The best games like Royal Match depend on what keeps you playing Dream Games' hit: renovating a castle between levels, setting off huge combos, or just clearing short levels with clear goals. Most lists online mix all of these together. This page sorts Royal Match's cousins into four families, with a comparison table and a checklist to use before you install anything.
What Royal Match actually gives you
Royal Match, from Turkish studio Dream Games, came out in 2021. It's a match 3 game: you swap two neighboring pieces to line up three or more. Around that simple rule, four ingredients make it work:
- Short levels with goals, a limited number of moves and obstacles to clear.
- Flashy power-ups when you match four or five pieces, which can be combined.
- Visible progress: every level you beat helps renovate King Robert's castle.
- A social side: teams where players help each other.
Each family below keeps one or two of those ingredients and changes the rest. For the bigger picture across every genre, our guide to free puzzle games for mobile sorts them all.
Family 1: match 3 games with a place to renovate
This is the closest family. The loop is the same: match 3 levels earn stars, which you spend to repair and decorate a place. Homescapes (a house) and Gardenscapes (a garden), both from Playrix, are the best-known examples. Royal Kingdom, Dream Games' second game, released in 2024, keeps the royal setting with a castle to build. If the renovation part is what brings you back, start here.
Family 2: tap-to-blast games
In these games you don't swap pieces: you tap a group of same-colored pieces to blast it. Toon Blast, from Peak Games, is a well-known example. Levels move faster, and the thinking is about the order of your blasts rather than your swaps. It's a good pick if what you love most in Royal Match is the big chain reactions.
Family 3: classic level-based match 3
No renovation here: the level map is the whole journey, with levels that have goals, limited moves, special pieces and lives. Many other match 3 games follow this model.
Family 4: merge and sliding puzzles
This family keeps goal-based levels but changes the move itself. Zertyzzle, our crystal puzzle game (so this part comes from the studio that makes it), belongs here. Instead of swapping two pieces, you slide a whole row or column, and the crystal that leaves one side comes back on the other. Three matching crystals in a line merge into a crystal of the next tier (Shard, Gem, Jewel), and three Jewels form a Zertyon that clears its row and column. The obstacles (ice, rocks, locks) feel familiar, but every move shifts a whole line, so you plan further ahead. Our page on match 3 games for adults explains the difference in detail.
What Zertyzzle shares with Royal Match: 120 levels across 12 nebulae, levels with a move limit, teams of up to 20 players working toward a weekly goal, and its own take on renovation, "My planet", where stardust builds and decorates three small planets. Like Royal Match, it uses lives on the level map: 5 at most, a failed level costs one from level 11 on (the first ten are free), and one life comes back every 30 minutes. Friends can send you lives for free. When you'd rather play without counting, the Zertyzzle game modes include a Zen mode with no move limit. To understand merging itself, see our guide to the merge puzzle game.
The four families compared
| Match 3 with renovation | Tap-to-blast | Classic match 3 | Merge and sliding | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Basic move | Swap two pieces | Tap a group | Swap two pieces | Slide a whole line |
| Place to build | Yes, central | Depends on the game | No | Depends (Zertyzzle: My planet) |
| Pace | Medium | Fast | Medium | More thoughtful |
| Examples | Homescapes, Gardenscapes, Royal Kingdom | Toon Blast | Other match 3 games | Zertyzzle, games like 2048 |
| Best for | Renovation fans | Combo lovers | Pure level fans | Players who want more strategy |
Games like Royal Match with no ads, no purchases, for adults: what to check
The most common searches around Royal Match are about ads, in-app purchases and games "for adults". We don't rate other people's games, so here is how to check any game yourself in five minutes before installing.
- Read the store listing: "Contains ads" and "In-app purchases" are shown right under the app name.
- Fail a level on purpose in your first session: the next screen tells you whether there are lives, how long you'd wait and what the game offers to sell you.
- Watch where ads appear: between levels, in the middle of a game, or only when you choose to watch a video for a reward.
- Turn off your connection: many level-based games work offline, some don't.
- For an adult audience, look for a mechanic that makes you think rather than a theme: gameplay, not decoration, keeps a puzzle interesting in the long run. Our guide to match 3 games without lives adds more checks on that point.
For Zertyzzle, the answers are public: the game is free and supported by ads, no ad ever interrupts a level, some are offered in exchange for a reward (your choice), and in-app purchases are optional. The Club Zertyzzle subscription removes the ads you don't choose. Levels work offline; duels, teams and the Weekly Rift need a connection.
Frequently asked questions
What game is most like Royal Match?
Match 3 games with a place to renovate are the closest: Homescapes and Gardenscapes from Playrix, or Royal Kingdom, Dream Games' second game. They keep both the match 3 levels and the decoration-based progress.
Who made Royal Match?
Royal Match was made by Dream Games, a studio based in Istanbul, Turkey. It came out in 2021 on Android and iPhone.
Is there a game like Royal Match without lives?
Lives are common in this genre, Zertyzzle included (5 lives on the map, with one coming back every 30 minutes). To play without waiting, look for modes with no fail state: Zertyzzle's Zen mode, for example, has no goal and no move limit.
Is Zertyzzle free?
Yes. Zertyzzle is free on Android, on Google Play, and the iPhone version is coming soon. It's supported by ads, none of which interrupt a level, and in-app purchases are optional.
Is Zertyzzle a match 3 game?
Not exactly. It keeps lining up three identical pieces, but you slide a whole row or column instead of swapping two pieces, and matched crystals merge instead of disappearing. It's a merge puzzle, close to match 3.