Free Game Tilesets
A tileset is only as good as its edge cases. Any pack can draw a grass tile; the ones worth using also draw every corner, edge, and inner corner so the terrain connects without gaps. Look for a full 47-tile blob set or at least a 16-tile edge set if you're doing autotiling. Tile size matters too, and mixing 16px and 32px art in one game creates scaling problems you can't fully hide.
Everything here is free to download from the source site. These results come from Kenney, OpenGameArt. Licences vary by file and are shown on each card. Nothing is hosted by us, and every link goes to the original page so you get the current version and the real licence terms.
Platformer Art Extended TilesetCC0
Whispers of Avalon: Grassland TilesetVarious CC
Dungeon tilesetVarious CC
Sewer tilesetVarious CC
DB32 Cave tilesetVarious CC
2d lost Garden tileset transition to Jetrel's Wood tilesetVarious CC
Generic Platformer Tileset (16x16) + BackgroundVarious CC
Worldmap/Overworld tilesetVarious CC
Cave tilesetVarious CC
Nature tilesetVarious CC
Outside tilesetVarious CC
minimalist Pixel tilesetVarious CC
Free Platformer Game TilesetVarious CC
Outdoor 32x32 tilesetVarious CC
Happyland tilesetVarious CCSearch all sprites in the live asset library →
Using these sprites in a game
Pack sprites into an atlas before shipping. One texture with everything on it means one GPU upload and one draw call for your whole interface, instead of one per image, and that's the difference between a smooth 2D game and a stuttering one on mobile.
Keep the source art at its authored resolution and scale in-engine rather than resizing the files, especially for pixel art, where any resampling that isn't a clean integer multiple destroys the edges. Set your texture filtering to nearest for pixel art too, or everything comes out blurry.
For engine choices in 2D, see Phaser vs Defold and Construct vs GDevelop.
Licences, briefly
CC0 means public domain: use it commercially, modify it, ship it, no credit required. That covers everything from Kenney, Quaternius, KayKit, Poly Haven, and AmbientCG.
Freesound and OpenGameArt host a mix. Some files are CC0, others are CC-BY (credit required) or CC-BY-SA (credit required and derivatives must carry the same licence, which is a real constraint on a commercial game). The licence is set per file by whoever uploaded it, so check the source page before you ship.
The complete guide to game asset licences covers what each one actually requires and where teams usually get it wrong.
More free sprites
Free UI Sprites and Game Interface Packs · Free Platformer Sprites and Tilesets · Free Game Icons
Or search every source at once, and see the complete guide to free game assets for the full picture on where this art comes from and how to use it.