Play mahjong online and you have three choices in 2026. Japanese mahjong online, four players, in a browser or an app. Mahjong Soul is the one I open with a new player. Riichi City is the alternative. Tenhou is the ladder that punishes 4th.
I checked each site on October 3, 2026. The old GameDesign browser game is a Flash file. Skip that one.
| You want | Open |
|---|---|
| Riichi mahjong online, in English | Mahjong Soul |
| A Mahjong Soul alternative | Riichi City |
| vs Mahjong Soul | Tenhou |
Best riichi mahjong app
Mahjong Soul. The English homepage is mahjongsoul.yo-star.com. mahjongsoul.com is the Japanese site, 雀魂. Use the English one if you want the English UI.
Steam lists Mahjong Soul as free to play. The iPhone app, from Yostar (Hong Kong), is free, listed in English, and was updated on March 10, 2026 (version 2.7). The Japanese play page at game.mahjongsoul.com answered the same day I checked, with a Last-Modified header of August 10, 2026.
You get ranked rooms and a log you can hand to someone stronger. The client also sells characters and items. Once you have a few ranked games, the Mahjong Soul rank calculator turns your own placement rates into a climb, in games.
Mahjong Soul alternative
Riichi City is the other English client that shipped phone updates this year. The official site has an English language switch. The homepage document was last modified on September 29, 2026.
Steam lists it as free to play, with in-app purchases, an English interface, and English subtitles. On that page, Formirai Co., Ltd. is the developer, and the release date is September 8, 2022. The Steam description includes a tutorial, replays, spectator mode, and hints for the winning tile.
The iPhone app, RiichiCity, is free, includes English, and shipped version 2.2.10 on August 9, 2026. Google Play shows an Android update on July 28, 2026 (version 2.2.8).
Tenhou vs Mahjong Soul
Mahjong Soul is the English app, free to download, with an iPhone build from March 2026. Tenhou's web client and app are free through tokujou. The phoenix room costs money. Open Soul when you want the app. Open Tenhou when you want the ladder that punishes 4th.
Tenhou was up on October 3, 2026. Its own counter listed 7,525,566 registered IDs that day. The figure is cumulative registrations, not people sitting in a lobby.
Basic play is free. The homepage lists a paid tier at 660 to 1000 yen per ID for 30 days. The manual says which rooms that money buys. I dropped the Flash columns. Browsers don't run Flash in 2026.
| Room | Web and app | Desktop 4K |
|---|---|---|
| Ippan (一般) | Free | Free |
| Joukyuu (上級) | Free | Paid |
| Tokujou (特上) | Free | Paid |
| Houou (鳳凰) | Paid | Paid |
Desktop 4K looks better, and it charges you before joukyuu. For free games above the general room, use the standard web client or the app.
The Windows client charges for every ranked room, including ippan. Leave it until you already pay.
Watching a replay, spectating, and test play are free on the current clients. Saving a replay file for analysis sits on the paid tier. You can still download logs from the last 10 days by hand at tenhou.net/mjlog.html.
The iPhone app, 麻雀 天鳳 from C-EGG, is free and listed in English. The build on the store is 1.69.13, from January 25, 2024. Old, and still listed.
I worked on the English translation of the HD client. names stay in Japanese. If a menu is still in Japanese, the Chrome add-on with a live store page is Tenhou English UI, last updated June 2, 2024. The older listing on the tools page now resolves to an empty store title. In August 2026, players reported that numbered tiles make the working add-on drop the tile art. Keep the standard tiles.
Tenhou also teaches habits that lose money at a live table. Read the warning before you grind a thousand games there.
What I would skip
GameDesign's Japanese Mahjong page still loads. It was last changed on July 4, 2021, and it still embeds mahjong_e.swf. Browsers dropped Flash. The tools article used to send people there for offline practice. That path is over.
Ron2 (龍龍) is the Japan Professional Mahjong League's online client, and the site was up. The homepage I loaded was Japanese. A new English player should start on one of the three above.
Sega NET Mahjong MJ shipped an iOS build on September 29, 2026. The listing I checked was Japanese. An English reader should start on Mahjong Soul, Riichi City, or Tenhou.
After you can finish a game
Play one session on the client you picked. Then train the part that felt slow. The tools list has the book, the cheat sheet, and the wait trainer. Tenhou and Mahjong Soul both give you a log you can send for a game review. Terms that stay in Japanese are in the glossary.
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