39 Best Horror Games for Android in 2026 (Offline, Free & Co-Op)

The best horror games for Android in 2026 are Alien: Isolation, Little Nightmares, and Granny. Alien: Isolation is the one to start with: free to install, two missions free, and a single $14.99 unlock for the rest, with no ads and a store update on 22 April 2026. Little Nightmares is the best paid pick at $8.49.

Granny is the best free one, with 500,000,000+ installs and ads on every death. Below are 39 horror games, every price and flag read off the US Google Play listing on 26 August 2026, each one scored 1 to 5 for jump scares.

In a hurry? Jump to: quick picks · jump-scare scale · what the age rating means · who takes your money · will it run on your phone · how we picked · the 39 games · comparison · offline-only list · free and actually scary · co-op and multiplayer · regional indie horror · stranger voice chat · not on Android · Silent Hill on PPSSPP · how to pick · bottom line · related reading · FAQ

Almost every horror list on this query fails in the same three places. It recommends games that were pulled from Google Play years ago, it never tells you how hard a game will startle you, and it files online-only multiplayer games under “offline”. We fixed all three.

Every package ID on this page was opened on the live Google Play listing on 26 August 2026. Every entry carries a 1-to-5 startle rating and an honest note on whether the age rating means anything. Online games are hard-walled out of the offline section.

Quick picks: the best horror game for each need

You want	Install this	Price	Ads?	Jump scares
Best overall	Alien: Isolation	Free, $14.99 unlock	None	4/5
Best paid, no ads, no IAP	Bendy and the Ink Machine	$4.99	None	4/5
Best free horror game	Granny	Free	Yes + IAP	4/5
Best horror with no jump scares	DREDGE	$24.99	None	2/5
Best co-op horror	The Past Within	$2.99	None	1/5
Best online multiplayer horror	Eyes Horror & Coop	Free	Yes + IAP	4/5
Best for a 2GB budget phone	Slendrina: The Cellar 2	Free	None	4/5
Best cheap premium horror	LIMBO	$0.40	None	3/5
Best regional indie horror	Detention	Free, $4.99 unlock	Yes	3/5
Best for ten-minute sessions	The Baby In Yellow	Free	Yes + IAP	2/5

The jump-scare intensity scale (1 to 5)

Horror is not one feeling, and “scary” is not one number. A game can leave you tense for an hour without ever making you drop the phone, and another can be harmless for 55 minutes and then scream at you. So every game on this page gets a startle rating from 1 to 5.

This measures sudden loud scares only. It does not measure how disturbing a game is. Fran Bow is a 2 on this scale and it is one of the most upsetting things on Google Play.

• 1 — No startles. Dread, unease, sad endings. Nothing lunges at the camera. The Past Within, Carrion, OXENFREE.
• 2 — Quiet stings. A rare music cue or a shape in the dark. Safe for headphones at normal volume. Little Nightmares, DREDGE, INMOST, Fran Bow, Cube Escape Collection, Forgotten Hill, The Baby In Yellow.
• 3 — Scripted and telegraphed. You can feel each one coming and it still gets you. LIMBO, PARANORMASIGHT, SIMULACRA, True Fear, Ice Scream 1, Evil Nun, Detention, Bad Parenting, Dead Effect 2, Into the Dead 2, Identity V is lower still.
• 4 — Chase-driven and loud. Something hunts you, catches you, and the catch is a loud animation. Alien: Isolation, Bendy, Granny, Slendrina, Kamla, White Day, Specimen Zero, The Ghost, Eyes, Backrooms Company, Endless Nightmare.
• 5 — Built entirely on the startle. The whole game is a machine for one loud face-in-camera hit. Five Nights at Freddy’s 1 and 2, Death Park 2.

If you are here for someone with a heart condition, an anxiety disorder, or a young child, the 1 and 2 tiers are the only safe list. The full no-startle shortlist is DREDGE, Little Nightmares, INMOST, Carrion, The Past Within, Cube Escape Collection, Forgotten Hill Mementoes, Fran Bow, and OXENFREE: Netflix Edition.

What the Play age rating actually means (and when to ignore it)

The age rating on a Google Play listing is not written by Google. Developers fill in a questionnaire and the IARC system generates a rating for each region automatically. Nobody plays the game.

For horror, that breaks in both directions, and this genre is the clearest example on the whole store.

• Rated too low. DREDGE carries an Everyone 10+ rating on Play. It contains drowning, mutilation, and body horror. Treat it as a Teen game at minimum.
• Rated too low, worse case. Bad Parenting 1: Mr Red Face is rated Teen. It is about a child being abused, retold as a bedtime story. That is heavier than most Mature 17+ games on this page.
• Rated too high for what it is. Carrion is Mature 17+ for gore. You play a monster eating scientists, and it is closer to a power fantasy than a horror game.
• Rated fine and still worth checking. Fran Bow, SIMULACRA, Detention, and PARANORMASIGHT are all Mature 17+ and all earn it on theme rather than on blood.

The ESRB ratings guide and PEGI both publish content descriptors that are more useful than the age number. Read the descriptors, not the badge. And for horror specifically, the real risk to a child is not the gore at all — it is unmoderated stranger voice chat, which no rating flags loudly enough.

Who takes your money, and how

Every game below sits in exactly one of four money buckets, taken straight from the “Contains ads” and “In-app purchases” flags on its own Play listing on 26 August 2026.

Bucket	What it means	Games
Clean premium	You pay once. No ads, no IAP flag at all.	Bendy and the Ink Machine $4.99, Bendy and the Dark Revival $4.99, Fran Bow $9.49, PARANORMASIGHT $18.99, LIMBO $0.40, SIMULACRA $4.99, The Past Within $2.99, FNAF: Sister Location $2.99
Free and clean	Free to install, no ads, no IAP flag.	Carrion, Slendrina: The Cellar 2, OXENFREE: Netflix Edition (Netflix login needed)
Paid with extras, or free with one unlock	One honest wall, then it is yours.	Alien: Isolation ($14.99 unlock), Little Nightmares $8.49, DREDGE $24.99, INMOST ($4.49–$6.49), True Fear 1, Detention ($4.99), The Letter, Crunchyroll: White Day ($13.99), Cube Escape Collection ($2.99), FNAF $2.99, FNAF 2 $2.99
Ads and IAP	Free, interrupted, and selling hints or coins.	Granny, Granny: Chapter Two (ads only), Granny 3 (ads only), Ice Scream 1, Evil Nun, Death Park, Death Park 2, The Baby In Yellow, Kamla, Pocong Hunter 3, Endless Nightmare 1, Dead Effect 2, Into the Dead 2, Forgotten Hill Mementoes, Bad Parenting 1 (ads only)
Online-only with stranger chat	Ads or gacha, plus servers that can be switched off.	Eyes Horror & Coop, Horrorfield, Identity V, Specimen Zero, The Ghost, Backrooms Company

Two prices are worth calling out because they get quoted wrong constantly. DREDGE is the most expensive horror game on Google Play at $24.99, not Alien: Isolation. LIMBO is currently listed at $0.40, which makes it the cheapest premium horror game on the store.

If ads are the dealbreaker rather than the price, the clean-premium row is your whole shopping list. We keep a wider one at games with no ads for Android and iOS.

Will it run on your phone? Three tiers

“Works on low-end phones” is useless as a single bullet, because horror on Android spans a 2015 budget handset and a full Unreal Engine port. Here are three real bands.

Tier 1 — 1–2GB RAM, any phone still receiving updates

Slendrina: The Cellar 2, Granny, LIMBO, Cube Escape Collection, Forgotten Hill Mementoes, and Bad Parenting 1 all install small and run on hardware that cannot open anything else here. Slendrina: The Cellar 2 is the safest of the lot: free, no ads, no IAP, and 10,000,000+ installs.

Tier 2 — 4GB RAM mid-range, the phone most people own

Ice Scream 1, Evil Nun, Death Park 2, Little Nightmares, The Baby In Yellow, Kamla, Endless Nightmare 1, Into the Dead 2, Eyes, and Horrorfield all behave here. Evil Nun is the one that drops frames first; it wants roughly 3GB of RAM before it settles down.

Tier 3 — flagship, Android 9.0 or newer, lots of free storage

Alien: Isolation, Bendy and the Dark Revival, Dead Effect 2, Identity V, and Specimen Zero belong here. Feral Interactive publishes a supported-device list for Alien: Isolation and the game refuses to install on hardware outside it, so check before you buy the unlock.

Bendy and the Dark Revival is the quiet proof of the hardware wall. Its Play listing shows 10,000+ installs against Ink Machine’s 100,000+, for a sequel most people prefer. Long sessions on Tier 3 games also cook a phone, so read Android phone overheating fixes before a two-hour Sevastopol run.

How we picked (26 August 2026)

• Live Play listing or it is not here. We opened all 39 listings on 26 August 2026 and recorded price, the “Contains ads” and “In-app purchases” flags, the update date, the install band, the score, and the content rating.
• Package IDs pinned. Horror is the worst genre on Play for clones and near-miss IDs. Every link here carries the exact package we checked.
• A startle rating on every entry. Editorial, 1 to 5, applied consistently. Nobody else on this query publishes one.
• Online games walled off. Anything needing a server is excluded from the offline section, no exceptions.
• Regional coverage on purpose. Taiwan, Korea, the Philippines, Indonesia, and India all make the list, because Play’s biggest horror games are not all American.
• Install bands quoted exactly. 500,000,000+ means 500,000,000+. We never invent a download figure.

What we did not do: we did not replay all 39 games to completion this month, and we did not re-test every free game in airplane mode for this update. Offline status here comes from the developer’s own listing text and store tags. The fix is always the same — install on Wi-Fi, open once, then toggle airplane mode before you rely on it.

We also cut some famous names on purpose. Poppy Playtime Chapter 1 has no live Play listing we could verify on 26 August 2026, so it is in the not on Android section rather than the list. DISTRAINT: Deluxe Edition is live at $4.99 but shows only 100+ installs and no update date, which is too thin to headline.

The 39 best horror games for Android

Grouped by what kind of scared you want to be. Each entry shows price, ads, IAP, startle rating, offline status, update date, install band, score, and content rating from the listing on 26 August 2026.

Console-grade horror ports

1. Alien: Isolation

Free to start · No ads · $14.99 per item to unlock · Jump-scare 4/5 · Offline · Updated 22 April 2026 · 500,000+ installs · 3.8 from 8,124 ratings · Mature 17+.

The only true AAA survival horror port on Android, and it is not close. Feral Interactive rebuilt the whole 2014 game for touch, kept all seven DLC packs, and added full Bluetooth gamepad support. Missions 1 and 2 are free, and your save carries into the paid unlock.

The catch is size and hardware. It needs Android 9.0 or newer, a supported flagship chipset, and far more free storage than the download suggests. It is also a 15-to-20-hour stealth game with long stretches of hiding in a locker, so it is a bad fit for a ten-minute bus ride no matter what other lists say.

Best for: flagship owners who want a real console horror game. Skip if: your phone is mid-range, or you play in short bursts.

2. Little Nightmares

$8.49 · No ads · IAP $0.49 per item · Jump-scare 2/5 · Offline · Updated 25 February 2026 · 1,000,000+ installs · 4.5 from 14,578 ratings · Teen.

A tiny girl in a yellow raincoat sneaks through a ship full of things that want to eat her. Playdigious handled the port and the art survives the shrink to a phone screen better than anything else on this list. It scares through scale and helplessness, not noise.

The catch is the controls. Platforming and grab sections are the weak point on touch, and two of the chase sequences practically demand a controller. It is also short, at roughly four to five hours, and the Secrets of the Maw content is a separate purchase.

Best for: people who want dread without being startled. Skip if: you have no gamepad and no patience for fiddly jumps.

3. DREDGE

$24.99 · No ads · IAP $0.49–$11.99 per item · Jump-scare 2/5 · Offline · Updated 7 April 2026 · 100,000+ installs · 4.4 from 3,455 ratings · Everyone 10+.

You fish by day and lose your mind at night. Black Salt Games did the port itself, and the short trip-and-return loop suits a phone better than any other long horror game here. At 15 to 20 hours it is the biggest game on this page that is not Alien: Isolation.

Two catches. It is the most expensive horror game on Google Play at $24.99, and the DLC is sold on top of that. The Everyone 10+ rating is also wrong for what happens in it, as covered in the age rating section.

Best for: slow-burn dread and long commutes. Skip if: you want to be chased.

4. Carrion

Free · No ads · No IAP flag · Jump-scare 1/5 · Offline · Updated 10 August 2026 · 1,000,000+ installs · 4.2 from 27,944 ratings · Mature 17+.

You are the tentacled thing in the lab, and the scientists are the ones screaming. It is the only reverse-horror game of any quality on Android, and Devolver’s listing shows no ads and no in-app purchase flag on 26 August 2026.

The catch is the deliberate lack of a map. That was a design choice on PC and it is a genuine problem on a phone, where backtracking through identical corridors is the most common complaint. You will also feel powerful rather than frightened, which is the point but not what everyone wants.

Best for: gore fans who are tired of hiding. Skip if: you get lost easily.

5. LIMBO

$0.40 · No ads · No IAP · Jump-scare 3/5 · Offline · Updated 13 August 2026 · 1,000,000+ installs · 4.4 from 82,659 ratings · Teen.

Playdead’s monochrome landmark still holds up, and at $0.40 it is the cheapest premium horror game on the store. The spider sequence remains one of the most effective scares anyone has put on a phone. It is small, it is offline, and it runs on almost anything.

The catch is its age and its design. Sixteen years on, the trial-and-death structure means you die dozens of times to learn each trap, which reads as cheap to newer players. It is also about three hours long.

Best for: old phones and small budgets. Skip if: repeated deaths annoy you.

6. Bendy and the Ink Machine

$4.99 · No ads · No IAP · Jump-scare 4/5 · Offline · Updated 26 November 2025 · 100,000+ installs · 4.5 from 18,083 ratings · Teen.

The complete five-chapter game, ported by Joey Drew Studios themselves, with no ads and no in-app purchases. A 1930s cartoon studio rendered in sepia and ink, and nothing else on mobile looks like it. This is the cleanest paid horror purchase on Android.

The catch is the port quality. Frame pacing is rough on mid-range hardware, and the touch combat in chapters three and four is the weakest part of the game.

Best for: a single honest $4.99 with no strings. Skip if: your phone already struggles with 3D games.

7. Bendy and the Dark Revival

$4.99 · No ads · No IAP · Jump-scare 4/5 · Offline · Updated 4 February 2026 · 10,000+ installs · 4.5 from 583 ratings · Teen.

The 2022 sequel, also ported by the developer, also completely clean. It is bigger, better acted, and considerably more frightening than Ink Machine, with real combat and a much larger world.

The catch is in the install band. 10,000+ installs against Ink Machine’s 100,000+ tells you how many phones bounce off it. This is a full Unreal Engine game on a handset and it needs flagship hardware and a lot of free space.

Best for: flagship owners who finished Ink Machine. Skip if: you are on anything mid-range; buy Ink Machine instead.

8. INMOST

Free to start · No ads · IAP $4.49–$6.49 per item · Jump-scare 2/5 · Offline · Updated 20 May 2026 · 100,000+ installs · 4.6 from 4,204 ratings · Teen.

Three stories in beautiful pixel art, published on mobile by Chucklefish. It is grief-horror rather than monster-horror, and it is the best pick on this page for an adult who finds FNAF-style content childish. Roughly three hours.

Two catches. It is free to start with a paid unlock, not a flat premium purchase, which several other lists get wrong. And its subject matter — child death, terminal illness — hits far harder than the Teen rating implies.

Best for: readers who want sadness with their scares. Skip if: you want to be startled, not moved.

Story horror that does not jump at you

9. Fran Bow

$9.49 · No ads · No IAP · Jump-scare 2/5 · Offline · Updated 22 April 2026 · 10,000+ installs · 4.5 from 486 ratings · Mature 17+.

A girl in an asylum takes a pill that shows her a flayed, corpse-strewn version of the room she is standing in. Killmonday Games earned the Mature 17+ rating on content, not on jump scares, which almost nothing else on Play manages. Five chapters, fully offline, no ads.

The catch is twofold. Point-and-click puzzle logic gets obtuse in the middle chapters, and the body-horror art is genuinely hard to look at. If you are squeamish, this is the one to avoid.

Best for: adventure fans who want real disturbance. Skip if: gore imagery bothers you.

10. PARANORMASIGHT: The Seven Mysteries of Honjo

$18.99 · No ads · No IAP · Jump-scare 3/5 · Offline · Updated 13 April 2026 · 10,000+ installs · 4.7 from 509 ratings · Mature 17+.

Square Enix built a horror adventure on the real Seven Wonders of Honjo urban legends, and then broke the fourth wall with it. It has permanent-death branching, a 4.7 score, and no ads or in-app purchases at all. It is the best-written horror game on Android.

The catch is the price and the format. $18.99 is a lot for a reading-heavy game, and the story-chart navigation is fiddly on a phone screen.

Best for: visual novel readers and Japanese horror fans. Skip if: you want to control a character.

11. SIMULACRA

$4.99 · No ads · No IAP · Jump-scare 3/5 · Offline · Updated 14 June 2024 · 50,000+ installs · 4.8 from 7,221 ratings · Mature 17+.

You are handed a missing woman’s phone and you go through her messages, photos, dating app, and voicemails. Kaigan Games in Malaysia invented the found-phone genre and this is its best version. It uses your actual phone as the interface, which is why it works better on Android than on a PC.

The catch is that the listing has not been updated since 14 June 2024, and the branching is narrower than it looks. It is also a one-sitting game with almost no replay value once you know the answer.

Best for: a single tense evening. Skip if: uneven live-action acting pulls you out.

12. Cube Escape Collection

Free · Ads · IAP $2.99 per item · Jump-scare 2/5 · Offline · Updated 7 October 2025 · 5,000,000+ installs · 4.6 from 63,705 ratings · Teen.

Rusty Lake is the biggest horror-adjacent studio on Play that horror lists never mention. The Collection bundles nine short escape rooms into one surreal, bleak, quietly horrible story. It is tiny, it is offline, and it runs on ancient hardware.

The catch is that the free version carries ads and the full unlock is a $2.99 in-app purchase. There are also no chases and no monsters — this is dread and body-horror imagery, not fright.

Best for: puzzle players and very old phones. Skip if: adventure-game logic frustrates you.

13. The Past Within

$2.99 · No ads · No IAP · Jump-scare 1/5 · Offline play, online partner · Updated 18 October 2025 · 100,000+ installs · 4.8 from 48,704 ratings · Teen.

The best co-op horror game on Android, and nothing else is close. Two players each buy a copy: one plays the past in 2D, one plays the future in 3D, and neither can see the other’s screen. You solve it by talking, and it cross-plays with PC, Mac, iOS, and Switch.

The catch is the requirement. Both people must own it and both must be on a call, so it is unplayable alone and unplayable in silence. It runs about two hours and it is uncanny rather than frightening.

Best for: two friends, one evening, no gacha. Skip if: you have nobody to play with.

14. Forgotten Hill Mementoes

Free · Ads · IAP $1.99–$5.99 per item · Jump-scare 2/5 · Offline · Updated 7 May 2026 · 500,000+ installs · 4.5 from 5,921 ratings · Teen.

FM-Studio has quietly built a dozen grotesque point-and-click horror games, several of them free, and they open on hardware that will not run anything else here. The art is properly unpleasant — masked figures, wrong anatomy, wrong rooms — and it works on a screen this small.

The catch is ads on the free entries and no motion at all. If you want to be chased, this whole series will bore you. Series ordering is also a mess because the titles carry no numbers.

Best for: free horror on a cheap phone. Skip if: static point-and-click puts you to sleep.

15. True Fear: Forsaken Souls 1

Free to start · No ads · IAP $0.49–$4.99 per item · Jump-scare 3/5 · Offline · Updated 2 June 2026 · 5,000,000+ installs · 4.6 from 129,730 ratings · Teen.

A hidden-object game that is actually frightening, which should not be possible. It is an asylum-and-missing-sister story with real puzzle design, no ads at all, and a 4.6 score across 129,730 ratings. Five million installs on a game with a paywall is a strong quality signal.

The catch is the structure. Later chapters sit behind in-app purchases, and this is part one of three, so it ends on a cliffhanger and the full story is a real outlay.

Best for: tension without reflexes. Skip if: hidden-object pixel hunting sounds like a chore.

16. OXENFREE: Netflix Edition

Free with Netflix · No ads · No IAP · Jump-scare 1/5 · Netflix login needed · Updated 2 October 2025 · 1,000,000+ installs · 3.6 from 6,026 ratings · Teen.

Teenagers on an island open a radio channel to something dead. The radio-tuning mechanic is a natural fit for a phone, there are no ads and no in-app purchases, and the writing is far better than the genre average.

The catch is loud and important. This needs an active Netflix subscription and a Netflix sign-in, and access ends the day the subscription does. Netflix has been trimming its games catalogue, so check it is still listed before you plan an evening around it.

Best for: Netflix subscribers who want eerie, not scary. Skip if: you do not pay for Netflix.

Jump-scare and escape-the-house horror

17. Five Nights at Freddy’s

$2.99 · No ads · IAP $0.99–$4.99 per item · Jump-scare 5/5 · Offline · Updated 8 September 2025 · 1,000,000+ installs · 4.7 from 163,189 ratings · Teen.

The game that started mobile horror, and still the right place to begin the series. Clickteam’s rebuild brought the mobile version up to PC-level visuals. Five nights plus Custom Night, fully offline.

Two catches. It is a paid app at $2.99, despite living permanently on “free scary games” lists that are describing an old demo. And the startle is a maximum-volume face in the camera, which makes it genuinely risky at high headphone volume.

Best for: the classic startle, done properly. Skip if: loud sudden noises are a problem for you.

18. Five Nights at Freddy’s 2

$2.99 · No ads · IAP $4.99 per item · Jump-scare 5/5 · Offline · Updated 29 August 2025 · 1,000,000+ installs · 4.6 from 120,888 ratings · Teen.

More animatronics, no doors, and a music box you have to keep winding. It is the harder game and the better one once you know the rules, and it holds a 4.6 across 120,888 ratings.

The catch is that there is nowhere to hide, so failure comes fast and loud. Sister Location, at $2.99 with no in-app purchases at all, is the cleanest listing in the whole family.

Best for: players who finished the first game. Skip if: you found FNAF 1 stressful rather than fun.

FNAF on Android	Package	Price	Updated	Installs
Five Nights at Freddy’s	com.scottgames.fivenightsatfreddys	$2.99	8 Sep 2025	1,000,000+
Five Nights at Freddy’s 2	com.scottgames.fnaf2	$2.99	29 Aug 2025	1,000,000+
FNAF: Sister Location	com.scottgames.sisterlocation	$2.99	18 Aug 2025	500,000+

Those are the three we opened and verified on 26 August 2026. Note the package names are inconsistent across the series, so search by title in the Play app rather than trusting a copied link. Security Breach, Help Wanted, and Into the Pit are not on Android at all.

19. Granny

Free · Ads · IAP $2.99 per item · Jump-scare 4/5 · Offline · Updated 6 June 2026 · 500,000,000+ installs · 4.3 from 4.4 million ratings · Teen.

Half a billion installs. Escape a house in five in-game days while a deaf old woman with a baseball bat listens for every creak you make. It is tiny, it is offline, and it runs on phones nothing else here will open.

Granny is free and it will show you an ad after almost every death, in a game built entirely around dying repeatedly. The visuals were crude in 2017, the scare is one repeated animation, and a bad run wastes twenty minutes.

Best for: a free scare on a cheap phone. Skip if: interstitial ads make you close apps.

DVloper’s Granny line	Package (case matters)	Ads	IAP	Installs
Granny	com.dvloper.granny	Yes	$2.99 per item	500,000,000+
Granny: Chapter Two	com.dvloper.grannychaptertwo	Yes	None	100,000,000+
Granny 3	com.DVloper.Granny3	Yes	None	100,000,000+

The capital letters in com.DVloper.Granny3 are real and the lowercase version does not exist. Granny: Chapter Two adds Grandpa and holds 4.3 from 1,253,709 ratings. Granny 3 was updated on 9 August 2026 and, unusually for a free game, carries no in-app purchases at all.

A separate listing called Granny’s House comes from a different developer and is unrelated to DVloper.

20. Slendrina: The Cellar 2

Free · No ads · No IAP · Jump-scare 4/5 · Offline · Updated 5 May 2026 · 10,000,000+ installs · 4.0 from 108,234 ratings · Teen.

The best pick for genuinely old hardware, and the only free game in this group with no ads and no in-app purchases. Tiny download, fully offline, and it opens on 1–2GB phones that cannot run Ice Scream or Specimen Zero.

The catch is honesty: this is barely a game. Find keys, avoid Slendrina, roughly twenty minutes of content, one repeated lunge at the camera. Recommend it for the hardware, not for the design.

Best for: a 2GB budget phone with no storage. Skip if: you have anything newer.

21. Ice Scream 1: Scary Horror

Free · Ads · IAP $1.69–$169.99 per item · Jump-scare 3/5 · Offline · Updated 21 August 2026 · 100,000,000+ installs · 4.4 from 430,923 ratings · Teen.

An ice cream man freezes children and drives away with them, and you have to get one of them back. Keplerians built the most polished mobile-native horror series on Play here, and this first game is the correct entry point at 100,000,000+ installs.

The catch is the money. Ads plus in-app purchases running to $169.99 per item, and the free run funnels hard toward hint and skip items when a puzzle chain stalls you. Scares are mild — this is aimed at young teens, and adults should not expect terror.

Best for: younger players and a first horror game. Skip if: you want real fright.

The series ends with Ice Scream 8: Final Chapter, which was updated on 12 August 2026 and holds 4.6 from 79,289 ratings across 10,000,000+ installs. It is the best-made game in the series and the worst possible starting point, because the ending only lands if you played the first seven.

22. Evil Nun: Horror at School

Free · Ads · IAP $0.99–$54.99 per item · Jump-scare 3/5 · Offline · Updated 18 November 2025 · 50,000,000+ installs · 4.3 from 622,106 ratings · Teen.

Keplerians’ other pillar, and a smarter stealth loop than any Granny game. Sister Madeline reacts to noise, light, and line of sight rather than just how close you are. Multiple difficulty modes and an actual ending.

The catch is that higher difficulties are tuned to make the coin-purchasable items feel necessary. The mid-game puzzle chain is also opaque enough that most players end up watching a walkthrough, and it runs worse on old hardware than Granny does.

Best for: stealth players who want rules that make sense. Skip if: you are on a 2GB phone.

23. Death Park 2: Horror Clown

Free · Ads · IAP $0.29–$8.99 per item · Jump-scare 5/5 · Offline · Updated 25 June 2026 · 10,000,000+ installs · 4.6 from 296,718 ratings · Teen.

If clowns are your specific fear, this is the game. Euphoria Horror Games gave the sequel a real story mode and both first- and third-person cameras, and it holds a 4.6 across 296,718 ratings. It plays offline in single player.

The catch is volume and repetition. This is almost entirely loud jump scares with very little atmosphere, and the ad frequency between deaths is high. The original Death Park is also live with 10,000,000+ installs if you want the cheaper-looking original.

Best for: coulrophobia, on purpose. Skip if: you want atmosphere over noise.

24. The Baby In Yellow

Free · Ads · IAP $3.49 per item · Jump-scare 2/5 · Offline · Updated 1 July 2026 · 100,000,000+ installs · 4.3 from 677,549 ratings · Teen.

You babysit a baby. The baby is not a baby. Short chapters, escalating supernatural nonsense, and 100,000,000+ installs make it one of the largest horror games on Android full stop.

The catch is that it is funnier than it is frightening, and the whole run across every released chapter is well under two hours. Do not put this near the top of a “scariest” list; put it at the top of a “ten minutes on the bus” list.

Best for: short sessions and nervous players. Skip if: you want to be actually scared.

25. Bad Parenting 1: Mr Red Face

Free · Ads · No IAP · Jump-scare 3/5 · Offline · Updated 22 January 2026 · 500,000+ installs · 3.9 from 4,420 ratings · Teen.

The official mobile port of the RoyalSoftworks horror short that broke out through streamers. It runs 20 to 40 minutes, it is low-poly, and it is built on domestic abuse rather than monsters. Free, offline, and no in-app purchases.

Two warnings. The Play Store is full of imitators, and only com.royalsoftworks.badparentingmobile is the official release. The subject matter is upsetting rather than fun-scary, and the Teen rating undersells it badly.

Best for: a short, serious, free horror story. Skip if: child abuse as a theme is a hard no.

Action horror and shooters

26. Dead Effect 2

Free · Ads · IAP $3.49–$109.99 per item · Jump-scare 3/5 · Offline core · Updated 12 April 2026 · 10,000,000+ installs · 3.9 from 241,871 ratings · Mature 17+.

The closest thing Android has to Dead Space: a corridor crawl through a derelict colony ship with body horror, dismemberment, and a full RPG upgrade tree. It looks better than a free shooter has any right to.

The catch is the economy. Ads plus a weapon and gear store that turns the later missions into a grind if you do not pay, and the horror evaporates once you are well armed. Test it with airplane mode on before you count on it offline; the gear systems lean on a connection.

Best for: sci-fi horror shooter fans. Skip if: grind-or-pay design puts you off.

27. Into the Dead 2: Zombie Killer

Free · Ads · IAP $0.99–$99.99 per item · Jump-scare 3/5 · Offline after first launch · Updated 19 August 2026 · 10,000,000+ installs · 4.5 from 716,513 ratings · Mature 17+.

One of very few genuinely Mature 17+ free horror games on Play. It is a first-person run through zombie-filled fields with a seven-chapter story and a real ending, and PikPok says plainly that it plays without a connection.

The catch is that it becomes an action game fast. After the first hour you are shooting, not fleeing. Ads and in-app purchases run through the whole thing.

Best for: commute-sized horror sessions. Skip if: you want free movement; you only steer. More like it in our best zombie survival games for Android roundup.

28. Endless Nightmare 1: Home

Free · Ads · IAP $0.99–$12.99 per item · Jump-scare 4/5 · Offline · Updated 25 May 2026 · 10,000,000+ installs · 4.4 from 105,189 ratings · Mature 17+.

Free, offline, first-person, Mature 17+, with combat. That combination barely exists on Play, which is why this belongs on any “free scary games for Android” shortlist ahead of the ad-farms that usually fill it.

The catch is presentation and monetisation. Translation and voice work are rough, and the store pressure is aggressive. Several numbered sequels have equally unreadable package IDs, so pin the one you want before installing.

Best for: free horror with actual weapons. Skip if: clumsy English writing breaks the mood for you.

Regional horror: Taiwan, Korea, the Philippines, Indonesia, India

29. Detention

Free to start · Ads · IAP $4.99 per item · Jump-scare 3/5 · Offline · Updated 15 October 2025 · 1,000,000+ installs · 4.1 from 27,523 ratings · Mature 17+.

Red Candle Games set a side-scrolling horror game in a school during Taiwan’s White Terror, and built the monsters out of Taiwanese folk religion instead of slashers. It is the strongest non-Western horror pick on Google Play and almost no English list carries it.

The catch starts with finding it: the Play listing is published under the studio’s Chinese name, 赤燭遊戲, which is why searches miss it. The mobile release is free-to-start with ads and a $4.99 unlock, not the clean premium version PC players know. Skip the in-game documents and the plot will not make sense.

Best for: readers who want horror with real history behind it. Skip if: you will not read collectible notes.

30. Crunchyroll: White Day

Free to install · No ads · IAP $13.99 per item · Jump-scare 4/5 · Offline · Updated 22 October 2025 · 50,000+ installs · 2.4 from 548 ratings · Teen.

White Day: A Labyrinth Named School is the cult Korean survival horror classic — a locked high school, a janitor who hunts you, and no weapons of any kind. It reached Android through Crunchyroll Game Vault and carries no ads. The Play listing shows the app itself as free, with a $13.99 in-app item.

The catch is the biggest on this page. It needs an active Crunchyroll Mega Fan or Ultimate Fan subscription, you cannot buy it outright, and access ends when the subscription lapses. The 2.4 score across 548 ratings mostly reflects people discovering that.

Best for: existing Crunchyroll subscribers. Skip if: you want to own what you install.

31. The Letter — Horror Novel Game

Free to start · No ads · IAP $2.99–$13.99 per item · Jump-scare 3/5 · Offline · Updated 4 July 2026 · 1,000,000+ installs · 4.6 from 13,900 ratings · Mature 17+.

A Filipino-made horror visual novel with seven playable characters, full voice acting, and branching that genuinely changes who survives. It draws on Asian ghost-story rules rather than Western slasher rules, and that alone makes it feel different.

The catch is the format. This is hours of reading with static art and occasional scare stings, chapters are gated behind in-app purchases, and the middle of the story drags.

Best for: visual novel readers. Skip if: you expect to control anything.

32. Kamla — Horror Exorcism Escape

Free · Ads · IAP $0.49 per item · Jump-scare 4/5 · Offline · Updated 22 August 2026 · 10,000,000+ installs · 3.5 from 75,404 ratings · Teen.

Mad Mantra Games built an escape-horror game on Indian possession and exorcism folklore, and it has 10,000,000+ installs while being invisible in every English-language list. It is free, offline, and it was updated on 22 August 2026.

The catch is that the puzzle design borrows heavily from Granny and Evil Nun, and the environments repeat. English voice work and text are rough. Its scares also lean on cultural familiarity, so imagery that unsettles a South Asian player may read as generic to someone else.

Best for: readers who know the folklore. Skip if: you want original puzzle design.

33. Pocong Hunter 3

Free · Ads · IAP $0.49 per item · Jump-scare 3/5 · Offline · Updated 18 June 2026 · 100,000+ installs · No public score yet · Teen.

Indonesian folk horror built around the pocong, the shrouded corpse of Javanese belief, from local studio Polo Games 16. It is a real regional hit and a genuine answer for anyone tired of the FNAF and Granny monoculture.

The catch is scope. Production values are modest, this was made for a domestic audience, and a lot of the menu and story text is in Indonesian. This third entry has 100,000+ installs and no aggregate score on its listing yet.

Best for: horror outside the Western template. Skip if: you need everything in English.

Co-op and online multiplayer horror

34. Eyes Horror & Coop Multiplayer

Free · Ads · IAP $0.99–$5.99 per item · Jump-scare 4/5 · Online for co-op · Updated 18 August 2026 · 100,000,000+ installs · 4.5 from 893,274 ratings · Teen.

The biggest multiplayer horror game on Android by a wide margin: 100,000,000+ installs and 893,274 ratings. Loot a haunted mansion alone or with up to four friends while a ghost hunts you, and see through its eyes whenever it looks your way.

The catch is the co-op design. It is strictly online with no LAN and no offline party mode, and lobbies are region-locked, so friends abroad cannot join you. The ghost AI is also simple enough to exploit once you learn its pathing.

Best for: four friends who want a match right now. Skip if: your group is spread across regions.

35. Horrorfield Multiplayer Horror

Free · Ads · IAP $0.99–$99.99 per item · Jump-scare 3/5 · Online only · Updated 8 April 2026 · 10,000,000+ installs · 4.1 from 715,585 ratings · Teen.

The de facto Dead by Daylight replacement on Android: four survivors with real classes against one killer, in live matchmaking. With 715,585 ratings behind it, lobbies actually fill, which is the only test that matters for an asymmetric game.

The catch is bluntly pay-to-win. Killers, survivors, perks, and upgrade levels all sit behind currency, and a maxed killer against new survivors is not a fair fight. Its package ID, com.skytecgames.survival, gives no hint of the name, so do not guess it.

Best for: 4v1 fans who can tolerate grinding. Skip if: you refuse to play against paid advantages.

36. Identity V

Free · No ads · IAP $0.99–$129.99 per item · Jump-scare 2/5 · Online only · Updated 7 July 2026 · 10,000,000+ installs · 2.7 from 806,728 ratings · Teen.

NetEase’s officially licensed asymmetric horror, with a gothic art style, an ongoing story, and years of live support. It carries no ads and it is the most polished 4v1 horror game on the platform.

Two catches, and the score is one of them: 2.7 from 806,728 ratings is the lowest on this page, and the gacha economy is why. Characters, costumes, and accessories sit behind paid draws, matches need a stable low-latency connection, and after week one nobody is frightened any more.

Best for: competitive players who like the art. Skip if: gacha spending pressure ruins games for you.

37. Specimen Zero — Online Horror

Free · Ads · IAP $0.99–$5.49 per item · Jump-scare 4/5 · Online only · Updated 9 March 2026 · 50,000,000+ installs · 4.1 from 404,217 ratings · Teen.

Fifty million installs and 404,217 ratings make this the most-installed co-op survival horror on Play. Up to four players, first person, an oppressive facility, and no weapons — you hide and you run.

The catch is in the name. Multiplayer needs everyone on the same app version and the same manually chosen region, which is the number one reason friends cannot connect. It also leans so hard on darkness that it is unreadable outdoors; this is a dark room and headphones game.

Best for: the closest thing to Outlast with friends. Skip if: you play in daylight.

38. The Ghost — Multiplayer Horror

Free · Ads · IAP $0.99–$99.99 per item · Jump-scare 4/5 · Online only · Updated 19 August 2026 · 10,000,000+ installs · 3.9 from 153,284 ratings · Teen.

A Korean-made co-op horror where up to five players try to escape a map and one of them is the ghost. It is huge in Korea and Southeast Asia, it has 10,000,000+ installs, and Western lists ignore it completely.

The catch is match quality. Outside Asian peak hours you will sit in empty lobbies, and there is no meaningful anti-cheat, so public rooms attract griefing and modded clients. Use a private room with friends.

Best for: five friends and a voice call. Skip if: you only play public matchmaking at Western hours.

39. Backrooms Company Multiplayer

Free · Ads · IAP $0.99–$89.99 per item · Jump-scare 4/5 · Online only · Updated 11 July 2026 · 1,000,000+ installs · 4.5 from 23,372 ratings · Teen.

The clearest Lethal Company-alike on Android: scavenging runs through procedurally built Backrooms levels, a quota to hit, proximity voice chat, and entities that hunt noise. It is the newest sub-genre in mobile horror and nobody else covers it.

Two catches, and one is a safety issue. Proximity voice chat means unmoderated public lobbies with strangers, on a game rated Teen. Content also runs dry after a handful of sessions compared with its PC inspiration.

Best for: a private lobby with people you know. Skip if: a child would be playing it in public rooms.

Comparison: all 39 horror games at a glance

Game	Price	Ads	IAP	Jump scare	Offline	Age rating	Updated
Alien: Isolation	Free, $14.99 unlock	No	Yes	4/5	Yes	Mature 17+	22 Apr 2026
Little Nightmares	$8.49	No	Yes	2/5	Yes	Teen	25 Feb 2026
DREDGE	$24.99	No	Yes	2/5	Yes	Everyone 10+	7 Apr 2026
Carrion	Free	No	No	1/5	Yes	Mature 17+	10 Aug 2026
LIMBO	$0.40	No	No	3/5	Yes	Teen	13 Aug 2026
Bendy and the Ink Machine	$4.99	No	No	4/5	Yes	Teen	26 Nov 2025
Bendy and the Dark Revival	$4.99	No	No	4/5	Yes	Teen	4 Feb 2026
INMOST	Free, paid unlock	No	Yes	2/5	Yes	Teen	20 May 2026
Fran Bow	$9.49	No	No	2/5	Yes	Mature 17+	22 Apr 2026
PARANORMASIGHT	$18.99	No	No	3/5	Yes	Mature 17+	13 Apr 2026
SIMULACRA	$4.99	No	No	3/5	Yes	Mature 17+	14 Jun 2024
Cube Escape Collection	Free, $2.99 unlock	Yes	Yes	2/5	Yes	Teen	7 Oct 2025
The Past Within	$2.99	No	No	1/5	Partner needed	Teen	18 Oct 2025
Forgotten Hill Mementoes	Free	Yes	Yes	2/5	Yes	Teen	7 May 2026
True Fear: Forsaken Souls 1	Free, paid chapters	No	Yes	3/5	Yes	Teen	2 Jun 2026
OXENFREE: Netflix Edition	Netflix	No	No	1/5	Login needed	Teen	2 Oct 2025
Five Nights at Freddy’s	$2.99	No	Yes	5/5	Yes	Teen	8 Sep 2025
Five Nights at Freddy’s 2	$2.99	No	Yes	5/5	Yes	Teen	29 Aug 2025
Granny	Free	Yes	Yes	4/5	Yes	Teen	6 Jun 2026
Slendrina: The Cellar 2	Free	No	No	4/5	Yes	Teen	5 May 2026
Ice Scream 1	Free	Yes	Yes	3/5	Yes	Teen	21 Aug 2026
Evil Nun	Free	Yes	Yes	3/5	Yes	Teen	18 Nov 2025
Death Park 2	Free	Yes	Yes	5/5	Yes	Teen	25 Jun 2026
The Baby In Yellow	Free	Yes	Yes	2/5	Yes	Teen	1 Jul 2026
Bad Parenting 1	Free	Yes	No	3/5	Yes	Teen	22 Jan 2026
Dead Effect 2	Free	Yes	Yes	3/5	Core only	Mature 17+	12 Apr 2026
Into the Dead 2	Free	Yes	Yes	3/5	Yes	Mature 17+	19 Aug 2026
Endless Nightmare 1	Free	Yes	Yes	4/5	Yes	Mature 17+	25 May 2026
Detention	Free, $4.99 unlock	Yes	Yes	3/5	Yes	Mature 17+	15 Oct 2025
Crunchyroll: White Day	Free, sub needed	No	Yes	4/5	Yes	Teen	22 Oct 2025
The Letter	Free, paid chapters	No	Yes	3/5	Yes	Mature 17+	4 Jul 2026
Kamla	Free	Yes	Yes	4/5	Yes	Teen	22 Aug 2026
Pocong Hunter 3	Free	Yes	Yes	3/5	Yes	Teen	18 Jun 2026
Eyes Horror & Coop	Free	Yes	Yes	4/5	Solo only	Teen	18 Aug 2026
Horrorfield	Free	Yes	Yes	3/5	No	Teen	8 Apr 2026
Identity V	Free	No	Yes	2/5	No	Teen	7 Jul 2026
Specimen Zero	Free	Yes	Yes	4/5	No	Teen	9 Mar 2026
The Ghost	Free	Yes	Yes	4/5	No	Teen	19 Aug 2026
Backrooms Company	Free	Yes	Yes	4/5	No	Teen	11 Jul 2026

All prices, flags, dates, and scores come from the US Google Play listings read on 26 August 2026. Prices in this genre swing a lot — LIMBO at $0.40 will not stay there — so check the listing before you pay.

Horror games that work with no internet at all

These play with the network off, based on the developer’s own listing text and store tags: Alien: Isolation, Little Nightmares, DREDGE, Carrion, LIMBO, Bendy and the Ink Machine, Bendy and the Dark Revival, INMOST, Fran Bow, PARANORMASIGHT, SIMULACRA, Cube Escape Collection, Forgotten Hill Mementoes, True Fear 1, Five Nights at Freddy’s 1 and 2, Granny, Slendrina: The Cellar 2, Ice Scream 1, Evil Nun, Death Park 2, The Baby In Yellow, Bad Parenting 1, Into the Dead 2, Endless Nightmare 1, Detention, Crunchyroll: White Day, The Letter, Kamla, and Pocong Hunter 3.

The cleanest four for a flight are LIMBO, Bendy and the Ink Machine, Fran Bow, and Slendrina: The Cellar 2. All four are paid or free with zero ads, so nothing stalls waiting on an ad server.

Six games are barred from this list because they need a server: Eyes co-op mode, Horrorfield, Identity V, Specimen Zero, The Ghost, and Backrooms Company. Dead Effect 2 sits in the middle; its gear systems lean on a connection, so test it in airplane mode before a trip. For non-horror options on the same flight, see our best offline games for Android list.

Free horror games that are actually scary

“Free” usually means “ads between every death” in this genre, so here is the honest ranking.

• Free, no ads, no in-app purchases: Carrion (1,000,000+ installs), Slendrina: The Cellar 2 (10,000,000+ installs), and OXENFREE: Netflix Edition (1,000,000+ installs, but it needs a Netflix sign-in). That is the whole clean list.
• Free, ads, no in-app purchases: Granny 3, Granny: Chapter Two, and Bad Parenting 1: Mr Red Face. You watch ads, but nothing is sold to you.
• Free and genuinely frightening, with ads: Endless Nightmare 1: Home (Mature 17+), Kamla, Death Park 2, Granny, and Evil Nun.
• Free to start, one paid unlock: Alien: Isolation, INMOST, Detention, The Letter, and True Fear 1. These give you a real slice before asking for money.
• Free but online: Eyes, Specimen Zero, The Ghost, Horrorfield, Identity V, Backrooms Company.

If you want a free scare tonight on any phone, install Granny. If you want a free scare with no ads at all, install Slendrina: The Cellar 2. If you play horror with friends in Roblox instead, our guide to hosting a Roblox private server shows how to lock a room to people you know.

Co-op and multiplayer horror after Dead by Daylight Mobile

Dead by Daylight Mobile is gone. NetEase pulled it from app stores on 16 January 2025 and shut the servers down on 20 March 2025. Every list still recommending it is stale, and no package ID brings it back.

Here is what actually replaced it, ranked by review volume, because review volume is the best public proxy for whether you will find a match tonight.

Game	Ratings	Installs	Format	The real problem
Eyes Horror & Coop	893,274	100,000,000+	Up to 4, co-op	Region-locked lobbies
Identity V	806,728	10,000,000+	4v1 asymmetric	Gacha economy, 2.7 score
Horrorfield	715,585	10,000,000+	4v1 asymmetric	Pay-to-win upgrades
Specimen Zero	404,217	50,000,000+	Up to 4, co-op	Same version and region needed
The Ghost	153,284	10,000,000+	Up to 5, one ghost	Empty lobbies outside Asian hours
Backrooms Company	23,372	1,000,000+	Co-op scavenging	Unmoderated proximity voice chat
The Past Within	48,704	100,000+	Exactly 2, cross-play	Both must buy it

One honest warning applies to all six online games: they are one shutdown notice away from being useless. Dead by Daylight Mobile had millions of players and it still died.

The Past Within is the exception and the pick we would actually make. It is $2.99, it has no ads, no in-app purchases, and no servers to switch off, and at 4.8 from 48,704 ratings it is the best-reviewed horror game on this entire page. A controller helps in several of the others — see Android games with gamepad support.

Regional indie horror worth crossing a language barrier for

Play’s biggest horror games are not all American, and the English-language lists have a blind spot the size of Asia. All five below are live and verified on 26 August 2026.

• Taiwan — Detention. Folk religion and 1960s political terror. Listed under 赤燭遊戲, which is why search misses it. 1,000,000+ installs.
• Korea — Crunchyroll: White Day and The Ghost. One is a cult single-player classic behind a subscription, the other is a 10,000,000+ install co-op game.
• Philippines — The Letter. Yangyang Mobile’s voice-acted horror novel, 1,000,000+ installs, 4.6 from 13,900 ratings.
• Indonesia — Pocong Hunter 3. Javanese pocong folklore from Polo Games 16. Expect Indonesian text.
• India — Kamla. Exorcism folk horror with 10,000,000+ installs and an update on 22 August 2026, and it appears in no English list we found.

Start with Detention if you only try one. It is the best-made game of the five by a distance.

Parental controls: the real risk is voice chat, not gore

If you are checking this page for a child, the age rating is the wrong thing to look at first. Six games here put a child in a live audio or text channel with strangers, and every one of them is rated Teen.

• Backrooms Company Multiplayer — proximity voice chat with whoever is in the lobby. The highest-risk pick on this page.
• The Ghost — public rooms, no meaningful anti-cheat, and chat with strangers.
• Specimen Zero — public co-op lobbies with chat.
• Eyes Horror & Coop — public multiplayer lobbies.
• Horrorfield and Identity V — live matchmaking with in-game communication.

The fix is not to ban horror. It is to use Google Play parental controls to set an age limit for downloads, require approval for every purchase, and then hand over offline single-player games instead.

The safest offline picks for a younger player are Ice Scream 1, The Baby In Yellow, and Granny: Chapter Two. Ignore the Teen badge on Bad Parenting 1, DREDGE, and anything Mature 17+ — those need an adult’s judgement, not a rating.

One more setting that matters: headphones. Five Nights at Freddy’s 1 and 2 and Death Park 2 are built on maximum-volume scares, so turn the volume down before the first night, not after.

Not on Android in 2026: stop searching for these

Checked on 26 August 2026. None of these has a live Google Play release, so any page telling you otherwise is guessing or padding an iPhone list.

• Outlast and Outlast 2 — never released on Android. A listing called “Outlast App” from an unrelated developer will catch you in search. For the same no-combat, run-and-hide loop, install Specimen Zero or Endless Nightmare 1.
• Resident Evil 2, 4, 7 and Village — Capcom’s mobile ports are Apple-silicon only. No Android version exists and none has been announced. The only official Resident Evil game on Play is Resident Evil Survival Unit, a base-building strategy game, not survival horror.
• Dead by Daylight Mobile — servers shut down on 20 March 2025. Use Horrorfield or Identity V.
• FNAF: Security Breach, Help Wanted, and Into the Pit — not on Android. FNaF 1, 2 and Sister Location are, and we linked them above.
• INSIDE — Playdead’s follow-up to LIMBO is iOS-only. Only LIMBO is on Play.
• Poppy Playtime Chapter 1 — we could not verify a live Play listing on 26 August 2026, so we are not linking one.
• DISTRAINT 2 — delisted. DISTRAINT: Deluxe Edition is still live at $4.99, but with 100+ installs and no update date on the listing it is too thin for us to headline.
• The Coma: Cutting Class — delisted. It is the obvious Korean horror pick and it is gone; White Day replaces it.
• Pamali and DreadOut — the two Indonesian horror games everyone names are not on Play. Pocong Hunter 3 is the installable answer.
• The Mortuary Assistant, Buckshot Roulette, and Amanda the Adventurer — streamer-famous and not on Android. Searching those names on Play returns clones, which is reason enough to be careful.
• Dark Deception — the main game is not on Android. Only a spin-off exists.

A general rule for this genre: check the developer name against the one listed here before you install. Horror is the worst category on Play for copycats, and any horror game asking for contacts, SMS, or accessibility permissions should be uninstalled immediately.

Sidebar: Silent Hill on Android through PPSSPP

The Silent Hill games never came to Android, but two of them run well through PPSSPP, the PSP emulator. Silent Hill: Origins and Silent Hill: Shattered Memories are both playable on a modern phone, and the PSP version of Corpse Party runs too.

Two documented quirks are worth knowing before you start. Origins needs a font replacement to make the inventory text readable, and the Timer Hack setting is what keeps FMV subtitles in sync. The official PPSSPP FAQ covers both.

One legal line, plainly: PPSSPP is free and legal, and game files are not. Only use discs and downloads you own. If emulation is new to you, our guide to free Sega emulators for Android covers the same setup steps on easier hardware.

How to pick a horror game for your Android phone

1. Decide how scared you want to be. Pick a startle tier from the 1-to-5 scale first. Tier 1 and 2 for dread, tier 4 and 5 for chases and screams.
2. Match it to your phone. On 1–2GB RAM take Slendrina: The Cellar 2, Granny, or LIMBO. Only buy Alien: Isolation or Bendy and the Dark Revival on a flagship.
3. Check the money bucket. Open the Play listing and read the “Contains ads” and “In-app purchases” lines before you install, not after.
4. Confirm the developer name. Match it against the name on this page. Wrong developer means a clone, especially for Granny, Bad Parenting, and anything Backrooms.
5. Test offline before you need it. Install on Wi-Fi, open once, then turn on airplane mode and play a level. If it stalls, it was never an offline game.
6. Set the volume before night one. Turn headphone volume down for FNAF 1, FNAF 2, and Death Park 2, and turn the lights off for Specimen Zero.

Bottom line

Install Alien: Isolation first if you own a flagship — two free missions cost you nothing and tell you whether the $14.99 unlock is worth it. Buy Bendy and the Ink Machine at $4.99 if you want one clean purchase with no ads and no in-app purchases anywhere in it.

Install Granny for a free scare on any phone, and Slendrina: The Cellar 2 if you want free with no ads at all. Buy The Past Within at $2.99 for co-op that does not depend on somebody else’s servers staying online.

Skip Horrorfield and Identity V if paid advantages ruin games for you, and stop searching for Outlast, the Resident Evil remakes, and Dead by Daylight Mobile — none of them are on Android. Do one thing next: open the jump-scare scale, pick your tier, and install the one game from it that matches your phone.

Related reading

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• Best zombie survival games for Android
• Android games with gamepad support
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