Joe Hindy / Android Authority
Tycoon games have a long and storied history. Some of the most popular include SimCity, RollerCoaster Tycoon, and Transport Tycoon. There are modern gems in this space too. Game Dev Tycoon is fairly successful. The SimCity-inspired Pocket City is also quite good. Tycoon games are basically business management games. Your goal is to build the best possible business. These all count as simulation games. However, they definitely feel different from your usual simulators. Here are the best tycoon games for Android.
We’d like to give honorable mentions to Game Dev Tycoon (Google Play), Fiz (Google Play), and Rollercoaster Tycoon Classic (Google Play). All three are excellent tycoon games, but they haven’t been updated in a few years or longer.
The best tycoon games for Android
Battle of Polytopia
Price: Free / $4.49
Battle of Polytopia is a strategy sim with a heavy kingdom-building element. You build your kingdom, take over other kingdoms, manage your resources, manage your troops, and unlock new technologies. The game focuses heavily on your ability to generate resources to further your technological needs, so it technically falls under the scope of a tycoon game. The game also has online multiplayer, offline support, play-and-pass local multiplayer, and leaderboards. There’s a lot to like about this one. It’s also free with Google Play Pass.
Kairosoft tycoon games
Price: Free / Varies
Kairosoft is a developer on Google Play with some excellent tycoon games. One of its most popular is Game Dev Story, which is a direct competitor to Game Dev Tycoon. Other options include Mega Mall Story 2, Silver Screen Story, The Ramen Sensei, Grand Prix Story 2, Cafeteria Nipponica, and several others. Each game has its own set of mechanics, but a similar overall premise. You grind for resources and upgrades in order to pay for better resources and upgrades. Many of Kairosoft’s games are free with Google Play Pass and there is a healthy number of both free-to-play and premium options.
Mini Metro
Price: $0.99
Mini Metro is a subway simulator where you build a subway for a growing city. It’s a lot more minimal than most tycoon games, but honestly, that only adds to its charm. That’s especially true when you consider how complex this game can get. You draw lines between the various stations, redraw those lines as needed when new stations come out, and keep things as simple as possible. The game also includes real city subway systems so you can practice your skills. This game is simultaneously less and more complicated than most tycoon games and it’s an easy entrant on this list. The game is also pretty cheap at only $0.99 or free with Google Play Pass if you have it.
Motorsport Manager Mobile 3
Price: $7.49 with in-app purchases
Motorsport Manager Mobile 3 is a racing tycoon game. Players build up a whole motorsport business. It’s actually fairly involved. You can hire personnel for everything down to the driver of your car. There are various upgrades to get and better employees generate better results. You can also get even deeper by creating pitstop strategies and dealing with weather changes. Plus, you can actually race the car yourself if you want to. It does just about everything a tycoon fan would typically want. It is a bit pricy at $7.49 with in-app purchases, but it’s honestly pretty worth it.
My Colony
Price: Free / $4.99
My Colony is a city-builder sim with some strategy game elements. You start the game by building a colony on Mars. As you build, your city generates revenue that you then use to expand your city more. The game offers four civilizations to play as, nearly 400 buildings, single and multiple player capabilities, achievements, Android TV support, and you can even mod the game. It’s shockingly deep but satisfying to play if you’re a fan of the genre.
OpenTTD
Price: Free
OpenTTD is an open-source mobile port of the original Transport Tycoon Deluxe. It’s a transport tycoon game where you build highways, railways, and other transportation infrastructure to transport goods. This is a classic tycoon game. Thus, it is a lot deeper and more granular than modern games. It also takes a bit to learn since it is a port of an existing game. We recommend reading the Google Play description for some tips and tricks along with helpful links. The official Transport Tycoon is on mobile (Google Play), but the developers for it are struggling to make it work right on mobile.
Pocket City
Price: Free / $2.99
Pocket City is about as close to SimCity as you can get on mobile. It’s a town simulator where you build a whole town. You’re responsible for making sure there is a proper balance of residential and industrial buildings. Plus, you can add entertainment and all of that. The game gets very deep when you get into things like how much tax to charge citizens. It’s truly one of the outstanding mobile city-builders and much better than the official SimCity BuildIt mobile game (Google Play). There is a free version and a premium version for $2.99. It’s also free on Google Play Pass.
RollerCoaster Tycoon Touch
Price: Free to play
Rollercoaster Tycoon Touch is a Rollercoaster Tycoon game made for mobile. It has all of the typical elements. You build a theme park with various rides, attractions, food, and entertainment. The goal is to make your park as successful as possible. The game lets you build your own rollercoasters, design your park, and do the usual stuff. However, it has better mobile controls than the classic version. This version of the game is pretty good. There are some issues, like aggressive microtransactions and some game bugs, that sully the enjoyment a bit, but it’s still pretty decent overall.
Tiny Tower
Price: Free to play
Tiny Tower is a little building management sim. You’re tasked with managing the businesses inside of a tower. Each floor can be its own thing that generates more revenue for you. From there, you simply use the revenue to build more businesses inside the tower. This is one of the few decent free-to-play tycoon games on mobile. It doesn’t lean heavily on its microtransactions which we really like. The game mechanics are pretty simple. You can hire and trade people, customize the look of the place, and even check out what the people in your world are saying with the BitBook feature. This one is a good time killer for tycoon fans who may not want hour-long play sessions.
Tropico
Price: $11.99
Tropico puts the player in the role of El Presidente. Your job is to build a nation up from basically scratch. That includes building roads, buildings, and a military. Your goal is to create a successful nation with good foreign and trade policies. It’s a surprisingly deep game with plenty of things to do. However, that does sometimes result in a clunky experience. For example, the UI is quite cluttered, and doing basic things like laying a road can be a little obnoxious on occasion. These issues are fairly mild, though, and this game is otherwise excellent.
