Last updated on January 15th, 2026 at 01:42 pm
Pocket GM 3: Football Sim – Simulation Game Review
Pocket GM 3: Football Sim is a Simulation/Sports/Sports game from Jonathan Howell, first launched in 24th December 2022.
It’s rated 4+ and currently has 3,852+ ratings on the App Store.
What Makes Pocket GM 3: Football Sim Stand Out
Pocket GM is BACK! It's once again time to manage your very own American Football franchise to glory!
- Draft your franchise Quarterback on your way to creating a dominant roster through trades and free agency
- Develop your players and support them on gameday with the best backroom team you can build
- Watch games develop play-by-play and track the stats of key players
- Create your own rosters to maximise immersion
REPLAYABILITY:
Use default players, random rosters or import teams created by the fantastic community. Every game is different and presents a new challenge.
CONTROL:
Become the General Manager of a Pro Football Team and build your dynasty. Hire your coaches, scouts and physios, all with unique traits and schemes, then sign and release players, make trades and draft future stars. Coach your players from rough diamonds to the hall of fame.
WATCH:
Watch each football game play out in amazing play-by-play detail, as momentum shifts from team to team. See your franchise win the Championship and stars achieve All Pro status.
STRATEGY:
Go all in to win now, or tank for the #1 draft pick – it's up to you! Build your Football Dynasty!
SHARE:
Join the community on reddit and help develop the game to be even better. You determine what features come next.
Attribution:
- Football Icons – Icons made by Nikita Golubev from www.flaticon.com
This Simulation game offers engaging gameplay and regular updates for mobile players.
Player Feedback
As a newer release, Pocket GM 3: Football Sim is building its player community. Early feedback suggests .
Recent Updates & Development
Latest Update: 17th July 2025
Recent improvements include:
Additional bug fixes on top of previously release.
Updated for 2025/26 Season:
- New Salary Caps
- New Contract Demands
- Improvements to AI Draft Logic
- Further Improvements to Draft Display
- Bug Fixes.
Download & Availability
Pocket GM 3: Football Sim is available through the official App Store for iOS devices.
Get Pocket GM 3: Football Sim on App Store
Requirements: Requires iPhone 5s / iPad Air / iPad Air (Cellular) / iPad Mini 2 (Retina) / iPad Mini 2 (Retina, Cellular) / iPhone 6 / iPhone 6 Plus / iPad Air 2 / iPad Air 2 (Cellular) / iPad Mini 3 or later.
Compatible with iPhone and iPad devices.
Player Experience Highlights
Community Insight:
We love this game. Im hoping for a 4th generation. We have spent so many hours just building teams. We would like to make one suggestion. Sometimes when the players that are 99s or the quarterbacks that are 95 and above become free agents, nobody can ever pick them up because theyre so expensive. They are literally the best players and they sit in free agency sometimes for years. There has to be a way to fix that. It makes no sense.
Love it, but sometimes it doesnt feel very immersive. Background music, relationships, news articles that pop up, some things we think would make us feel more immersed. Thanks for this game.
This game has everything youre looking for in a franchise football simulator. Its really fun to play, at least until you figure out how to cheat the system. We wish there was a way that the computer would reject trades if they didnt make sense. Its easy to abuse.
Im not one to leave reviews, nor have we ever even left one on a mobile game. However this game is incredible, the in depth expansion of it, friendly UI, and smooth gameplay with no crashes or any issues of the sort is incredible! This is something rare to find from a mobile game, and has us wanting more for the next game of the series. It takes strategy and season planning a huge step ahead compared to other games. It doesnt feel way too unrealistic like Madden does with specific playbooks that are set up for more success. But this rather makes you understand that any playbook works, of course with the fact that it depends on your roster and what youre aiming for to choose a fitting style on both sides of the ball. Highly recommend this game! This is hands down the best management game out there for football, and even basketball as we just got that as well and Im not even a basketball fan, just love this style of management.
Everything about this game is almost perfect to us except for the hall of fame system. We have had so many players who have over 5 pro bowl and conf bowl selections, over 15k rushing/receiving yards, and 100+ touchdowns and somehow not make the hall of fame. And that goes for other positions and their respective stats as well. At any position we will have a player with a hall of fame worthy career and not make it and be forgotten. So we think the system needs to be revamped and/or there needs to be a ring of honor system implemented so that we can remember some of our greatest players who didnt make the hall.
We love this game. We have other football sports games and you have to play on the field (if you want to be a consistent winner) this game takes that away and lets you see what you put together from building around a coaching type and player personnel type. The drafting process is awesome, trading for draft picks multiple years down the road allows you to rebuild your team fast. Great game for those who like to roster build.
Make pocket gm college football edition, we think it could be fun.
We believe its a great game overall the gameplay is engaging and enjoyable. However, it would be even better if a practice squad feature were added, as it would deepen the experience and allow players to develop talent more strategically.
This game is absolutely addicting. We could sit here and play this game while Im at work or on a road trip for just hours on and trying to become the best general manager and really try to build the best football team. We have so much fun with this game on this app and its so mind addicting that you just wanna sit and stay on the game for so long. We cant believe this game has been made and we absolutely love this game. The only thing we wish it did is try to do more with the coaching, for example, when we simulate and we have like a West Coast kind of offense the running game still isnt the best cause we know that the West Coast office is built off a short passes and playing off the running a lot but other than that, whoever made this game did a phenomenal job and we hope they continue to improve this app because we want to keep playing it.
This is our favorite football sims. Simple layout, but real depth and realistic. Great Reddit community and the dev is very responsive to feedback. Highly recommend for fans of football sims.
Been playing forever and just now thought to leave a review, lol. Best football sim youll find by far. Dont miss out.
This is the best American Football Manager game on the market as of Sep. 2025. Including PC and Console markets. Trust the reviews, buy this game, dont waste time on others with micro transactions.
Ive played every game since PGM1 Including the college games and they never miss. Even if a game isnt perfect to start they update constantly and make a better management sim than any game Ive played on any device.
They should make a baseball or soccer one.
We Love the simplicity of this game its not a particularly hard, that it would make the game super frustrating but not to easy to bore you its a mix of both personally will buy every single game cant wait for the fourth one to come out Only thing we would add for it to be a little more tedious stuff with like the draft and player morale but love the game great job devs.
When can we get a college football and college basketball now?! Love these games.
Can you guys make a thing where you can fine players money for doing things and make players actual negotiate like if they get a huge contract the media can say they are the highest non QB or the highest Paid QB in the league but overall great game we definitely enjoy it.
Ill play this game all day but there are small things we wish were changed like mid QBs (70-79 OVR) asking for over $20 million at week 10 cause thats not realistic as well as the position grouping in free agency for OL and LB because its too easy to sign the wrong player if youre not paying super close attention. Outside of that this is a fantastic game.
As it stands, this is probably the best GM game youre gonna find. Its definitely not the most exciting or interactive but it does great at what it wants to do. Its definitely not something you should buy if you dont REALLY like football. But if you do, then this should hold you over for a little bit.
This game does a lot of things really really well. Our only criticism is that the salary cap never increases. Im 7 seasons in and the salary cap hasnt gone up at all. If it could increase by a certain percentage each year like it has traditionally then it would be perfect. But otherwise an amazing game.
Expect one of your best players to hold out every season you dare win less than 8 games. There needs to be an option to negate player holdouts period, or at least tune it. Far to often to we extend a star player, and one year later they hold out because our already bad team went 6-11 (Ive seen this happen with QUARTERBACKS as well, ridiculous). The sim needs to be tuned as well. Way to often do we build a 89-90+ overall squad, with top tier coaches, and somehow they go 8-9 and miss the playoffs whilst also losing to 72 overall bum squads. We like the game, we see the vision. But oh our god, the holdouts are so frustrating, you cant do anything about them either. Please just give us a toggle for them, anything.
This game is great in all ways, everything about it is so delicate and detailed, all of the new updates and feature are also good and add to its fun. We do have one suggestion, and thats to make a list of player archetypes that fit each scheme. Sometimes its hard to tell which is best.
We understand having to rebalance the players in the draft process due to exploiting good undrafted players, we did it many times so we can understand that part, but the way this new draft system works it feels like you have a very low chance of drafting actual good players, spent multiple seasons drafting qbs and all were misses, maybe we just dont understand the new system but it has driven us away from the game, the simulation still needs some work. But with that being said this game will always be special to us as we have put thousands of hours into it, our hopes will always be high for this series, to all the people out there trying to decide if they should get this game we still do recommend it as no other game can give you the same experience.
This is by far the most dynamic and interesting football sim game and really sports sim game in general. We have tried dozens of sports games and this is by far the best one. The developers who continue to update the game and yet still have no ads. Just a really fun an interesting game that we would recommend to everyone.
We love these types of games and we are super into this game in particular. We are blind and playing this game in voice over mode which is the accessibility setting for iPhones. This game is quite accessible which was a nice surprise. Almost everything is labeled. The main notable exception is the middle tab at the bottom of the page. Its just labeled as tab and then says 3/5. The Tab to the left is labeled team 2/5 and the tab to the right is labeled league3/5. We like parts of the new update. The mini camp update is interesting and helpful. The draft however is so much harder to figure out in the accessibility mode Im using. We cant emphasize how much harder it is to figure it out. Ive gone through 4 drafts im finally comfortable enough to use the new draft feature, but for our personal preference we were able to navigate the old draft feature much better.
This game is just as realistic if not more than Maddens franchise mode. Player development feels way more natural, with more randomness and limits on growth. A rookie might start out looking like a star, but if he has low potential, he wont develop much, which makes scouting and guessing who will break out way more important. Theres also a lot more chances for draft busts and late-round gems compared to most GM games, where good players are usually gone by pick 20. Players have real personalities and mental traits too, which affect how fast they learn the playbook and how well they build chemistry with teammates. Plus, the random events like suspensions, fights at practice, or surprise ratings jumps/drops keep things interesting and unpredictable. The biggest issues are that defensive awards are way too focused on middle linebackers, Pro Bowl DBs are chosen based more on tackles and picks instead of pass breakups, and its a little too easy for top D-linemen and edge rushers to rack up 20+ sacks. Also, positions like center, guard, middle linebacker, and safety tend to get drafted a bit too early compared to real life. Still, pocket gm is one of if not our favorite sports gm simulators available.
Madden without in game gameplay and better management on every level.
Good game the only thing is that there should be a way a way to weaken a certain draft class position since there is always qb that are instantly 90+ overall so there should be a way to lower that.
Not sure what to say, but we absolutely love this game. We have literally played this game for hours and hours on end. Even with a full-time job, we still try to play as much as possible. We love the team holding aspect of sports games and this scratches that constant itch. Part three got better than part two, which is good in its own right. We will be buying the next version of this game.
Need more stats and maybe get a little more detailed in game or more visuals other than that its great.
Ive been playing the pocket GM games since the original 2020 one and they are all amazing games, we get so excited every time we see there is an update.
The best football sim on the market comes back with a third iteration. Massive upgrades to the mechanics makes this an infinitely deeper game than in years past. More challenging and intricate, this one will definitely scratch your Madden Franchise itch and then some.
Great game we think you should make a baseball one 10/10 game.
This one can be addicting but not in a cant shut it down way but in a Ive got a few minutes to kill good way. With a few house rules of your own it will provide long term value. Great work on this app! Ive purchased the Pro Basketball sister app to show our appreciation.
We have been playing this game for a while and absolutely love it. You guys kill it with every update. We are wondering when you guys are going to let us edit team names and uniforms. We would like to do a relocation play through where we move a division internationally.
We like this game, we really do. The one thing we truly dont understand is how a player can have an A+ overall and an A+ potential and still be a 60 overall when drafted. Makes no sense. Other than that, fantastic game.
We really love this game and we love playing it,but at times it misses the mark on so many features that it borderline makes the game unplayable. Staff budget is so unrealistic that you have to turn it off in order to have a chance at making your team good. Salary cap itself is terrible. Extending a rookie cost 35mil every time,Rookies you draft make franchise player money no matter if theyre good or not, The game forces you sign amount of players then penalizes you for being over in cap. The salary is a big problem and needs to be addressed in the next game. Draft classes never have QBs?? We get some classes but every year Im forced to draft a rb or linebacker cuz every qb draft class is terrible. Unrealistic results even when your team is good. Good coaches cost 40 million dollars. Dev Traits are nonexistent. This game is just wasted potential.
We played this game in the past, the previous versions. We remember really enjoying it. We downloaded this one, took over a garbage team, and built them into contenders. There was 1 year we had the best team absolutely no question. 94 overall team, the best coaches in the game, and we lose by 3 in the championship game by an 87 overall team that did not even have good coaching. But whatever, we moved on. We still have not won the championship after maybe 6 seasons or so because its so hard to stay under the cap when your QB wants $40m/yr. But the nail in the coffin was in the draft Im trying to replace our 32 year old QB taking up like a quarter of our salary cap and we draft a QB scouted as an A, projected A+ , projected top 5 pick, and we select the dude just for him to be a 55 overall with slow development??? Dude thats insane. We get busts happen, but theres no way. And no, we didnt have great scouts, because God forbid you have a good coach, he wants $10m/yr which is half your staff salary and you have 8 other positions to fill.
If you love rebuilding teams or any sort if franchise game mode, you will love this game. There are 2 things we wish would be improved; the draft and coach/coaching attributes. There are way to many skill players in the draft, and there are just a lot of the same position (which we know can happen). For coaching, if we switch our OC to have a bellcow RB instead of a committee, it still gives carries to every RB on our roster. Those are just 2 minor things, still a super fun game and worth the price. MAKE A BASKETBALL GAME.
We really enjoy the game and is very fun especially for the price. Had one improvement point our coaching staff gets too expensive when the goal drops and we dont have enough cap room to sign people or enough to cover bonuses on coaches we can release ending our game as you can play over budget or without staff.
Any chance we can get online play? Start a league where we can go against our friends who are GMs of other teams? It would be incredible. Amazing game right now tho.
Its GREAT!!! You should make a college one.
Truly amazing game and a dev that cares.
Love this game seriously more than a madden franchise. One thing Id suggest is some type of training or a mentor page. Maybe have a vet be able to train some young guys and stuff along those sorts. We know its not easy adding this stuff but players having traits that go along with their mental ratings would be cool too.
Game is so addicting and fun. Takes a while to get used to the interface and nuisances of the game when compared to Madden or 2k but its awesome for a mobile version. No in app purchases just pay and enjoy.
This definitely scratches that team building itch especially when youre at work trying to kill time. Definitely recommend to all our fellow digital GMs.
When will the next update be released and what will be included.
We very rarely write reviews for games but Ive become so addicted to this game that we thought we should just show our appreciation for it. Also would love to see a basketball game with this concept. If you made one then Id be addicted to two games LOL.
This game is by far the best version of any GM simulator out there! Really hoping we get an updated version with pocket GM 4.
User feedback from Apple App Store
App Details
- Version: 1.6.2
- Size: 52.96 MB
- iOS: 13.0 or later
- Languages: EN
- Content Advisory:
- Developer: [Jonathan Howell]()
Last updated: 17th July 2025 | Genre: Simulation, Sports | Developer: Jonathan Howell