A screen time game gives phone use a score you can see. Forest grows a tree. Focus Friend knits a sock. Step apps pay you minutes. A race app moves a rocket. The category grew up because charts and shame stop working, and a game still asks you to check the result. The useful question in 2026 is what the game is willing to count.
What makes a screen time game different from a blocker
A blocker hides apps. A screen time game keeps a score tied to how you use the phone. Some scores only move while a timer runs. Some move when you walk. Some move from total daily use. If the score ignores the hours you actually want to change, it is a nice timer with a costume.
What each screen time game actually scores| Game | What earns progress | What a long scroll does | Play with others |
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| Forest | A focus session grows a tree | Nothing, unless you were in a session | Plant Together, shared sessions |
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| Focus Friend | A timer lets the bean knit | Nothing outside the timer | Solo |
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| FocusFlight | A session is a flight | Nothing outside the flight | Solo |
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| Steppin | Steps buy minutes of access | You spend the minutes you walked for | Solo |
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| Focus Race | Focus earns fuel. Low daily screen time earns distance. | Shorter distance on the mission | Friends, crews, public leaderboard |
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Forest, Focus Friend, and FocusFlight: session games
Forest is the original screen time game most people mean. Start a session, a tree grows, leave early and it dies. Deep Focus can block apps during the session. Plant Together makes a group share the risk. On iPhone it is a few dollars, once. It is the best session game if you want a clear start, a clear stop, and a forest to show for the year.
Focus Friend, from Hank Green, is the charm version. The bean knits while you stay, and drops stitches if you bail. Socks buy furniture. It is free, with optional Pro, and it is very good at making a 25 minute block feel like a favor to someone. FocusFlight turns the same block into a flight across a map, with miles and membership tiers, at about $19 a year.
All three score the session you opted into. The evening after the tree, the sock, or the landing is invisible. If that evening is the problem, a session game will congratulate you and miss the loss.
Walk games and unlock games
Steppin, Kova, and Unrot are screen time games with a shop. You earn the right to open apps by walking or finishing a habit, then you spend that right. They are games in the sense that there is a currency and a price. They are also locks. The earn your screen time guide goes through that trade in detail. Use one when you want the feed behind a toll. Expect the reward to be more phone, after you have paid.
Focus Race: a screen time game for the whole day
Focus Race scores two things, on purpose. A finished focus session blocks distractions and fills the tank with fuel. Fuel launches you into a mission with a real window and a destination. After liftoff, daily screen time is the throttle. A lighter day flies farther. Friends, crews, and the global leaderboard are looking at the same distance. The game does not end when the timer does.
That is the screen time game to pick if competition is what keeps you honest, and if you want Monday's scrolling to show up in the standings. It is on the App Store for iPhone, free, with Pro at about $29 a year. It will feel wrong if you want a quiet single-player tree and no rank at all. Forest is still that game.
Which screen time game fits
- Pick Forest if you want a proven session game, a one-time price, and a forest you can look at.
- Pick Focus Friend if you want a free companion and a bean that notices when you leave.
- Pick FocusFlight if a flight makes it easier to start the block.
- Pick a walk or habit unlock game if the reward you want is permission to scroll.
- Pick Focus Race if the score should include the rest of the day, and other people should be able to pass you.
Try Focus Race on the App Store
Focus Race is the screen time game where the leaderboard is the point. Download it, join a mission, and let a week of actual phone use move the rocket. If you are still choosing among blockers and timers, the best focus apps for iPhone guide is the wider map.