In This Article
Pokemon GO is nine years old and still hits its weekly active peak on Community Day weekends, which has kept the AR-walking genre alive. A handful of competitors finally found their audience between 2023 and 2025, while the rougher franchises that 2022 lists pushed have been shut down or quietly de-listed.
Below is the current short list of AR games we genuinely recommend, all of them active, all of them designed around walking and exploration rather than spoofing or sitting on the couch.
TL;DR
The pick: Pikmin Bloom is the pick if you want a gentle walking game with low friction and zero competitive pressure.
Runner-up: Monster Hunter Now if you want PvE combat depth with a Pokemon GO-style world map.
Skip if: Skip any AR game that markets “auto-walk” or GPS spoofing; the developers actively ban for it and Niantic-style services lock the account on first detection.
What the genre looks like
Niantic still leads with Pokemon GO and Pikmin Bloom, but the genre is broader than it was in 2022. Capcom and Niantic co-publish Monster Hunter Now. Wizards Unite was shut down years ago and is not coming back. The Walking Dead: Our World has also been retired.
The new arrivals lean towards calmer game loops with shorter sessions, because the user base has aged into a “walk to work and tap a few times” rhythm rather than a destination-grind one.
Picks
Pikmin Bloom is the lowest-friction pick. You walk, your Pikmin grow flowers along the route, and there is no PvP. It is the rare mobile game most readers can put their kid’s name on without flinching.
Monster Hunter Now adds real-time combat to the walking loop. Boss hunts are short, gear progression is meaningful, and the game runs cleanly on a Pixel 8a or a Galaxy S24. Peridot is Niantic’s pet-simulator entry with genuine AR rendering on flat surfaces, and it has found a small but dedicated audience.
The honest catch with AR walking games
Battery cost is real. A 90-minute Pokemon GO session can chew 25 percent of a Pixel 8a battery, more if you have AR+ on. Carrying a small power bank is normal in this genre.
GPS accuracy still varies by terrain. Dense urban canyons and indoor malls give the games trouble, and there is nothing the developer can do about that.
A note on the ‘play without walking’ pitch
We get asked about GPS-spoofing tools constantly. They violate the Terms of Service of every game in this genre, and Niantic in particular has invested heavily in detection. Accounts caught spoofing in 2024 and 2025 were soft-banned for weeks and hard-banned for repeat offences, with no appeal in most cases.
If walking is medically difficult, Pikmin Bloom in particular is generous about indoor steps and Apple Watch / Wear OS step counts, so a stroll around the house with the phone in your pocket still earns progress.
Which AR game should you actually install?
- Easiest entry: Pikmin Bloom.
- Deepest combat: Monster Hunter Now.
- Best for kids: Pokemon GO with a parental Niantic Kids account.
- Most genuinely AR-rendered: Peridot, which uses 3D plane detection rather than camera overlay.
FAQ
Is Pokemon GO still worth installing?
Yes. The core loop is still strong, Community Days are still well-attended, and the raid lineup has been refreshed throughout 2025.
Do these games need a high-end phone?
Not really. A Pixel 7a, Galaxy A55, or any device released after 2022 with ARCore support handles the picks above comfortably.
What replaces Harry Potter: Wizards Unite?
Nothing officially. The closest spiritual successor is Monster Hunter Now, which uses the same world-map exploration with combat instead of spell-casting.
The verdict
The AR walking genre survived its mid-2020s shake-out and emerged smaller but healthier. Pikmin Bloom is the gentle entry, Monster Hunter Now is the combat-led one, and Pokemon GO still anchors the category. Skip the spoofers, mind the battery, and the genre delivers a reason to leave the house that no other app category replicates.
