With the sudden emergence of x86_64 emulators, running smartphone apps on Windows may seem like old news. However, Android emulators are still chugging along just fine, and we've even seen new faces like the Google Play Games Emulator crop up in recent times. There's also BlueStacks, MeMU Play, and a handful of old veterans that have helped countless PC users emulate their favorite Android applications over the years.
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But if you’re wondering whether the California-based giant’s proprietary emulator can surpass the reigning champion BlueStacks, you’ve come to the right place. In this article, we’ll compare both emulators on multiple fronts to see which one comes out on top!
To keep things simple, we’ll only cover BlueStacks 5 (with some references to BlueStacks 4), as both versions let you run games on your local hardware instead of relegating the processing aspect to the cloud. To further level the playing field, we’ve sideloaded extra apps on the developer version of the Google Play Games Emulator.
Pricing and ads
Winner: Google Play Games Emulator (by a small margin)
On the surface, both BlueStacks 5 and Google Play Games Emulator are available for free, and you can use any feature without paying a dime to either company. However, BlueStacks tends to display some advertisements in the middle of your gaming sessions. But the silver lining here is that the company provides you with the option to disable ads inside the Preferences settings of your Android container. Nevertheless, Google Play’s Emulator wins this round with its ad-free nature.
OS compatibility and ease of setup
Winner: BlueStacks
As of writing, the latest versions of BlueStacks and Google Play Emulator are only available for Windows systems, though the former will be available on macOS in the future. If you don’t want to spend months waiting for BlueStacks 5 to drop on Apple’s flagship desktop OS, you can install BlueStacks 4 on your macOS machine.
While we’re on the subject of the installation process, BlueStacks is fairly easy to set up. The same holds for installing games from app stores and apk files, and you can easily modify the performance settings of your BlueStacks container. Although Google’s emulator isn’t very complex to configure, you’ll need to dabble in ADB commands to sideload apps and games on it.
App catalog
Winner: BlueStacks by a longshot
BlueStacks boasts a massive library of apps and games, with each container letting you install most of the popular titles straight from Google Play. From graphically demanding titles to productivity apps, BlueStacks 5 has a solid application suite – and that’s before you include the other app stores you can add to your BlueStacks containers.
On the other hand, Google Play Games Emulator is extremely lacking when it comes to apps. While you can access the built-in Play Store utility, it’s a neutered version of Google’s actual app store and only supports a handful of lightweight games. For non-gaming applications, your best bet is to sideload some APKs and pray to the gods of emulation that they’ll work without too many issues on the emulator.
Controller and KB+M support
Winner: Tie, though BlueStacks has a slight advantage…
Having run multiple apps and games on both emulators using my keyboard and mouse combo, I can confirm that they’re equally matched when it comes to accepting support for non-touchscreen input devices. While support for controllers varied depending on the game, I didn't encounter too many issues when using my GameSir Tarantula Pro and Manba’s One Series gamepads with BlueStacks and Google Play Emulator.
That said, BlueStacks is slightly better as it supports customizable on-screen controls for most games. While it’s not something 95% of the emulator’s users would ever utilize, the on-screen controller might be worthwhile for gamers who want to emulate their favorite titles on a touchscreen system.
Performance
Winner: BlueStacks, unsurprisingly
Besides its superior app collection, BlueStacks also provides top-notch performance when emulating Android titles on your PC. On my Ryzen 5 5600X-powered system, I managed to get multiple games, including Shadow Fight 2 (and 3), Genshin Impact, Dead Effect 2, and Real Racing 3, running at 4K60FPS. If you’re wondering about the resolution and frame rates, BlueStacks lets you customize the display, CPU, and other performance-oriented settings for each container.
In contrast, I was unable to sideload a single demanding game on Google’s new emulator. So, there was no way to install the graphically-intensive titles, let alone compile some FPS charts. For some weird reason, the emulator couldn’t even display the results of the Antutu benchmark. Although the low-power games from Google Play work fine, the emulator doesn’t let you adjust the display settings, which is another downer for someone using it on a high-resolution monitor. While there are ADB scripts that can change the resolution of the container window, executing them makes the display a complete mess. As such, BlueStacks wins in the performance category.
BlueStacks vs Google Play Games Emulator: It’s not even a competition
Although I appreciate the ad-free nature of the Google Play Games Emulator, there’s no denying that it’s severely lacking on the capability front. In its current state, it’s impossible for the Google Play Emulator to beat BlueStacks 5 in software compatibility and sheer performance.
That said, if you’re a developer who’s well-versed in terminal commands, it’s a good idea to use Google’s official Android emulator as your testing environment. It’s also a decent option for anyone who needs a lightweight alternative to Windows Subsystem for Android when the service shuts down in 2025.
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