Blog / Pirate Deal

Want to Play Monopoly Deal Online? Meet Pirate Deal

By the Pirate Deal crew · November 8, 2026 · 5 min read

If you've been searching for a Monopoly Deal app, or a way to play Monopoly Deal online with friends who live somewhere else, you're not the only one. Here's why it's tricky, and what we did about it.

Why Monopoly Deal is hard to play online

Everybody draws from one shared deck, everybody's hand has to stay secret, and anyone can be interrupted at any moment by a Just Say No. That works brilliantly around a kitchen table. Over a video call, with one deck in one house, it falls apart.

So we built a card game that keeps the fun and lives on your phone instead.

The same race, built for phones

If you know Monopoly Deal, you'll know Pirate Deal within a minute. Draw two, play up to three, bank your money and be the first to finish three sets. Just with pirates: properties are treasures, rent is ransom, money is gold, a Just Say No is a Not Today, Captain! and a Deal Breaker is a Mutiny! card. There are two brand new cards as well. Here's everything that's the same and different.

How to play with your friends

1. Everyone downloads Pirate Deal. iPhone and Android players can play together, and you don't need an account: you can play as a guest.
2. One of you taps Play with friends, then Create a private game. You get a game code, like SKULL-42.
3. Tap the code to send it to your friends. If they're already on your friends list and online, you can tap an empty seat to invite them instead, and they'll get a pop-up.
4. Your friends tap Play with friends, type the code under Join a game, and they're in.
5. Not enough of you? Tap Add a computer pirate to fill a seat, on Easy, Normal or Hard.
6. Choose your house rules if you like, then tap Set sail!

Games with friends have no turn limit, so nobody gets rushed while they're deciding who to rob.

How to play with strangers

1. Tap Play online.
2. Pick how many pirates you want at the table, from 2 to 5.
3. The game starts as soon as that many players are waiting. If the table still isn't full after 30 seconds, you can fill the empty seats with computer pirates and start straight away.

Online games have a 60-second turn limit, and they earn gold and points for the weekly leaderboard as well as experience.

Made for playing online

• Nobody holds up the game. You get 25 seconds to pay a debt and 15 to answer an attack. If you run out of time, the game pays for you, starting with your smallest gold and keeping your finished collections till last.
• Somebody's dinner is ready? If a player leaves, a computer pirate takes over their cards, so the game always finishes. Lose signal, and you get 30 seconds to come back before a computer steps in, and you can take your seat back when you reconnect.
• The rules are built in. The game works out every ransom and keeps track of who can still cancel an attack, so there's nothing to argue about. Well, less.
• Trash talk, without the typing. There's no chat box. Instead there are 35 lines to shout across the table, each one said out loud in your own pirate's voice.
• Friends list. Add friends by their pirate name or their code, see who's online, and invite them straight into a game.
• Four languages. English, French, Spanish and Chinese.