Top 10 best match-3 puzzle games for iPhone and iPad (iOS)

Want a little more meat from your iPhone match-3 puzzler? Love the mechanics but wish there was something a little deeper on top of them? Let us introduce you to Ticket to Earth, a match-3 puzzler with a compelling story, lavish comic book visuals, and deep tactical RPG elements. It's also a (whisper it) premium game that gives you a fully fleshed-out experience from the get-go. There's nothing else quite like Ticket to Earth on the market.

We also have a Ticket to Earth review if you're curious to learn more about this unique match 3 game for iOS.

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The Puzzle Quest series is one of the most beloved in the business. Adding in a bunch of recognisable Marvel characters was never going to do anything but enhance its appeal. For the uninitiated, Puzzle Quest was one of the first games to combine match-3 with RPG elements, making every grid-clearing round into an epic battle. Having the abstract manoeuvres translate into various attack moves was a stroke of genius, as countless copycats have attested to.

Want even more? Then you better read our Marvel Puzzle Quest review! We've listed all the good and bad about the game there.

Aggretsuko is all about cuteness, red pandas, and match threes. In Aggretsuko: The Short Timer Strikes Back you have to play the puzzle stages and match the heads of all the characters (yeah, the character heads are the tiles), and build up your very own company from scratch.

We even have some essential tips for Aggretsuko, so if you're eager to check this match-3 game out, don't forget to read those tips too!

Jewel Blast Dragon is another fantastic match-3 game. You will have to complete many colourful and exciting levels, earn points, and receive valuable rewards. Each new level becomes more complicated, however, if you get stuck, you can use various items that will help you complete the level.

Every day you can receive a free useful gift. Moreover, you can play this game without a Wi-Fi connection, which is pretty comfortable, especially while travelling.

Evergarden takes the basic evolved match-3 premise of Triple Town and ramps everything up to a new level. Its action takes place on a hexagon-based game grid, for one thing, while the 3D art style is a true sight to behold. It practically begs you to prod it and play with it, and it rewards you for your curiosity with a bagful of beautiful surprises.

Evergarden is as beautiful as it is intriguing and challenging. If you're not sure exactly what that means, then you should read our Evergarden review where we give detailed information about all the essentials in the game.

Two Dots is one of the cleanest, purest, most achingly stylish iOS match-3 games on the App Store. It (and its predecessor Dots) pretty much wrote the book on elegant simplicity. But that's not what matters. What matters is that Two Dots has you dragging to match up coloured dots in a series of carefully designed one-hit puzzles, and that those dots make a lovely sound when you touch them.

Read our TwoDots review in case you're curious about how this game plays!

The modern match-3 behemoth that is Candy Crush Saga is remarkable precisely because of how well it nails the classic gameplay loop. This latest iteration doesn't reinvent the wheel, but it does apply a rich 3D lick of paint. We'd complain about its saccharine art style and derivative gameplay, but why complain about a game that's: a) already a massive hit b) free to play and c) really solidly made?

Yeah, we were not exactly super impressed with it, but it is still a nice match 3 - after all, it's Candy Crush. Though you can read more about our entire experience playing Friends Saga, by checking our Candy Crush Friends Saga review.

Have you ever played on a Rubik's Cube? That's basically the ultimate match-3, so it did make sense that they created an officially licensed Rubik'x Cube game. This is a classic, colourful match-3 with goals for what you need to match and how quickly you need to complete the level. Giant Rubik's Cubes also create some sort of village, showing how good you are at the game!

Is Rubik's Match 3 very different from other match-3 games? No, but it's polished and well-made, with new levels for you to explore if you haven't played them before!

Farm Heroes Saga stands out from the rest by collecting beautiful fruit instead of regular coloured balls. You just need to collect three or more identical fruits in a row and score points. To complete the level, you need to fulfil various conditions.

The number of fruits to collect increases over time, but if you collect more than three fruits in a row, then all fruits standing nearby will receive one additional bonus. The bonus is that this fruit will be counted as two or four at once if three bonuses have already been accumulated. And there are also boosters! Elsewhere, there are boosters that you buy before starting the level, and there are those that you use when you try to complete the level.

You don't have to make things more complicated just to take the match-3 genre in interesting new directions. Tiny Bubbles is one of the most inviting games on this list, with its dreamy graphics and tactile bubble-popping mechanic. But the way it plays with this system and the use of colour constantly keeps you on your toes - albeit in a blissed-out state of mind.

We've loved this beautiful and soothing title, and if you're not convinced yet, you should read our Tiny Bubbles review. It might change your opinion completely.

And with that, our list of finest match 3 games for iOS is coming to an end. If you have other suggestions, please leave comments below!