Best Android emulator to play Android games on PC

There are many genuinely fun games available on Android phones and tablets, and lots of of them could work even as well with a keyboard and mouse as they are doing with a touchscreen. Far too many of them are only on mobile, though, and are not available on PC. Thankfully, you'll still play most of them on your desktop or laptop of choice, because of the magic of emulators.

You probably already know what an emulator is: an application that runs software intended for one platform on another platform. What you would possibly not know is which emulator you ought to accompany for enjoying Android games on your PC. There are tons of them, and you'll waste plenty of time fixing each emulator to seek out the one that works best. Instead, I'll tell you what you would like to understand .

The best Android emulator for games on PC: BlueStacks

BlueStacks is that the best thanks to play Android-based games on your PC. It’s supported the open-source VirtualBox virtualization software, but it does quite simply run Android inside a window on your PC. you'll set keyboard shortcuts to tap buttons on the screen, run multiple games directly , change your location for enjoying GPS-based games (like Pokémon Go, except it's actually blocked in BlueStacks), and download applications from the Google Play Store or BlueStacks’ own app store. you'll even stream to Twitch without installing another application.

Under the hood, BlueStacks runs a replica of Android 7.1. That’s a reasonably old version of the OS, because it was originally released in August 2016, but most games and applications still support it. I didn’t run into any issues playing Bloons Tower Defense 5, Minecraft, or any of my other usual mobile time-wasters.

You can click the Settings button on the bottom-right of BlueStacks to vary a number of the hardware and graphical settings, including the CPU cores and RAM, allocated to the virtual machine, what GPU is getting used , the display resolution and DPI, and more. for instance, if the sport window is just too low-resolution for you, try raising it to 1920x1080 or higher.

The DirectX graphical mode also resulted in smoother gameplay on my PC compared to the default OpenGL mode, but I couldn’t get any sound—your mileage may vary.

Each app you open is displayed as a tab at the highest of the BlueStacks window, so switching between applications and games is as easy as clicking a special tab. It’s very easy to use.

Where BlueStacks really shines with games is that the ability to make custom controls that bind on-screen buttons to keys on your keyboard. for instance , if a game has an on-screen D-Pad for movement, open the Controls Editor (the keyboard button on the proper panel) and drag BlueStack’s D-Pad on top of it. Then you'll play the sport with a typical WASD key layout. This process takes a touch of trial and error, but BlueStacks does have built-in control presets available for a few popular games, and you'll import presets that other BlueStacks users have made.

BlueStacks also can detect game controllers connected to your PC and allow you to use them with compatible Android games. Here's a helpful controller guide.

Call of Duty Mobile, GRID Autosport, Minecraft, grand larceny Auto, and lots of other games work with controllers, but BlueStacks’ detection seems to be spotty. I couldn’t get my 8BitDo Bluetooth controller to figure in the least, albeit it shows up in Windows as an Xbox controller.

While BlueSacks is liberal to use, there's a $3.33/mo subscription that removes all advertisements and provides you more customization options. A one-time purchase option would be nice, but BlueStacks’ developers need to eat, too.

Why you would possibly want to use other emulators

BlueStacks is that the emulator i like to recommend for games, but it isn’t the sole game in town. There are a couple of other popular options that may work better for what you’re trying to try to to , though each comes with its own set of caveats.

First, there’s actually a politician Android emulator from Google included within the Android Studio SDK. While it's incredibly fast, and may even run the Google Play Store, it’s not designed for gaming in the least . You can’t map on-screen keys, configure macros, record video, or perform other game-related actions. It’s an excellent tool for developers to check their Android apps with, but anyone trying to find how to play games on their PC will come away disappointed.

Nox App Player is one among BlueStacks’ primary competitors, and if offers many of an equivalent features: Mac & Windows compatibility, sharing files, and so on. While it's free, it’s heavy on advertisements and transmits quite lot of knowledge about your PC back to the developers.

If you've got a secondary PC you’re not using, you'll also try installing Android because the host OS . Android x86 is an unofficial port of Android to x86-based PCs, which (in theory) should allow better performance than any emulator running on top of Windows. However, some games aren't compatible with the port, and drivers won't be available for your hardware. there's a Live USB image you'll boot from, so you don’t need to wipe your PC just to undertake it out.