Playdoku Alternatives: Block Puzzles and Sudoku Without Coins

Playdoku is a block puzzle on a sudoku-style grid, with a Journey of levels on top of the endless mode. Its App Store age rating notes advertising, and its listed purchases are coin packs and booster bundles, with no item that removes the ads. If you want the same game with a way to pay once and drop the ads, Blockudoku is the closest swap. If you want a grid puzzle with no ads at all, Sudoku Royale (free, nothing to buy) and Good Sudoku (one-time unlock) are real sudoku rather than blocks.

Burny Games released Playdoku in 2022, and it has 107,131 US ratings. Its listing describes three modes: Classic, played at your own pace with no time pressure; Challenging, where difficulty rises; and Journey, a level-based mode where, in its own words, "you cannot replay previous levels to improve your score". If the levels are what keep you playing, an alternative needs them too. If it is the purchases or the ads that wore you down, the money side matters more.

The App Store facts

From each app's US App Store listing, checked October 26, 2026. Prices and paid items change, so check the listing before you buy.

How each one charges, and what you can switch off

For a game you play in short sessions many times a day, the way it is paid for shapes the whole experience. This table reads each app's list of in-app purchases on the US App Store.

Playdoku's coins and boosters

Most of Playdoku's listed items are currency: 6 coin packs at different sizes, plus booster and starter bundles. The listing does not say what coins or boosters do in the game, so we cannot tell you whether they are needed to progress through the Journey. What the listing does not show is a plain "remove ads" purchase. That is the main difference from Blockudoku and Number Match, which both sell one.

Same game, different terms: Blockudoku and Woodoku

Blockudoku is Easybrain's original version of the idea: drop shapes on a 9x9 grid and clear rows, columns and 3x3 squares. Its listing says there is no time limit, and adds daily challenges, seasonal events and tournaments with a leaderboard. Its only listed purchase is Blockudoku No Ads at $14.99. It has no Journey of levels, so if you play Playdoku for the sense of progress, you trade that for a high score. Our Blockudoku alternatives page covers it in more depth.

Woodoku plays the same way with wooden pieces and says it works offline. Its paid items are numbered "packages" that the listing does not describe, which is no clearer than Playdoku's coins. See the Woodoku alternatives if that is the one you are weighing.

Less luck, more logic

In a block puzzle the pieces are dealt to you. A good game is partly planning and partly what the game hands you next. Some players eventually want a puzzle where every move can be worked out.

Number Match sits in between: you clear pairs of equal numbers or pairs that add up to 10. Its listing says there is no time limit, and it sells Number Match No Ads for $14.99.

Good Sudoku is classic sudoku from Zach Gage, with five difficulty levels, three daily modes and a hint system that, per its listing, reads your answers and notes and points you to the next technique. It is free to download and sells a Full Game Unlock for $4.99, and its listing has no advertising label.

Sudoku Royale is our app, so weigh this paragraph with that in mind. It has no ads, no purchases and no subscription. If you like Playdoku's Journey, its own Journey is 88 levels in 10 stages, each chapter teaching one technique, from First Steps up to XY-Wing. Practice has six levels from Easy to Extreme, and the Daily Challenge keeps a streak. It has no undo, and a timer always shows in the corner, though Practice has no countdown and no mistake limit. Try Sudoku Royale free.

What carries over from blocks to sudoku

If you have played Playdoku for a while, you already read a 9x9 board in rows, columns and 3x3 squares without thinking about it. That is most of what sudoku asks of your eyes. What changes is the goal: instead of clearing space, you fill every cell so each row, column and box holds 1 to 9 once. Nothing is dealt to you, so a bad run of pieces never ends a game, and a puzzle you leave half done is still there tomorrow.

The first few Easy puzzles take a little longer than a block round. Most of the early solving is spotting the one cell in a row or box where a digit can still go, which our guide to hidden singles explains in a few minutes. After that, harder levels add new patterns one at a time, much like a Journey adds new board shapes. If you miss the quick, mindless rhythm of dropping blocks, keep Playdoku for that and use a sudoku app for the evenings you want to think.

When Playdoku is still the better pick

• You want block puzzles with levels. Of the block games here, only Playdoku's listing describes a level-based Journey.
• You want to think less. Placing shapes is more relaxed than solving a sudoku, and a round can end in seconds.
• You do not mind ads. If they do not bother you, Playdoku costs nothing to play.
• You play on Android. Sudoku Royale is iPhone and iPad only.

Which to pick

For the same game with a clean one-time fix for ads, go to Blockudoku. For a calm grid with no ads to fix at all, try a sudoku app. For more options across puzzle types, see the best calm puzzle games, the Number Match alternatives and every matchup on the sudoku app comparisons page.