Are you a city building addict looking for the best city building games to construct and manage your own city? We’ve done our job and search across the Android and iOS for only the best city building games for your mobile device.
What Are City Buliding Games?
The history of city building games started with the classic, SimCity (1989), a simulation game to build and design cities with no win conditions or objectives.
Players continuously build infrastructure, manage taxes, population, and deal with environmental scenarios.
This type of game gained popularity during the ’80s, selling for over 300,000 units for personal computers. This has set the paradigm of PC gaming during that time.
There are three difficulties in the classic Sim City, including Easy, Medium and Hard. Similar to any modern city builders, create roads, homes, and fences. Monitor public opinions and population statistics in yearly evaluations.
In 1993. SimCity was re-designed for Windows and PC. Throughout the years, it has received many different reboots, including Sim City 2000, 3000 and Delux.
In our list, we take into account any reviews, opinions, and P2W mechanics (if there are any). We also look into the user experience, such as being advertiser-friendly and relaxing to play. Here at CrushThePixel, we want to provide you with quality. If you have any games you want to be included, please comment below and we’ll review.
SimCity: Buildit
To all the mayor’s out there, are you ready to become a hero of your city? SimCity: BuiltIT is EA take on SimCity for mobile devices. Despite EA reputation it has gained over the last several years on micro-transaction, this city builder is really good. Now, there are micro-transactions within the game, but offers enough free content to keep you highly addicted.
As the mayor, there are several different type of building options such as apartments, power plants, city hall, and parks. There are also challenges that simulate real life in order to keep your city safe and growing. Place buildings strategically to gain taxes or solve issues such as fires and pollution
Similar to any other city building games, there are three different zones; Residential, Commercial and Services. Each zone gives different options to further strategize your city. For example, Residential is designated for home building and requires material for construction.
We highly recommend SimCity: Builtit if you are looking for a strategy-based city building game.
Pocket City
Pocket City is a simple, fun and addictive city building game. Build your own city as the mayor and create up to three different zones, including commercial, residential and industrial.
Each zone can be upgraded for additional benefits and resources. In the city, you can spot a series of events, respond to crime and manage disasters from happening to keep your city alive. There are no micro-transactions and includes offline play.
Idle City Empire
Build your empire by creating a city and collecting profits, while you sleep. Create, upgrade and automate your city profit generation. Collect different buildings and businesses to generate millions of gold.
Invest the gold into upgrades to make your idle generation larger as you are away. This game is easy to understand, with polished gameplay experience and many different features. If you are looking for a game that is quick and easy, without a huge time investment – Idle City Empire is a great choice.
Idle Island – City Building Tycoon
On your private island, build up your city to become a business tycoon. You can build homes, banks, factories, and stores. Research different tiered items to increase the cash flow and invest in your city future. If you are a casual gamer, this game is ideal.
The gameplay are easy to understand and the graphics are good. There are many different objectives, such as quests and missions. You can manage up to 10 different cities, with Idle features for online and offline play.
Paradise City – Island Simulation Bay
Want to build your own dream city? Welcome to Paradise City, an Island simulation game where you can build your city on 8 different tropical islands, each having its own challenges such as snow, wood, and dessert. There are 6 different options to expand your city, which includes: Houses, Commercial, Community, Decorations, and Currencies. Each has its own different set of buildings to choose from and costs. We recommend for casual play.
Forge of Empires
Forge of Empires is based on a browser game published by InnoGames. It is is one of the better free to play games to spoil your city building needs. Develop and build your city through from stone age to modern times. We call it the Baby CIV6 for mobile, as it has striking similarities to its gameplay, such as researching new technologies and ageless city progression.
Defeat a variety of enemies in turn-based combat system to capture different sectors of the map to expand your glory. There is also multiplayer, allowing players to create guilds and PVP. The developers are very responsive to user feedback and constantly adding new updates. We highly recommend the Forge of Empires.
Theotown
It may look simple, but it was one of the most in-depth city-building games to date. TheoTown started for Android and after it rose to popularity, the developers worked on a PC version on steam that is positively receptive.
The game takes after an all-time classic, Sim City in its art style and gameplay. Build and manage your own town or multiple cities. You can choose between a selection of maps to scale your metropolis, build skylines and various other structures. If you are looking for a casual, relaxing city builder that has the nostalgia of SimCity – we highly recommend
Fallout Shelter
I remember when Fallout Shelter was first announced, I didn’t think much of it. Checking back in 2019 – the game is a really good simulation game with city builder mechanics. Similar to other Fallout titles, you are in a vault to protect yourself from radiation and enemies above ground but this time, you are the boss of the entire vault and it is your job to keep your community safe.
Customize, protect and build the perfect vault and oversee your growing population of Dwellers. Dwellers are workers that provide the resources you need in order for your vault to survive. Make them happy to keep your operations running effectively by assigning them jobs that they love and ensuring they are healthy with food and water.
