8 Ball Strike Review [2025]: I Played 16 Cash Tournaments

What I learned from playing

• You can earn real money in 8 Ball Strike by playing and winning tournaments that require you to pay cash to enter. But despite winning or placing second in half the tournaments I entered, I basically broke even with the game.
• 8 Ball Strike lets you withdraw funds via PayPal or Venmo. You can't redeem bonus cash, and you can only withdraw funds as whole numbers.
• This game was fairly difficult to get the hang of and tricky to consistently win. I had a roughly 50% win rate (lower than my rate for many other cash games I've tried).

What is 8 Ball Strike?

8 Ball Strike is a pool game app developed by Avia. It's available in the Apple App Store and Samsung Galaxy Store. If you download apps from the Google Play store, we like Scrambly for playing games to earn money, and there are a host of other free legit game apps available in this store.

Platform	4.2 FinanceBuzz writers and editors score products and companies on a number of objective features as well as our expert editorial assessment. Our partners do not influence our ratings.
Developer	AviaGames Inc. (Pocket7Games)
Compatible systems	iOS, Samsung
Types of in-game currency	Coins Bonus cash
Minimum entry fee (for cash tournaments)	$1 (can be lower with coin combos)
Minimum cash deposit	$5
Minimum withdrawal amount	$5
Withdrawal fee	$1
Withdrawal methods	PayPal/Venmo (or as a refund to your original payment method)
States that prohibit cash tournaments	Arkansas, Delaware, Louisiana, South Carolina, South Dakota, Vermont, and U.S. territories
Game modes	Cash tournaments (Free) coin tournaments

Is 8 Ball Strike legit? 

Yes, 8 Ball Strike is legit. It's a mobile gaming app released in 2022 that allows you to win real cash. We verified its legitimacy by playing it and cashing out. However, just because it's not a scam doesn't mean we recommend the game. 8 Ball Strike's developer, AviaGames, has been involved in recent lawsuits for alleged deceptive practices, and players are suing it. At least for now, we wouldn't suggest signing up for 8 Ball Strike, even though it is a real cash app and you can earn actual money.

This game app has 4.8 out of 5 stars on the iOS App Store and 5 stars on the Samsung Galaxy Store, with over 50,000 user reviews in total. 8 Ball Strike is not available on the Google Play store. You can also play it on the Pocket7Games platform, which is an app that features a number of cash games, including Solitaire Clash, Bubble Buzz, and Fruit Frenzy. The Pocket7Games app is also available in the App Store and Samsung Galaxy Store.

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How to play 8 Ball Strike

8 Ball Strike isn't much different from playing classic pool on your phone or tablet. Just like with real-life billiards, you have to strategize which balls to hit into which pockets, making trick shots, and how to score the most points. Instead of just playing with your friends, you can compete in cash tournaments with entry fees or free coin tournaments against other online players (as long as they're allowed in your state). The app decides who you play against. You can earn bonus cash (in-game currency you can use to enter tournaments but can't withdraw), real cash, or both.

While the game board looks like a typical pool setup, there are two game mechanics you need to learn for 8 Ball Strike:

1. Aiming the pool balls
2. Controlling how hard you hit the white ball with your cue

In the game, you'll select which pool ball you want to aim for and direct your shot toward whichever pocket (or other pool ball) you want to hit. That's the easy part. After that, you'll pull back the cue icon at the bottom of the screen to control how hard you want to hit the white ball.

This was the trickiest element for me to master because, even if you aim perfectly, you'll mess up your shot if the impact is too hard or too soft. And each time you miss sinking a ball into a pocket, you'll lose one white cue ball. If you use up all three of your cue balls, then it's game over.

How scoring works

8 Ball Strike will tally up your points according to how many pockets you get and how many balls you sink in a row.

1. Pocket multipliers: Each pocket will multiply the points you get (based on the number on the pool ball).
2. Triple-shot perks: When you sink three balls in a row, the game lets you choose one of three bonus options. Which one you choose will influence your overall score.

At the end of the game, the pool player with the highest number of points wins first place (and, potentially, a cash prize).

My gameplay experience with 8 Ball Strike

I played 16 cash tournaments in 8 Ball Strike, plus a bunch of free coins tournaments for practice. I spent more time on practicing this game than I do on most cash game apps I play, and I highly recommend you do the same if you've never played virtual pool before, especially if you're going to pay real cash to enter tournaments.

While many cash gaming apps, like Solitaire Cash and Bingo Cash, have fairly simple mechanics, I found 8 Ball Strike more complicated to learn. While aiming was easy and I caught on quickly, figuring out how much impact to use on my virtual pool cue was tricky at first.

After enough practice, knowing how much impact to use started to feel more natural. But like with real pool, it's still easy to mess up and sink the white ball accidentally, or hit the target ball too hard and spin it off course. Hitting the ball too gently to make it into the pocket was less of an issue for me, but it happened occasionally.

One problem I had when playing

My own struggles mastering the game mechanics aside, the 8 Ball Strike app worked well overall. But I ran into one really annoying problem when playing on my iPad. Because the cue impact bar is right above the bottom of the screen, I accidentally swiped back to my iPad's home screen and out of the game a lot.

When this happened, the game usually paused, and I could pick it back up where I left off. But occasionally, the app registered the swipe as a cue shot, messing up one of my hits. It was a distracting and frustrating snag to encounter during play.

Tips for scoring points

The most important things you can do to score the most points in 8 Ball Strike are to control your cue shots effectively and strategize how you score. If you can master what level of impact to use and sink balls into the pockets with the highest points multipliers, you may have what it takes to win.

Take sure hits over the highest multipliers

It's tempting to always try to aim for the pockets with the highest multipliers, but if the hit to get that pocket is really difficult, you risk losing more cue balls and running out the clock.

It's better for your overall points score to sink more balls you know you can get in rather than spend a lot of time and wasted cue balls trying to get one ball into the highest-multiplier pocket.

Take advantage of pocket edges

To aim the pool balls effectively, take advantage of the fact that the corners slope inward toward the hole. Even if you can't hit a ball straight-on into the pocket, you can usually angle the ball to hit one of the sloped edges and essentially be funneled in.

Prioritize balls that show the full trajectory

Depending on which ball you hit and its distance from the pocket, you can see either part of how a ball will track toward the pocket, or you can see the entire trajectory of where the ball will go.

It's easier to aim accurately if you can see the entire track of where the ball will go. If you can't see the entire trajectory, you have to guess. 

Choose a three-shot perk based on how your game is going

Remember when I mentioned triple-shot perks when you sink three balls in a row? These can be for advantages like an extra cue ball or more points on each trick shot you've scored, and which perk you choose affects your total score (sometimes a lot).

There's no hard-and-fast answer as to which bonus you should choose. You should make the decision based on how that individual game is going. For example, if you're on your last cue ball, you should choose to get an extra one. Alternatively, if you've scored a lot of trick shots, you can choose the trick shot bonus.

How much money can you make?

Like most game apps with cash tournaments, how much money you earn depends on which competitions you enter and where you place. The higher the entry fee, the higher the potential prizes. 

I saw cash prizes of up to $17 for a single game in 8 Ball Strike, but you're unlikely to consistently make that much on cash tournaments. For one thing, the tournament with a $17 first-place prize has an entry fee of $7. Winning 3rd place would get you an $8 win, but anything below that and your net profit is in the red.

I essentially broke even on 8 Ball Strike. I deposited $5 into the game and got a generous $10 in bonus cash as part of a promotional deal. Of the 16 cash tournaments I played, I won first or second place in 8 of them. That's a 50% win rate, which is below average for me and basically made profiting a coin toss.

On games where I won third through sixth place, I still won small amounts of money. But since they were less than the entry fee, those games were ultimately a net loss.

I stuck to Pro-League cash tournaments, which have a $1 entry fee and a $5.70 overall prize pool. I recommend sticking with the low-stakes tournaments for pretty much any gaming app you want to play. While high prize pools look tempting, they also come with higher entry fees. It's too easy to lose more money than you make when you pay super-high entry fees.

How bonus cash works

Bonus cash is an in-game currency the game gives you for free through various rewards or as a bonus depositing real money. Most gaming apps give you around $2 or $3 in bonus cash for a minimum deposit, but 8 Ball Strike gave me a generous promotion that included $10 of bonus cash for depositing $5.

There's a catch though: You can't withdraw bonus cash. And even worse, when you withdraw real money, you have to forfeit all of your remaining bonus cash. This is very common for paid games that include bonus cash, but it's still a kicker.

I had $5.30 in real money eligible for withdrawal. But I would have had to lose $10.96 in bonus cash, which I could instead use to pay entry fees and potentially win more real cash from tournaments. So I opted not to withdraw the funds.

Even if I had withdrawn the money, 8 Ball Strike charges a $1 processing fee, and you can only withdraw whole numbers. So I would've only been able to cash out $4. Some games have no or lower processing fees.

How to withdraw cash

8 Ball Strike issues withdrawals either through PayPal/Venmo or as a refund to your original payment method (meaning a credit/debit card or Apple Pay). Other Avia gaming apps (the same platform 8 Ball Strike is on) have issued my refund (or cashout) within one day, although Avia's terms of service specify it can take up to 15 days to process withdrawals.

At the end of my time playing 8 Ball Strike, I had a total balance of $16.26. That sounds really good, considering I only deposited $5 of real money, but that total doesn't account for bonus cash that wasn't real money.

8 Ball Strike reviews and complaints

8 Ball Strike gets generally positive reviews on the App Store and Samsung Galaxy Store, which aligns with my experience. The game was fun to play, and the app didn't have any major bugs or slowdown issues.

Here's an image of an App Store review where the user, krischiu1121, calls it the "best game ever" and sings the app's praises.

Screenshot

However, some users have felt little more than frustrated with 8 Ball Strike, and a few question the game's competitions themselves. I took a screenshot of a particularly interesting negative review attached to a three-star rating. The unhappy user complains of what they feel is unfair matchmaking and "scammy" tactics.

Screenshot

Many other users emphasize the importance of practicing and playing the game frequently for the best chances of winning.

Some people have complained about losing money after an initial winning streak, which is a risk with any cash gaming app. I experienced similar unpredictability as far as what type of score would win a tournament. In one match, I won first place with a score of 874, and in another game, I got fifth place with a score of 1,130. How you rank depends on how well the other players perform compared to you.

8 Ball Strike alternatives

8 Ball Strike requires particular skills to position the cue and angle it toward the correct pool ball and pocket. This game might not be for you if you find hand-eye coordination difficult or you don't generally enjoy playing pool. And if you do, there are other games we'd recommend instead, like Pool Payday.

If you're still interested in playing other mobile games that may reward you with cash, consider the following legit game apps.

How to earn cash	Shooting bubbles	Playing pool	Downloading and playing games, completing tasks
Who it's best for	People who want an easy-to-learn skill game	People who want to play pool but don't want to play 8 Ball Strike	People who want to play a variety of games that don't require skill
	Download Bubble Cash	Download Pool Payday	Download Scrambly

Bubble Cash

A bubble shooter is another skill-based game you might like if you're good at virtual billiards. Bubble Cash is one of the most fun bubble shooters we've tested because it's easy to pick up (and even easier to keep playing), and it's much less complicated than 8 Ball Strike. It's compatible with iOS and Samsung devices, and it's developed by Papaya, which offers a variety of cash games we've liked, including Solitaire Cash and 21 Cash. 

But though Bubble Cash has the potential to be more enjoyable than 8 Ball Strike, we found it similarly tough to win the cash tournaments. We suggest practicing with free tournaments before you pay any real money to play.

Download Bubble Cash | Read our Bubble Cash review.

Pool Payday

Since we don't recommend Avia games, and that includes 8 Ball Strike, Pool Payday is a better option for anyone who wants to get paid to play billiards. This app, available in the Apple App Store and Samsung Galaxy Store like 8 Ball Strike, also lets you compete in tournaments to earn cash. You can pay real money or use the in-game currency to enter, like 8 Ball Strike, but there are more game modes to choose from. This includes offline and practice modes, brackets, leagues, and more. 

Consider this app over 8 Ball Strike for a legit pool game with multiple ways to play and earn cash.

Download Pool Payday | Read our Pool Payday review.

Scrambly

Scrambly would be better for you if you'd rather play multiple games to earn extra money instead of sticking with one like pool. This is a rewards platform rather than a paid game app, so it gives you a lot more flexibility in how you earn. Instead of earning real money by winning pay-to-play cash tournaments, Scrambly works by tracking your time spent playing and progress in different game apps you can install through its platform. Choose this one instead of the others we've discussed if you're not crazy about risking real cash to earn cash.

You can download and use Scrambly with an Apple or Android device, even though there isn't an official iOS mobile app. If you've got an iPhone, you'll just scan a QR code and use your web browser. Compatibility with both types of devices sets Scrambly apart from other rewards platforms, and it's also got more games to choose from than similar apps we've tested.

Download Scrambly | Read our Scrambly review.

FAQs

Bottom line

If you can master the game mechanics, then 8 Ball Strike is a fun and engaging game to play. And if you think you're good enough, then you can try to win cash tournaments against other pool players in the app.

Even though I was able to make some money through this game, the requirement to forfeit all my bonus cash upon withdrawal made me not want to cash it out. But other Avia games I've played have issued legitimate cash-outs via PayPal, so I'm not concerned that 8 Ball Strike is a scam.

If you want more reliable ways to make some extra income on the side, then explore other options to make money online.

Learn More

4.6

FinanceBuzz writers and editors score products and companies on a number of objective features as well as our expert editorial assessment. Our partners do not influence our ratings.

Easy-to-learn gameplay, and skills-based competition

Legit game that offers real money prizes (if you win cash tournaments)

In the top 10 in its App Store category