Solitaire taught a generation of PC users to use a mouse. Thirty-five years later, it still gets 35 million players a month. And in 2024, a solo developer with no marketing budget built Balatro, a poker game with roguelite rules (every run starts from scratch and gets harder as you go), and it became the card game of the year.
So the list below has both: the old games people still play every day, and the new ones that changed the rules. Eleven picks, ranked, plus a table at the end to match a game to what you want.
Nobody pays to be on this list, and we earn nothing when you click through to a game. Read how we choose and review games.
1. Microsoft Solitaire Collection
Developer: Microsoft / Arkadium
Released: 1990 (original); Collection launched 2012
Platforms: Windows, iOS, Android, Web
Difficulty: Easy to medium | Price: Free (ads; Microsoft 365 removes them)
Where to play: Website · App Store · Google Play
More people have this card game installed than any other. The Collection has five games in one app: Klondike, Spider, FreeCell, Pyramid and TriPeaks, plus daily challenges, card deck themes and Xbox achievements. Microsoft estimates over 35 million people play it monthly.
Solitaire came free with Windows 3.0 in 1990 so people would practise dragging and clicking with a mouse. Wes Cherry, who wrote the original game, has said so himself. It was inducted into the World Video Game Hall of Fame in 2019.
Screenshot: Microsoft Solitaire Collection, Microsoft and Arkadium.
2. Balatro
Developer: LocalThunk (solo developer)
Released: February 2024
Platforms: PC, PlayStation, Xbox, Nintendo Switch, iOS, Android
Difficulty: Medium to hard | Price: $14.99 PC; $6.99–$9.99 mobile
Where to play: Website · App Store · Google Play
You play poker hands for points. Then Joker cards start changing the rules: one doubles your score for every heart, another adds points each time you play a pair. Each run is a set of rounds with a score target that keeps climbing, and you shape your deck between rounds to hit it.
Balatro sold over 1 million copies in its first week and won several Game of the Year awards, all from one developer. It also got a PEGI 18 rating for gambling images even though no real money is involved, which turned into a small news story of its own.
3. FreeCell
Developer: Microsoft (original by Jim Horne, 1991)
Platforms: Windows (built-in), iOS, Android, Web
Difficulty: Medium | Price: Free
FreeCell has one big difference from Klondike: all 52 cards are dealt face up from the start. Nothing is hidden, so every move is a logic puzzle and not a guess. About 99.999% of FreeCell deals can be won, so a loss is on you.
That is why people keep playing it. A lost game means you missed something, so you want another go. Good players plan 10 to 15 moves ahead, a bit like chess.
Deal 11982 is the famous one. It is said to be one of the very few deals that cannot be won, and early internet forums passed it around as a dare.
Screenshot: FreeCell, Microsoft.
4. Spider Solitaire
Developer: Microsoft (popularized via Windows Me/XP)
Platforms: Windows (built-in), iOS, Android, Web
Difficulty: Medium (1-suit) to very hard (4-suit) | Price: Free
You play with two decks across ten columns and try to build eight full runs from King down to Ace. The number of suits sets how hard it is. With 1 suit most people can win. With 4 suits a run has to be all one suit before you can move it as a group, and that makes it one of the hardest classic solitaire games.
Klondike never had easy, medium and hard settings. Spider did. It came free with Windows XP and became what office workers played at lunch.
Along with Minesweeper, it often gets the blame for IT departments taking games off work computers in the early 2000s.
Screenshot: Spider Solitaire, Microsoft.
5. Solitairica
Developer: Righteous Hammer Games
Released: 2016
Platforms: iOS, Android, PC (Steam)
Difficulty: Medium to hard | Price: $2.99–$4.99 mobile; $9.99 Steam (no ads, no in-app purchases)
Where to play: Website · App Store · Google Play
Klondike with monster fights. Every card you clear hurts the enemy, and the enemy hits back on the turns you leave cards stuck. You build a hero with spells, gear and class powers, and each run is a string of fights that get harder.
It was one of the first solitaire games to mix in another kind of game and sell well. At $3 on mobile, with no ads, it is still a lot of game for the price.
6. Card Thief
Developer: Arnold Rauers / Tinytouchtales
Released: 2017
Platforms: iOS, Android
Difficulty: Hard | Price: $1.99–$2.99 (no ads, no in-app purchases)
Where to play: App Store · Google Play
A sneaking game played only with cards. You move a thief around a 3x3 grid of guard, torch and chest cards and spend stealth points so the guards don't spot you. Everything is a card. There is no score bar and there are no tutorial pop-ups.
The first few runs are hard to follow. Once it clicks, every card choice matters. Arnold Rauers works alone and makes small paid card games with a lot of rules packed in and no ads.
Screenshot: Card Thief, Tinytouchtales.
7. Classic Solitaire (MobilityWare)
Developer: MobilityWare
Released: 2008 (one of the first solitaire apps on the App Store)
Platforms: iOS, Android, Kindle Fire
Difficulty: Easy to medium | Price: Free (ads); $2.99 to remove
Where to play: App Store · Google Play
The go-to Klondike app on phones and one of the most downloaded card game apps ever. It adds daily challenges, Vegas scoring and timed games, but the game itself plays the same as the original.
MobilityWare had one of the very first apps on the App Store in 2008. Their solitaire app has been downloaded hundreds of millions of times.
Screenshot: Classic Solitaire, MobilityWare.
8. UNO! (Digital)
Developer: Mattel163 (Mattel + NetEase joint venture)
Released: 2019 (mobile); Ubisoft console version 2016
Platforms: iOS, Android, PC, Switch, PlayStation, Xbox
Difficulty: Easy to medium | Price: Free mobile (ads + cosmetic purchases); $9.99 console
Where to play: App Store · Google Play
The app version of the Mattel card game. Match the colour or the number, use action cards to hold other players back, and be first to empty your hand. You can play online with up to four people, pick themed decks, and switch on "House Rules" for a different game.
UNO has sold over 150 million paper decks. The "UNO Reverse Card" became one of the best known internet memes of the late 2010s and 2020s, and it turns up in everything from politics posts to office jokes.
Screenshot: UNO!, Mattel163.
9. Hearts & Spades
Developer: AI Factory Ltd, Brainium Studios (various implementations)
Released: Various (2010–2012); Hearts pre-installed on Windows through Windows 7
Platforms: iOS, Android, Web
Difficulty: Medium (Hearts) to medium-hard (Spades) | Price: Free (ads); premium to remove
Trick-taking games, where each player plays one card a round and the highest card wins the "trick". Playing against other people makes them harder than solitaire. In Hearts you try not to take penalty cards, unless you go for all of them and "shoot the moon". In Spades you and a partner bid how many tricks you will win and then have to make it.
Hearts on Windows was the first online game many people played in the 1990s. Spades is a big part of American family get-togethers and has a long history in HBCU dorms.
Screenshot: Hearts & Spades, AI Factory and Brainium Studios.
10. Patience (Browser-Based Classic)
Developer: Various (Solitaire.org, Cardgames.io, 247solitaire.com)
Platforms: Web browser (all devices, no download)
Difficulty: Easy | Price: Free (ad-supported)
Where to play: Website
"Patience", the British English name for solitaire, refers to browser-based Klondike that requires no download, no account, and no setup. Open a URL and play. Sites like Solitaire.org attract tens of millions of monthly visitors.
Nothing to install is why these sites still get so many players next to the apps. Agatha Christie's characters play patience all through her novels.
Screenshot: a browser solitaire game.
11. SolitaireDaily
Developer: Steve (independent solo developer)
Platforms: Web browser (desktop and phone, no download)
Difficulty: Easy to hard, depending on the game | Price: Free (ad-supported)
Where to play: Website
A newer browser site from a single developer, with six games: Klondike (Draw 1 and Draw 3), Spider in 1, 2 and 4 suit, FreeCell, Pyramid and TriPeaks. There is no account and no app. When we opened Klondike the deal was on screen straight away, with score, moves, streak and a timer across the top.
Click a card and it jumps to the best legal spot. You can also drag it. Undo has no limit (Ctrl+Z), and the Hint button (or the H key) points you at a move you can make. The site only lets you make legal moves, so you can't drop a red 7 on a red 8 by mistake.
The part that sets it apart from the sites at #10 is the daily deal. Every day there is a fresh deal for each game, and finishing any one of them keeps your streak going. When we played in September 2026 it was on daily challenge #116, and there is an archive of past days if you miss one. Each game also has its own rules page and strategy guide, which is handy if you have never played Pyramid or TriPeaks.
Screenshot: Klondike on SolitaireDaily.
Quick Comparison
| If you want... | Play... |
|---|---|
| The classic, no frills | Microsoft Solitaire or MobilityWare |
| A roguelite obsession | Balatro or Solitairica |
| Pure logic, no luck | FreeCell |
| A hard difficulty ladder | Spider Solitaire (4-suit) |
| Multiplayer with friends | UNO or Hearts/Spades |
| A stealth game with cards | Card Thief |
| Instant browser play | Patience (Solitaire.org) |
| A daily deal and a streak, in the browser | SolitaireDaily |
Love puzzles that test logic over luck? Try Pairdle, a daily word puzzle where deduction beats vocabulary.
By Tim Nye, Logic Loft Games
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