Bleak Sword vs Vampire Survivors+
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both games, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Bleak Sword
Embark on a dark fantasy adventure across cursed diorama battlefields. Battle creatures through nine chapters, lifting a legendary curse by upgrading your hero with magic and items. Challenge yourself further in Arena Mode with unlockable achievements.
- Diorama battlefields
- Nine tense chapters
- Powerful magic invocation
- Item discovery
- Character leveling and stat upgrades
- Arena Mode
- Unlockable achievements
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Developed by more8bit Bleak Sword is a dark fantasy action game tasking players to struggle across compact, cursed diorama battlefields. Through nine tense chapters, heroes must lift the curse of the legendary Bleak Sword by striking down all manner of creatures in every forest, swamp, castle, and dungeon on their journey. Invoke powerful magic, uncover helpful items, and level up your character to upgrade your stats before facing down menacing guardians. Once the curse has been lifted the challenging Arena Mode and thirty unlockable achievements await even the most accomplished warrior. Bleak Sword is designed to be able to play it easily with elegant controls allowing heroes to roll, parry, attack and counter-attack using basic movements on gamepads and touch controls. Scored by award-winning composer Jim Guthrie with sound by famed designer Joonas Turner.
Vampire Survivors+
Engage in a gothic horror survival RPG where you battle hordes of monsters. Make strategic choices to overcome overwhelming odds and gather gold for permanent upgrades. Survive as long as possible in this rogue-lite experience.
- Mow down thousands of night creatures
- Rogue-lite elements with permanent upgrades
- Gothic horror casual gameplay
- Bullet hell combat
- Includes Legacy of the Moonspell and Tides of the Foscari DLC
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Mow down thousands of night creatures and survive until dawn! Vampire Survivors is a gothic horror casual game with rogue-lite elements, where your choices can allow you to quickly snowball against the hundreds of monsters that get thrown at you. Hell is empty, the devils are here, and there's no place to run or hide. All you can do is survive as long as you can until death inevitably puts an end to your struggles. Gather gold in each run to buy upgrades and help the next survivor. The supernatural indie phenomenon that lets you be the bullet hell! Vampire Survivors+ for Apple Arcade also includes Vampire Survivors: Legacy of the Moonspell and Vampire Survivors: Tides of the Foscari Starting Tips: - Take your time to grab gems and items, they won't disappear. - Get two or three offensive weapons at first, but focus on levelling them up one at a time. - Armour and Luck are good starting power-ups to spend money on. - Refund power-ups often, it's free, and try new upgrade paths.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is monetization model: Vampire Survivors+ at free against Bleak Sword's paid. Vampire Survivors+ also leads on update cadence (every 3 weeks vs every 8 months). Bleak Sword's advantage is review sentiment (80% vs 65%). On price, rating, ratings volume 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.
On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 4.5 for Bleak Sword against 4.4 for Vampire Survivors+. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 899 and 553 respectively. Written reviews are what separate them: 80% of Bleak Sword's written reviews are positive against 65% of Vampire Survivors+'s.
Bleak Sword ships an update every 8 months, Vampire Survivors+ every 3 weeks. The most recent releases landed on September 20, 2026 and September 24, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Bleak Sword | Vampire Survivors+ |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.5 (899 ratings) — better | 4.4 (553 ratings) |
| Positive reviews | 79.9% of reviews — better | 64.9% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 899 — better | 553 |
| Update frequency | Every 8 months | Every 3 weeks — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Paid | Free — better |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod, Apple TV — better | iPhone, iPad, iPod |
| Requires iOS | 13.0 | 13.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 467 MB | 1.0 GB |
| Age rating | 12+ | 12+ |
| Developer | Devolver Digital, Inc. | Poncle |
Customer experience
Bleak Sword
Vampire Survivors+
User reviews
Bleak Sword
From 899 App Store ratingsWhat we love
- 🚀 Smooth and responsive controls
- 👍 Satisfying combat mechanics
- 🎨 Unique and atmospheric pixel art style
- 🕹️ Challenging but fair gameplay
- 🕰️ Suitable for short play sessions
Room to improve
- 🐛 Occasional save data loss issues
- 🔍 Difficulty in tracking character on screen
- 🤕 Overly punishing difficulty curve
- 🧠 Lack of progression and upgrade systems
- 🔍 Blurry visuals on some devices
Vampire Survivors+
From 553 App Store ratingsWhat we love
- 🚀 Addictive and engaging gameplay
- 🎨 Unique and enjoyable art style
- 🎵 Excellent soundtrack
- 👍 Smooth controls and intuitive mechanics
- 💎 Tons of content and unlockables
Room to improve
- 🐛 Occasional crashes and freezes
- 🔋 Progress loss when app is suspended
- 🔍 Lack of clear objectives and direction
- 🎮 Touch controls not as precise as controller
Bugs and requests
Bleak Sword
Reported bugs
2 issues- Controls becoming unresponsive after app switch
- Inconsistent blocking mechanics
Requested features
5 requests- Landscape mode support for tablets
- Ability to skip credits after first completion
- More enemy and boss variety
- Customizable controls
- Expanded story and lore
Vampire Survivors+
Reported bugs
3 issues- Eudonium M level getting stuck in loading loop
- Santa Water item not functioning as expected
- Graphical issues and visual effects overload in late game
Requested features
4 requests- Mid-game save and resume functionality
- Support for Apple TV and controllers
- Addition of all DLC content from other platforms
- Improved performance and stability for late-game runs
In-app purchases
Bleak Sword
No in-app purchases
Vampire Survivors+
No in-app purchases
Questions
Is Bleak Sword free?
Is Vampire Survivors+ free?
Which has better reviews, Bleak Sword or Vampire Survivors+?
Do Bleak Sword or Vampire Survivors+ have ads?
Which is updated more often, Bleak Sword or Vampire Survivors+?
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