Pokémon GO alternatives 2026: free and without pay-to-win
Pokémon GO is the best-known game on the real map, but not the only one. Here is an honest look at the alternatives in 2026, what they cost and how they make money. MapRaiders is free to play in your browser, and power is not for sale.
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One real world map, three ways to play
MapRaiders is a location-based game, an open-world action RPG and a trading card game (TCG) on one real world map: a Pokémon GO alternative you can also play from home. Walk, run or cycle outside with GPS, and your loops become territory on the real map. From home, your own 3D character plays the same map, the same streets and the same territory, live with the same players, with quests, raids at spawn points and vehicles. In that world you also collect trading cards for a card game of their own, with commander decks and live duels for land. All of it is one story, The Collision. Each season is a chapter, and what a season brings never returns but stays valid.
What Pokémon GO costs
Pokémon GO is free and makes its money with PokéCoins. You spend them on Raid Passes, Remote Raid Passes, incubators and more room for Pokémon and items. You earn a few coins when your Pokémon defend gyms, at most 50 a day. The rest you buy.
That is why the overview below says how each game makes its money. In Russia and Belarus the question does not even arise: Pokémon GO has not been playable there since March 2022.
Which games can replace Pokémon GO
These are games that really use the streets around you, each with its maker and launch year. Most are free to play and paid for by in-game purchases.
- OrnaNorthern Forge Studios · since 2019 · GPS role-playing game · free with in-game purchases. Monsters and dungeons appear around you, you level up your hero and build strongholds on the real map. The closest thing to a classic RPG; there is no catching here.
- Jurassic World AliveLudia · since 2018 · collecting and battles · free with in-game purchases. You collect dinosaur DNA on the map, breed hybrids and fight in the arena. Dinosaurs instead of Pokémon, with the arena at its heart.
- Draconius GOElyland · since 2017 · catching dragons · free with in-game purchases. Instead of Pokémon you catch dragons on the map, join a faction and fight. In its structure the closest match to Pokémon GO.
- GeocachingGroundspeak · since 2000 · treasure hunting · free, optional Premium subscription. You look for hidden containers by GPS coordinates and sign the logbook. No fighting, but real places that others picked out for you.
- EncounterEncounter network · since 2004 · city games · entry depends on the organiser. Teams solve tasks on real streets, often at night and by car, in more than twenty countries. More an event than an app, but with real excitement.
- Pikmin Bloom, Monster Hunter Now, IngressScopely and Niantic Spatial · siblings of Pokémon GO. Pikmin Bloom turns walks into flowers, Monster Hunter Now has sent you hunting monsters since 2023, and Ingress has two factions fighting over portals. If you like Pokémon GO, you will find the same basic feel here.
- MapRaidersSCAFA INVESTMENTS LLC · live in the browser · territory and card game · only coins earned in play. Your walked loop becomes your territory, and a card duel settles fights over land. It runs in the browser and sells no power.
Free and without pay-to-win
MapRaiders is free. There is nothing to buy with money in the game: everything in the shop is paid with coins you earn by playing. Land comes from loops, on foot, by bike or with your RPG character, and from card duels, never from money.
You do not need a store for it: open the site in the browser on your phone or computer, create an account and play.
A lap becomes land
In Pokémon GO the map is full of fixed points: PokéStops to spin and gyms to hold for a while. The places stay the same for everyone. MapRaiders works with areas. You start recording, walk a route and come back to where you began.
When the lap closes, the area inside your line becomes your territory, from 150 square meters up. On foot, running, by bike or with your game character, every closed lap counts. Your route draws the border, and every other player sees whose ground it is.
Your ground stays yours
Gyms in Pokémon GO change hands often. In MapRaiders your territory stays yours, even when you are not out for weeks. It does not fade over time: you only lose it if another player takes it. Card finds also lie on the world map, glowing in the game as a pillar of light. Enclose one with your loop and the card is yours.
An attack costs a walk too
Other players attack your territory by drawing a loop of their own into it. The attacker gets only the piece their loop encloses, and the rest stays yours. If you are in the game right now, the attacker first challenges you to a card duel. If you decline or do not answer within a minute, the piece goes to the attacker. The game tells you which piece you lost, and you take it back the same way. Nobody takes your territory with a single tap.
A card duel settles fights over land
A fight over land moves to the card table. Each side brings a commander, a deck of fifty cards and one building with five face-down building cards beneath it.
50
You draw, play characters, paid with crates, your energy, and attack. Before the match, rock paper scissors decides who goes first. Every hit takes a building card, and whoever loses their building loses the match. It is a trading card game in its own right, and it works on the sofa, on the train or at the table.
From the sofa: your RPG character
For days indoors MapRaiders has its own way: your RPG character starts at a spawn point, a fixed place on the world map, and moves through the real streets from there. Spawn points change with every card release, and a loop of at least 5 hectares of new ground earns you two of your own.
From a spawn point your character explores cities you have never been to. Its laps become territory too, and it can cut into other players' land just like someone walking outside.
Who is behind the games?
In 2025 Niantic sold its games business, including Pokémon GO, Pikmin Bloom and Monster Hunter Now, to Scopely. The technology side was spun off as a separate company, Niantic Spatial, and kept Ingress.
MapRaiders is independent. It is developed in Miami, Florida, by SCAFA INVESTMENTS LLC and does not sell location data. You can delete your account at any time in your profile. Your account and your game data are deleted. Records that also involve other players, such as duel results, are kept, with no link to you.
Frequently asked questions
- What is a good alternative to Pokémon GO?
- It depends on what you miss. If you want to catch creatures, Draconius GO has the most similar idea; if you like role-playing, try Orna. If you want to own land on the real map and fight for it, play MapRaiders.
- Is MapRaiders free?
- Yes. There is nothing to buy with money in the game; everything in the shop costs coins you earn by playing. Nobody can buy land or power.
- Where does MapRaiders run?
- In the browser, on your phone as well as on your computer. The game is live: create an account and play.
- Do I have to walk to play?
- No. With real GPS you walk outside, with your RPG character you set out from a spawn point. Both claim land, and card duels work anywhere.
- Are there Pokémon in MapRaiders?
- No. MapRaiders has its own world with six factions and its own characters. It has no connection to Pokémon, Nintendo, Niantic or Scopely.
Pokémon, Pokémon GO and all other games named here are trademarks of their respective owners. MapRaiders has no connection to their developers or operators.
Live in the browser. Something new arrives every week.
Read on
More about games on the real map
Location-based games at a glance, comparisons and the background to the sale of Pokémon GO.