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You’ve If you came to this article while searching for great multiplayer games, I will discuss the best .io games available for play later on. But first, we should dispel any myths and confusion about what .io games are (and aren’t).

What are .io games?

First, just why exactly are they called .io games? Why the heck do they all end with .io? Are they all being developed by the same company? The answer is simple – .io is a trending domain extension (.com, .org, etc), it’s like the new dot.com of online gaming. There are some technical explanations for why .io is becoming so popular for tech start-ups, such as wider domain name availability, but the simplest explanation is that it is an acronym for Input/Output, which is relevant to the programming and software development world. This adds to its appeal for game developers.

So no, all of the .io games are not being developed by the same company, it is simply a trending domain extension that has become popular amongst tech start-ups.

What do .io games have in common?

.io games do typically feature a few things in common, however. These are namely arena-based gameplay, online leaderboards, and earning points for killing other players. Since they try to be as browser-friendly and simplistic as possible, .io games are also usually written in Javascript, HTML, CSS, or a combination thereof, making them compatible with most devices and browsers.

So what are the best, most popular .io games available to play? Here are the top 5…

#1 – Bonk.io

Bonk.io is a battle-royale style multiplayer game that pits up to 4 players against each other, each player represented by a customizable circle. The objective is to try and push the other players out of the screen, but the fighting takes place inside arenas which can be customized by the players, so traps and environment usage becomes key to winning.

#2 – Slither.io

Slither.io is a remix of the classic Snake game, wherein you control a snake that grows larger by consuming glowing orbs on the screen. Due to its insane popularity, Slither.io has been written about on high-profile sites such as Forbes, TechCrunch, and BusinessInsider. In Slither.io, the more orbs you consume, the larger your snake grows, but of course, many other players are inside the world as well, competing for the orbs. If you manage to eat another player’s tail, you consume their size, and remove them from the world. It becomes a game of “big fish eats little fish” (or snakes, in this case), as you must go after the neon orbs that sprinkle the environment, while avoiding the larger players, and chasing down the smaller ones.

#3 – Agario

Not much can be written about Agario that hasn’t been said in hundreds of other publications, as at one point in time, Agar.io was listed in the top 1000 most visited websites, and the mobile version received over ten million downloads in its first week. It is said that Agario was the primary influence for Slither.io, as Agario’s gameplay also revolves around eating cells, growing larger, and eating smaller players while avoiding larger ones. However, Agario is not snake-based, but cell-based, as the name Agario is a reference to agar, a substance used to cultivate bacteria. Thus, the gameplay itself resides within a petri dish, and the players are represented as cells consuming little bits of bacteria to evolve.

#4 – Diep.io

Diep.io takes the gameplay of Slither.io and Agario, but puts players in control of a tank, and introduces experience levels and stat upgrades to the mix. Players move their tank around the game world, which is populated by many other players, while shooting each other, or environmental obstacles, in order to gain points. Points can be allocated into stats such as health, bullet speed, reload timing, movement speed, etc. You can also branch out into sub-classes, such as a sniper tank, flanker, dual-gun tank, and a few others, which makes the entire game much more dependent on strategy and skill allocation than the aforementioned .io games.

#5 – Wormate.io

Wormate.io is most similar to Slither.io, but features bright, cutesy graphics (think Candy Crush) as you navigate a worm through the arena to eat various cakes, candies, and other treats to grow your worm. There are also magical potions throughout the arena, which can grant temporary power-ups to the player, such as faster movement, faster growth, and sucking up food from a distance (like a magnet effect). Finally, the player’s worm can be customized with a variety of skins and outfits.