About

Fake Ad Games is a living archive of every mobile game ad that lied to you — and, where we can manage it, a place you can finally play the games those ads pretended to be.

Why this exists

For a decade, the mobile gaming industry has run on one of the internet's biggest open secrets: the games in the ads aren't the games in the store. You know the ones. You've seen them. You've yelled at them. You've even downloaded one or two, just to see.

As app stores start to actually enforce rules against these ads, the whole genre is going extinct. We think someone should remember it — and, maybe, let people finally play it.

What you'll find here

• The Archive — catalogued entries for each deceptive ad, including the video, the real game it's advertising, and our Lie Score.
• Playable recreations — browser versions of the games shown in the ads, built from scratch.
• A running log of this very strange corner of internet history.

Support the museum

All the games and archive entries are free. If you want to help fund more recreations (and see new ones before anyone else), consider supporting us on Patreon.