Comparison

The Escapists vs Game Dev Tycoon

Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both games, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.

Head to head
About

The Escapists

Experience life behind bars in this unique prison escape sandbox game. Use strategy and cunning to craft tools, bribe guards, and plan your breakout from various themed prisons. Survive the daily routines and outsmart your captors to achieve freedom.

Highlights
  • Craft tools and weapons
  • Steal and trade items
  • Bribe and fight guards
  • Recruit fellow prisoners
  • Over 6 themed prisons
  • Adapt to prison routines
  • Increase strength, speed, intellect
Features
Currently charting
Read full description

The Escapists, you’ve done the crime but can you survive and do the time? The Escapists is a unique prison escape sandbox game where you get to experience a life behind bars and barbed wire fences. You’ve had a life of crime but now you’re caught. With thrilling and immersive gameplay, you need to create an escape route in a world of other prisoners and ruled by routine. From roll call to lights out, you’re banged up. There’s no get out of jail free card in this game, you need to break out. Are you up for the challenge or are just going to sit there in your cell? You need all your wits and skill to bust out. No walls are going to hold you, you need to escape! While under the careful watch of the guards, you’ll need to get used to prison life while you use strategy and daring to swipe useful objects from under their noses. Make innocent looking items into useful tools like shovels for cunning escape plans or handy weapons to survive in a fight. Escaping requires cunning, strategy, the right equipment and staying at least two steps ahead of the guards. Bribe and fight your way through the prison ranks. If your fellow prisoners like you enough, recruit them and create your own gang. You might even take over a prison! The guards are out to stop any escape attempts, so you’ll have to avoid suspicious behaviour by attending roll calls, working a prison job and hiding your stolen contraband. Features: ● Addictive prison simulator game, steal spoons and forks, use them to dig a tunnel out of your cell. ● Over 6 themed prisons, try to escape from minimum security jails or fearsome big houses like Alcatraz ● Find, steal and trade items to create dozens of crafting combinations to aid your escape ● Use the exercise yard to increase your strength, handy for scaling walls ● Find other prisoners to trade swag with, you’ll need duct tape, a screwdriver or nail files ● Dodge contraband detectors. if you pass through one with contraband in your pocket, the heat meter rises to 99 percent ● Adapt to life behind the steel doors with prison routines and jobs and master the game's six penitentiaries, there are three extra prisons waiting to be challenged. ● Push yourself to survive and increase your strength, speed, and intellect. There are multiple ways to break out and escape, you just need to find them. The Escapists is a thrilling sandbox strategy prison simulator that challenges you to bust out in a number of different ways. You want to break free but you're banged up and you need to escape! How you survive and do that is up to you, but when you’re out of your cell, a rigid daily schedule is designed to keep you in line. You're expected to work at one of several jobs during the day, exercise and showers are mandatory. The Escapists is tough game, just like jail. Can you dig a tunnel right under the walls of the prison? Or even steal a guard uniform to blend in with your captors? Addictive and tense, it’s a real challenge to escape your first prison. Commit a few inside crimes, there are dozens of items to find, steal and smuggle. Some are contraband you can sell or trade for more useful gear. Create clever makeshift weapons and tools, a bar of soap in a sock is useful in a fistfight. Materials purchased or "borrowed" from your fellow inmates are used to craft tools and other items like wires, a bottle of bleach, a piece of timber, a bar of chocolate, a plastic comb, and much more. If you’re smart enough, you’ll figure out ways to make your escape. There are dozens of items to find and use to get out of your cell, including a pickaxe, wire cutters, zip lines and more. The Escapists is an addictive strategy prison simulator game that challenges you to break out of jail. Don’t be a prisoner, be an Escapist! Download The Escapists today, it would be a crime not to. You can’t check out and you can never leave, unless you have an escape plan… http://escapistgame.com/ https://www.team17.com/

About

Game Dev Tycoon

Build your own game development company from the 1980s to the present. Design and create your own games, research new technologies, and manage a team to become a market leader. Enjoy a full simulation experience without ads or in-app purchases.

Highlights
  • Start a game development company
  • Design and create your own games
  • Research new technologies
  • Hire and manage a development team
  • Replay gaming history
  • Built-in screen recording and streaming
Features
Read full description

"It’s the perfect sort of game for mobile devices and there’s so much to do here [...]" - 5/5 - Toucharcade Game Dev Tycoon is a casual business simulation game where your success depends on your creativity and willingness to experiment. The game does *not* contain any in-app purchases or ads. Slip into the role of a game developer: start your own company, design your own games and make your way to the top to become a Game Dev Tycoon. - Start your own game development company in the 80s - Replay gaming history - Design and create your own games - Hold your breath and wait for reviews to come in - Research new technologies - Hire and manage a world-leading development team - Become the leader of the market - Gain worldwide fans Game Dev Tycoon for iPhone and iPad introduces: - An updated story line - New topics to enable even more varied games - A challenging (but optional) ‘pirate mode’ - Built-in screen recording and streaming support Game Dev Tycoon does not require an internet connection so go ahead and build your gaming empire in Airplane Mode.

Screenshots

The Escapists4 screens
Game Dev Tycoon4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is rating: Game Dev Tycoon at 4.9 against The Escapists's 4.4. Game Dev Tycoon also leads on review sentiment (91% vs 69%) and ratings volume (24K vs 3.3K). The Escapists's advantage is iOS requirement (9.0 vs 17.0). On price, update cadence, ads and in-app purchases there is nothing between them.

Scored on Price · Rating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings · Update frequency · Ads · In-app purchases · Monetization · Best chart rank · Devices · Requires iOS

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

The Escapists costs $4.99 and Game Dev Tycoon $4.99 up front. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

Game Dev Tycoon holds the better App Store score, 4.9 against 4.4. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Game Dev Tycoon has 24K ratings behind it against 3.3K, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 69% of The Escapists's written reviews are positive against 91% of Game Dev Tycoon's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

The Escapists ships an update every 2 months, Game Dev Tycoon every 3 months. The most recent releases landed on October 21, 2026 and October 23, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard4 real differences · 7 level
The Escapists versus Game Dev Tycoon: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterThe EscapistsGame Dev Tycoon
Price$4.99$4.99
Rating4.4 (3.3K ratings)4.9 (24K ratings) — better
Positive reviews69.4% of reviews91.1% of reviews — better
Number of ratings3.3K24K — better
Update frequencyEvery 2 months — betterEvery 3 months
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNoNo
MonetizationPaidPaid
Best chart rank#68#46 — better
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPod — betteriPhone, iPad
Requires iOS9.0 — better17.0
Further details — not scored
Size469 MB204 MB
Age rating9+4+
DeveloperTeam17 Digital LimitedGreenheart Games Pty. Ltd.

Customer experience

The Escapists

All ratings3,312 ratings
Positive85.6%
Neutral4.8%
Negative9.6%
Written reviews695 reviews
Positive69.4%
Neutral11.7%
Negative19.0%

Game Dev Tycoon

All ratings24,004 ratings
Positive98.6%
Neutral0.6%
Negative0.8%
Written reviews1,111 reviews
Positive91.1%
Neutral3.9%
Negative5.0%

User reviews

The Escapists

From 3.3K App Store ratings

What we love

  • 👍 Great game
  • 🚀 Lots of content
  • 💡 Challenging and fun
  • 🚀 Worth the money
  • 🚀 Addictive gameplay

Room to improve

  • 🐛 Frequent crashes
  • 🐛 Glitchy guards
  • 🐛 Disappearing items
  • 🐛 Aspect ratio issues
  • 🐛 Broken crafting recipes

Game Dev Tycoon

From 24K App Store ratings

What we love

  • 👍 Cheap price
  • 👍 No in-app purchases or ads
  • 👍 Addictive and fun gameplay
  • 👍 Realistic game development simulation
  • 👍 Detailed and complex mechanics

Room to improve

  • 🐛 Game crashes on launch for some users
  • 🐛 Orientation issues on iPhone X
  • 🐛 Difficulty remembering research and specialist information
  • 🔋 Game can be very time-consuming
  • 🤔 Lack of difficulty options or sandbox mode

Bugs and requests

The Escapists

Reported bugs

6 issues
  • Guards attack players for no reason
  • Infinite solitary confinement loop
  • Desk hole detection glitch
  • Job board not working
  • Crashes on loading screens
Show 1 more
  • Incompatibility with newer devices

Requested features

7 requests
  • Multiplayer mode
  • Female character options
  • Guard mode
  • Custom prisons
  • More prisons/content
Show 2 more
  • Crafting recipes guide
  • Map feature

Game Dev Tycoon

Reported bugs

2 issues
  • Loan payback amount inconsistency
  • Game reports not carrying over knowledge

Requested features

6 requests
  • Add more console and game genre options
  • Implement employee personalities and interactions
  • Provide more detailed game performance history
  • Allow simultaneous game development
  • Add difficulty settings and sandbox mode
Show 1 more
  • Implement mod support and custom content

In-app purchases

None

The Escapists

No in-app purchases

None

Game Dev Tycoon

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is The Escapists free?
The Escapists costs $4.99, with no in-app purchases.
Is Game Dev Tycoon free?
Game Dev Tycoon costs $4.99, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, The Escapists or Game Dev Tycoon?
Game Dev Tycoon is rated higher. The Escapists averages 4.4 out of 5 from 3.3K ratings, while Game Dev Tycoon averages 4.9 from 24K ratings.
Do The Escapists or Game Dev Tycoon have ads?
Neither The Escapists nor Game Dev Tycoon shows ads.
Which is updated more often, The Escapists or Game Dev Tycoon?
The Escapists ships an update every 2 months, and Game Dev Tycoon every 3 months. Most recently, The Escapists was updated on October 21, 2026 and Game Dev Tycoon on October 23, 2026.
Which is more popular, The Escapists or Game Dev Tycoon?
The Escapists currently peaks at #68 in the App Store charts, and Game Dev Tycoon at #46. Chart position reflects recent download velocity rather than total install base.

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