Can you play Risk online for free?

The official RISK: Global Domination app is free to play with in-app purchases. Browser games such as TapGuessr and Warzone are free Risk-style alternatives with nothing to install.

Is TapGuessr like Risk?

It shares Risk's core: troops, territory and ruling regions. But it uses a real map of Earth, everyone plays on the same map at once, and there are no dice. Every move has a fixed troop cost.

Yes. The game is free to play in any browser, on a phone or a computer. There is nothing to download and no account to make.

How long does a game last?

A season lasts two weeks, and the map is shared by everyone playing. Most people play a few minutes at a time: spend your troops, check who's attacking you, and come back when your troops have built up again.

Games like Risk you can play online for free

If you grew up fighting over Kamchatka, these scratch the same itch: a world map, armies, and the slow joy of painting continents your colour.

Season 1 is live: 23 players hold land, 5 days left to take yours.

The TapGuessr world map with players' territories coloured across Europe, Africa and Asia

1. TapGuessr: Risk on the real world map, with everyone at once

TapGuessr takes the core of Risk (troops, territory, the thrill of a weak border) and puts it on a real map of Earth split into 12,446 hexagonal tiles. Instead of six players around a table, everyone playing shares one world. A season lasts two weeks, so it's Risk without the eight-hour evening: you play a few minutes, your troops build up, and you come back to see who's been nibbling at your border.

Players' territories in Europe: one empire around Moscow, another across Spain — Europe in the game: one empire around Moscow, another holding most of Spain.

What will feel familiar:

Troops arrive every turn (here, every minute), and more land means more troops.
Holding a whole region pays: hold more than half of a country and you rule it.
Attacks cost more against a well-defended tile, and you can fortify your borders.

What's different: there are no dice. Every move costs a known number of troops, so you always know whether an attack will work. And cities matter: a capital is worth five times an ordinary tile.

2. RISK: Global Domination

The official digital version of the board game, made by SMG Studio for Hasbro. It's the closest thing to the real board, with the classic map plus many others, online matches against other people, and computer opponents. It's free to play with in-app purchases, on phones and on Steam.

3. Warzone

A free Risk-style game that runs in the browser, with a huge library of player-made maps and both real-time and multi-day games. Its turns resolve at the same time for everyone, which makes it more about reading your opponent than rolling dice.

4. Supremacy 1914 and Call of War

Grand-strategy browser games set in the First and Second World Wars. Each match runs for weeks in real time on a map of the period, with economies, research and diplomacy. They're deeper than Risk and ask for regular check-ins.

5. Diplomacy

Risk's sharper cousin: no dice and no luck, just seven powers in 1901 Europe and a lot of negotiating. Free sites such as webDiplomacy and Backstabbr let you play it online with friends or strangers.

The TapGuessr rankings panel listing the biggest empires and the countries they rule — The season's rankings: biggest empires first, with the countries each one rules.

Which one should you play?

The real board, digitally: RISK: Global Domination.
A real world map, in a spare five minutes, nothing to install: TapGuessr.
Long campaigns with economy and research: Supremacy 1914 or Call of War.
Pure negotiation: Diplomacy.