Listen vs Osmo World
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both games, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Listen
This game trains your hearing by presenting sound cues that you must respond to correctly to navigate obstacles and absorb energy. It uses adaptive algorithms to adjust difficulty to your individual performance level, based on principles of perceptual learning and auditory neuroscience.
- Auditory training game
- Perceptual learning principles
- Reward-based framework
- Adaptive difficulty algorithms
- Sound cue response
- Brain fitness
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Listen is an auditory training game produced by the University of California Riverside (UCR) Brain Game Center for Mental Fitness and Well-being; A research unit focused on brain fitness methods and applications. Listen integrates principles of perceptual learning and auditory neuroscience in a reward-based game framework that reinforces program adherence and maintains training efficacy. In the game experience, players find themselves in control of a wisp that must navigate through perilous obstacles by responding appropriately to specific sound cues in order to absorb energy from objects in the environment. The sound cues are based upon language primitives and sound features that selectively drive neurons in the auditory cortex of the brain. While at first the sounds are easy to discriminate, the game’s adaptive algorithms measure each players’ ability to discern the sounds and trains players at their individual threshold of performance. Give it a listen and train your hearing.
Osmo World
This app serves as a central hub for a collection of educational games designed to foster creativity, problem-solving, and social interaction in children. It allows users to launch into various Osmo games and collect virtual rewards.
- Launch Osmo games
- Explore game library
- Win collectible stickers
- Hands-on learning
- Promotes creativity
- Encourages problem-solving
- Fosters social interaction
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This is the home for Osmo! Launch into Osmo to explore all your favorite Osmo games, and win collectible stickers along the way. Osmo is connecting over 1 million kids around the world to a new healthy, hands-on learning experience that promotes creativity, problem-solving, and social interaction. Find out more at www.playosmo.com
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is rating: Osmo World at 3.9 against Listen's 3.1. Osmo World also leads on ratings volume (1.4K vs 12). Listen's advantage is monetization model (free vs ad-supported) and iOS requirement (12.0 vs 15.0). On price, review sentiment, update cadence and ads 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
Both are free to download. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
Osmo World holds the better App Store score, 3.9 against 3.1. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Osmo World has 1.4K ratings behind it against 12, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews complicate that: 44% of Listen's written reviews are positive against 42% of Osmo World's, so the app with the better star average is not the one people write more warmly about.
Listen ships an update every 6 weeks, Osmo World every 2 months. The most recent releases landed on November 1, 2026 and October 25, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Listen | Osmo World |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 3.1 (12 ratings) | 3.9 (1.4K ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 44.4% of reviews — better | 42.3% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 12 | 1.4K — better |
| Update frequency | Every 6 weeks — better | Every 2 months |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Free — better | Ad-supported |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod | iPhone, iPad, iPod |
| Requires iOS | 12.0 — better | 15.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 129 MB | 347 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Northeastern University Information Services | Tangible Play |
Customer experience
Listen
Osmo World
Bugs and requests
Listen
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
Osmo World
Reported bugs
4 issues- App crashes or freezes
- Camera recognition problems
- Saved progress/data loss
- Incompatibility with certain iPad models
Requested features
4 requests- More game content and updates
- Improved account/progress syncing
- Simplified setup and onboarding
- Better support for newer hardware
In-app purchases
Listen
No in-app purchases
Osmo World
No in-app purchases









