Bam Good Time Mahjong Online: Free American Mahjong Game

Bam Good Time Mahjong Online is a free American Mahjong game for iPhone and iPad. Practice against computer players at five levels with no account, or sign in free to play friends at a private table, join an open table matched to your rating, or sit at your club's online table. It plays the hands on the 2026 NMJL card and has no in-app purchases.

Bam Good Time Mahjong Online (formerly Mahjic Play) is our game, built by the team behind the Bam Good Time club platform. This page covers what it is, how to start and what it does not do yet. For comparisons with other apps, skip to how it compares.

At a Glance

What the Game Is

This is real four-player American Mahjong, not tile-matching solitaire. You play the Charleston, call discards for pungs, kongs and quints, swap jokers out of exposures, and win with a hand from the card. The game checks every hand against the card and awards the points the card prints for it. On your own turn, if the tile you draw completes a hand, the game declares Mah Jongg for you.

The hands come from the 2026 National Mah Jongg League card, and you can switch to the 2025 hands in Settings. Bam Good Time makes the game, not the League, and the game never shows the whole card at once. So keep your own copy of the current card beside you while you learn. You will need one for any real table anyway, and the National Mah Jongg League sells it. New to the card? Start with how to read the NMJL card and our American Mahjong rules guide.

How to Get Started

1. Download the game

Get Bam Good Time Mahjong Online free from the App Store. It needs iOS 17 or later. The game plays in landscape, so turn your iPhone or iPad sideways. On your home screen, the icon reads "Mahjong Online."

2. Practice now, or sign in free

The first screen gives you two choices. Tap Play Practice to play computer players right away, with no account. Or enter your email address and type the one-time code we send you. There is no password to remember.

Signing in is free. It unlocks online play, your rating and your match history. If your profile is missing your name or playing level, the game asks for them. A brand-new account also confirms a mobile number with a texted code. If your club already uses Bam Good Time, sign in with the email address your club has for you. The game connects to the same free Bam Good Time account.

After your first sign-in, a short walkthrough covers the tiles, building a hand, the Charleston, calling discards and jokers.

3. Play your first game

Tap Practice, pick Beginner, and start. Move up a level whenever the table starts to feel easy.

Practice Solo Against the Computer

Practice seats you with three computer players, all at the level you choose. The game describes its five levels like this:

• Beginner: learning the ropes, with loose play and frequent blunders
• Casual: a standard table that chases patterns and makes mistakes
• Skilled: plays defense and calls aggressively
• Expert: counts every visible tile and reads exposures
• Master: relentless, with airtight defense and ruthless pivots

One honest note: today Master plays at about the same strength as Expert.

A few things make practice a good place to learn:

• Suggested hands. With Practice hints on (they are on unless you turn them off), tap the sparkles button above your rack. The panel shows the three hands you are closest to and the tiles each one still needs. Swipe a hand away and the next closest hand on the card takes its place.
• Call highlights. With hints on, the game also highlights the calls you can make.
• No clock. In practice, the game waits as long as you need to decide whether to call a discard.
• Undo. Right after your own discard, an Undo button counts down a few seconds so you can take it back.
• Your pace. Set Game Speed to Relaxed, Normal or Fast in Settings.
• A rules page. Rules Reference in Settings explains both Charlestons, the blind pass, calling, jokers and declaring Mah Jongg.
• Pick up where you left off. Leave in the middle of a practice game and the game offers to resume it for 24 hours.

Practice runs offline and never changes your rating, so it is a safe place to try a risky hand.

Play With Friends at a Private Table

Here is how a private game works:

1. Sign in and tap Play with Friends. Your private table opens right away.
2. Tap Invite friends to text the table link. Or read them the six-character table code, and they tap Join with a code on the Play with Friends tile and type it in.
3. A friend who taps the link with the game installed goes straight to a seat. A friend without the game sees a web page with the table code and a link to the App Store.
4. As host, you can change the card year, the number of rounds and the level of the computer players.
5. When everyone is seated, tap Start game. Short a player or two? Tap Start with bots and computer players take the empty seats.

Online, you have about 8 seconds to call a discard before the table moves on. When everyone else at the table is a computer player, it waits up to 30 seconds.

There is no chat, voice or video inside the game. If your group wants to talk while you play, keep a phone or video call going alongside it. Our guide to playing American Mahjong with friends online has more tips for a good online game night.

Open Tables and Your Club's Table

Open Table seats you with players near your rating. A countdown runs while the table fills. Tap Keep waiting to give it another minute, or Deal me in now to fill the empty seats with computer players and start. Either way, the game starts.

Play My Club appears only if you belong to a club that runs on Bam Good Time. It seats you at your club's online table. Club-mates join as they arrive, and computer players hold the empty seats. The Leaderboard in your profile shows your global rank and your club's leaderboard.

Your Rating: What Counts and What Does Not

Sign in and you have a rating: your Mahjic Rating, the same one shown on your Bam Good Time player dashboard. The online tiles say "ELO applies," but a game moves your rating only in one case:

• Counts: a finished online game at a private, open or club table where all four seats are people.
• Does not count: any online game with a computer player in a seat, even one.
• Never counts: practice.

So if your rating matters to you, fill the table with four people. The History tab lists the matches that counted.

What It Doesn't Do

Know these before you download:

• No Android, web or Windows version. It is an iPhone and iPad app. It also installs on Macs with an M1 chip or later and macOS 14 or later, as an iPad app, but the App Store marks it "Designed for iPad. Not verified for macOS."
• No chat, voice or video at the table.
• No hints online. Suggested hands and call highlights are for practice only.
• No rating from games with computer players. Only four-person games count.
• No printed card. It plays the card's hands but never shows the whole card. Buy your own from the League.
• No online tournaments inside the game today.
• Not your club's event app. Your club's calendar, registration and payments live on its website and in Bam Good Time: Mahjong Club, our club app for iPhone, iPad and Android. The game is only for playing.
• It is new. It first came out in July 2026 and had 35 ratings on the App Store as of October 18, 2026.
• English only.

How It Compares to Other Online Mahjong Games

For side-by-side comparisons, see:

• Best app to play American Mahjong online, the full online lineup.
• How to play American Mahjong with friends online, private games on each platform.
• I Love Mahj vs Eight Bam vs Bam Good Time Mahjong Online, category by category.
• Best American Mahjong apps in 2026, including practice and club apps.

The short version: choose our game for free practice with hints and free private tables on Apple devices. If you want video built into the table, I Love Mahj has it, for $6 a month or $60 a year after a two-week free trial. If your group mixes iPhones with Android phones or computers, Mahjong 4 Friends runs in a web browser and has an Android app.

Want a Game at a Real Table?

Online practice is a good way to learn, and the next step is a real table. Our club directory lists more than 1,600 mahjong clubs, and the city guides help you find a group near you. To drop in, Find a Table shows venues with open tables you can reserve. If you want a teacher, the lessons directory lists mahjong lessons near you. For more ways to meet players, see how to find mahjong players near you.

For Organizers: Bring Your Group to Bam Good Time

If you run a group, the game is a free extra for your players. Members can practice between game nights, and once your club is on Bam Good Time, a Play My Club table appears for every member who signs in to the game.

Bam Good Time runs the in-person side. The Free plan covers up to 5 events a month and 50 players, with your own club website, event registration and check-in, and Venmo and cash payments tracked. Taking card payments online starts on the Starter plan at $19 a month. See pricing for the details.

Start your club free at bamgoodtime.com/start, then send your players the game link.