The 6 Best Tamagotchi and Virtual Pets

Best Overall

Tamagotchi Uni

$120 at Amazon

$104

$60 at Walmart View on Entertainmentearth.com

The Tamagotchi is the crown jewel of virtual pets and their latest generation builds on what makes Bandai’s virtual bud so successful. With a full-color screen, you can brush, bathe, and feed one of 20 pets based on new and popular characters. They also each have their unique personalities that affect their personalities and behaviors.

With an included pedometer, you can go on “Tama Walks” with your little virtual friend, collecting items and crafting materials to make clothes to fit your style. At the Tama Arcade, you can also earn materials by playing minigames. There’s also an online portal that lets your virtual pet race, play against, or even date other people’s Tamagotchis.

The device comes with a wristband, allowing you to wear your friend like a watch, and it has a rechargeable battery that connects with a USB-C cord. Though it's pricier than a lot of the other virtual pets out there, the Tamagotchi Uni gives you everything you need to form an attachment and connection with your new digital friend.

_{Dimensions: 1.5 x 2.4 x 2.8 inches | Batteries: Rechargeable lithium-polymer | Colors: Blue, pink, purple | Connector: USB-C and over Wi-Fi}

Best Touch

Bitzee Interactive Digital Toy Pet

$53

$40 at Amazon View on Walmart View on Spinmaster.com

Using a flapping strip of LEDs, the Bitzee creates a hologram-like effect that makes your pet look like it’s standing in 3D space. The Bitzee’s unique display is combined with a touch strip in front of your pet, allowing for unique and surprising modes of interaction. There are 15 animals to collect that can be interacted with in unique ways, like petting them, tilting them back and forth to rock them to sleep, or touching the sensor bar in front.

Playing with your Bitzee fills its love meter, allowing it to evolve from a baby into an adult and then eventually a super Bitzee, which adds a unique game and a treat that attracts another Bitzee. You can always swap between every Bitzee you unlock.

The Bitzee is totally unlike any other virtual pet, but it does take a little getting used to the persistent flickering sound the display makes.

_{Dimensions: 4.69 x 4 x 3.56 inches | Batteries: Three AAA batteries (included) | Colors: Purple | Connector: None}

Best Budget

Top Secret Toys Giga Pets Digital Pet Toy

$21 at Amazon View on Urban Outfitters View on Office Depot

GigaPets were around at the same time as Tamagotchis but never reached the same level of popularity. But now they are back and better than ever, taking the nostalgic black-and-white screen and adding a slew of new animations and a better speaker. It’s a thoughtful upgrade that retains the appeal of '90s virtual pets while adding loads of new features.

There are seven different devices to collect, like the cat, frog, pixie, dog, T-Rex, unicorn, and even cryptids like Bigfoot, Nessie, and Mothman. Like most virtual pets, they can be played with, fed, cleaned up after, cured when sick, and put to bed.

_{Dimensions: 2 x 1 x 2.25 inches | Batteries: CR2032 (included) | Colors: Yellow, orange, green, red, purple, blue | Connector: None}

Best Old School

Tamagotchi Original

$25 at Amazon View on Walmart

The original Tamagotchi from 1997 is back exactly how you remember it. Available in 45 different colors and outside shells, its inner mechanics are perfect for ages 8 and up.  Feed, heal, clean up, or play games with one of seven types of digital pets on a handheld black-and-white screen.

If its beeps and boops start to bother you, you can turn off the sound or light, but do that at your peril, since that could spell doom for your buddy.

_{Dimensions: 0.75 x 1.75 x 2.13 inches | Batteries: CR2032 (included) | Colors: 45 colors | Connector: None}

Best Watch

Bandai Namco Vital Hero Digimon

$14 at Amazon

If you’d rather wear a virtual pet that encourages you to exercise, then the Vital Hero is a great option. With a plastic bracelet to attach to your wrist, the Vital Bracelet lets you embark on missions to strengthen your virtual pet, and an LED screen allows you to check on its step counter, heart rate monitor, and different exercise prompts. The app interacts with the Vital Hero through an NFC reader, allowing you to store spare monsters and mission progress.

To change virtual monsters, you can purchase different DIM cards offering unique monsters and evolution paths that strengthen your creature. If Digimon isn’t your style, there’s also a Batman option that lets you put the Caped Crusader in different outfits as you level up.

_{Dimensions: 8 x 1 x 0.75 inches | Batteries: Rechargeable | Colors: Black, red, pink, white | Connector: NFC reader}

Best Dog

MGA Pixel Petz Interactive Digital Dog

$28 at Amazon $18 at Target

$30

$22 at Walmart

Available in an adorable corgi or Dalmatian, the MGA Pixel Petz Digital Pet Dog is the perfect interactive companion for children and adults alike. It's designed to develop a unique personality based on the type and frequency of interaction—similar to how you would engage with a real pet—generating countless reactions and facial expressions. It will respond to your voice and touch, woofing back at you and reacting when you pet its head, and can even communicate with other Pixel Petz. 

The more games you play with your dog, the more its personality evolves. That said, it can be somewhat challenging for younger children to operate the toy and may discourage them from interacting with it, which would defeat the purpose since they need to play with it consistently to unlock its potential and access more games.

_{Dimensions: 5.5 x 3 x 5.75 inches | Batteries: Two AAA batteries (not included) | Colors: Brown and white, black and white | Connector: None}