Hay Day

Hay Day showed in 2012 that Supercell didn't rely only on military strategy games, but could package a peaceful farming simulator for the mobile audience just as well. Here the player manages their own farm – planting crops, raising animals, processing raw materials into goods, and selling them to neighbors and on the marketplace. The pace is deliberately slower and less confrontational than in Clash of Clans, with crops and production running on timers, so the game naturally suits short visits between other activities.

Touch controls work intuitively here: planting, harvesting, and trading are handled with simple taps and drags, which made Hay Day an accessible title even for players with no prior experience with mobile games. Monetization mirrors the studio's proven formula – the game is free, but buying diamonds lets you speed up crop growth or building construction, so patience remains a legitimate alternative to spending, especially thanks to regular tasks and chests that flow into the game even without paying.

Hay Day remains to this day one of the most successful farming simulators on mobile and helped the genre find a mass audience beyond the traditional player base, including people who otherwise didn't play video games at all. Its calm, colorful atmosphere was the counterpart to the more action-oriented titles from the same studio and showed that Supercell can successfully target an audience with no interest in strategy or action games at all.

Why play it: Suited to players looking for relaxed, non-confrontational fun for a few minutes a day, rather than those expecting a challenge or fast progress without spending on diamonds.