iPad games for kids, rated on whether they build the brain or just hook it
Nine games kids end up playing whether you picked them or not. Rated on what they practice, and on how they make their money.
By Lionel Mora · · 5 min read
Based on our Instagram reviews: the iPad games ranking (137k views).
The short answer
Of the nine popular iPad games I rated, Monument Valley is the one to get: no ads, no lives, no in-game purchases, and real spatial puzzles. Pokemon GO is a good option for older kids because it gets them walking. Candy Crush, Flappy Bird, Talking Tom and Jetpack Joyride run on addiction, ads or slot machine rewards, and I would delete them. Most games kids find on their own are built to be hard to put down. Teaching anything comes a distant second.
The iPad games kids end up playing are rarely the ones a parent would pick. They come from friends, from ads inside other games, and from the App Store charts, which reward whatever keeps people tapping.
I rated nine of the most popular ones on what they do to a kid's brain. The video passed 137,000 views. Here is the same list in writing, with my reasoning.
How we rate iPad games
Most phone and tablet games are free. So they make their money from your kid's attention, or from your credit card. Researchers at Michigan Medicine found that manipulative design tricks are common in apps played by young children5. I start with what your kid practices in the game. Then I look hard at how it makes money, and these are the things I look for:
- Lives or energy that run out unless you wait or pay.
- Timers, with a button to skip them for money.
- Random rewards: spins, chests, prize wheels.
- Ads between rounds, or ads dressed up as rewards.
- No ending, so there is never a natural moment to stop.
S tier
Monument Valley S tier
No ads. No lives. Nothing to buy inside the game. Your kid has to rotate impossible buildings to make a path for a tiny princess, and that takes real thinking. There's a story, the colors are beautiful, and every level ends. A great game.
One practical thing: the series moved around in 2025. Netflix pulled all three games from its catalogue in July 2025, and Monument Valley 3 came back to the App Store in December 2025 as a standalone paid game with no ads or microtransactions4. You pay once and that's it.
B tier
Pokemon GO B tier
Kids have to physically walk somewhere to catch Pokemon, and they end up memorizing hundreds of them and what each one can do. A study of 32,000 people wearing activity trackers found that Pokemon GO players got noticeably more active in their first month of playing2. Those were adults, and the effect faded after about a month. Still, if your kid is old enough for it to be safe, and you go with them, it's an interesting option.
C tier
Angry Birds C tier
Kids build a feel for angles, force and basic physics. Nothing in the game explains any of it to them. But it's in there. If you can, pick a version without the energy and purchase mechanics.
Geometry Dash C tier
To beat a level, kids have to memorize every beat of it, timed to the music. Good for persistence and memory. Not much beyond that, and it can get very frustrating.
D tier
Hay Day D tier
Everything on the farm takes real time to grow. I like that part: kids have to plan, and they have to wait. The problem is the button next to every wait. It skips the wait for diamonds, and diamonds cost money. So the lesson flips from "patience pays" to "paying beats waiting".
F tier: delete these
Candy Crush F tier
Engineered for addiction, and it keeps trying to sell you stuff. Lives run out and refill slowly unless you pay. Don't put it on your kid's iPad.
Flappy Bird F tier
The man who made it took it down himself in 2014. He said it had become "an addictive product"1. I think that says it all. Copies and remakes are still all over the App Store.
Talking Tom F tier
A cat repeats what your kid says, and your kid pokes it. Between the pokes, ads. CARU, the advertising industry's own watchdog for children's advertising, has twice asked the maker of Talking Tom to change how its apps show ads to kids3. When the ad industry asks you to calm down with the ads, that tells you something.
Jetpack Joyride F tier
The same run-and-die loop as plenty of other games, with one extra: at the end of every run, your kid spins a slot machine to win a prize. Super addictive. Not good.
A 60-second check for any app on your kid's iPad
- Open the App Store page and scroll down to In-App Purchases. A long list means a lot of pressure on your kid.
- Play the first five minutes yourself. Count the ads and the offers.
- Look for lives, energy or timers. Then look for the button that skips them.
- Ask your kid what they're trying to do in the game. A goal is good. "Get more coins" is a loop.
- Turn on Screen Time, set purchases to "Don't Allow", and make new downloads need your approval.
Want a score for an app that isn't here? The Marble Index rates kids' apps, games and shows out of 100, for free.
Questions parents ask
Is Candy Crush OK for kids?
I would skip it. Lives run out and refill slowly unless you pay, and there is an offer on screen most of the time. Kids practice a bit of pattern matching. Mostly they practice tapping for one more go.
What are the best iPad games for kids with no ads?
Look for paid games with no in-app purchases. From our list, that's Monument Valley: no ads, no lives, nothing to buy inside the game. Apple Arcade is the other route. Every game in the subscription comes without ads or in-app purchases.
Is Pokemon GO good for kids?
For kids old enough to walk around safely with a parent, yes. The game rewards walking to real places, and a large study of Pokemon GO players found their physical activity rose noticeably in the first month. Kids also memorize a lot about hundreds of Pokemon. Play it together, and set any in-game purchase to need your approval.
How do I know if an app is designed to be addictive?
Check for five things: lives or energy that run out, timers you can skip with money, rewards that come from spinning or opening something random, ads between every round, and no natural ending. One of these is common. Three or more means the game was designed to keep your kid playing for as long as possible.
What can my child play on the iPad instead?
Games where your kid makes something or solves something, where each session has a clear end, and where there is no store inside. Marble is one option, and we make it: an interactive learning world for kids aged 6 to 12 with quests, drawing and characters, mapped to school curriculum frameworks. No ads, and no strangers to chat with.
Sources
- ABC News: Flappy Bird creator pulled game because it was 'an addictive product' (February 2014)
- Althoff, White and Horvitz (2016), Influence of Pokemon Go on physical activity, Journal of Medical Internet Research
- CARU (BBB National Programs): review of Outfit7's Talking Tom Cat 2 app
- Monument Valley 3: release history, including its return as a standalone paid game (Wikipedia)
- Michigan Medicine: Design tricks commonly used to monetize young children's app use
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