbers lining the outer edge. Your goal is to fill in the squares according to the numbers. In the end, a picture will form!

As a Konami game, you can expect to see some familiar faces, such as characters from Frogger and Castlevania. Whether you are a Konami fan or not, Picross is a relaxing puzzler that requires a bit of brainpower.

Stardew Valley

The Coziest Farming Sim Ever

Stardew Valley continues to be a powerhouse in the cozy gaming world years after it launched back in 2016. This farming simulator is available on several platforms, complete with its own mobile version.

Within the valley, you tend to crops, raise animals, meet your future partner, and even slay dangerous monsters. There is something for everyone in this game, leaving you entertained for hours.