9 Games You Can Play One-Handed, Phone Upright

On the train, waiting in line, lying in bed. Sometimes you want to play something but turning the phone sideways is a hassle — and if you are holding a rail with one hand, it is not really an option at all.

Gemmoa has 43,355 games right now, and a good number of them work fine with the phone held upright. Everything here starts in the browser with no install and no sign-up. These nine are the ones worth keeping on hand.

One finger is enough

No rules to read. You press once and the screen tells you the rest.

Body Drop 3D — Ragdoll physics. Dropping things and watching them break is the whole game, and that simplicity is exactly why it lasts.
Slope Racing 3D — Downhill racing. You only steer left and right, but your palms get sweaty as the speed climbs.
Moto X3M: Spooky Land — Bike stunts. The Halloween edition of the series a lot of people already know.
Basketball Stars — Basketball. One-on-one, short rounds, easy to stop after any match.

Long rounds that cost you nothing to pause

For when you would rather take your time. Nothing here punishes you for putting the phone down mid-game.

Hidden Object: Street of Secrets — Hidden object. The scenes are dense enough that hunting through them is a pleasure on its own.
Hidden Object: Clues and Mysteries — Same idea, but with a story running underneath it.
Mahjong Classic — Mahjong solitaire. The rules are simple enough that a few rounds is all it takes to feel fluent.

Building instead of breaking

If you would rather make something than smash or search for it, these two.

TB World — Room decorating. Placing furniture and picking colours, exactly the way you remember it.
Piece of Cake: Merge & Bake — Merge game. Stack matching pieces to grow them; it keeps your hand moving without asking much of your attention.

Looking for more

Gemmoa sorts its games into 24 categories plus keyword pages, so you can narrow things down without knowing a title in advance.

The hand-picked list lives at Best Games.
To browse by keyword, start at Keywords.

Tap the heart on anything you like and it goes to My Treasures, which makes it easy to find next time.