Cat Games for Kids: 8 Picks, Checked by Rating

For younger children, the safest cat games are the ones rated 4+ with simple loops: Cats in Time (hidden-object puzzles, free), Cats & Soup (calm idle play, free) and Neko Atsume (leave food out, cats visit, free). For an older child who wants an actual game, Kitty Kaboom and The Battle Cats are both rated 9+. Every free game on this page shows ads, so set up parental controls first.

Age ratings only describe a game’s own content. They say nothing about advertising, purchase prompts or how long a child will sit there, so this list gives you all three.

What the age ratings mean #

Apple now uses five tiers: 4+, 9+, 13+, 16+ and 18+. A 9+ rating can come from something as mild as infrequent cartoon violence, infrequent crude humour, or an occasional scary moment. It doesn’t mean a game is unsuitable for an eight-year-old; it means the developer declared content in one of those categories.

Google Play uses regional rating boards instead, so the same game can show a different symbol depending on where you are. The useful part on Play is the pair of labels underneath the title: “Contains ads” and “Offers in-app purchases.” We explain both in what “contains ads” and “in-app purchases” mean.

The picks #

Cats in Time (4+) #

Pine Studio’s puzzle game hides more than 300 cats in detailed scenes across seven time periods. A child looks, taps, and finds. There’s no timer, no failure state and no reading required, which makes it one of the best picks for a five- or six-year-old. Its last update was January 2023, so it’s a finished game rather than a live one, which is often a good thing for kids.

Cats & Soup (4+) #

Cats chopping vegetables and making soup, with numbers gently going up. There’s nothing to lose and nothing scary. The trade-off is the idle-game structure: it rewards coming back, and it does sell currency.

Neko Atsume: Kitty Collector (4+) #

Put out food and toys, close the app, come back to see which cats visited. It’s the calmest game here and the easiest to put down, because the design actively asks you to stop playing and wait.

Cat Game - The Cats Collector! (4+) #

More than 900 cats to collect and decorate around. Busier and more commercial than Neko Atsume, with a bigger shop, but the content itself is harmless.

Duet Cats (4+) #

A rhythm game with two cats and short, repeatable songs. Good for a child who likes music games, and sessions end naturally after each track.

My Talking Tom 2 (4+) #

The best-known virtual pet cat: feed him, wash him, dress him, play mini-games. It’s fine content-wise, but it’s the most aggressively monetized game on this list, so parental controls matter more here than anywhere else.

Kitty Kaboom (9+) #

Kitty Kaboom is our own game, so read this with that in mind. It’s a slingshot physics game: robot vacuums took the cats’ treats, so the cats built a slingshot. You drag back, watch a line of dots, release, and knock robots off towers. The 9+ rating is for infrequent cartoon violence, which in practice means cartoon cats bonking cartoon robot vacuums. There’s no blood, no scares, no chat and no user-generated content.

Two things make it easier to hand to a child than most free games. There are no in-app purchases at all, so there’s no prompt to buy anything, and there’s no account or sign-up, so nothing is collected about your child. What it does have is ads: a banner during play, a full-screen ad after roughly every second level, and optional videos that give extra cats or coins. If a child is old enough to close an ad without tapping through to an app store, it works well.

It also happens to be a decent introduction to how gravity and balance work, since every level is a small structural problem. Our tips and tricks are readable enough for an older child to use.

The Battle Cats (9+) #

A tower-defence game where the army is made of very silly cats. It has real difficulty, so it suits a child who wants a challenge rather than a toy. Rated 9+ and still updated.

How to check any game before your child plays it #

1. Read the age rating and the store labels. On Google Play look for “Contains ads” and “Offers in-app purchases.” On the App Store, scroll to the in-app purchase list, which shows the actual prices.
2. Turn on purchase controls first. On iOS, Ask to Buy sends a request to you when a child tries to buy something. On Android, open the Play Store app, then Settings, Family, Content restrictions, pick the highest rating you’ll allow, and set a PIN.
3. Know the limit of those controls. Google’s help page notes that content restrictions “don’t prevent restricted content as a search result or through a direct link,” so they filter browsing, not everything.
4. Play it yourself for ten minutes. Count the full-screen ads and see what they advertise. Ad networks show different ads to different devices, and this is the only way to know what your child will actually see.
5. Prefer games with no purchases at all. It removes the entire category of problem, and the store page tells you before you install.

If the game is in Apple’s Kids Category, some of this is handled for you: Apple requires a parental gate in front of purchases and links out of the app, and requires that any advertising shown be human-reviewed for age appropriateness. Most cat games aren’t in that category, though, so don’t assume it.

Games to be careful with #

Free cat games with heavy idle economies, daily login streaks and timed events are designed to pull a child back several times a day. That isn’t dangerous content, but it’s a habit you may not want to start. The same goes for any game where a child can spend earned currency and then be offered a way to buy more of it.

For a wider list aimed at adults, see best cat games for phone. For puzzle games that teach some physics along the way, see physics puzzle games for kids.

Frequently asked questions #

What age is Kitty Kaboom for? #

It’s rated 9+ on the App Store for infrequent cartoon violence. There’s no blood, no scary content, no chat and no in-app purchases. Younger children often play it fine with a parent nearby, mainly because of the ads rather than the game.

Are there cat games with no ads for kids? #

Not many free ones. The reliable way to avoid ads is a paid game or an Apple Arcade subscription, since Arcade titles can’t carry ads or in-app purchases at all.

How do I stop my child buying things in a game? #

Use Ask to Buy on iOS or Google Play’s content restrictions and purchase verification on Android, and remove any saved payment method. The most certain option is choosing games with no in-app purchases.

What’s the difference between a 4+ and a 9+ game? #

A 9+ rating means the developer declared content such as infrequent cartoon or fantasy violence, mild crude humour, or occasional scary moments. It’s a content label, not an age recommendation from a teacher or doctor.

Do these games work without the internet? #

Kitty Kaboom’s levels, shop and daily challenge all work offline. Most idle and collection games need a connection for their timers and events. Offline play also means almost no ads load, which some parents prefer on a long trip.