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Credit: Andy Walker / Android Authority

As long as I can remember, I’ve been a champion of premium games. While I don’t mind a simple time-waster here or there, I prefer an Android game with a little more complexity and ideally no ads. I also believe that dropping anywhere from $1-20 for a premium game not only helps more ambitious developers who don’t want to go through the ad-festered freemium route, but ensures that a premium market continues to exist in a world where most people just go for the free versions.

Of course, the fact that premium games are a niche thing also limits what kind of paid titles get produced. By and large, you have two main pools here in 2026: Ports of older games from PC or console history, or indie hits that are typically cross-platform in some way. There are truly unique premium games too, but they are less common these days. Some of these premium games are a better experience than others, but below are just six that I feel are absolutely worth it.

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Science word of the day: Autotroph

Pronunciation: AW'-tuh-trohf

What it means: Autotrophs are organisms that can feed themselves with inorganic substances such as light (for plants) or methane (certain microbes). Autotrophs were the first single-celled life-forms to colonize the planet, thriving on chemicals bubbling up from the subsurface at deep-sea vents or figuring out how to harness the sun for energy. Heterotrophs (like you, me and all fungi), arrived on the scene later to feast on these DIY-ers.

How to use it in a sentence: Stromatolites, microbial mats built by cyanobacteria, are autotrophs that thrived in ancient shallow seas.

Can you crack our science word of the day puzzle, Chain Word ?

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Award-winning entomologist Dino Martins, known for his work on pollinators, shows in his latest book that even the most gruesome creatures have vital roles to play

Dino J Martins has never been able to resist the small things. The renowned entomologist and evolutionary biologist spent his formative years in biodiversity-rich western Kenya with his foster parents, Joe and Sarah Ellen, looking at birds, flowers and insects on Mt Elgon, and in Kakamega forest and Kerio valley.

He was especially transfixed by the miniature world beneath his feet – dung beetles rolling mounds of cattle dung; safari ants’ migrations across the plains; male butterflies that suck salt and other nutrients from the mud to produce “nuptial gifts” during mating; and bees pollinating the critically endangered African violet alongside crops in a farmer’s field.

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While most audiences would remember The Martian and Interstellar when they are asked about their favorite sci-fi movies featuring Matt Damon , he appeared in another well-received movie before those two hits. The movie in question is currently available in the United States on Peacock, but it won’t be around for much longer. Released theatrically in 2011, the film marked Damon and Emily Blunt ’s first project together before they reunited as cast members in Christopher Nolan ’s Oppenheimer , several years later. Their 2011 film was directed by George Nolfi , who was best known for being on the writing teams for earlier Damon movies such as Ocean’s Twelve and The Bourne Ultimatum .