Pinball Game vs Visual Pinball
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both games, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Pinball Game
Experience classic pinball action with intuitive controls. Tap the screen to launch the ball and operate the paddles to keep it in play. Enjoy this free pinball game with a wizard-style theme.
- Intuitive tap controls
- Classic pinball gameplay
- Wizard-style theme
- Free to play
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Tap the ball to launch and use the left and right sides of the screen to control the flippers. Keep the ball in play and aim for a new high score. Collect coins and visit the shop for extra balls and a flipper upgrade. Compare solo high scores with Game Center. ONLINE MATCH Challenge iOS and Android players in 60-second, one-on-one score battles. See both scores and the countdown as you play. Both players use the same equipment, with balls replenished throughout the match. Online matches do not spend your solo coins or balls. Practice against the computer while waiting for an opponent. When a match is found, practice ends and a fresh match begins. See your opponent’s name and rating before the countdown. Check the shared top-100 win-rate leaderboard; players become eligible after one completed match. Game Center sign-in and an internet connection are required for online play. Solo play does not require sign-in. Automatic fullscreen ads are not shown. A small banner may appear only on the title screen. Gameplay, online matches and the shop have no banner ads. Optional rewarded videos for extra balls remain available in the shop. The one-time Remove Ads purchase removes the title-screen banner. Optional rewarded videos remain available after purchase. Restore purchases from Settings → Remove Ads. Start playing without entering your age or completing setup screens. Age, advertising privacy and optional usage analytics can be changed in Settings. Unknown age receives protective ad settings. Ads that require consent remain unavailable until you choose to complete that consent in Settings. Your exact age is not stored, and analytics stays off without your explicit choice. Interface languages: English, Japanese, German, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, Korean, Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese and Russian.
Visual Pinball
Experience the full virtual pinball simulator with realistic physics, lighting, and sound. This open-source app offers a redesigned interface, enhanced table management, and the complete desktop experience for mobile devices. Enjoy a vast library of tables without ads or in-app purchases.
- Realistic physics, lighting, and sound
- Redesigned interface with Liquid Glass
- Full in-game menu for graphics and controls
- Support for various backglass and display types
- Easy table import and management
- Optimized memory usage
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The official Visual Pinball app. Built by volunteers since 2000 and open source since 2010, Visual Pinball is the simulator the virtual pinball community has been playing for over two decades. More than 70 people have contributed to it, and this app runs the same engine as the desktop version, so every table plays with the physics, lighting and sound its creator intended. No ads. No in-app purchases. No tracking. Made by volunteers. Two years of work from the Visual Pinball volunteers, in one update. Thank you for your patience, and for playing! A FRESH NEW LOOK • Redesigned for iOS 26 with Liquid Glass • Favorites and recently played tables at the top of your list • Search, sorting and three tile sizes • Light, Dark or System appearance • New loading screen that shows progress THE FULL DESKTOP EXPERIENCE • The complete Visual Pinball in-game menu for graphics, sound, controls and table options • Remap every button on keyboards and game controllers • Save settings for every table, or just the one you're playing MORE TABLES, LOOKING BETTER • Show the backglass and score display (DMD, alphanumeric or reels) on screen, right where you want them • Support for PUP packs, FlexDMD, B2S backglasses, video playback and VNI colorizations • All the latest physics and rendering improvements from the desktop version • Much lower memory use: textures are compressed on first load, then cached EASIER TABLE MANAGEMENT • Import .zip files, along with .vpx and .vpxz • Share any table as a single .vpxz file • The web file manager can now upload whole folders, extract archives, edit scripts and settings, and show the log live AND MORE • Many stability and memory fixes This version requires iOS 26.6 or later.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is in-app purchases: Visual Pinball at none against Pinball Game's 1. Visual Pinball also leads on ads (none vs shown) and rating (4.3 vs 4.0). Pinball Game's advantage is review sentiment (100% vs 78%) and iOS requirement (15.0 vs 26.6). On price, update cadence, monetization model and device support 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. Pinball Game sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. Visual Pinball asks for nothing beyond the download.
Visual Pinball holds the better App Store score, 4.3 against 4.0. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Visual Pinball has 75 ratings behind it against 2, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews complicate that: 100% of Pinball Game's written reviews are positive against 78% of Visual Pinball's, so the app with the better star average is not the one people write more warmly about.
Pinball Game ships an update weekly, Visual Pinball fortnightly. The most recent releases landed on November 2, 2026 and November 5, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Pinball Game | Visual Pinball |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.0 (2 ratings) | 4.3 (75 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 100.0% of reviews — better | 78.0% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 2 | 75 — better |
| Update frequency | Weekly — better | Fortnightly |
| Ads | Yes | No — better |
| In-app purchases | Yes | No — better |
| Monetization | Free | Free |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod — better | iPhone, iPad |
| Requires iOS | 15.0 — better | 26.6 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 149 MB | 134 MB |
| Age rating | 12+ | 9+ |
| Developer | TAKAHARU INOUE | Jason Millard |
Customer experience
Pinball Game
Visual Pinball
Bugs and requests
Pinball Game
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
Visual Pinball
Reported bugs
2 issues- Tables don't load for some users
- Certain complex/intensive tables error out or run at low FPS
Requested features
6 requests- List of most played tables
- Ability to reposition DMD
- Option to skip startup checks for some tables
- Ability to edit table scripts on the app
- Direct link to table depository
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- iPad version with more screen space
In-app purchases
Pinball Game
- Remove Ads$1.99
Visual Pinball
No in-app purchases
Questions
Is Pinball Game free?
Is Visual Pinball free?
Which has better reviews, Pinball Game or Visual Pinball?
Do Pinball Game or Visual Pinball have ads?
Which is updated more often, Pinball Game or Visual Pinball?
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