A Toronto gamer crew // Updated July 2026

Games weactually keepinstalled.

We are three friends who play too much. These are the five Google Play games that survived the last cull of our home screens.

See the five How we pick

A crew of players, not a store. Every button goes to the official Play Store.

A Bloons TD 6 map with dart monkeys and upgraded towers lining a winding path — Our current #1. Screenshot: Ninja Kiwi, via the official store listing.

Who is behind this

We started as a group chat during a snowed-in weekend in Leslieville, back in the winter of 2021. Tired of "top 10" lists that were really just download buttons, we kept our own.

Read the full story

Devon MarchettiStrategy · plays on a Pixel 7a

Runs the spreadsheet. Will replay a Bloons round four times to shave one life off a boss. Started the chat.

Priya SandhuWord & puzzle · Galaxy A54

The one who reads the patch notes. Words With Friends 2 and Candy Crush on the streetcar to work.

Cole OkaforParty & arcade · Moto G

Loudest voice in an Among Us lobby. Keeps an old phone alive purely for Temple Run 2 score runs.

Honest bit: we are all on Android, so there are no iPhone-only picks here, and we refresh this list every couple of weeks, not every launch day.

The line-up // Five games

Among Us

Social deduction

Four to fifteen crewmates fix a spaceship while one or two impostors quietly pick them off. The whole game is the argument afterward.

Developer: InnerSloth
Installs: 500M+
Play rating: 3.9 / 13.6M
Price: Free · ads · IAP
Content: Everyone 10+
Online: Needed

How to play

Crew run around a map finishing little tasks; impostors sabotage and vent. When a body is found or someone hits the emergency button, everyone votes on who to eject. Win by finishing tasks, or by talking your way out of a wrong accusation.

Tips & tricks

Learn one map's task locations cold. Knowing where Electrical wiring lives is how you catch a fake-tasker.
Do visual tasks (the shield, the trash chute) where people can see you. It is the closest thing to a real alibi.
As impostor, self-report a body you just made. It buys instant trust more often than it should.
Turn the in-game chat to text if you can. Voice lobbies devolve into shouting, and quiet players get railroaded.

Why we keep playing

Nothing else turns four friends against each other this fast, then puts them back together in ninety seconds. Cole hosts a lobby almost every Thursday.

One honest caveatWith randoms it can be a mess of quitters and pre-made teams. It sings with a full room of people you know.

Get it on Google Play com.innersloth.spacemafia

Candy Crush Saga

Match-3 puzzle

Swap coloured candies to clear a board before you run out of moves. Twelve years on, King is still shipping new levels every week.

Developer: King
Installs: 1B+
Play rating: 4.5 / 38.9M
Price: Free · ads · IAP
Content: Everyone
Offline: Mostly

How to play

Line up three or more of the same candy to clear them. Match four for a striped candy, five for a colour bomb. Each level hands you a goal, a move budget, and a puzzle that is quietly nastier than the last.

Tips & tricks

Work from the bottom of the board up. Clearing low candies drops fresh ones and sets off chains for free.
Save your special candies. A striped plus a wrapped candy detonated together clears a huge chunk in one move.
On a stuck level, close the app and reopen. The board reshuffles, and sometimes a losing layout becomes winnable.
Ignore the daily "booster wheel" as strategy. Treat any booster as a bonus, never a plan.

Why we keep playing

It is Priya's transit game. Two or three levels between College and Union, no thinking required, no online needed once a level loads.

One honest caveatThe five-lives timer is the whole business model. Lose five times and you wait about thirty minutes, or pay. We just put the phone down and come back.

Get it on Google Play com.king.candycrushsaga

Temple Run 2

Endless runner

Sprint out of a crumbling temple with a giant monkey on your heels, banking around corners you barely see coming. The runner that kicked off the whole genre, still going a decade on.

Developer: Imangi Studios
Installs: 1B+
Play rating: 4.0 / 9.86M
Price: Free · ads · IAP
Content: Everyone 10+
Offline: Yes

How to play

Swipe to jump gaps, slide under obstacles, and tilt the phone to hug the coin line. Turn corners the moment the path bends, because the demon monkey is always one stumble behind. There is no finish, only how far you get before you trip.

Tips & tricks

Turn tilt steering on. It is far more precise on the sharp corners than swiping, and it keeps your thumb free for jumps.
Hoard the green gems. They revive you on the spot, so do not spend them reviving a run that was already going badly.
Spend coins on the coin magnet and the score multiplier first. Both pay for themselves inside a single long run.
Commit to a turn early. The path telegraphs a corner with a glowing edge, so read it instead of reacting late.
Run the daily challenges for gems. They stack up nicely without ever touching your wallet.

Why we keep playing

Cole runs this on the old Moto G with no signal on the subway. One clean lap of the temple is a perfect two-minute distraction, and the number at the top never stops being a dare.

One honest caveatIt leans on ads and a shop full of characters and coin packs. None of it is needed to play, but the pop-ups after a run are persistent, so expect to tap past them.

Get it on Google Play com.imangi.templerun2

Words With Friends 2

Word game

Scrabble with your group chat, at whatever pace you both forget about. Zynga's turn-based board that can sit for three days between moves.

Developer: Zynga
Installs: 10M+
Play rating: 3.8 / 522K
Price: Free · ads · IAP
Content: Everyone
Online: Needed

How to play

Build words on a shared board using seven letter tiles, landing on the pink and blue bonus squares for extra points. You take turns, they take turns, and a single match can run for a week. Solo modes and a daily puzzle fill the gaps.

Tips & tricks

Hoard your S and blank tiles. Pluralising an existing word for a double play is the cheapest big score there is.
Learn the two-letter words (QI, ZA, XU). They turn a cramped corner into thirty points against the triple squares.
Play defence. If you cannot score big, do not open a triple-word lane for the person across from you.
The dictionary and hints are legal here. Use the tile-swap when your rack is all vowels and stop feeling bad about it.

Why we keep playing

Priya has a game running with her mum in Brampton that is somehow four years old. It is less a game than a slow conversation.

One honest caveatThe free version leans hard on video ads between moves, and the 3.8 rating mostly reflects that. Solo play is where the ad load feels heaviest.

Get it on Google Play com.zynga.words3

Bloons TD 6

Tower defense

Monkeys pop balloons before they escape your track. Underneath the cartoon is one of the deepest strategy games on any phone.

Developer: Ninja Kiwi
Installs: 5M+
Play rating: 4.7 / 399K
Price: Paid · $8.99 · IAP
Content: Everyone
Offline: Yes

How to play

Place towers around a winding path, upgrade them down three branching trees, and stop waves of balloons ("bloons") from getting through. Later rounds throw lead, camo and ceramic bloons at you, and each needs a different answer.

Tips & tricks

Every early map, start with a 0-2-2 Dart Monkey and a Ninja Monkey. It carries you to the mid rounds cheaply.
Keep one tower that handles camo and one that handles lead. Round 63 and round 76 are where unprepared runs die.
Farm early on the easier maps. A couple of Banana Farms snowball into the cash for a game-ending Super Monkey.
Do the daily challenge for monkey money. It funds the hero and power unlocks without touching your wallet again.

Why we keep playing

This is Devon's forever game and, honestly, the crew's number one. No ads, no timers, and a difficulty ceiling we have not hit after three years.

One honest caveatIt costs money up front, which is rare in this list. There are also optional powers and skins for sale, but you never need them to finish anything.

Get it on Google Play com.ninjakiwi.bloonstd6

If you only install one

Bloons TD 6

It is the odd one out, the game you pay for, and it is the one we would keep if the other four vanished. You buy it once, and nothing on the screen ever asks you for money again to win.

Get it on Google Play Ninja Kiwi · $8.99 · no ads

A late-game Bloons TD 6 board with fully upgraded monkey towers

Straight answers

Are these games actually free?

Four of the five are free to download, and they pay for themselves with ads and optional in-app purchases. Bloons TD 6 is the exception: it is a paid app, around $8.99 in Canada, with no ads. We flag the money model on every card so nothing is a surprise.

Is it safe to install them?

Every link on this site points to the official Google Play listing, nowhere else. We do not host files, and we will never send you to an APK, a mod, or a mirror. If a download link ever leaves play.google.com, close it.

Why is there no App Store button?

Because the three of us are on Android and only write about what we play daily. Several of these games exist on iOS too, but we are not going to review a build we do not use. If you are on an iPhone, the games are easy to find in the App Store on your own.

How often does this list change?

Every couple of weeks, when something actually earns a spot, not on a schedule. A game gets dropped the moment it stops being fun, adds a nasty paywall, or turns into a chore. We would rather have five honest picks than twenty filler ones.

What makes a game get cut?

Simulated gambling, loot boxes, anything rated for adults, or a timer that turns play into waiting. We check both the Google Play and Apple age ratings before a game goes up, because the two stores flag different things. If either one raises a red flag, it does not make the list.