Open-world games to play with friends on mobile

"Open world" and "multiplayer" sit on the same store page constantly without meaning together what you would assume. A large mobile world with a friends list bolted to the side is still a single-player game: you see what your friends did, you send them something, you never stand next to them.

So the list below is ordered by one question — can you and a friend be in the same place at the same time — and then by how much work it takes to get there. Monetisation model and platforms are stated because they are stable. Prices, ratings and current content are not, so they are not.

1. 1

   Roblox

   Best for the widest choice of shared worlds

   Not one open world but a platform of them, built by other players, where joining a friend is how anybody navigates the thing at all. If what you want is a city to mess about in with three people you know, some version of it already exists here. The trade is that quality is wildly uneven and you are the one sorting through it.

   Free to play. In-app purchases (in-game currency).

   Pros

   • + Joining a friend is the core mechanic, not a feature
   • + Enormous range of worlds, including city and roleplay ones
   • + One account across phone, PC and console

   Cons

   • − Quality varies enormously from world to world
   • − The in-game currency is pushed hard throughout
2. 2

   Minecraft

   Best for building something together that lasts

   The default answer to this question for over a decade, and it still holds: a world you and your friends shape together and come back to. Worth knowing before you start that keeping a world running when nobody is in it generally means paying for hosting on top of the game itself.

   Paid once on mobile. Optional in-game marketplace.

   Pros

   • + A shared world that persists between sessions
   • + Plays with friends who are not on phones
   • + One purchase covers the game

   Cons

   • − Keeping a world online for friends usually costs extra
   • − Touch controls are workable rather than good
3. 3

   Old School RuneScape

   Best for one persistent world and a player-run economy

   The closest thing on a phone to a world that carries on whether you are in it or not: thousands of other people, a market run by players rather than a shop, and a character that picks up on your desktop exactly where the phone left it. It looks its age on purpose, which is also why it runs on almost anything.

   Free to play, with an optional paid membership.

   Pros

   • + One shared world, no lobby codes or invites
   • + The same account on the phone and the desktop
   • + Economy is driven by players trading, not by a store

   Cons

   • − Most of the game sits behind the membership
   • − Pacing and presentation are an acquired taste
4. 4

   Genshin Impact

   Best-looking open world on a phone

   The most impressive thing here to look at, and the one where friends are the side dish rather than the meal. Co-op is a mode you drop into for a while; the story around it is single-player. That is fine if what you want is a big world to explore alone with company available when you feel like it.

   Free to play. In-app purchases (gacha).

   Pros

   • + Genuinely large hand-built world
   • + Plays across phone, PC and PlayStation

   Cons

   • − Co-op is a side mode, not how the game is designed to be played
   • − Gacha monetisation is the entire business model
5. 5

   Terraria

   Best for playing together with nothing to buy

   A 2D sandbox with a very deep crafting and combat progression, ported whole rather than trimmed down for phones, and the only entry here that will never ask you for money again. Playing together works, but getting a session up takes more than tapping a friend's name, which is the price of that.

   One-time purchase. No in-app purchases.

   Pros

   • + Nothing to buy after the game itself
   • + Huge progression with no paywalls in it

   Cons

   • − Setting up a session with friends is the fiddliest here
   • − Touch controls take adjustment