The best app to stop gaming is the one that fixes the part that keeps failing for you. If you can stay away for a few days but drift back with nobody noticing, you want a tracker with people in it: IQUIT.GG gives you a rank for days off, habits and a community; Lume is a free cold-turkey program; Game Quitters is a paid guide with free forums. If you sit down meaning to play one game and look up at 2 a.m., you want a blocker: Freedom covers phones and computers, Opal and ScreenZen cover the phone. Nothing stops you running one of each. Everything below is as of November 2026, checked on each app's own store listing or site.
Quick picks
- IQUIT.GG to stay off whatever you play, with people noticing. It's the only app here with a ranked ladder for days off.
- Lume to stop completely without paying anything.
- Freedom to lock a gaming PC as well as the phone.
- Opal for the strongest lock on phone games, or ScreenZen for a free one.
- Game Quitters' Respawn guide to understand why you keep going back.
The 9 apps compared
| App | Platforms | How it works | Cost, as listed | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| IQUIT.GG | iOS, Android | Daily self-logged game time, a rank for days off, habits, a community | Paid membership (prices on the store) | Accountability and company, any game |
| Game Quitters (Respawn) | Web, forums, Discord | A step-by-step guide plus community forums | Respawn guide $27; forums and videos free | A structured plan from someone who has done it |
| Lume | iOS, Android | Guided cold-turkey program, urge tools, streak, Discord | Free, no subscriptions or ads | Stopping completely, at no cost |
| GAMEFREE | iPhone | 90-day challenge, urge tools, AI coach, forum | Free download; Premium $14.99 a month or $49.99 a year | People who want a fixed 90-day frame |
| ByeBye Gaming | iPhone | Tracks screen time, urges and mood; daily check-ins | Free download; core features need Premium ($9.99 to $24.99 options) | Mood and urge journaling |
| Opal | iPhone, Android, Mac | Blocks chosen apps on a schedule or timer, Hard Mode | Free to start; plans from $4.99 a week to $99.99 a year | Phone blocking that is hard to switch off |
| Freedom | iOS, Android, Mac, Windows, Chromebook, Linux | Scheduled blocking sessions across every device | $8.99 to $12.99 a month, $39.99 to $59.99 a year, or a one-time Forever plan | Blocking on a gaming PC as well as the phone |
| ScreenZen | iPhone, iPad, Mac, Android | Delays and limits before an app opens, optional strict blocks | Free, with optional tips | Mobile games, without paying |
| Habitify | iOS, iPadOS, Mac, Apple Watch, Android | General habit tracker with streaks and reminders | Free; Pro $8.99 a month, $49.99 a year or $119.99 lifetime | Building the habits that replace the hours |
Prices are the US App Store or the app's own site in November 2026 and change often; check the store before you buy.
IQUIT.GG
Disclosure: this is our app. IQUIT.GG is a phone app for gamers who want to play less or stop. Each day you log how long you played. Days off earn LP and a rank on a ladder of nine tiers, Iron to Transcendent. A slip moves your date and the drop is bounded; nothing is deleted. Habits across six areas (Body, Mind, Heart, Social, Work, Home) fill the evenings back in, and there's a feed, chat rooms, friends and a ladder of members. It's the only app here with a ranked ladder for days off, and the only one that puts game time, new habits and a community in the same app.
It blocks nothing and reads no game account. The count is your own answer, once a day. That's on purpose: saying it yourself is the part that holds, but it does mean IQUIT.GG won't stop you from opening a game at midnight.
Pick it if you can stay off for a while but lose the thread without someone noticing, and if a crest and a number going up makes sense to you. Pair it with a blocker if the first few nights are the hard part.
Game Quitters (Respawn)
Game Quitters was started by Cam Adair, who stopped gaming in October 2008 according to its Respawn page. As of November 2026 its site offers Respawn, a step-by-step guide sold for $27, plus coaching programs, free community forums, a Discord and 300-plus free videos on YouTube. Its site does not list a phone app, so anyone looking for a Game Quitters alternative on their phone will need one of the others here.
What it does better than anything else here is teach. If you want to understand why you keep going back and what to do about it, the guide and the video library are deeper than any app's onboarding. Pick it if you learn by reading and watching, and add a tracker if you want a daily record.
Lume
Lume (published by ProcessFlow) is a guided cold-turkey program on iOS and Android. Its listing describes urge tools for the bad evenings, a plan for when you slip, a visible streak, two-tap logging and a Discord community. It is written by people who stopped gaming themselves, and it says so up front.
Its big advantage is price: the Google Play listing says it is completely free, with no subscriptions, ads or locked features. Its listing also calls it a support tool, not a substitute for professional help. Pick it if your goal is zero games and you don't want to pay for anything.
GAMEFREE
GAMEFREE: Quit Tracker is an iPhone app built around a 90-day challenge. The listing describes a real-time counter, a 14-question self-assessment, an "Urge Stopper" with coping tips, breathing exercises, an AI coach called Ava, and a community forum. Premium is $14.99 a month or $49.99 a year.
The feature list is the longest of the dedicated trackers. One caution: the App Store shows its last update in April 2025, so check it still works on your iOS version. Pick it if a fixed 90-day target suits you.
ByeBye Gaming
ByeBye Gaming (listed as "Quit video game: ByeBye Gaming" by Moxyz Studio) is an iPhone app that tracks screen time, urges and mood, with daily check-ins and goal-focused support. The listing says core features require a Premium subscription, with options from $9.99 to $24.99.
It leans more on mood and urge journaling than the others. Pick it if you want to see when the pull to play rises, and whether it lines up with how your day went.
Opal
Opal is one of the most-rated phone blockers on the App Store, with an Editors' Choice badge and tens of thousands of ratings as of November 2026. You choose apps to block, set schedules or a focus timer, and turn on Hard Mode if you want blocks you can't undo mid-session. It runs on iPhone, Android and Mac. It's free to start, and the App Store lists paid plans from $4.99 a week to $99.99 a year.
Pick it if your games are on your phone and you want the strongest lock. It won't help with a console or a Windows PC.
Freedom
Freedom blocks apps and websites in sessions you start or schedule, and one subscription covers every device you connect. Its site lists macOS, Windows, iOS, Android, Chromebook and Linux. That makes it the only app here that is built to reach a Windows gaming PC as well as the phone. The App Store lists monthly plans from $8.99 to $12.99, yearly plans from $39.99 to $59.99, and a one-time Forever plan.
Pick it if you play on a computer and want the evenings locked by default. Test a session against your actual launcher before you count on it.
ScreenZen
ScreenZen adds a pause before a chosen app opens, and the wait can grow each time you open it. It can also cap opens, set goals, run strict blocks by time range and lock its own settings. It's on iPhone, iPad, Mac and Android, and it's free; the only in-app purchases are optional tips.
Pick it if your problem is mobile games and the reflex to open them. The delay is gentler than a hard block, and for a lot of people that's enough.
Habitify
Habitify is a general habit tracker, not a gaming app. It's in this list because the evenings come back empty at first, and something has to go in them. It does schedules, reminders, streaks, charts, and can log some habits automatically from Apple Health, Google Fit, Strava and Screen Time. Free, with Pro at $8.99 a month, $49.99 a year or $119.99 lifetime on the App Store.
Pick it if you already know how to stay off and want the replacement habits tracked properly. It knows nothing about games, so it won't show your hours back or put you next to people doing the same thing.
How to choose
Ask which failure you're fixing. If it's the moment of opening the game, get a blocker. If it's the slow drift back over a week, get a tracker with people in it. If you don't know why you keep returning, start with Game Quitters' guide. And if gaming is costing you work, sleep, money or relationships and you can't cut back on your own, see a doctor or therapist alongside any of these; HealthyGamer is a good place to start reading.
Apps left out: Brick (a physical device that blocks phone apps, good but phone-only), Forest (a focus timer with no gaming angle), AppBlock (overlaps with Freedom and Opal), StopGaming (no update since 2023), and Respawn: Quit Gaming Now, which no longer appears on the US App Store as of November 2026.