Games Like Minecraft for Android, if Not Minecraft Itself

Minecraft is on Google Play, sold by Mojang for $6.99 in the US and £6.99 in the UK. In India it is ₹40 and in Nigeria ₦500, less than any other paid game on this page costs in either country, so anyone there who wants Minecraft should buy Minecraft.

Elsewhere, Survivalcraft 2 is the closest for less: $3.99 in the US, three dollars under Minecraft. Luanti is free, and Google Play shows no adverts and no in-app purchases on it. Terraria plays differently, at $4.99 with nothing more to buy.

Luanti, LostMiner and Block Craft 3D are free on all three stores.

What Minecraft gets you on Android

The game once called Minecraft: Pocket Edition is now listed as “Minecraft: Dream it, Build it!”, and it is the Bedrock Edition, so you can join friends who play on other devices. You get both Creative mode, with unlimited resources, and Survival mode, where you gather, craft and last the night. Google Play tags it as offline, though Mojang’s description does not say so.

Buying the game is not the last thing it will offer to sell you. Google Play flags in-app purchases, which cover the Marketplace of add-ons, worlds and cosmetics, and the Realms Plus subscription for a private server shared with up to ten friends.

The full game is not free. Minecraft Trial is, but it is time-limited, has Survival mode only, and its worlds do not carry over to the full game. India’s store page showed us an Install button for it, and the US, UK and Nigerian pages did not. Minecraft Education is free to install but its listing says it is for schools and organisations.

The nearest thing to Minecraft

Candy Rufus Games’ Survivalcraft 2 is the nearest in method: an infinite blocky world where you mine, craft, build a shelter and get through the night. What it adds is realism. The listing has four seasons, more than 30 real animals to hunt or herd, clothes to tailor against the cold, and electric circuits and pistons for building machines. Up to three friends can join on a split screen.

It shows no adverts and no in-app purchases, and a free version called Survivalcraft 2 Day One sits beside it. The first Survivalcraft is still sold as well, also at $3.99, and Google Play tags it as offline.

Luanti, formerly Minetest, is a free platform for block games more than a single game. You pick from many games inside it, add mods and texture packs, and play alone, with friends nearby or on online servers. Google Play tags it as offline and rates it Teen. Of Luanti, Day One, LostMiner and Block Craft 3D, only Luanti and Day One show no adverts.

Wildlife Studios’ Block Craft 3D is about building a village or city and leaves the survival out. Its listing says there are no monsters, you can keep pets, and you can visit friends’ cities. Google Play rates it Everyone and tags it as offline. It is free with adverts and in-app purchases that reach $119.99, so set a purchase lock before handing it to a child.

Sandboxes that play differently

505 Games’ listing for Terraria sums it up as dig, fight, explore, build. It mixes an action game with sandbox building, and the fighting is a large part of it: the listing counts over 400 enemies, more than 5,000 items and over 20 biomes, and says the worlds are the same size as on PC. Up to seven friends can join over local Wi-Fi or online, and gamepads are supported. Google Play shows no adverts and no in-app purchases, and tags it as offline.

Junk Jack, from Pixbits, is a pixel-art sandbox with an adventure mode across 12 planets and a creative mode for free building. It counts more than 1,000 things to craft, farming, animals to tame and working electronics, and local multiplayer that also connects to iPhones. The listing says it is not a freemium game, though Google Play does flag small in-app purchases.

LostMiner, from Caffetteria Dev, suits a phone with no connection: the developer says the creative and survival modes are offline and that local multiplayer is supported. It is a side-view game that mixes 2D and 3D, with blocks to place and break, farming, fishing and an underground that gets harder the deeper you go. It is free with adverts, and the in-app purchases Google Play shows run from $1.99 to $3.99.

A block-building game with a story

Square Enix calls Dragon Quest Builders a block-building RPG. The world is made of blocks you gather and build with, and there is a story to follow, a base to grow into a town and the monsters of Dragon Quest to fight off. The phone version adds tap-to-place building and an undo button.

The price is the obstacle: $27.99 in the US, with extra content sold as in-app purchases. The listing also asks for Android 11 and at least 4GB of RAM, so read it before paying.

Survival and crafting without the blocks

Three more suit people who like Minecraft’s gather-and-craft loop more than its look. Don’t Starve: Pocket Edition is Klei’s wilderness survival game, $4.99 with no adverts and no in-app purchases. Crashlands is a crafting RPG with more than 500 items to make and bases to build, $6.99 with no adverts and no in-app purchases. Ylands is Bohemia Interactive’s low-poly sandbox with adventure and creative modes and a ship to build, free with in-app purchases.

We also have pages on life simulation games for Android and games like Pokémon for Android.

Names you may come across

The Blockheads has gone: its listing no longer opens and a search of Google Play does not find the game. Guncrafter is still there as GunCrafter, but it is a target-shooting game in which you build the gun from blocks, so it does not belong here.

A search for Minecraft on Google Play also brings up many free games whose names imitate it. We have left those out.