Best NFL Games for Android, and Which Are Really NFL
Which football games on Google Play hold a real NFL or players' licence, what each one costs, and which of them play without a connection.
The league itself is in Madden NFL 27 Mobile Football, which is free and, by its own listing, needs an internet connection. On a flight or a patchy signal, open Retro Bowl instead. It names no NFL licence and carries Google Play’s “Offline” tag.
Search the store for NFL and you will also find titles that use the letters while claiming no licence at all. Those are left out. The rest are sorted by what each listing says about itself, and none of the licensed ones says it plays offline.
Madden: real teams, players and stadiums
EA’s listing promises NFL teams, players and stadiums, with in-game events that follow the real season from the Draft to the Super Bowl. The listing does not print a licence line. EA’s own page for Madden NFL 27 does: it calls the game an officially licensed product of the National Football League and of the NFL players’ organisations. You build a roster from player cards, call plays from NFL playbooks, and can play other people in real time in a mode EA calls Madden VS.
The costs are in the small print. It is free to download and to play, but Google Play shows ads and in-app purchases, and the listing says the in-game currency can buy random selections of items. It also says an internet connection is required, so do not count on it on a plane.
Madden Overdrive Football has no listing under that name, and EA’s mobile game is now this one. One trap: Madden NFL 27 Companion, also from EA, is not a game. Its listing says it requires Madden NFL 27 on a PlayStation 5, an Xbox Series X|S or a PC. EA also lists EA College Football Mobile 27, a team-building game with college programmes in place of NFL teams, and that one requires a connection too.
NFL Rush Gameday does not turn up on Google Play. The NFL’s own developer page there lists the NFL app and a handful of event and fan apps, with no games among them.
Football Head Coach: real players, no teams
Football Head Coach 27 NFL PA, from Gamebasics, is the manager game with real players in it. It puts you on the sideline: you draft and train players, choose from a library of formations and call the plays, and a simulation plays them out.
The listing says its athletes are officially licensed by the NFL Players Association, and it names current players. It makes no claim about NFL teams, so read that as real players only. It does not state whether it plays offline.
It is free with ads and in-app purchases. Player packs hold random items and are bought with a currency called Gold Bars, which the listing says can also be earned by playing. The listing warns of a reset before each new season to bring the rosters up to date.
Licensed cards, not football
NFL Collect by Topps is not a football game in the usual sense, but it has the clearest licence statement of the lot. Topps calls it the officially licensed digital collectibles app of the NFL and the NFLPA. You open packs of digital trading cards, trade them with other collectors and set line-ups of cards that score in real time. It is free with ads and in-app purchases.
American football with no NFL licence
Retro Bowl and Retro Bowl College
New Star Games’ listing for Retro Bowl is a few lines long and none of them mentions the NFL or the NFLPA. It describes a retro-style game in which you manage a roster, handle the press and your players’ egos, and call the shots on the field. Google Play shows an in-app purchases label on it and no ads label, and tags it “Offline” and “Single player”.
Retro Bowl College, from the same developer with the same labels, swaps the pro teams for 250 college ones and gives you a tighter budget.
Ultimate Pro Football GM
Games2rk calls Ultimate Pro Football GM a free offline football sim, so it covers management without a connection. You are the general manager: you sign, draft and trade players, hire coaches, upgrade the facilities and set the ticket prices. A coach mode adds offensive play calling. The online part is a PvP league. Google Play shows in-app purchases and no ads label.
Franchise Football: Pro GM
Franchise Football: Pro GM used to be CBS Franchise Football. The CBS name has gone from the title, and the developer shown on Google Play is Fantasy Moguls, Inc. You manage a team through 16-game seasons and fill the roster from packs that the listing says hold the biggest names in pro football history. It is free with ads and in-app purchases, and the listing notes that the app includes Nielsen’s audience-measurement software.
Backyard Football ’99
Backyard Football ’99 is a children’s football game from 1999, re-released by Playground Productions to run on modern devices, with nothing to buy inside. It costs $4.99 in the US, and Google Play sets a local price in other countries. It shows neither ads nor in-app purchases.
You draft from 30 Backyard kids and a group of past stars the listing names, among them Barry Sanders, Jerry Rice and Dan Marino, then play a single game or a 14-game season. The listing is frank about its limits: the team had no access to the original source code, so there was only so much it could change.
Five more, free with ads and in-app purchases
From Fresh Build Games, Big Win Football: Manager has you collect and upgrade players, then watch quick games play out. Touchdown Manager is club management, with training, a live bidding system for new players and matches against other people.
The other three are tagged “Offline”. In Ted Ginn: Kick Return Football you return kicks, following blocks and breaking tackles. The listing calls it the official game of Ted Ginn Jr., which is one player’s name and not a league licence. Football Dash is an endless runner in which you drag a finger to get past defenders and score touchdowns. Fanatical Football is football on the field with tap and swipe controls, a quick game mode and a championship mode.
With no signal and no interest in football, there are offline car racing games and offline RPG games for Android.
Fantasy football apps
Fantasy apps work differently from all of these: you pick real players and score on what those players do each week. In ESPN Fantasy Sports, which says every ESPN game is free to play, you create or join a league, draft a team, set a line-up and trade. Google Play rates it Everyone, and shows ads and in-app purchases. For the results themselves, there are football score apps for Android and iPhone, mostly built around soccer.
