Games like Neko Atsume, where the cats are real
If you want the Neko Atsume feeling with real animals, Chonk Finder is the closest thing: you photograph a cat you actually meet and it becomes a trading card with a name, a rarity and two attacks written for that cat alone. The difference is the direction. Neko Atsume brings cats to you and asks for patience; Chonk Finder asks you to go for a walk. If you want a game you can play from the sofa with nothing to organise, stay with Neko Atsume, because it is better at that than we are.
Free on iPhone and Android. No sign-up.
Neko Atsume works because it asks almost nothing of you. Put food and a toy in the yard, close the app, come back later, and somebody new is asleep in a box. Hit-Point have kept that going since 2014, and the sequel released in October 2024 is still being updated. That is eleven years of a formula nobody has improved on.
What it cannot do is give you the cat. The animal in the box is drawn, the same one in everybody else’s yard, and when you close the app it is not anywhere. For a lot of people that is exactly right and this page is not trying to talk them out of it.
For everybody else the itch is specific: the same collecting, the same small daily check, but the cat is the ginger one who sits on the wall outside the chip shop. That cat has never been in a game, because no game knew it existed until somebody photographed it.
Neko Atsume 2 and Chonk Finder, honestly
| Chonk Finder | Neko Atsume 2 | |
|---|---|---|
| The cats | Real animals, photographed by the people who met them | Drawn characters, the same cast for every player |
| How one arrives | You go outside and find it | You leave food and toys out and wait |
| What it asks of you | A walk | Opening the app now and then |
| Best for | Somebody who already notices the cats on their street | Somebody who wants company from the sofa |
| Phones | iPhone and Android | iPhone and Android |
| Price | Free, no sign-up | Free, with an optional Cat’s Club subscription |
| Other players | Four different people have to find a cat before it becomes a Chonk, and all four stay on its card | Cats can go out and visit other players’ yards |
| Something to hold | Cards printed on real stock and posted to you | Not listed |
| Still being updated | Yes | Yes, version 2.33.0 on 15 September 2026 |
Taken from what each app says about itself: Neko Atsume official site, Neko Atsume on Wikipedia, Neko Atsume 2 features.
The cats are the ones outside your door
Photograph a cat you meet and it comes back written up: a name, a Chonk Level from 1 to 10, a rarity, its coat, and two attacks invented for that animal alone. The cat asleep on the wall turns out to have a weakness to an empty lap. Nobody else has that card, because nobody else met that cat.
A map that fills in as you walk
Every cat sits where it was found, and the map fills in street by street as you and everybody else go past. The ones you have not met yet are outlines, which is the part that gets people walking a different way home.
The collection is a real object
There is a new cat free every morning, and the cards you earn can be printed on proper card stock and posted through your letterbox. Neko Atsume gave people a Catbook. This one you can put on a shelf.
The three questions that stop people
- Is there a Neko Atsume with real cats?
- Chonk Finder is the nearest thing. You photograph a cat you actually meet and it becomes a trading card with a name, a rarity and two attacks written for it. The collecting feels similar; the getting there does not, because you have to go outside.
- Do I need to own a cat?
- No, and most people do not. The game is about the cats nobody owns: the one on the wall, the one outside the shop, the one who lives in the car park. If you do have a cat, you can put them on the map too.
- Is Neko Atsume still going?
- Yes. Neko Atsume 2 came out in October 2024 and was still being updated in September 2026. This page is not here to tell you to stop playing it.
- What does Neko Atsume do better?
- Resting. It asks nothing of you, it works in a queue or in bed, and it has been doing that beautifully since 2014. Chonk Finder needs you to be out of the house and near an actual cat, which is a worse answer on a rainy night.
- Is it free?
- Yes, and there is no sign-up. The only thing to buy is extra packs of printed cards. One pack is earned by playing, costs nothing and takes no card details.
- Does it work where I live?
- Anywhere there are cats, which is most places. The map is empty until somebody starts finding them, and being first is worth more than arriving late: the first four finders of a cat are named on its card for good.
- Is this comparison fair?
- It is written by the people who make one of the two apps, so read it knowing that. Every line in the table comes from what Neko Atsume says about itself, the date it was checked is printed on it, and the links are there so you can go and check us.
There is probably a cat outside right now.
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