Mars Walk VR vs VR Universe
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Mars Walk VR
Embark on an educational virtual reality tour of the red planet. Explore Martian landscapes, visit historic landing sites, and witness scientific instruments in action. This immersive experience brings the wonders of Mars directly to your smartphone.
- Explore Mars surface and landing sites
- Experience Martian dust storms
- Observe scientific instruments on Mars
- Visit historic Viking landers
- Follow Curiosity rover's sample collection
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The first people who will visit Mars are sitting in a school today. To help inspire these students, Lockheed Martin created Mars Walk. A virtual reality adventure you can experience using your own smartphone. Mars Walk provides a fun, interactive, and educational tour of the red planet in a stunning VR experience. Explore Mars – on your phone. Download today. A cardboard VR device is required. Thanks to our partners NASA and Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL). FEATURES: - Walk the surface of Mars and explore the landing sites for InSight, Viking and Curiosity. - Experience dust storms at the Northern Crater - Observe InSight and Viking as they gather information about Mars - Visit one of the famous Viking landers that landed more than 40 years ago - Follow Curiosity as it navigates the red surface collecting samples
VR Universe
Explore the universe with interactive augmented and virtual reality experiences. Learn about space, planets, and the International Space Station through hands-on projects like building a planetarium and launching a rocket. Bring educational content to life by holding your device over a special book.
- Augmented and virtual reality experiences
- Interactive space exploration
- Hands-on science projects
- Learn about planets and the solar system
- Bring educational content to life
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Join Professor Maxwell to explore the wonders of our universe with dozens of projects that come alive in augmented and virtual reality! Journey through space to learn about the Sun, our Solar System, planets, the International Space Station and more while experiencing it first-hand in immersive VR. Then get hands on with projects including launching a rocket, building a planetarium and creating a sundial to tell the time, all in Professor Maxwell’s VR Universe! To activate the experiences, simply download the app and hold your phone over the book included in the kit to see Professor Maxwell come to life!
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is rating: VR Universe at 4.1 against Mars Walk VR's 2.5. VR Universe also leads on review sentiment (60% vs 43%). Mars Walk VR's advantage is update cadence (every 2 weeks vs every 5 months). On price, ratings volume, 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
Both are free to download. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
VR Universe holds the better App Store score, 4.1 against 2.5. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 31 and 30 respectively. Written reviews point the same way: 43% of Mars Walk VR's written reviews are positive against 60% of VR Universe's.
Mars Walk VR ships an update every 2 weeks, VR Universe every 5 months. The most recent releases landed on November 2, 2026 and November 9, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Mars Walk VR | VR Universe |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 2.5 (31 ratings) | 4.1 (30 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 43.5% of reviews | 60.0% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 31 — better | 30 |
| Update frequency | Every 2 weeks — better | Every 5 months |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Free | Free |
| Devices | iPhone, iPod | iPhone, iPad, iPod — better |
| Requires iOS | 10.0 — better | 11.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 736 MB | 1.2 GB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Lockheed Martin | Abacus |
Customer experience
Mars Walk VR
VR Universe
In-app purchases
Mars Walk VR
No in-app purchases
VR Universe
No in-app purchases
Questions
Is Mars Walk VR free?
Is VR Universe free?
Which has better reviews, Mars Walk VR or VR Universe?
Do Mars Walk VR or VR Universe have ads?
Which is updated more often, Mars Walk VR or VR Universe?
Other comparisons
