Comparison

Tower Keepers vs Gladiator Rising

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

Head to head
About

Tower Keepers

Build and train an army of heroes to defend your tower in this strategy RPG. Engage in a deep solo campaign with over 75 missions and 70+ monster types, or test your skills against other players in real-time PvP battles.

Highlights
  • Hero training and team building
  • Deep solo campaign with 75+ missions
  • Real-time head-to-head PvP battles
  • 30 unique heroes with special skills
  • 70+ unique monsters and bosses
  • Item crafting, enchanting, and upgrading
Features
Read full description

Heroic strategy RPG with deep solo campaign and real-time head to head battles! Train an epic army of heroes and defend your tower against all enemies. Embark on more than 75 unique missions against 70+ monster types, each with their own special attacks. Loot your foes, discover hidden treasure chests, and complete quests to unlock new skills, weapons, and armor for each hero. Enchant your items or craft new ones to maximize your power, then enter Hero Battles and pit your best team of heroes against other players in real-time head to head play. Play Tower Keepers now for the best free strategy RPG available! EPIC HEROES * Ranger, Necromancer, Samurai, Druid - 30 Heroes from which to build the most effective 4 hero teams possible * Amazing Soul Skill powers - you choose when to trigger awesome abilities like Meteor Swarm, Soul Rend, or Perfect Strike * 9 unique skills per hero, all upgradeable * 7 stars of hero progression to maximize their stats and Soul Skills BEASTLY MONSTERS * 70+ unique monsters with their own animations, stats, resistances, and special abilities * Brutal bosses that will test your hero team building skills REAL-TIME HEAD TO HEAD MULTIPLAYER * Choose your best heroes, equip their best gear, and fight head to head with other players * Perfect your team building and real-time skills to ensure victory! * Compete for the glory of your Guild and win powerful weapons and armor only found in PvP MORE AWESOMER! * 126 weapon and armor items to find, craft, and enchant to make your heroes unstoppable * Launch asynchronous PvP attacks against other players' towers to win the weekly leaderboards * Win Catacomb and Wizard Tower challenges for huge rewards Go build your heroes, customize your teams, and enjoy the epic fun in Tower Keepers! ----------- Ninja Kiwi Notes: Tower Keepers is free to download and play (aside from internet, carrier, data, device, and other services for which the player is financially responsible), but some in-game items can be purchased with real money. You can disable in-app purchases in your device's settings, or reach us at support@ninjakiwi.com for help. Purchases fund our updates and new games, and we sincerely appreciate every vote of confidence you give us with your purchases. Ninja Kiwi Community: We love hearing from our players, so please get in touch with any feedback, positive or negative, at support@ninjakiwi.com. If it's stuff you want the whole community to talk about, then join us on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram: https://www.facebook.com/TowerKeepers/ https://www.facebook.com/ninjakiwigames/ https://twitter.com/ninjakiwigames https://www.instagram.com/realninjakiwi/ Youtubers and Streamers: Ninja Kiwi is actively developing, supporting, and promoting channel creators on YouTube, Twitch, Kamcord, and Mobcrush. If you are not already working with us, keep making videos and then tell us about your channel at youtube@ninjakiwi.com

About

Gladiator Rising

Engage in strategic turn-based combat against procedurally generated opponents across five chapters. Equip and utilize a variety of items to hone your warrior skills and achieve ultimate victory in this challenging roguelike RPG.

Highlights
  • Procedurally generated gladiators
  • Five chapters of progression
  • Item buying and equipping
  • Turn-based RPG combat
  • Strategic gameplay
Features
Read full description

Fight through five Chapters of constantly changing, randomly generated gladiators. Buy, equip and use items as you compete to become the ultimate warrior. Strategy is key to success in this mix of rogue-like and turn-based RPG mix.

Screenshots

Tower Keepers4 screens
Gladiator Rising4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is ads: Tower Keepers at none against Gladiator Rising's shown. Tower Keepers also leads on update cadence (every 3 weeks vs every 4 months) and iOS requirement (10 vs 14.0). Gladiator Rising's advantage is rating (4.6 vs 4.3) and ratings volume (2.6K vs 104). On price, review sentiment, in-app purchases and monetization model 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

Both are free to download. Tower Keepers sells 12 one-off in-app purchases and Gladiator Rising sells 4 one-off in-app purchases. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

Gladiator Rising holds the better App Store score, 4.6 against 4.3. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Gladiator Rising has 2.6K ratings behind it against 104, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 57% of Tower Keepers's written reviews are positive against 65% of Gladiator Rising's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Tower Keepers ships an update every 3 weeks, Gladiator Rising every 4 months. The most recent releases landed on October 16, 2026 and October 20, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard5 real differences · 5 level
Tower Keepers versus Gladiator Rising: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterTower KeepersGladiator Rising
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.3 (104 ratings)4.6 (2.6K ratings) — better
Positive reviews57.1% of reviews65.0% of reviews — better
Number of ratings1042.6K — better
Update frequencyEvery 3 weeks — betterEvery 4 months
AdsNo — betterYes
In-app purchasesYesYes
MonetizationFree with in-app purchasesFree with in-app purchases
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPodiPhone, iPad, iPod
Requires iOS10 — better14.0
Further details — not scored
Size229 MB99 MB
Age rating9+12+
DeveloperNinja KiwiHappii Gamer Studios Inc.

Customer experience

Tower Keepers

All ratings104 ratings
Positive84.6%
Neutral3.8%
Negative11.5%
Written reviews231 reviews
Positive57.1%
Neutral12.1%
Negative30.7%

Gladiator Rising

All ratings2,570 ratings
Positive90.5%
Neutral5.4%
Negative4.1%
Written reviews317 reviews
Positive65.0%
Neutral13.2%
Negative21.8%

User reviews

Tower Keepers

From 104 App Store ratings

What we love

  • 🚀 Great fun game
  • 👍 Depth of play from beginner to high level
  • 👍 Nice campaign story with lots of missions and rewards
  • 👍 No paywalls to access all parts of the game
  • 👍 Supportive community

Room to improve

  • 🐛 Forced tutorial is too long
  • 🐛 Potions not available on iOS
  • 🐛 Game gets harder to progress without spending money
  • 🐛 Unbalanced PvP matchmaking
  • 🐛 Frequent ads

Gladiator Rising

From 2.6K App Store ratings

What we love

  • 🚀 Fun gameplay
  • 👍 Challenging and addictive
  • 🤺 Gladiator theme
  • 💎 Good value for a free game

Room to improve

  • 🐛 Frequent crashes and bugs
  • 🔨 Progression-blocking issues
  • 🕹️ Unresponsive controls
  • 🤯 Frustrating difficulty spikes

Bugs and requests

Tower Keepers

Reported bugs

5 issues
  • Forced tutorial is too long
  • Potions not available on iOS
  • Unbalanced PvP matchmaking
  • Crashes and freezes
  • Progress loss issues

Requested features

7 requests
  • Faster combat speed option
  • More character customization options
  • Improved PvP matchmaking
  • Reduce in-app purchase prices
  • Add more new content and events
Show 2 more
  • Fix progress loss issues
  • Improve stability and reduce crashes

Gladiator Rising

Reported bugs

4 issues
  • Game crashes when opening ad chests
  • Unable to progress past 3rd or 4th fight
  • Character instantly dying when sleeping
  • Inventory and skill issues on reloading

Requested features

4 requests
  • More character classes and abilities
  • Improved save/load system
  • Better in-app purchase options
  • Expanded post-game content

In-app purchases

12 purchases

Tower Keepers

One-time12
  • Bag of Gold$1.99
  • Advanced Hero Scroll Pack$3.99
  • Pile of Gems$4.99
Show 9 more
  • Starter Pack$4.99
  • Guild Marks$4.99
  • Daily Gems Pack$4.99
  • Artisan Points Pack$4.99
  • Pile of Gold$7.99
  • 4 Void Cores$9.99
  • Sack of Gems$19.99
  • Barrel of Gold$29.99
  • Barrel of Gems$49.99
4 purchases

Gladiator Rising

One-time4
  • Small Donation$0.99
  • Remove Ads$1.99
  • Medium Donation$2.99
Show 1 more
  • Large Donation$8.99

Questions

Is Tower Keepers free?
Tower Keepers is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Gladiator Rising free?
Gladiator Rising is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, Tower Keepers or Gladiator Rising?
Gladiator Rising is rated higher. Tower Keepers averages 4.3 out of 5 from 104 ratings, while Gladiator Rising averages 4.6 from 2.6K ratings.
Do Tower Keepers or Gladiator Rising have ads?
Gladiator Rising shows ads; Tower Keepers does not.
Which is updated more often, Tower Keepers or Gladiator Rising?
Tower Keepers ships an update every 3 weeks, and Gladiator Rising every 4 months. Most recently, Tower Keepers was updated on October 16, 2026 and Gladiator Rising on October 20, 2026.

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