Hover Racer vs Sphero Play
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Hover Racer
Engage in high-flying drone races and battles with friends or solo. Customize courses, complete challenges, and upgrade your drone for competitive gameplay. Experience endless possibilities in this action-packed entertainment app.
- Competitive drone racing and battles
- Single player challenges, races, and time trials
- Multiplayer modes for head-to-head or team play
- Co-Op mode with VR missile battles
- Course customization with beacons and objects
- Weapon and defense upgrades
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Competitive Gameplay at its High-Flying Best! Connect to your Hover Racer drone, and you’re ready for action! Race or battle! Head-to-head or team up. Compete with other drones for endless possibilities! FEATURES - Speed over checkpoint beacons that track your position and progress. - Complete dozens of challenges, races and time trials in single player mode. - Race and battle against your friends in one of the multi-player modes. - Play Co-Op mode and team with a friend to battle VR missiles. - Customize your course using beacons and surrounding objects. - Challenge other pilots to head to head competition. - Unlock weapon and defense enhancements and upgrades.
Sphero Play
Control and play with various Sphero robots using a single application. Explore multiple drive modes, engage in robot-controlled games, and learn basic programming through a block-based interface.
- Multiple drive modes (joystick, tilt, voice)
- Robot-controlled games
- Block Drive programming
- Sports-themed drive modes
- Voice control
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Drive and play games from ONE app with your Sphero Mini, Sphero 2.0, SPRK, SPRK+, BOLT, and BOLT+. Connect and control your robots with several exciting drive modes, use your robot as a controller to play games, or try out Block Drive for an intro to programming with colorful blocks. Features include: DRIVE MODES Drive your robots several ways with the Sphero Play app. Use the joystick and slingshot controls, tilt your device, or use your voice. Our sports-themed drive modes keep things fun with the ability to swing your device to "golf"*, or flick to "kick" your robot. BLOCK DRIVE PROGRAMMING Learn programming basics by controlling your robot with colorful movement and light blocks. GAMES Use your robot as a controller to shoot your way through space, race your vehicle through a tunnel avoiding obstacles and scoring points, or rotate your ball to destroy a polygon of bricks. Need robots? We know a guy. Visit sphero.com and order today. *This mode is not available on iPads.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is rating: Sphero Play at 4.8 against Hover Racer's 3.6. Sphero Play also leads on ratings volume (37K vs 31) and review sentiment (69% vs 50%). Hover Racer's advantage is update cadence (fortnightly vs every 2 months) and iOS requirement (8.1 vs 15.0). On price, ads, 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
Both are free to download. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
Sphero Play holds the better App Store score, 4.8 against 3.6. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Sphero Play has 37K ratings behind it against 31, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 50% of Hover Racer's written reviews are positive against 69% of Sphero Play's.
Hover Racer ships an update fortnightly, Sphero Play every 2 months. The most recent releases landed on October 22, 2026 and October 24, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Hover Racer | Sphero Play |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 3.6 (31 ratings) | 4.8 (37K ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 50.0% of reviews | 69.1% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 31 | 37K — better |
| Update frequency | Fortnightly — better | Every 2 months |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Free | Free |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod | iPhone, iPad, iPod |
| Requires iOS | 8.1 — better | 15.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 188 MB | 193 MB |
| Age rating | 9+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Skyrocket, LLC | Sphero, Inc. |
Customer experience
Hover Racer
Sphero Play
Bugs and requests
Hover Racer
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
Sphero Play
Reported bugs
2 issues- Joystick controls not working as expected
- Alignment issues causing unexpected movement
Requested features
4 requests- More games and activities
- Support for additional Sphero products (e.g. Ollie, BB-8)
- Improved aiming and control precision
- Camera integration to see the Sphero's view
In-app purchases
Hover Racer
No in-app purchases
Sphero Play
No in-app purchases
