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Editorial Team · 2026-09-16
Best Free RPG and Gacha Games on Mobile, Ranked by Score
By Editorial Team · published 2026-09-16 · updated 2026-09-17
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AFK Journey is the best free RPG on our scores at 7.6, and it wins by asking the least: battles resolve on their own, rewards accumulate while the app is closed, and the whole thing fits in 1.3 GB. The games below it are bigger, prettier and harder on the wallet — Honkai: Star Rail has the best combat and a published five-star rate of 0.6%, Wuthering Waves the best action and a 3.6 GB install. All five give the full story away free and all five list loot boxes; the monetisation marks run from 6.0 down to 4.5, the lowest band in our catalogue. Each was installed, scored on five criteria and reviewed on this site, with prices as of September 2026.
How we ranked them
Each game has a full review with five sub-scores — gameplay, controls, replay value, graphics and sound, and monetisation — and the number at the head of each entry is the weighted result. Free role-playing games on phones share one business model: the story is free, and the characters are drawn from a gacha with published odds. So for every game we recorded the install size, the top of the purchase ladder, and whether the odds are stated.
Store ratings split by platform more sharply here than in any other category we have scored, and the split is the economy talking: Honkai: Star Rail holds 4.4 on the App Store and 3.7 on Google Play, Pokémon Masters 4.7 against 4.2, Fate/Grand Order 4.4 against 4.0. Android reviewers, who tend to have paid less and waited longer, are the ones describing the banners.
Two warnings before the list. First, these are the five lowest monetisation marks of any category we have scored — 6.0, 4.5, 4.5, 5.0, 4.5. The gameplay above the economy is often excellent; the economy is designed to be tiring. Second, four of the five are over 1 GB, and two are over 3.5 GB, which decides the matter on a 64 GB phone before anything else does.
1. AFK Journey — progress without a daily obligation
AFK Journey scores 7.6 with an 8.5 for controls: assemble a team of five, place them on a grid, and the battle resolves without you. Rewards accumulate while the app is closed and are collected when you return; an actual overworld with puzzles and chests gives the roster somewhere to go. Storybook art runs comfortably in 1.3 GB, and it holds 4.8 stars across 74,000 App Store ratings.
The 6.0 for monetisation — the best on this list — is loot boxes and the usual ladder to $99.99, though free progress is real. Seasons reset part of the progression, and combat cannot be influenced once it starts.
Good for: anyone who wants an RPG that fits around a life. Not for: anyone who wants to fight.
2. Honkai: Star Rail — the best combat, and a 0.6% five-star rate
Honkai: Star Rail scores 7.4 with an 8.5 for gameplay and a 9.0 for graphics and sound: turn-based command combat with real team building and no reflex requirement, a fully voiced free campaign, a recorded score per region, and new content every six weeks. It is the most phone-friendly of the big gachas because turns suit a touchscreen.
The 4.5 for monetisation is the published number: a 0.6% five-star rate with a 90-pull guarantee, plus passes and a subscription, and a stamina system that caps daily reward-bearing content. Google Play rates it 3.7 across 522,000 reviews against 4.4 on the App Store, and the install is 3.7 GB.
Good for: the story, played free. Not for: anyone who will chase a banner.
3. Wuthering Waves — parries decide fights, 3.6 GB
Wuthering Waves scores 7.2 with an 8.5 for gameplay: an open-world action RPG where dodging at the right instant makes the counter-attack the point of the fight, and traversal runs on wall-climbing and grappling with barely a stamina limit. The full campaign is free, there is no advertising, and it holds 4.6 stars on the App Store.
Dodging on glass is the limiting factor — a controller improves it noticeably — the game heats a mid-range phone, and the economy is loot boxes, a $4.99 subscription and currency packs to $99.99. The install is 3.6 GB and grows with updates.
Good for: anyone who found the genre's combat too forgiving. Not for: a phone that already runs warm.
4. Pokémon Masters EX — the game about the trainers
Pokémon Masters EX scores 7.0. Trainers from three decades of games fight three-against-three in real time with a gauge that refills instead of turn order, the main story is free and still expanding seven years in, and meeting a champion from a decade-old cartridge as an ally is a better hook than another catching loop. It holds 4.7 stars across 218,000 App Store ratings.
Sync pairs arrive from a gacha with random results, gems reach $79.99, a story bundle is sold separately, and the install is 1.9 GB for a battle game. Google Play rates it 4.2, half a point below Apple.
Good for: anyone with a favourite trainer from 2003. Not for: anyone who wanted the creatures.
5. Fate/Grand Order — a decade of writing in 143 MB
Fate/Grand Order scores 6.8 and is the smallest RPG in our catalogue by a wide margin: 143 MB, static portraits, and hundreds of hours of written story given away free, with an 8.5 for replay value from ten years of chapters and events. Card-chain combat is smarter than it looks and much sparser than the reading.
The 4.5 for monetisation is one of the harshest summoning systems in the genre, with quartz packs to $79.99, and Google Play rates it 4.0 across 108,000 reviews.
Good for: reading, on any phone still in use. Not for: chasing servants.
What we left out and why
Nothing — these are the five role-playing games in our catalogue with a score. The list will grow as more are reviewed.
Bottom line
AFK Journey wins because it is the one game here you can put down: rewards arrive whether you play or not, and its economy is the least aggressive of five aggressive ones. Honkai: Star Rail is the better game and the worse deal — play its story free and never open a banner. Wuthering Waves is the pick for anyone who wants the fight itself to be hard, with a controller and a cool phone. Pokémon Masters and Fate/Grand Order are for their franchises. Every one of them lists loot boxes, and the honest way to play all five is the same: enjoy what is free, which is most of it, and treat the characters as scenery.
