Part of my app reviews is a solid test of the respective AI’s playing strength. If the app supports it (and a good app should!) I play a couple of matches against it, export them to a file, and let Extreme Gammon 2 (PC) review our match on highest Roller++ level. This should give the reader a good understanding of the app’s rating in “PR” (performance rating) points.
Apps that don’t support export are harder to rate – I play something like a 3pt match on my iPad and transcribe it simultaneously into XG2, which is an exhausting process – see dice in test app, make move in XG2, enter in test app, check computer roll in test app, observe app’s move, roll and move in XG2, repeat. Fortunately the apps that don’t export are typically weak, so a rough rating is enough.
Just in case: of course I always play on the hardest difficulty level, and of course I purchase “strong AI in-app” if there is one.
So, if I have all why not put them all together in a big table for you to compare? Here we go, (iOS) backgammon apps sorted from best to worst.
This list is being continuously updated as I’m playing more matches. All apps tested on iOS (iPad Pro) unless stated otherwise.
I’m still moving reviews of other backgammon apps from my old site to this one. This means that there are many apps not yet on the list, but I’ve taken care to include all strong apps with a PR of 6 or less. If you know an app that plays excellent backgammon, please drop me a comment.
| App | Developer | Rating | Text rating | Confidence |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| XG Mobile | GameSite 2000 | PR 0.5 | superhuman | high (46 games) |
| True Backgammon | Compulab / M. Gömmel | PR 1.1 | superhuman | high (40 games) |
| Backgammon Coach (2) | GNU, Laurent Pichon | PR 1.9 | superhuman | low (3 games) |
| (strongest human players) | PR 2.5 | |||
| Backgammon NJ | Jimmy Hu | PR 2.9 | world champ | high (40 games) |
| Backgammon KG | Keith Gould | PR 5.7 | expert | medium (11 games) |
| Backgammon Classic Bd Live | Adikus | PR 10 | advanced | low (5 games) |
| Backgammon Machine (1) | Tyler Walker | PR 12 | advanced | low (6 games) |
| Backgammon – offline | SNG | PR 20 | casual player | low (2 games) |
| Backgammon 3D (1) | Art Deco | PR 30 | beginner | low (2 games) |
| Backgammon HD | WildCard | PR 50 | distracted | low (2 games) |
| Backgammon Elite | Alexander Ilyushin | PR100 | distracted | low (2 games) |
(1) App only plays matches to 1 pt, without the doubling cube, so it’s rating can’t really be compared to the others – it’s common that apps have a good dice handling and a much worse cube handling.
(2) This app is a paid app on the app store running on Gnu Backgammon, which most probably violates the GNU GPL. Not good style to make money off GNU software.