Yes, you can run Factorio on your phone
Factorio running on the phone under postmarketOS using box64
So, one day I was playing around with installing Linux on my old Android phone and than it hit me, if I can install Linux, I can run Factorio on my phone.
Linux distro of my choice was postmarketOS, because wizards from out there implemented support for almost all hardware of my phone (Xiaomi Mi 9T).
Now with Linux installed, we are one step closer to running Factorio, but even still we have some work to do. We are on Linux on ARM but Factorio was compiled for x86_64, not ARM, on Linux. So we need a translation layer between x86_64 and ARM. The great thing is, some very clever people before us created the exact this we need - box86/box64.
So after installing the distro, I followed this guide to get box86/box64 running. Apart from some broken links, with this guide I got Steam running and started downloading Factorio.
Factorio \"running\" for the first time on the phone
It took like 20 minutes to download, but when I started Factorio... it just crashed the whole phone. So.. This phone has 6Gb of RAM and turns out 6GB of RAM isn’t quite enough when you’re running Phosh DM, Steam, Factorio (+DLC), and everything else.. So it's time to download more RAM use SWAP. One restart later and I created SWAP file 6Gb in size and so now I had, 6Gb of "RAM" to throw background stuff into.
Factorio running on the phone, for real this time
And… we’re in! Full version of Factorio with DLC, running on a phone. It actually plays just fine, easily hitting 60 UPS on my starter base.
And so, I done a bit of testing.
Matter of the first importance, transform this solution to completely portable. To make it portable, I paired my Switch Pro Controller. It worked right away. Having played Factorio on Switch before, it felt pretty familiar, but just as clunky.
Steam recognizes controller connected to the phone
Then I loaded another save with my endgame base that can sustain around 300 SPM standing in the middle of the bot mall we are getting around 35-40 UPS. Not great, but this is a phone from 2019 with no active cooling. It is incredible that this phone is able to load this base at all.
Factorio struggling getting to 60 UPS in my 300SPM base
And now to some serious stuff:
Vertical Factorio for your pleasure
Factorio dealing with this weird resolution as best as it can :)
Aftermath
I think it is possible to improve the performance by improving cooling solution of this phone (by at least replacing 6-years old thermopads) and then overclocking it. Also it might be worth to compile box64 specifically for this phone to squeeze-out all the performance from the translation layer.
Also, I think, it is possible to spin-up the same setup under regular Android without dealing with postmarketOS. The reason is – I had to use Debian podman to be able to run box64 under Alpine. It might degrade performance compared to Linux because it is not as easy to add SWAP on Android and also Android ROMs in general are much heavier than Linux ones, but happy hacking for those who dare :)
Posted Oct 3, 2025, 5:18 PM UTC