Games to play when bored, picked by the kind of bored you are

The best games to play when bored are the ones you can start in seconds and stop without losing anything. On Mayavoo, every game runs free in your browser tab, with nothing to install and no account, so boredom turns into play in about the time it takes a page to load.

The harder part is choosing. Boredom comes in different shapes: ten spare minutes, a long empty evening, a restless brain, or a tired one. Below, the picks are sorted by the kind of bored you are.

If you have five minutes

Short sessions call for games with a clear finish line.

• Tumbler hides a five-letter word behind a vault door and gives you six guesses. The daily vault is the same word for everyone that day, which makes it easy to compare notes with a friend.
• Pocket Putt is miniature golf above a lagoon. You can play one hole on its own instead of a full round.
• Brickfall has a Sprint 40 mode: clear the lines as fast as you can, read your time, close the tab.

If your brain wants a job

Some boredom is really a mind with nothing to chew on. Logic puzzles fix that.

• Ninebox is a calm sudoku with notes, hints and undo, in four difficulty levels.
• Pixel Riddle is a set of nonograms. Fill the right squares and the grid turns into a pixel picture. Every one can be solved by logic alone.
• Common Thread asks you to sort tags into four hidden groups while dodging red herrings.

If you are tired and want to switch off

Not every bored moment needs a challenge.

• Paper Sky lets you glide a paper plane through a valley of rivers and windmills. There is no timer and no game-over screen, and guided flight can steer for you. It is listed for desktop and tablet.
• Spot the Pets is a hidden-object game in ink-drawn scenes. Find a pet and it bursts into colour. No clock is running.

If someone else is in the room

Bored together is easier to fix than bored alone, and a shared screen turns a slow evening into a small contest.

• Courtyard Ludo lets two to four people pass one phone around, or fill empty seats with computer players.
• Checkmate Club is chess against a beginner or casual computer, or against the person next to you on the same device.

Quick picker

Still not sure? Match your mood to a row below and start there. If the first game does not click within a few minutes, close it and try the next row; with nothing installed, switching costs you nothing but a click.

How Mayavoo works

Open the Mayavoo home page or browse by category, pick a game and press play. Each game page explains the controls and the devices it supports, so check it before you start on a phone. A short Google ad may appear before a game starts and when you leave it, never during play. The team plays and checks each game before it goes live, and games run in a sandboxed frame. Signing in with Google or GitHub is only needed to like games or comment.

When is something else better? If you want a long story game you will sink a whole weekend into, a console or PC title will serve you better. Mayavoo is built for the gaps in a day.