Comparison

Sudoku ▦ vs Microsoft Sudoku

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

Head to head
About

Sudoku ▦

Enjoy the classic paper-and-pencil puzzle game on your phone with a clean, elegant design. Challenge your mind with multiple difficulty levels and helpful tools to aid your solving experience.

Highlights
  • Thousands of free puzzles
  • Classic Sudoku design
  • Pencil mode for notes
  • Highlight duplicates
  • Optional mistake limit
  • Four difficulty levels
  • Customizable appearance
Features
Read full description

Sudoku ▦ is one of the best loved and most popular puzzle games in the world. Now you can play the classic paper and pencil puzzle game right on your phone! With our simple and elegant design, Tripledot’s Sudoku▦ for mobile is the best way to play this timeless classic. Challenge your problem-solving skills with an expert-level game or take a break with a quick game on easy mode. Whether you’re a hyper competitive puzzle solver or just looking for a way to relax, a beginner or a master puzzler, Tripledot’s Sudoku ▦ will let you play the game your way. Choose from four different difficulty levels, and customise your experience with features to help or challenge you. Key Features: - Thousands of well-formed, totally free puzzles - The classic Sudoku design, beautifully recreated on your phone - Use the pencil to make notes right on the puzzle - Highlight duplicates to help you solve the puzzle - Challenge yourself by limiting yourself to three mistakes - Use hints to help you find your way through difficult puzzles - - Play Sudoku your way with our finely tuned customisation - Four perfectly crafted difficulty levels: Easy, Medium, Hard, and Expert. - Highlight duplicates to avoid repeating numbers in a row, column, and block - Automatically Check for Mistakes: Enable auto-check to easily spot your mistakes, or disable it to play a more free-form game - Optional Mistake Limit: challenge yourself to play a perfect game, or relax with unlimited mistakes - Pencil mode: Use the pencil mode to make notes on each cell, which automatically update as you play the game - Statistics: See your best times and streaks for every difficulty level - Autosave: Your puzzles save as you go, so you can come back anytime - Hints: Hints can guide you through the puzzle when you are stuck - Eraser: Made a mistake? Get rid of it by using the eraser feature - Unlimited undo's: Eliminate errors using our unlimited undo feature - Customize appearance: Choose from six different beautiful skins for a game that is as easy on the eyes as it is to play By using Sudoku ▦, you agree to our Terms of Use and Community Guidelines available at https://www.tripledotstudios.com/tos Questions? Email Sudoku_support@tripledotstudios.com for help!

About

Microsoft Sudoku

Enjoy classic and irregular Sudoku puzzles with multiple difficulty levels and daily challenges. Customize your experience with various themes and input methods. Sign in to save progress and earn achievements.

Highlights
  • 6 difficulty levels for classic and irregular Sudoku
  • 3 new daily challenges each day
  • Multiple themes including symbol-based
  • In-game note-taking feature
  • Xbox Live achievements and cloud saving
  • Detailed statistics tracking
  • Customizable game settings
Read full description

Relax and keep your mind sharp with a game of Microsoft Sudoku, the world’s best Sudoku app. Classic: Play puzzles you’ve come to love now with 6 difficulty levels to choose from! Elegant, clean and intellectually stimulating. Play at your leisure where every puzzle is freshly generated giving you a never-ending supply of unique classic Sudoku games to play. Irregular: Try a whole new take on Sudoku! Rules are the same but the blocks have irregular shapes. You might not ever go back to the classic way of playing again! It’s cool to be Irregular. Daily Challenges: Play 3 unique challenges every day, collect coins and win badges! Classic, Irregular and an all new Ice Breaker game mode! In Ice Breaker placing correct numbers sends shockwaves across the board that break the ice. Give it a try, it’s a breeze! Features… • Freshly generated puzzles every game across 6 levels of difficulty for Classic and Irregular Sudoku • 3 new Daily Challenges every day • Multiple different themes to choose from. Are you a visual person? Try the Charms theme that uses symbols instead of numbers and can be played in any game mode! • Take notes like you would like you did on paper that get automatically updated each time you fill in a cell. • Made a mistake? No problem just erase it • Sign in with a Microsoft account to earn Xbox Live achievements and save your progress in the cloud across all your Apple devices. • Track your Statistics for all game modes including your Best Time, Average Time, and Games Played. • Customize the way you play with tons of settings including Block Duplicates, Show Mistakes, Show All Notes, and more! • Play by choosing a square first or a number first. Any input method works! • Pick up right where you left off, your classic and irregular puzzle progress is saved when you close the app! Upgrade to Premium on iPhone and iPad. You can purchase the Microsoft Sudoku Premium Subscription for $1.99 per Month or $9.99 per Year. Benefits that come with a Premium Subscription include: • Removing advertisements from your game • Play Daily Challenges from previous months NOTE: Premium Subscription grants premium experience on mobile only. It is non-transferrable to other platforms. Payment will be charged to your iTunes Account on confirmation of purchase. Subscription automatically renews monthly or annually depending on the subscription type purchased. Payment will be charged to your iTunes Account within 24-hours prior to the end of the current period ($1.99 monthly, or $9.99 annually, depending on the subscription type purchased). You can turn off your auto-renewal by going to your Account Settings after purchase. If auto-renewal is turned off at least 24-hours before the end of the current period, you will not be charged for the next period. All cancellations will take effect at the end of the current period. © Microsoft 2025. All Rights Reserved. Microsoft, Microsoft Casual Games, the product logos and Sudoku, and the Sudoku logos are trademarks of the Microsoft group of companies. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. Acceptance of Microsoft Services Agreement and Privacy Statement are required to play. (https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/servicesagreement, https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/privacy/privacystatement) Microsoft account registration required for cross-platform play. Game offers in-app purchases. Persistent internet connection required. Features, online services and system requirements may vary by country and are subject to change or retirement over time.

Screenshots

Sudoku ▦4 screens
Microsoft Sudoku4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is in-app purchases: Sudoku ▦ at none against Microsoft Sudoku's 2. Sudoku ▦ also leads on update cadence (every 2 weeks vs every 2 months) and ratings volume (104K vs 7.6K). On price, rating, review sentiment 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

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

Both are free to download. Microsoft Sudoku sells 2 in-app purchases, starting at $1.99 per month. Sudoku ▦ asks for nothing beyond the download.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 4.7 for Sudoku ▦ against 4.7 for Microsoft Sudoku. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Sudoku ▦ has 104K ratings behind it against 7.6K, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews split almost evenly too, at 38% and 38% positive.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Sudoku ▦ ships an update every 2 weeks, Microsoft Sudoku every 2 months. Both last shipped on November 11, 2026.

Scorecard3 real differences · 7 level
Sudoku ▦ versus Microsoft Sudoku: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterSudoku ▦Microsoft Sudoku
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.7 (104K ratings)4.7 (7.6K ratings) — better
Positive reviews37.6% of reviews37.8% of reviews — better
Number of ratings104K — better7.6K
Update frequencyEvery 2 weeks — betterEvery 2 months
AdsYesYes
In-app purchasesNo — betterYes
MonetizationFree with in-app purchasesFree with in-app purchases
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPodiPhone, iPad, iPod
Requires iOS15.015.0
Further details — not scored
Size249 MB162 MB
Age rating12+4+
DeveloperTripledot Studios LimitedMicrosoft Corporation

Customer experience

Sudoku ▦

All ratings104,192 ratings
Positive92.9%
Neutral4.5%
Negative2.6%
Written reviews418 reviews
Positive37.6%
Neutral13.6%
Negative48.8%

Microsoft Sudoku

All ratings7,543 ratings
Positive93.7%
Neutral2.3%
Negative4.0%
Written reviews503 reviews
Positive37.8%
Neutral15.5%
Negative46.7%

User reviews

Sudoku ▦

From 104K App Store ratings

What we love

  • 🎮 Great game
  • 💡 Challenging levels
  • 📊 Useful statistics and insights
  • 🧠 Brain-stimulating

Room to improve

  • 🤖 Too many ads
  • 🕰️ Ads disrupt gameplay
  • 🔇 Loud ads disrupt audio
  • 🔋 High battery drain

Microsoft Sudoku

From 7.6K App Store ratings

What we love

  • 🚀 Intuitive and fast gameplay
  • 🔒 Robust security features
  • 👍 Variety of puzzle types
  • 👍 Customizable options
  • 👍 Great for beginners and experts

Room to improve

  • 🐛 Frequent crashes and freezes
  • 🔋 Ads play audio even in silent mode
  • 🔋 Excessive ads and intrusive monetization
  • 🐛 Progress not saving properly
  • 🐛 Compatibility issues on certain devices

Bugs and requests

Sudoku ▦

Reported bugs

3 issues
  • Freezing and crashing issues
  • Incorrect number placement detection
  • Daily challenge progress not saving properly

Requested features

4 requests
  • Option to pay to remove ads
  • More customization options
  • Ability to reset puzzles
  • Improved performance on older devices

Microsoft Sudoku

Reported bugs

4 issues
  • Daily challenge progress not syncing across devices
  • Levels and scores resetting unexpectedly
  • App getting stuck on loading screens
  • Ads hijacking device controls and interrupting background audio

Requested features

5 requests
  • Landscape mode support for tablets
  • More customization options for notes and highlighting
  • Ability to replay past daily challenges
  • Improved undo/redo functionality
  • Autofill or auto-complete options for advanced players

In-app purchases

None

Sudoku ▦

No in-app purchases

2 purchases

Microsoft Sudoku

Subscriptions2
  • Premium Monthly Subscription$1.991 Month
  • Premium Yearly Subscription$9.991 Year

Questions

Is Sudoku ▦ free?
Sudoku ▦ is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is Microsoft Sudoku free?
Microsoft Sudoku is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, Sudoku ▦ or Microsoft Sudoku?
Microsoft Sudoku is rated higher. Sudoku ▦ averages 4.7 out of 5 from 104K ratings, while Microsoft Sudoku averages 4.7 from 7.6K ratings.
Do Sudoku ▦ or Microsoft Sudoku have ads?
Both Sudoku ▦ and Microsoft Sudoku show ads.
Which is updated more often, Sudoku ▦ or Microsoft Sudoku?
Sudoku ▦ ships an update every 2 weeks, and Microsoft Sudoku every 2 months. Most recently, Sudoku ▦ was updated on November 11, 2026 and Microsoft Sudoku on November 11, 2026.

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