Forge of Empires review

This Forge of Empires review is based on official sources and player reviews, not on our own play time. InnoGames' free city-building strategy game started in browsers in 2012 and also runs on iOS and Android. You lead a city from the Stone Age into future eras, fight on a campaign map and compete with other players in plunder raids, the PvP Arena and Guild Battlegrounds. Money buys Diamonds, which pay for speed-ups, packs and event currency for random prize wheels.

What is Forge of Empires?

Forge of Empires is a free-to-play city-building strategy game developed and published by InnoGames in Hamburg. According to the App Store listing, the browser game launched in the summer of 2012, and the iOS app followed in January 2014. You start with a small Stone Age settlement, research technologies, produce goods and lead your city through the ages. InnoGames' support site lists eras from the Bronze Age and Iron Age through the Modern, Contemporary and Future eras to several Space Age stages.

Next to a single-player campaign map, the game has several multiplayer parts. You can attack and plunder a neighbor's city once per day, fight other players' defensive armies in the PvP Arena, and join a guild for Guild Battlegrounds, Guild Expeditions and Quantum Incursions. Limited-time events run through the year; the Halloween Event 2026 is scheduled on live servers from October 30 to November 20.

Is Forge of Empires free to play?

Yes. InnoGames' support page says registering in the browser or downloading the app is free of charge, and that you can access all features and play as long as you want without paying. The browser version needs no download, and the App Store and Google Play list the app as free with in-app purchases. Google Play also notes that the Android app contains ads.

The premium currency is Diamonds. Per InnoGames, you do not need to buy them to play, but they give benefits such as faster progress. Diamonds are sold for real money, and some quests and community contests also hand them out. Units are trained with coins, supplies or both, according to InnoGames' battle guide, so armies do not require Diamonds.

Event currency is earnable too. In the Halloween Event 2026, event quests give Halloween Tickets for the Wheel of Misfortune, and six Daily Tasks a day pay out Bat Tokens, with doubled rewards after the first three tasks.

Is Forge of Empires pay to win? What money buys

As of October 30, 2026, the US App Store lists Diamonds from $2.99 for 110 to $99.99 for 13,000, plus an Army Pack for $3.99. InnoGames says Diamonds can speed up progression. They also buy event currency: during the Viking Event 2026, Fate Amulets could be bought with Diamonds and spent on a Wheel of Fate whose Grand Prize, the Valkyrie Tower, grants attack boosts. Quantum Incursions has Silver and Gold Quantum Pass lanes you can purchase, and Forge Plus sells a 28-day Counselor package that becomes available to buy again once it runs out.

Those boosts count against people. InnoGames' battle guide says attack and defense boosts apply when you attack another player and to the army that defends your city, and Great Building passive bonuses also work in the PvP Arena. The App Store lists Loot Boxes and Google Play lists random items. Event guides describe prize rarity tiers and claim limits for the wheels, but they do not give percentages.

Based on what the official stores sell, we rate it as strongly pay to win; we will check this again when we play it ourselves.

Forge of Empires on PC, Mac and mobile

On a computer, Forge of Empires runs in a web browser with no download. InnoGames says the game uses HTML5 and runs fine on Windows, macOS and Linux. InnoGames' game page lists three platforms: Browser, iOS and Android, so there is no console version.

Google Play also offers the Android app on Windows through Google Play Games on PC, Google's own app for running Play games on a computer. That listing carries the same Everyone 10+ rating and its own hardware minimum, which is listed in the next section.

On phones and tablets, the app is on the App Store for iPhone and iPad and on Google Play for Android, and the App Store listing describes cross-platform access to the browser game. InnoGames notes that some browser features are still missing from the app and that some app features do not exist in the browser version, so the two are not identical. Mobile updates can arrive a few days after the browser release, depending on the stores.

Forge of Empires system requirements

For the browser version, InnoGames' support pages list conditions rather than hardware specs. The game needs a stable internet connection, an up-to-date browser and graphics drivers, and hardware acceleration turned on in the browser. If Chrome or another Chromium-based browser such as Edge or Opera will not load the game or runs slowly, InnoGames suggests turning hardware acceleration back on, updating AMD, Nvidia or Intel drivers, or trying Mozilla Firefox.

For mobile, InnoGames supports Android 9 or higher and most Kindle Fire devices, and it recommends at least 4 GB of RAM on Android and 3 GB on iOS. The App Store listing requires iOS or iPadOS 13.0 or later and lists a 503.4 MB download.

The Google Play Games on PC listing asks for Windows 10 (version 2004), a solid-state drive with 10 GB free, Intel UHD Graphics 630 or comparable, four physical CPU cores, 8 GB of RAM, a Windows admin account and hardware virtualization turned on.

Games like Forge of Empires

These city-building and strategy games from our catalog are also free to play:

Elvenar: InnoGames' fantasy city builder where you play as elves or humans, research technologies and explore a world map, on browser, iOS and Android.

Rise of Cultures: InnoGames' historic city builder with strategic PvE battles against figures such as King Minos, Leonidas and Hannibal, on browser and mobile.

Heroes of History: an InnoGames city builder that starts in the Stone Age and adds over 70 historic and mythological heroes, PvE campaigns and competitive PvP.

Tribal Wars: InnoGames' medieval strategy MMO, where tribes conquer each other's villages in real time; besides the browser and mobile apps, it has a Steam client for Windows and macOS.

• Elvenar
• Rise of Cultures
• Heroes of History
• Tribal Wars

Our ranked list: Games like Forge of Empires