Games like FooPets: 6 cozy pet games you can play today
FooPets — home of the most lifelike virtual puppies and kittens on the web — went dark when Flash was retired in 2020, and if you raised a FooPet, no pet game has felt quite the same since. Here's the honest list of what comes closest — and our pick, Petropolis Play, doesn't ask you to take anyone's word for anything: it's free, runs in your browser with no download and no signup, works beautifully on phones, and is embedded on this very page.
Free forever · No download · No account · Progress saves on your own device.
The proof is the game itself
Every "games like FooPets" search runs into the same heartbreak: lists full of links to a site that isn't there anymore. This page embeds its top pick instead — the complete free version of Petropolis Play, live below. Adopt and name your first pet in under 60 seconds, no account needed — and the same game is waiting on the Petropolis Play homepage anytime.
Free forever · No download · Progress saves on this device
See it before you play it
Real screenshots from the free game embedded above — no trailer magic, no mockups. This is what adopting your first pet actually looks like.
6 games like FooPets, ranked
Yes, it's our list and yes, we put ourselves first — so we've printed the yardstick below every pick. Check our work.
🐾 Petropolis Play
Best for: FooPet parents who want a companion that's theirs again — free, no download, no signup
Full disclosure: this is our game, and it's why this list exists. Petropolis Play is a free cozy browser pet game built around everything FooPets got right — with one honest difference we'll say up front: our pets are hand-drawn cartoon friends, not realistic 3D animals. Everything else is the FooPets heart. You adopt: four species are free today — pup, kitten, bunny and a brand-new sunny turtle — each in their own colors, and each waiting for the name you give them. You care: hunger, happiness and health tick down gently, and feeding, playing and resting bring them back up (pets can never die or be taken away — they just wait patiently, which is a deliberate choice for players who already lost one pet to a shutdown). You earn: PawCoins come from minigames like Berry Catch and a daily login bonus — exactly the FooDollars deal — and they can never be bought. And you decorate: drag-and-drop furniture into a room that's entirely yours, across five themes. Best of all for anyone who lost a FooPet in 2020: your progress saves on your own device, not on a server or a plugin that can be switched off. It's free forever, there is genuinely nothing to sign up for, it's genuinely mobile-friendly, and the only purchase is an optional $4.99 one-time Full Version — never a subscription, and no premium currency. Don't take our word for it: it's embedded above.
🦴 FooPets
Best for: pure nostalgia — the food bowls went dark in 2020
The honest starting point: FooPets itself is not coming back. FooMojo — a Redwood City startup founded in 2007 by Ron Hornbaker, a veterinarian turned serial entrepreneur (he'd earlier founded BookCrossing) — soft-launched the idea as the Pokey virtual-puppy Facebook app in early 2008, then opened FooPets.com later that year billing it as the most realistic interactive virtual pets introduced to date. And they were: puppies and kittens that breathed, blinked, developed personalities and reacted to how you treated them. You fed and watered them with earned FooDollars, decorated their habitat, taught them tricks, walked obstacle courses, boarded them at the kennel when you went away — and dealt with fleas and worms if you didn't. Premium FooGems and a ClubFoo membership came later, and neglected pets could genuinely waste away. After ownership changes in the mid-2010s the site went quiet, and because it was built on Adobe Flash it went dark for good when browsers retired Flash at the end of 2020. No official successor has ever shipped — the closest realistic-pet cousin left is Nintendo's Nintendogs, which lives on old DS and 3DS handhelds, not in a browser tab.
🧸 Webkinz Classic
Best for: the original adopt-a-pet-and-decorate ritual
Ganz still operates Webkinz Classic, the 2000s pet-adoption icon the whole genre is measured against: adopt a pet, feed it, play with it, and decorate its room. The honest catches: the traditional adoption model is tied to buying a physical plush toy with an adoption code, it runs through apps rather than a browser tab, and an optional Deluxe Membership gates extras. If you grew up with the plushies too, nothing else is the real thing.
⭐ Neopets
Best for: a whole pet world that's still online
Neopets launched in 1999, outlived Flash, and is still free in a real browser tab — adopt a Neopet, attach a Petpet companion, do dailies, join a guild and explore a whole planet. The honest catches: it's a quarter-century of accumulated interface, everything starts with an account sign-up, and its economy and battling sides are more spreadsheet than storybook.
🦊 Animal Jam
Best for: a shared animal world with official support
WildWorks' world of Jamaa, online since 2010 in partnership with National Geographic, is where the shared-world side of the genre lives now: adopt and customize an animal, decorate a den, play minigames for gems and meet other players — still running as a free app on mobile and Steam, with the original browser-era game preserved as a downloadable Animal Jam Classic. The honest catches: the in-browser version was retired with Flash in 2020, so it's an install today, and the best animals and den items sit behind an optional membership and premium sapphires.
🗺️ MaraPets
Best for: a classic pet site that never left
Online since 2004 and still free in a plain browser tab, MaraPets is one of the last classic pet sites still standing — pets to create and collect, restockable shops, quests, minigames that pay out Marapoints and the world of Marada to wander. The honest catches: it's a small indie operation with a proudly retro interface that shows its age, the community is smaller than the genre giants', and optional account upgrades gate some conveniences.
The yardstick for a FooPets successor
FooPets wasn't just a pet game — it was a companion that noticed when you showed up. Whatever you try from this list, these are the four things that made it special, and the four things we checked for.
A pet that feels alive
FooPets' magic was realism: a puppy or kitten that breathed, blinked, wagged its tail and reacted to how you treated it. Any game on a 'like FooPets' list has to start with a pet that feels like a living companion, not a static picture.
Care that actually matters
FooPets tracked hunger, thirst, happiness and health, and they drifted down when life got busy — feeding, watering and playing brought them back. A pet that's just a costume with a name is no FooPet.
Coins earned by playing
FooDollars were earned in-game and spent on food, accessories and a habitat to be proud of — the genre's fairest deal. A pet game whose currency is mostly meant to be bought is a shop with a pet attached.
A pet that can't be taken away
FooPets ran on Flash and somebody else's server, and when both went away in 2020, every pet went with them. We gave extra credit to games that run in a plain browser tab, work on phones, and keep your progress somewhere no shutdown can reach.
What "like FooPets" means here
"Like FooPets" can mean the realism, the daily feeding ritual, the habitat, the heartbreak of a pet that could waste away. Here's exactly what it means at Petropolis Play— and, just as honestly, what it doesn't.
What carried over
- A pet that's yours — pick a species, a color and a name
- A daily care loop — feed, play, rest — stats gently decay
- Coins earned by playing — minigames and a daily bonus, never bought
- Dress-up and decorating — 44 shop items, five themes, drag-and-drop
- Free in any browser — no Flash, no download, mobile-friendly
- A pet that can't be taken away — never dies; progress saves on your device
What you won't find here
- Not the official FooPets — that site went dark with Flash in 2020
- No realistic 3D pets — ours are hand-drawn cartoon friends
- No fleas, worms or kennel boarding — a gentler kind of care
- No thirst meter — three cozy stats, not four
- No ClubFoo or FooGems — free core plus one optional $4.99 upgrade
Who will you bring home?
Four friends are free to adopt today — including the brand-new Sunny Turtle. Six more, like the very relaxed Breezy Sloth and one very small, very polite dragon, move in with the one-time Full Version.
Puddle Pup
Splashes in every puddle, then naps like a champion.
Whisker Kitten
Professional sunbeam chaser and part-time yarn critic.
Clover Bunny
Bounces first, asks questions later.
Ember Fox
Clever, quick, and secretly very cuddly.
Bamboo Panda
Snack enthusiast. Napping professional.
Pebble Penguin
Waddles with purpose. Loves a good slide.
Spark Dragon
Tiny flames, enormous heart.
Stardust Unicorn
Leaves a trail of sparkles wherever she trots.
Sunny Turtle
Slow to the pool, first in line for a snack.
Breezy Sloth
Hangs around all summer. Literally.
Free means free — and it can't be taken away
FooPet parents learned the hard way that a pet living on somebody else's server — and somebody else's plugin — can disappear overnight. Petropolis Play's core loop — adopting, caring, earning and decorating — is permanently free, the room is furnished with PawCoins you win by playing, and your progress saves on your own device, where no server decision can reach it. The one optional purchase is a single $4.99 Full Version. Once — then it's yours.
The Foo-era deal
Free* until the plugin and the servers go away
- Realistic pets that lived and died with a browser plugin
- Premium currencies and a monthly members' club
- “Free” until the servers and Flash went away
- Sign-up forms standing between you and your pet
- Pets living on servers that can shut down overnight
Free core game
$0 forever — really
- Adopt and name a pet free — four species today
- Feed, play, rest — the whole care loop, free forever
- PawCoins earned by playing, never bought
- 44 shop items, five room themes, drag-and-drop decorating
- No download, no account, works on any phone or laptop
- Optional $4.99 one-time upgrade, never a subscription
Frequently asked
Is FooPets still online?
No — and we'd rather tell you plainly than let you click through to a dead link. FooMojo launched FooPets.com in 2008 and ran it for years, but after ownership changes in the mid-2010s the site went quiet, and because the whole game was built on Adobe Flash it went dark for good when browsers retired Flash at the end of 2020. There has never been an official successor or revival. If you raised a FooPet, the six picks above are the honest next-best thing — starting with the one playable on this page.
What games are like FooPets?
Our honest shortlist: Petropolis Play (our own free cozy browser pet game — adopt, feed, play, earn coins in minigames and decorate a room, playable right here with no download or signup), Webkinz Classic (the plush-era adopt-care-decorate ritual, in apps), Neopets (a whole pet world that's been free in a browser since 1999), Animal Jam (a shared animal world with minigames and den decorating, in apps and a desktop Classic) and MaraPets (a classic browser pet site that's been free since 2004). If it's specifically FooPets' realism you miss, Nintendo's Nintendogs on DS/3DS is the closest official experience left. The list above walks through each honestly, catches included.
Is there an official FooPets 2 or revival?
No official successor has ever shipped — not from FooMojo, and not from any of the owners that followed. The closest official thing left in the realistic-pet spirit is Nintendo's Nintendogs series, which lives on DS and 3DS hardware rather than in a browser. Petropolis Play is an independent, unaffiliated cozy cousin: we grew up feeding virtual pets too, and built a free browser pet game around the same adopt-care-earn-decorate heart.
Do pets die in Petropolis Play, like they could in FooPets?
Never — and that's a deliberate design choice, not an oversight. Hunger, happiness and health gently drift down if you're away, but your pet simply waits patiently for you: they can't get sick, can't be taken away, and can't die. A lot of us lost a virtual pet once to a server shutdown or a busy month, and we built Petropolis Play so it can't happen here — your progress saves on your own device, too, so no company decision can take them either.
Is Petropolis Play really free?
Yes — honestly free. Adopting, feeding, playing, minigames, shopping and room decorating are free forever, and PawCoins are earned by playing, never bought — the same deal FooDollars made, with no FooGems and no ClubFoo in sight. The single optional purchase is a $4.99 one-time Full Version that adds six more species, two more minigames, outfits, every room theme and up to three pets at once — never a subscription. The free game embedded above is the real thing, not a demo.
Is Petropolis Play affiliated with FooPets or FooMojo?
No. Petropolis Play is an independent game and is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or connected to FooPets, FooMojo Inc., Webkinz, Ganz Inc., Neopets, World of Neopia Inc., Animal Jam, WildWorks, the National Geographic Society, MaraPets, Nintendo, or Nintendogs. All trademarks belong to their respective owners — we just grew up feeding virtual pets too, and built a free, browser-based cozy pet world of our own.
Looking for a specific flavor of nostalgia?
Same free game, same cozy promise — we built a page for every side of the playground.
Your new best friend is one tap away
Free forever. No download, no account, no subscription — just a pet who's very happy to see you, and one you'll never have to say a server's-goodbye to.