How To Play Android Games On Your PC

Your computer system is far more powerful than any mobile phone or tablet. However, that doesn’t mean all of your favorite programs are made for the computer. In fact, if you use a mobile device that uses the Android operating system, you might find several games you enjoy running on the mobile operating system are not available for your Windows computer. You might wonder how to play Android games on PC, if it’s possible at all.

You don’t have to use the small screen of your mobile phone to play the game. You just need to find a workaround that functions on your PC, giving you the same design features as Android. By taking advantage of these easy to follow methods, you will discover how to play Android games on PC, all without using your phone. After all, if you’re going to be at home with a larger screen available, why wouldn’t you use it? With these instructions, you’ll have everything you need to harness the power (and size) of your PC.

 What Are Android Games?

Android is a Google-owned mobile operating system. It is the most popular mobile operating system in the world (although the Apple iPhone sells more brand phone units than others). As Android runs on mobile devices including Samsung, LG, Sony, and the Google Pixel phones, Android runs over several devices. Android games are video games that run on an Android operating system. These are games that download and install directly through the Google Play store and give you the possibility to download millions of application titles (some of which cost money, and others which are free to download and play).

If you have found games you like, you may have looked to see if the games are available on PC. However, because mobile games are designed specifically for the graphics capability of a mobile phone, these games may not be available as a software download on a Windows computer. That doesn’t mean you can’t play the games though. You just need to learn how to play Android games on PC.

Why Is the Ability to Play Android Games on PC Important?

The ability to play Android games on PC is important only if you enjoy playing the game and want to take advantage of your computer system. Perhaps you’re on a long flight and you want to save the battery of your phone but you have a laptop that’s not in use. Or maybe you’re at home and you’re tired of the small screen of your Android device and would rather take advantage of your computer screen (or your television screen if you have a TV screen connected to your PC). The ability to play these games on a PC is important for your personal level of enjoyment.

Many of the latest-release games are built with impressive graphics, so the games may look fantastic on a larger screen. Once you learn how to play Android games on PC, you’ll always be able to track down the games and increase your level of enjoyment on the larger screen.

Can You Explain How to Play Android Games on PC?

When looking at how to play Android games on PC you have two options. The first is directly connecting a cable from your Android device, plugging it into a monitor or TV, then telling the screen to put the phone screen on display. You must keep the device connected, and it amounts to a very difficult way to play the game.

With this method, you might have a larger screen but you won’t have the same comfort or control as you would if you used the phone on its own. Instead, it is better to access the Android games on your computer with no cabling or attachments running from the phone. By doing this, you’ll have a much better experience with how to play Android games on PC.

Installing the Access Program

Android and Windows are two different operating systems. In order to run an Android game on your PC, you need to have the Android operating system installed (or at least a form of it). You don’t need to override your Windows OS to do this though. As Windows is a much larger operating system, you can instead install Android to run almost like a computer program.

The best way to do this is to download the BlueStacks application. To do this, head over to the BlueStacks (one word) website and download the BlueStacks Installer file. A download prompt will appear. Tell your Windows computer that it is fine to download and install the program.

Depending on the computer you run during the installation process you may receive an error message that says “Hardware acceleration is not available on your system” (or something of this nature). You must select the enabling hardware option to continue. BlueStacks runs a virtual version of the Android operating system over to your Windows OS while BlueStacks is active, so it can cause some confusion with Windows during initial setup, but don’t worry, this is not something that will last or cause problems with your regular Windows users.

Sign In

Once the BlueStacks application has installed onto your Windows computer, you will want to open the program up. With the program open, you’ll be asked to “Sign In.” All you need to do is enter your standard Google account information. It’s the same account information you use with your Android device.

Installing the Games

Now that you are logged in you’re ready to select and install the games. BlueStacks has the most Android games available for download. However, it does not have the full Google Play catalog of games, so some games may not be on here. If the game is brand new, or if it is a rarely used game, it might not be supported (or not yet available). You can select the “Contact Us” option to let BlueStacks know you’re looking for a particular game, but it does take some programming to port the games to the BlueStacks configuration, so just understand 100% of the games will not always be available.

You can type in the exact game you’re looking for in the search bar, or you can sift through the different games that are available. You can search by Popular, Top Games, Trending, or even by the collection or style of game.

Choose the game you want and the game will download and install into the virtual Android operating system. Basically, it’s installing onto your Windows computer but is within the virtual Android OS (like running a problem within a program).

Launching and Playing the Game

After you have selected the game you want, and it has downloaded, you’ll need to choose the “My Apps” tab on the left side of the screen to access the game. The “My Apps” tab will show all the current applications you have downloaded and installed. The games are relatively small so it shouldn’t take long to download them.

To play the game, just double-click the icon (or tap it, if you use a touchscreen PC). The game will now open and you can play it as you would on a regular Android device. You may need to tinker with some of the controls because you are using a Windows keyboard and mouse and not a touchpad (again, unless you have a touch pad Windows PC – then you can use the same basic features and controls that you would on your tablet or smartphone).

Should you ever want to delete the application from your computer and from the listing you must just click and drag it down to the trash can icon in the lower right-hand corner of the screen. To close BlueStacks just click on the “X” icon on the window. It will close exactly as any other Windows-based program would. You can also adjust the display size by clicking and dragging the display window (in this way, it functions no differently from the other Windows programs you have on your PC).

Conclusion

If you have favorite Android games you’ve been wanting to play on a larger screen but just haven’t had the opportunity to do so, now is the time to take advantage of playing the games on a computer. Once you know how to play Android games on PC, you’ll never again wonder if it’s possible to port games over to a larger screen or if you’ll be forced to deal with the smaller screen whenever you want to play your favorite games.

You will need to start the games over when playing on the PC as your saved information will probably not carry over from your Android device (unless you sign in with a Google account). However, once you restart the game on your Windows computer, you will have the opportunity to see the games on a larger screen and enjoy the content in a brand new way. By taking these steps, you’ll have no problem with how to play Android games on PC.