Top 25 best sports games for iPhone and iPad (iOS)

New Star Soccer takes a sideways leap into new territory here. This time you're responsible for the running of an entire football club, not just a player, resulting in an even deeper and more enthralling casual simulation of the beautiful game.

Pocket-Run Pool is as much a brilliant puzzler as it is a brilliant sports game. That's because of the extreme liberties it takes with the rules of pool, including an ingenious rotating score-multiplier system.

A genuine, bone fide version of Football Manager right here on our iPads. Football Manager 2023 Mobile is one of the deepest portable games of any genre.

If you've never really gotten along with classic footy games on mobile, New Star Soccer shows that there's another way. This is a proper native mobile football game, and it's brilliant.

Table Tennis Touch has it all - slick graphics, superb ball physics, and a swipey control system that could well lead to blisters. It's worth it.

An exquisite free-roaming skiing and snowboarding game that sees you slicing serenely across a beautiful range of peaks and slopes.

The maker of Stickman Golf takes those proven arcade-golf mechanics and funnels them into an online multiplayer putt-off. It's a madcap delight.

Balancing arcade golf trappings with more advanced mechanics and an agreeably competitive edge, Golf Impact is a finely poised PvP package.

Touchgrind BMX 2 takes a decidedly mobile-centric approach to the extreme sports genre. You slide and flick your two fingers on the screen to initiate tricks and flips, making for a trickily engrossing sports game.

Okay, so Super Stickman Golf 3 is closer to crazy golf than proper golf. But is there a better game off putting a ball into a hole on the App Store? Probably not.

A brilliant retro-tinged golf game that steers clear of tiresome realism without sacrificing depth.

Playing a game of baseball with dice rolls might sound like the driest, most boring game ever, but Bottom of the 9th is nothing of the sort thanks to a streamlined ruleset and charming presentation.

A laid back skating simulator with a side-on perspective and bags of tricks and flips to perform with a simple swipe control system. This being an Apple Arcade game, it's as slick as anything.

Retro Bowl is essentially New Star American Football, offering a familiar blend of light management and tactile phase-based minigames come game day.

What The Golf is a golf game in the loosest sense of the word. Or perhaps it's the ultimate golf game. This, after all, is a game where the identity of the ball, club and hole will differ drastically from one hole to the next.

Can we take another zany casual golf game on mobile? When it's as good as Dinkigolf, you'd better believe we can. Featuring a pleasingly bonkers edge and sprawling, twisting levels, it's great fun.

By the definition, pool is a sport. Also, this is one of the most popular iOS sports games for the iPhone at the moment. It's easy to see why. Gameplay is rather simple, yet very interesting, and you can easily challenge a friend to a pool game.

To all intents and purposes, Easy Come Easy Golf is the legendary Everybody's Golf series come to iOS. This is no lazy port or half-baked mobile spinoff, however, but rather a fully featured 3D golf game with a rethought touchscreen control system.

This deeply daft casual game somehow nails the rhythm and momentum of downhill skiing with a simple touch and swipe control system.

Even though it has a rather simple concept, Golf Clash is one of the most popular sports games on iPhones and iPads at the moment. You can challenge your Facebook friends, play tournaments or a quick 1vs1 game while you're in transport. If you're a fan of golf, this one is a no-brainer.

This Apple Arcade effort is from the makes of Pixel Cup Soccer, and while it doesn't have the same pixel art charm, its 3D arcade footy action is difficult to resist.

Another gem from Colin Lane. Like Wrassling and Dunkers, Touchdowners only superficially resembles its host sport, but trying to get the ball into the end zone is a madcap treat nonetheless.

The original and, we would suggest, still the best ball flicker on the App Store. PikPok's swipe-to-kick mechanics are just spot-on, and the escalating challenge of the core game never grows old.

Harkening back to a time when simplistic 16-bit graphics disguised sports games of deceptive depth, Tennis Champs: Returns is far trickier and more involved a tennis sim than it initially seems.

This Apple Arcade-exclusive version of the best-selling basketball game boasts top notch visuals, online multiplayer, and improved controller support. It's the best basketball game on mobile.