The best game like Simpsons Tapped Out is Family Guy: The Quest for Stuff, followed by Disney Magic Kingdoms and SpongeBob Adventures: In A Jam, three free phone games where you rebuild a cartoon town one character and one timer at a time. The 12 others below cover the rest of what kept you checking in on Springfield, from straight city builders and farm sims to base builders with a sense of humor, plus two one-time purchases with no in-app purchases to worry about.
The Simpsons: Tapped Out is gone, which is why you are here. EA pulled it from the app stores on October 31, 2024 and shut its servers for good on January 24, 2025, and EA’s mobile games page no longer lists it. We ranked these 15 games on how closely each one delivers what people loved about it: a town of your own to rebuild, characters you unlock and send off on timed jobs, silly writing, and limited-time events worth coming back for. Reception decides the close calls. We left out fan-run server projects, which EA does not support, and games that have closed too, such as Futurama: Worlds of Tomorrow, which shut down in 2023. Every entry lists its platforms, checked against the App Store, Google Play and Steam on November 8, 2026.
15. Pocket City 2
Platforms: iOS and Android (released April 2023) and PC on Steam (March 2025).
Pocket City 2 is the pick for anyone who loved building Springfield and hated waiting for it. Codebrew Games promises “no microtransactions or long wait times” on its App Store page: you pay once, and everything unlocks through play. You lay out roads, zones and special buildings, then drop your own avatar into the 3D streets to buy a house, host block parties, or trigger a tornado and live through it. It has none of the licensed characters or running jokes that made Tapped Out what it was, which is why it sits at the bottom, but quests, events and neighbors in need are all here, and a friend can join your city in real time. It is also one of the few games on this list you can play on a PC.
14. Tiny Tower
Platforms: iOS and Android (released June 2011).
NimbleBit’s pixel-art classic is the smallest game here, and it hits the same check-in rhythm that made Tapped Out a habit. You build a skyscraper one floor at a time, move in little residents called Bitizens, give them jobs, and collect what they earn. The joy is in the same small details: its App Store page points out that you can dress a Bitizen in a dinosaur costume, and that you can trade Bitizens and tour your friends’ towers. There is no story to speak of, only a building that keeps getting taller. If you would rather skip ads and in-app purchases altogether, NimbleBit also sells Tiny Tower Classic, a paid version of the game as it was in 2016, released in March 2025.
13. My Singing Monsters
Platforms: iOS and Android (released September 2012) and PC on Steam (March 2021).
Collecting was half the fun of Tapped Out, and My Singing Monsters is built entirely on it. Big Blue Bubble’s game asks you to breed oddball creatures, feed them and listen to them sing, with each monster acting as a living instrument, so your island turns into a song that grows as you add to it. Its App Store page counts over 500 monsters and over 35 islands to decorate, along with seasonal events all year round, which fills the gap left by Tapped Out’s Halloween and Christmas updates. You are arranging a choir rather than rebuilding a town, and there is no sitcom writing, but it has kept growing since 2012, and it is free on phones and on Steam.
12. Forge of Empires
Platforms: Web browser (released 2012), iOS (January 2014) and Android.
InnoGames’ long-running city builder swaps Springfield for all of history. You start with a Stone Age settlement and develop it through the ages to modern times and beyond, researching new technologies, producing goods, trading with your neighbors, and taking over provinces on a world map through negotiation or battle. The hook for a Tapped Out fan is watching your town’s whole look change as it advances, and InnoGames offers cross-platform access between its phone and browser versions, so it doubles as an answer to “what can I play on a PC?” It is more of a strategy game than a comedy, and you will spend more time on tech trees than on jokes, so treat this as the choice for players who enjoyed the planning side of Tapped Out.
11. Clash of Clans
Platforms: iOS (released August 2012) and Android.
Supercell’s base builder came out the same year as Tapped Out and shares its bones: a small settlement, buildings on upgrade timers, and a reason to open the app a few times a day. The difference is what you do with it. You customize your village into a stronghold, train mustachioed Barbarians and fire-wielding Wizards, and raid other players for the loot that pays for the next upgrade, with Clan Wars and leagues for the long haul. It has a good sense of humor in its cartoon look, even if there is no script to speak of. Pick it if the part of Tapped Out you missed most was having friends to play alongside, since a Clan gives you that from day one. Its listing notes that real-money items can include random ones.
10. Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp Complete
Platforms: iOS and Android (released December 2024).
If Tapped Out’s shutdown left you wary of phone games that can vanish, this is the one to look at. Nintendo closed the free version of Pocket Camp in November 2024 and replaced it with this one-time purchase, which its App Store page says has no further in-game purchases, does not need a constant connection, and keeps your save on your device. You manage a campsite instead of a town, decorating it with over 10,000 items while chatting with animals who all have their own personalities. Seven years of content comes packed in, with events every month and holidays such as Halloween, Toy Day and Bunny Day, so the holiday collecting Tapped Out did so well lives on here. It costs money up front, and our Animal Crossing guides hub covers the rest of the series if it hooks you.
9. Hay Day
Platforms: iOS (released June 2012) and Android.
Hay Day is the comfort food of this list, and it runs on the same tap, wait and collect loop as Tapped Out, with far less stress. Supercell’s farm has you growing crops, feeding animals, turning harvests into goods at a bakery or sugar mill, and filling truck orders for coins. As its App Store page puts it, “even though it never rains, they never die,” so a missed day costs you nothing. You also trade through a roadside shop and can join a neighborhood of up to 30 players, a warmer version of visiting friends’ Springfields. It has no storyline, so the jokes are limited to its grumpy cartoon animals. If it gets you into farming, our list of the best cozy games of 2026 is a good next stop.
8. The Sims FreePlay
Platforms: iOS and Android (released December 2011).
EA’s other long-running mobile sim is still here, and it has the piece most city builders lack: people to look after. You grow a SimTown with up to 34 Sims, sending them to work, starting families and hobbies, and adding a pet store, a car dealership and a shopping mall as the town expands. Sending a character off on a task and coming back for the reward will feel very familiar to anyone who spent years doing it with Homer and Bart. The humor comes from the small dramas, and its App Store page invites you to act silly with teens, be rude to family members, or say no to a marriage proposal. For the full games on PC and console, our Sims guides hub covers the whole series.
7. Fallout Shelter
Platforms: iOS and Android (released 2015), Xbox One and Xbox Series X|S, PC on Steam (March 2017), and PS4 and Nintendo Switch (June 2018).
Bethesda’s vault manager is the funniest base builder here, with Vault Boy’s cheerful dark humor doing the job Homer did for Tapped Out. You dig a vault under 2,000 feet of bedrock, add rooms, match your Dwellers to the jobs that suit them, and send them out into the Wasteland on quests for loot. Limited-time Seasons add separate vaults with their own rewards, and lunchboxes can hand you Legendary Dwellers such as Lucy MacLean from the TV series. It is free, and it is the only game on this list that also reached consoles. Our guide to how many Fallout games there are explains where it fits, and we covered the Baby Deathclaw companion Bethesda announced for it on Fallout Day.
6. SimCity BuildIt
Platforms: iOS and Android (released December 2014).
Tapped Out’s publisher still runs this one, so it is the natural next stop for anyone who wants another EA city builder on their phone. SimCity BuildIt drops the sitcom and takes the city seriously: you place buildings to keep taxes flowing, supply power and police, deal with traffic and pollution, and watch the skyline climb. Your town can take in Tokyo-, London- or Paris-style neighborhoods and landmarks such as the Eiffel Tower and the Statue of Liberty, so there is plenty of the decorating that ate up so many hours in Springfield. You can also trade, chat and compete with other mayors in clubs. It ranks this high for its scale, and only the lack of characters and jokes keeps it out of the top five. Its listing notes that paid items can be random.
5. Township
Platforms: iOS (released October 2013) and Android.
Take away the license and Township is the closest thing to Tapped Out’s actual day-to-day. Playrix makes you the mayor of a town of houses, factories and community buildings, with crops growing on the farm next door, and every one of those systems feeds the next: harvest, process, deliver, then spend the rewards on the next building. Limited-time events and regatta competitions give you something to chase each week, and a cast of friendly townsfolk supplies the personality. Its match-3 puzzle levels are a break from city planning and help you speed things up, which is a welcome extra when timers run long, and its App Store page says it works offline. It has no famous faces, so it ranks behind the cartoon tie-ins, but its more than 2 million App Store ratings tell you how many people have stuck with it.
4. American Dad! Apocalypse Soon
Platforms: iOS and Android (released October 2019).
If what you really miss is an animated comedy talking to you from your phone, this is it. Aliens have invaded Langley Falls and Stan’s family has been taken hostage, so you turn the Smith house into a base, upgrade its rooms, print money, and build an army of Roger clones to win them back. The App Store page says the story was written with the American Dad! writers, and the jokes (Golden Turds as a resource, raccoon wands as a weapon) show it. It leans further toward RPG battles than Tapped Out ever did, with a PvE campaign and a PvP arena, so you spend more time fighting than decorating, which is the one thing keeping it out of the top three. The App Store rates it 12+, so check that before handing it to a younger kid.
3. SpongeBob Adventures: In A Jam
Platforms: iOS and Android (released September 2023).
The newest of the big cartoon builders copies Tapped Out’s opening move almost beat for beat. Plankton’s latest scheme to steal the Krabby Patty formula backfires and buries the world in jellyfish jam, so you and SpongeBob rebuild Bikini Bottom, then head out to Jellyfish Fields, New Kelp City and Atlantis. Tilting Point’s game mixes the building with crafting Krabby Patties and Jelly Jars, farming crops, and trading items for rewards, and Patrick, Sandy, Mr. Krabs and Squidward are all waiting to be found, along with pets like Gary. Its own all-new storyline gives you the same sense of playing through a long episode of a show you already love. It is gentler than Tapped Out and plays more like an adventure across separate maps, but no game here is friendlier to younger players or families.
2. Disney Magic Kingdoms
Platforms: iOS and Android (released March 2016).
Gameloft’s park builder swaps Springfield for Disneyland-style attractions, and it follows Tapped Out’s rules closer than any game except our top pick. Maleficent has cursed your park, so you restore it by building attractions like Space Mountain and the Haunted Mansion, unlocking characters and sending them off on timed jobs that earn what you need for the next attraction. The scale is the draw: its App Store page counts nearly 500 Disney, Pixar and Star Wars characters, more than 250 attractions, and over 1,500 quests. Monthly and weekly events bring limited-time rewards tied to the films, the exact itch Tapped Out’s holiday updates scratched, and an offline mode lets you carry your park around with you. The writing is sweeter than Springfield’s, but no other game here matches its steady flow of new characters, and it is still getting new events.
1. Family Guy: The Quest for Stuff
Platforms: iOS and Android (released April 2014).
This is the closest thing to Tapped Out that still exists. Homer destroyed Springfield while distracted, and Jam City’s game starts the same way: after another battle with the giant chicken, Peter Griffin has accidentally wiped out Quahog, and it is up to you to rebuild it. From there, the loop will feel like home. You place buildings, unlock the Griffins, Quagmire and the rest of the town, and send them on timed tasks that earn the money for the next building.
The writing is what puts it first. Its App Store page says the jokes come from the writers of Family Guy, and it has the crude, cutaway-heavy tone you would expect from the show, with outfits like Mermaid Peter and decorations like the Petercopter to collect. You also defend Quahog from pirates and evil chickens, and limited-time events such as Bad Luck keep new story and characters coming, just as Tapped Out’s did. It is free, though its listing warns that it includes random item purchases, and it is cruder than Springfield ever was, with a 17+ rating on the App Store. If you want one game that picks up where Tapped Out left off, start here.
Games Like Simpsons Tapped Out by Platform
- PS5: Fallout Shelter is the only game on this list on PlayStation, as a PS4 game that also runs on PS5. Everything else here is on phones.
- Xbox: Fallout Shelter, on Xbox One and Xbox Series X|S. It is the only pick on Xbox.
- Nintendo Switch and Switch 2: Fallout Shelter, a Switch game, is the only pick. Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp Complete comes from Nintendo, but it is a phone game only.
- PC: Fallout Shelter, My Singing Monsters and Pocket City 2 are on Steam, and Forge of Empires runs in a web browser.
- Mobile: all 15 are on iPhone and Android. All are free to download except Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp Complete and Pocket City 2, which you pay for once.
Games Like Simpsons Tapped Out on PC
Few of these games made the jump to PC, so if you want Tapped Out’s mix of city building and a sense of humor on a bigger screen, look at the Steam versions of Fallout Shelter and Pocket City 2 first. Beyond the list, Car Park Capital is a satirical tycoon game about car dependency that earned a rave in our review, and our Car Park Capital guides hub has the rest. For a serious, full-size city builder with no timers at all, Cities: Skylines is the one to get, and our list of the best Cities: Skylines mods shows how far it can stretch.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the closest game to Simpsons Tapped Out? Family Guy: The Quest for Stuff is the closest. It opens with the same destroyed town, then has you rebuild it, unlock characters from the show and send them on timed tasks, with jokes from the show’s writers.
What are the best mobile games like Simpsons Tapped Out? Family Guy: The Quest for Stuff, Disney Magic Kingdoms and SpongeBob Adventures: In A Jam are the best, all free on iPhone and Android. Township is the top pick without a TV license behind it.
Can you still play The Simpsons: Tapped Out? Not officially. EA pulled it from the app stores on October 31, 2024 and shut down its servers on January 24, 2025, so the official game can no longer be downloaded or played.
Are there games like Simpsons Tapped Out on iPhone and Android? Yes, all 15 games on this list are on both iOS and Android. SimCity BuildIt is the one to get if you want to stay with EA, since it published Tapped Out too.
Are there games like Simpsons Tapped Out for PC or on Steam? Yes. Fallout Shelter, My Singing Monsters and Pocket City 2 are on Steam, and Forge of Empires plays in a web browser with no download.
Are there games like Simpsons Tapped Out on Switch? Fallout Shelter is the only game on this list with a Switch version. Its vault building and timed jobs are the nearest match on a Nintendo console.
Are there games like Simpsons Tapped Out with no timers? Pocket City 2 comes closest, since Codebrew Games sells it as a one-time purchase with no microtransactions or long wait times. Tiny Tower Classic also drops the ads and in-app purchases, though it keeps the idle building.