Bitcoin is surging lately, with the price of the leading cryptocurrency topping $52,000 this week for the first time since 2021. It’s inching closer to its all-time high just above $69,000, with momentum growing ahead of the halving.
And if you’re keen on stacking satoshis however you can, 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.
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 during December.
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 2023 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.
Edited by Stephen Graves
Editor’s note: This story was originally published on November 10, 2023 and was last updated with new content on February 16, 2024.
