IO Games

IO Games are a genre of free realtime multiplayer online games that you can play in your browser without needing to install anything or create an account. The first io game was agar.io. IO is a domain extension which stands for "Indian Ocean" but it is a favored domain extension by game developers because it also stands for "in / out."

History of IO Games

The io game genre all began with the release of an insanely addicting game called agar.io (which was probably inspired by another game called “Osmos”). Agario grew so fast that within months, it was already seeing several hundred thousand players worldwide. What made this io game so unique was it’s a very interesting style. Unlike most browser games of the past, it was designed to be played in a full-screen browser window and was entirely multiplayer. This set the framework for many of the other .io games that would hit the web in the months to come.

New IO Games, Rules for Success

Most fun and successful new io games like zombs.io, zombsroyale.io, slither.io, splix.io, and moomoo.io follow these general guidelines:

• Have the player be able to hop right into a game with one click.
• Keep it super simple to learn but difficult to master, like with the krunker io game.
• Allow the player to “scale” their authority in-game compared to other players. (Ex. in agar.io you grow a lot bigger and scarier the more you eat and scale your size.)
• And last but not least, they are either competitive or cooperative.
• Slitherio is a good example. It's a very simple game, with easy-to-use controls. There's no experience required to begin playing, meaning people can get the hang of it very quickly. Despite this, the game is difficult to master. The simple, clean graphics are also worth mentioning as a relevant characteristic of the genre.

Why Create the List of Top IO Games?

After I found the first few popular io games, I tried to find more. Sadly, without a list, they were really hard to find. I felt that they deserved more exposure, so I decided to create my own list. I put together all the titles I could find, and many helpful users shared new ones with me. From that point on, I was on a mission to push the io movement forward!

On this site, you will find that the games in the list have a common style and theme similar to those mentioned above. The goal of the list is to bring exposure to these awesome .io games that oftentimes go unnoticed. This is due to the fact that they are all standalone games which means that they are all hosted on separate sites. That’s what I'm here for! So, support the games and make sure you bookmark this site. (CTRL-D) I try to keep it updated with the best, new io games every day, so make sure to check back from time to time. Have fun!