Bitcoin is on the rise again, up 11% over the past week and flirting with $69,000 for the first time in nearly three months. "Uptober" is finally here, it appears, with this time of year being historically strong for Bitcoin gains.
If you’re keen on stacking satoshis however you can, then here’s one way that won’t cost you anything but time: You can earn Bitcoin by playing a bunch of free games. Decrypt’s GG has been covering the rising trend of free-to-play mobile games and apps that offer up small bounties of Bitcoin for playing levels and seeing ads all the while.
While the amounts given are historically tiny, in our experience, the rising price of Bitcoin means that they may be… well, less tiny. And if your goal is amassing Bitcoin in any way that you can, these are certainly among the most enjoyable ways to earn a bit of free BTC. Here’s a look at some of the games you can play, with links to our coverage on each.
Mine fake Bitcoin, earn real BTC
Here's a fun riff on the concept of crypto mining: Bitcoin Miner for iOS and Android tasks you with building an elaborate mining operation across all sorts of cryptocurrencies, including Dogecoin and those that don't even have mining capabilities in real life, like Solana. And the reward? Real Bitcoin, in the form of satoshis that you can stack up while playing.
This idle game is simple and colorful, with an appealing pixel aesthetic and a fun sense of humor. It's a game you can play for a couple minutes here and there, but you'll also keep earning in-game coins and potential rewards all the while.
Granted, Bitcoin Miner does turn repetitive after a while and the full-screen video ads are obnoxious, yet this is one of the rare play-to-earn games that we keep coming back to time and again. And with a new mid-week limited-time event added in addition to the usual weekend one, it is implementing more variety over time.
Mining asteroids for Bitcoin
Here's an amusing iOS and Android game that you can pop into for a few minutes at a time to stack sats. SpaceY is an idle asteroid-mining game for phones and tablets, and it's decidedly straightforward in approach: You tap asteroids to scan them, tap again to mine them, upgrade your ship and tech over time, and then repeat as you hop across the galaxy.
What's refreshing about SpaceY is that it doesn't force you to watch obtrusive, full-screen video ads. Instead, it rewards you for watching them in the form of free bonuses or resource boosters. It actually makes you want to watch them to get ahead faster, and all the while you'll earn satoshis that you can cash out to a ZBD wallet.
Bitcoin Sudoku
If you dig sudoku and want to earn a little bit of crypto while playing, then Bling Financial's Bitcoin Sudoku will do the trick. It's a solid mobile recreation of the number plotting puzzler, and because each puzzle takes longer than in many of the other Bitcoin-infused games on this list, there are fewer annoying ads that pop up along the way.
Splitgate
Popular free-to-play PC shooter Splitgate is the latest "Web2" game to get the Bitcoin treatment, as payments startup ZBD partnered with game studio 1047 Games to integrate Bitcoin's Lightning Network with the game. That means that players will be able to earn Bitcoin when playing in certain competitions or on particular servers.
For starters, the companies launched the Splitgate Winter Invitational, an online team competition that rewarded 0.5 BTC last December. Splitgate 2 has been announced for release in 2025, though there's no immediate sign that the game will support Bitcoin at all. Decrypt's GG reached out to 1047 Games to confirm, but did not receive a response.
Bitcoin solitaire games
There are three iOS and Android solitaire games that let you stack sats as you stack digital cards. Club Bitcoin: Solitaire, Bitcoin Solitaire, and Solitaire - Card Game all basically do some very of the same thing, but vary in presentation, tolerability of ads, and amount of Bitcoin you might actually earn. Click here to read a comparison of the three mobile games and find links to download each.
Bitcoin bubble shooters
There are plenty of bubble-matching puzzle games like Puzzle Bobble/Bust-a-Move on iOS and Android, but Bitcoin Pop and Bitcoin Bay are unique in that they let you earn Bitcoin while you play. Which game offers the best balance of fun and earning funds? Read our head-to-head review to see which bubble popper we liked best.
Bitcoin puzzle games
We also reviewed a pair of mobile puzzle games that both pack in Bitcoin earnings: Sweet Bitcoin and Ethereum Blast. Sweet Bitcoin is a pretty straightforward Candy Crush Saga clone, but among mobile puzzlers in this category, it’s solidly entertaining. And despite the name, the block-clearing puzzle game Ethereum Blast actually does give you the option to cash out your rewards in Bitcoin.
Another fun mobile puzzle game that pays out Bitcoin rewards is Word Breeze, which serves up a familiar premise—part anagram solver, part crossword filler—and doles out points that you can exchange for satoshis. It's hardly mind-blowing and the ads are a bit overwhelming, but it's one of the most fun play-to-earn Bitcoin games we've played to date.
Bitcoin mobile games
Thanks to a collaboration between ZBD and advertising platform Adjoe, you can earn Bitcoin by playing more than 100 different Android games—including hits like Match Masters and Dragon City. You’ll have to play them through the ZBD Android app to earn satoshis as you watch ads between games, however.
Bitcoin walking app
sMiles is a mobile app that lets you earn Bitcoin for being active, and its Bitcoinverse feature is a location-based game that rewards you with BTC for walking to various preset destinations on the map. Powered by Bitcoin’s Lightning Network, sMiles aims to motivate users to get out and explore via BTC incentives.
And Minecraft?!
For much of 2023, the player-run Satlantis server in the PC version of Microsoft’s smash building game Minecraft rewarded players with Bitcoin. But after Microsoft and developer Mojang got word of the crypto-powered feature, they sent a cease-and-desist letter to the server operators, who removed the functionality.
Watch the video below to get a sense of how the feature worked before it was shut down. The Satlantis creators say they’re planning to launch another Bitcoin-earning game in the spirit of the earlier Minecraft experience, but on a platform that isn’t strict about blockchain features.
Need more?
While we've played and covered numerous games that let you earn Bitcoin, there are even more out there that might be worth checking out. For example, Bling Financial has games like Bitcoin Food Fight and Bitcoin Blocks.
You can find iOS and Android links on Bling's website. ZBD is also continuously adding new games to its Bitcoin rewards app too. Stay tuned as we'll continue to cover Bitcoin play-to-earn games as they emerge.
Edited by Stephen Graves
Editor's note: This story was originally published on November 10, 2023 and was last updated with new content on October 18, 2024.