Emulator reviews from Reddit
Summary
We analyzed 339 Reddit reviews across 70 subreddits and 149 posts to rank the best Emulator brands recommended by redditors, including communities like r/EmulationOnAndroid, r/yuzu, r/emulators, r/EmulationOniOS, r/PokemonFireRed. Top-rated brands include RetroArch (4.1/5), Duckstation (4.6/5), Citra (4.4/5).
Stats
Reviews339
Subreddits70
Posts149
Brands93
Products12
339 reviews from
and
By Brand
/By Product
#1
RetroArch
4.1
(24)
"Retroarch! It's amazing."
"Give Retroarch a go, plenty of cores on there."
"Retroarch."
"RetroArch And it’s not just GBA. It’s every console that you can emulate on RetroArch."
"I use Retroarch for all the older consoles."
"Retro arch works well on my phone."
"There are several emulators available through Retroarch."
"Retro Arch"
"I recommend Retroarch."
"I loved Retroarch and Delta. But I like Retroarch a little more than Delta."
#2
Duckstation
4.6
(16)
"Duck station (swan station if using RetroArch), pcsx2, rpcs3."
"Duckstation for PS1 (Silent Hill 1)
PCSX2 for PS2 (SH2, SH3, SH4, Origins and Shattered Memories)"
"Depends on the console:
PS1: Duckstation"
"Duckstation is the best, you only need bios and (obviously) games"
"Best emulator for all PS1."
"Duckstation and PCSX2. Don't bother with anything else"
"Duckstation."
"I wanna say duck station."
"Duckstation by miles!!"
"Duckstation is the best one by far."
#3
Citra
4.4
(16)
"Citra with the new 3ds setting has been the best performance for me"
"Me personally I think Citra MMJ is the best emulator for low end to medium end devices"
"Citra (3DS) runs great."
"I use citra mmj on a t618."
"Use Citra MMJ."
"Citra is the 3ds emulator i think most people use?"
"Your option is Citra or a Citra fork like Lime3DS."
"Never had any problem with Citra"
"I’m using Citra, and it’s fine"
"Citra works as well for most games"
#4
Delta
4.7
(14)
"I think the premier choices are Delta for iOS and MyBoy for android devices."
"Delta is what I use"
"Delta emulator on phone has worked for all the rom hacks I’ve played."
"Delta emulator for phones. VBA is good for PCs and does GameShark codes"
"Delta for iOS and mGBA for desktop"
"Delta was the cleanest and best"
"Thank you to everyone who recommended delta ive downloaded it 👍"
"Delta, just got it. It works great!"
"Try “Delta”"
"I personally find delta the best"
#5
MyBoy
4.0
(12)
"I highly recommend MyBoy."
"It works perfectly for all Pokémon games on my iPhone 14 Pro Max."
"Pretty decent with the right setting on iphone14 pro max."
"MyBoy! is really good and has functional multiplayer as well."
"I’ve heard really good things about MyBoy."
"MyBoy! on the phone, retroarch plugin on my Anbernic."
"MyBoy is the one i I've used for everything."
"I think I used MyBoy and it allowed keymapping"
"I use MyBoy, but I paid for the premium Versions years ago."
"I’m using myBoy with no issues with unbound or other Pokeroms."
#6
Citron
4.1
(11)
"I second this. Citron is the gold standard now."
"I use citron from citron.org. it's great."
"Use citron for switch."
"Citron, Sudachi, Yuzu in that order."
"Citron, Sudachi and Nyushu are the best Switch emulators currently."
"Citron and GreemDev's Ryujinx are probably the best currently maintained forks."
"I tried most of them including the forks, and my favorite so far is Citron."
"Citron for switch, cemu for Wii u"
"Citron works best for me."
"I use citron as it's all done for you setting up the config etc"
#7
Yuzu
4.0
(11)
"Yuzu, always"
"I can only play it on Yuzu because Ryujinx runs like dog water."
"Download both yuzu and sudachi cause some games work better on yuzu while other work better on sudachi."
"Yuzu and sudachi are what I use."
"Yuzu is still pretty solid for me."
"Yuzu, sudachi, or suyu."
"Play on sudachi or suyu and use totk optimizer."
"Yuzu, although I used Ryujinx for hundreds of hours in TOTK with no issues."
"Using Yuzu and sundachi on my Odin 2 SD8 gen 2."
"Still Yuzu."
#8
Sudachi
4.1
(9)
"From what I have seen here, Sudachi and Yuzu are the good ones."
"Try sudachi and citron."
"I erm allegedly use sudachi for most games."
"In my personal opinion Sudachi, I was impressed by it's performance"
"Sudachi."
"Have had pretty good luck with sudachi."
"Tbh sudachi. barely heats up to 35c."
"I use sudachi and it runs everything I need."
"Sudachi, I have the same phone."
#9
PPSSPP
4.6
(8)
"Use the PPSSPP save states! They work great!"
"PPSSPP"
"Ppsspp"
"Ppsspp"
"Ppsspp. It's also for linux."
"PPSSPP, Dolphin, Aethersx2 or Nethersx2."
"Believe it or not, your best choice of a J2ME emulator for iOS is by running PSPKVM inside PPSSPP."
"Had issues with few games like Silent Hill Shattered Memories but still had a great time with it."
#10
mGBA
4.4
(8)
"For GBA emulation, there is mGBA emulator. It is the most accurate gba emulator out there."
"For standalone your options are:
mGBA, Visualboy-Advance M. However mGBA is superior."
"Best GBA emulator for any platform: mGBA."
"Goated imo easy download and runs perfectly."
"MGBA or RetroArch"
"MGBA is more reliable."
"I use mGBA and don't have any issues."
"I was considering mGBA."
#11
Pizza Boy
4.0
(8)
"I really like Pizzaboy for Android."
"I used to use John GBA, now i use Pizza Boy."
"I have been using pizzaboy and trading locally with one phone is easy."
"Pizza Boy. Always."
"Pizzaboy"
"Pizza boy"
"I use pizza boy have for well over a year now."
"I like pizza boy"
#12
Azahar
4.4
(7)
"Try azahar or citra mmj"
"I use azahar. it works fantastic."
"Azahar is currently the best 3DS emulator."
"The best 3DS emulator right now is likely Lime3DS or Citra MMJ."
"Try Azahar or Citra MMJ."
"Personally waiting for a stable release but I've only heard good things so far."
"Azahar just released it's first build yesterday."
#13
LDPlayer
3.9
(7)
"LD player has been awesome"
"LDplayer, Mumu"
"I use LDPlayer runs fine"
"LDPlayer"
"I used LDPlayer and from what little I did use it, it worked just as well as old versions of BlueStacks."
"LDPlayer has been very solid for me."
"I tried LDPlayer. Folks here say it's better than Bluestacks but I wasn't impressed and went back to Blue."
#14
BlueStacks
3.7
(7)
"Bluestack (Android 13 version) here. Somehow choosing Vulkan for graphic renderer fixes the graphical hiccups."
"I use BlueStacks Ryzen 5700g 32gb ram M.2 teamgruop 1tb No dedicated graphic card"
"Bluestacks 4 should work"
"Bluestacks or MuMu Player are my personal recommendations"
"I prefered Bluestacks."
"I used bluestacks, it looked like it worked well but i dropped the game after a couple days so i dont know if it still works"
"I'd suggest Bluestacks."
#15
Winlator
3.7
(7)
"Winlator 10, definitely playable if you set your container right."
"The best version is the latest winlator version."
"Go gamehub or winlator."
"If you want a pc emulator I'd reccomend winlator as its safer tbh."
"I'd recommend winlator."
"Switch version is locked to 30 frames and has issues with dungeons and caves. I recommend using Gamehub or Winlator."
"Winlator but I cannot promise the 60fps"
#16
Anbernic
3.7
(7)
"The best device for GBA."
"Feels like a GBA, and obviously looks like one as well."
"The flip 2 is super easy to add roms onto, basically coming with emulators up to wii out the box."
"It'll play all the old stuff."
"It can run n64 and dreamcast, but some later games definitely lag a bit."
"A great choice for a first retro handheld."
"Most of the handhelds sold by Abernic etc can't handle it smoothly."
#17
Ryujinx
4.0
(6)
"Try ryujinx. i can't play some game on citron and it's either crasher or has massive graphical glitch."
"Ryujinx is a little clunky to get working but performs well."
"Ryujinx/ suyu, sudachi"
"I've been using Ryujinx and it's been working fine"
"Ryuninx for switch games."
"Citron is good for totk and botw I use ryujinx for everything else."
#18
Lime3DS
4.2
(5)
"I'd say Lime3DS or Citra MMJ."
"Try the Vulkan graphics backend in Lime3ds."
"3ds - lime3ds."
"Lime3DS is awesome."
"Lime3ds, I understand a developer forked citra and is continuing development."
#19
Mumu
3.8
(5)
"Mumu 44d"
"I use mumu! my laptop is kind of low end, so it isn't as smooth compared to my phone."
"Mumu 12"
"I swapped to mumu. It's still laggier than my phone."
"Try mumu, if that doesn't work you can use VMs with the blissOS installed."
#20
Steam Deck
4.8
(4)
"I’d definitely recommend steam deck as well as everyone else in the thread"
"As others have said the steam deck is perfect for it"
"It’s pricey but the steam deck is perfect!"
"Steam Deck is pretty good from what ive heard."
#21
My Boy
4.8
(4)
"For sure My Boy for mobile and mGBA for desktop"
"My boy is what I went with"
"Myboy"
"MyBoy"
#22
Mesen
4.8
(4)
"Mesen and punes are considered 'the most accurate'."
"Mesen, standalone or via RetroArch"
"Mesen"
"Mesen."
#23
DeSmuME
4.8
(4)
"Desmume, retroarch and melonds are the best for pc"
"I’ve been using DeSmuMe for a while now on my laptop (with Windows). So far no problems at all!"
"I would recommend DeSmuMe emulator for DS."
"I second DesMuMe. Been using it for quite a while now."
#24
Dolphin
4.5
(4)
"Dolphin is probably your best bet as the Wii version has the most content."
"The Gamecube version is usually considered the best version anyway"
"Dolphin seems good to Wii/GameCube."
"Dolphin."
#25
Lemuroid
4.3
(4)
"Lemuroid works great on all the phones I've had."
"Lemuroid is nice"
"Lemuroid easily, I played with some others like John GBA but Lemuroid lets you emulate the most amount of consoles overall."
"There is a emulator called lemuroid that plays Atari, NES, SNES that would cover a lot."
#26
My Boy!
4.3
(4)
"Use my boy! Or my old boy."
"My Boy! is solid."
"MyBoy! is by far the easiest and just works"
"I'm using MyBoy and it's good."
#27
Emudeck
4.3
(4)
"Just download emudeck for the steam deck it will auto install all the emulators you could need."
"Emudeck has most of them, not sure on switch but I know 3DS is part of the install"
"Grabbing a steamdeck and downloading emudeck would probably be in the ballpark of ease."
"Emudeck has everything you’ll need."
#28
Folium
4.0
(4)
"Folium is the best"
"Yah I always recommend folium. Mine runs great - even wo Jit."
"I heard folium have new update that revert to stable cytrus. You may try again"
"I wish I could get my money back from Folium."
#29
Suyu
4.0
(4)
"Totk runs best on suyu."
"Suyu is the only one that never gave me problems."
"Either latest sudachi or uzuy."
"Suyu."
#30
Provenance
3.8
(4)
"I think, the emulator provenance, is a great app."
"I will say that it played MUCH smoother on Provenance than it ever has on Folium."
"I would suggest adding Provenance (multiplatform via TestFlight)"
"I found an app called Provenance to play 3DS games."
#31
XBSX2
5.0
(3)
"Xbsx2 works great."
"Xbsx2 is perfect."
"Those two emulators run dang good on my series x."
#32
NetherSX2
4.7
(3)
"Nethersx2 which is a patch of Aether is the best."
"Obviously NetherSX2, if anyone needs it I have the apk ready to install."
"Nethersx2, Citra, Winlator."
#33
John GBA
4.3
(3)
"JohnGBA for me hands down"
"For what platform? I use John GBA on my phone, which I really like."
"JohnGBA on the play store gets the job done."
#34
CXBX
4.3
(3)
"Cxbx is easier to setup than xemu. i had multiple playthroughs in cxbx and never encountered a single problem"
"Cxbx"
"I’m using cxbx, the latest version on my pc. So far I haven’t ran into any problems."
#35
Snes9x
4.3
(3)
"Best emulator? Probably Snes9x."
"Snes9x is pretty good option for PC."
"If you want to play on PC, then I'd reccomend SNES9x."
#36
Daijisho
4.3
(3)
"Daijisho is free, so in my mind it's the best."
"DAIJISHO"
"I like daijisho because i can set my own background for each console very easily."
#37
Pnetlab
4.0
(3)
"PNET is my definitive answer."
"Pnetlab works great for me."
"Pnetlab or eve-ng. Im not a big fan of the cml dashboard."
#38
Retroid Pocket 2S
4.0
(3)
"With that budget I got myself a retroid pocket 2s, so I'd recommend that."
"Retroid Pocket 2S or RGB30."
"I would say Retroid Pocket 2S, it's a bit older but you get a lot for your money."
#39
melonDS
4.0
(3)
"I use Melon DS and find it quite good."
"Melon ds."
"MelonDS has a standalone app that supports cheevos."
#40
Intel N100 Mini PC
4.0
(3)
"N100 mini PCs can be had for what, 130 bucks? Beats RPi."
"If you insist on emulation I would get at the least an n100 mini pc or something like that."
"An Intel N100 mini PC is relatively cheap."
#41
Project64
4.0
(3)
"I prefer project64 over Mupen."
"Project64."
"Project64, and yes, it's compatible with texture packs."
#42
Uzuy
3.7
(3)
"I've got an s24 Plus and uzyu works swimmingly."
"I tend to just use the newest uzuy release."
"Uzuy. Yuzu isn't updated anymore."
#43
FBNeo
5.0
(2)
"FBNeo for CPS systems"
"Your best bet is FBNeo"
#44
RPCS3
5.0
(2)
"RPCS3 is your best bet for emulator."
"RPCS3 because I think it did what many thought it was impossible."
#45
Citra MMJ
5.0
(2)
"I use Citra MMJ. Works great. No complaints."
"I love the Citra mmj because its possible to use two screens with it."
#46
Vice
5.0
(2)
"Vice emulator is doing fantastic job for me."
"Just use Vice."
#47
BSNES
4.5
(2)
"Try BSNES."
"I use BSNES for emulating the snes."
#48
RIN
4.5
(2)
"RIN with the rewind function is the best."
"I’ve seen people say Master Boy is pretty good and it does Game Gear as well."
#49
Alacritty
4.5
(2)
"I use alacritty with tmux, granted I spend most of my time in my terminal."
"Just try them out and see what you like, but I prefer alacritty."
#50
Xenia
4.5
(2)
"Xenia is basically the only option"
"Xenia is good. Compatibility is still improving."
#51
Kitty
4.5
(2)
"I'm using Kitty on Fedora with Hyprland and it's been great — fast, GPU-accelerated, and very configurable."
"I use Kitty because it supports images. Only real distinguishing feature for my use cases honestly."
#52
Sudachi/Ryujinx
4.0
(2)
"For performance sudachi for compatability ryujinx."
"Currently prefer Sudachi, as it progressed further than Yuzu did."
#53
PS2
4.0
(2)
"PS2 (big boi) is a great emulator if you have a big enough storage device."
"Just get a PS2."
#54
MumuPlayer
4.0
(2)
"I use mumuplayer 12 works great."
"MumuPlayer12 is what I use"
#55
Cemu
4.0
(2)
"Get Cemu for BOTW, it runs really well."
"I like cemu because of how easy it is to use."
#56
Gamehub
4.0
(2)
"Gamehub emulator can provide up to 60fps if you're playing on an 8 elite"
"I like to play within Gamehub, I just installed Anniversary Edition it was 19GB and runs really well."
#57
Beacon
4.0
(2)
"I used Beacon for a long time, I loved, I switched to Daijishō, really nice too"
"Beacon"
#58
GBARunner2
4.0
(2)
"Gbarunner2 or 3, just install twilightmenu and it comes bundled in."
"You can use [GBARunner2]"
#59
Retroid Pocket 5
4.0
(2)
"I've found the Retroid Pocket 5 goes up to 3DS, but it's pricey.."
"Retroid pocket 5"
#60
Mobox
3.5
(2)
"I would say go with mobox. While Steam will run on glibc Winlator"
"Mobox, which is hard to set up."
#61
Nyushu
3.5
(2)
"Use nyushu emulator"
"Nyushu(can be found on telegram)"
#62
Folium and Xone
3.0
(2)
"Folium or Xone with JiT enabled."
"I imagine follium with jit activated or for the easiest process simply xone directly from apple’s app store but performance will be worse."
#63
RPCSX2
5.0
(1)
"I use RPCSX2 for Tekken 5 and RPCS3 for Tag 2 and Tekken 6"
#64
EggNS
5.0
(1)
"In my opinion, EggNS seems to be best."
#65
SameBoy
5.0
(1)
"For GBC I would recommend Sameboy. It is also the most accurate gbc emulator out of all."
#66
Foot Terminal Emulator
5.0
(1)
"It's a Wayland terminal emulator that has a server mode (foot server) that you can set up easily to run automatically at session start."
#67
Mednafen
5.0
(1)
"The most accurate Saturn emulator to date."
#68
Ship of Harkinian
5.0
(1)
"The answer is... Ship of Harkinian, which is essentially an open source project that recompiles OoT to smoothly play on your PC with full HD graphics."
#69
MAME
5.0
(1)
"I suggest using MAME!"
#70
Retro Game Corps
5.0
(1)
"I did the 3668.apk on the top and it works perfectly for the games I play."
#71
GBA.emu
5.0
(1)
"It came pre-installed on my rg353p and it was so good I bought it."
#72
Parallels
4.0
(1)
"I here parallels for mac is a popular choice"
#73
RMG
4.0
(1)
"Btw I'm using RMG (Rosalie's Mupen GUI)"
#74
3DS
4.0
(1)
"Try 3DS emulation"
#75
Odin
4.0
(1)
"Actually the odin 2 mini is better as you can actually get replacement batteries for it.. infinitely better"
#76
MyBoy!
4.0
(1)
"MyBoy! And MyOldBoy are great."
#77
Goldberg
4.0
(1)
"In terms of Steam Emulators, there is only Goldberg."
#78
MahoLator
4.0
(1)
"There is a promising new emulator in the making - MahoLator."
#79
Nox
4.0
(1)
"I’ve been using Nox ever since Bluestacks started to give me problems around May last year."
#80
Retro Virtual Machine
4.0
(1)
"[Retro Virtual Machine](https://retrovirtualmachine.org/)"
#81
DraStic
4.0
(1)
"Best Nintendo DS emulator on Android: Drastic."
#82
Anbernic RG505
4.0
(1)
"The Retroid Pocket 3+ and Anbernic RG505 are the cheapest devices that will hit both those points."
#83
Ares
4.0
(1)
"I recommend Ares."
#84
Retroid Pocket 3+
4.0
(1)
"The Retroid Pocket 3+ and Anbernic RG505 are the cheapest devices that will hit both those points."
#85
Retroid
4.0
(1)
"I think the Retroid Flip 2 is the best all-arounder right now."
#86
Retroid Pocket 4 Pro
4.0
(1)
"A retroid pocket 4 pro, retroid pocket 5, RG406H modded psp or modded vita should work."
#87
MeMu
4.0
(1)
"MeMu has always been my preferred Android emulator for windows."
#88
MSI App Player
4.0
(1)
"MSI App Player"
#89
CXBX-Reloaded
4.0
(1)
"I was just using cxbx-reloaded ran the game pretty good on my crappy laptop"
#90
Yuzu/Sudachi/Ryujinx
4.0
(1)
"I'm running Yuzu and Sudachi, but would love a 'one size fits all.'"
#91
BizHawk
4.0
(1)
"BizHawk uses mGBA and melonDS for GBA and DS, respectively."
#92
Ryujinx/PPSSPP/My Boy!/Drastic
4.0
(1)
"The ones I currently use are Switch: Ryujinx, PSP: PPSSPP."
#93
Tabby
3.0
(1)
"Tabby.sh"
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