Comparison

Wingspan vs Ark Nova

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

Head to head
About

Wingspan

A relaxing, award-winning strategy card game where you discover and attract birds to build wildlife preserves. Compete with up to five players to create powerful combinations and score points through birds, bonus cards, and goals.

Highlights
  • Discover and attract birds
  • Build wildlife preserves
  • Engine-building strategy
  • Single and multiplayer modes
  • Animated birds with real sounds
  • Multiple scoring methods
Features
Read full description

Wingspan is a relaxing, award-winning strategy card game about birds for 1 to 5 players. Each bird you play extends a chain of powerful combinations in one of your three habitats. Your goal is to discover and attract the best birds to your network of wildlife preserves. You are bird enthusiasts—researchers, bird watchers, ornithologists, and collectors—seeking to discover and attract the best birds to your network of wildlife preserves. Each bird extends a chain of powerful combinations in one of your habitats. Each habitat focuses on a key aspect of the growth of your preserves. In Wingspan up to 5 players compete to build up their nature preserves in a limited number of turns. Each beautiful bird that you add to your preserve makes you better at laying eggs, drawing cards, or gathering food. Many of the 170 unique birds have powers that echo real life: your hawks will hunt, your pelicans will fish, and your geese will form a flock. Features - Relaxing strategy card game where your goal is to discover and attract the best birds. - Single player and multiplayer modes for up to five players. - Based on award winning, competitive, card-driven, engine-building board game. - Hundreds of unique, animated birds with their real life sound recordings. - Multiple ways to accumulate points with birds, bonus cards and end-of-round goals.

About

Ark Nova

Design and manage a modern zoo to support global conservation efforts. Build enclosures, house animals, and utilize unique cards for special abilities. Compete to create the most successful zoological establishment.

Highlights
  • Plan and design a modern zoo
  • Build enclosures and accommodate animals
  • Support global conservation projects
  • Utilize 255 unique cards (animals, specialists, projects)
  • Upgrade action cards for gameplay
  • Increase zoo appeal and scientific reputation
Features
Read full description

Plan and build a modern, scientifically managed zoo to support conservation projects in an acclaimed strategy board game. In Ark Nova, you will plan and design a modern, scientifically managed zoo. With the ultimate goal of owning the most successful zoological establishment, you will build enclosures, accommodate animals, and support conservation projects all over the world. Specialists and unique buildings will help you in achieving this goal. At the heart of Ark Nova are 255 cards featuring animals, specialists, unique enclosures, and conservation projects, each with a particular ability. Use them to increase the appeal and scientific reputation of your zoo and to collect conservation points. Each player has a set of action cards, which you will use and upgrade to carry out your plans. Each player has a set of five action cards to manage their gameplay, and the power of an action is determined by the slot the card currently occupies. The cards are: BUILD: Allows you to build standard or special enclosures, kiosks, and pavilions. ANIMALS: Allows you to accommodate animals in your zoo. CARDS: Allows you to gain new zoo cards (animals, sponsors, and conservation project cards). ASSOCIATION: Allows your association workers to carry out different tasks. SPONSORS: Allows you to play a sponsor card in your zoo or to raise money. With high replayability and rich components, Ark Nova provides a remarkable gaming experience that will bring the game to the table again and again.

Screenshots

Wingspan4 screens
Ark Nova4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is in-app purchases: Ark Nova at none against Wingspan's 12. Ark Nova also leads on review sentiment (73% vs 61%) and iOS requirement (15.0 vs 17.0). Wingspan's advantage is ratings volume (13K vs 1.3K) and chart position (#6 vs #40). On rating, update cadence, ads 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

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

Wingspan costs $9.99 and Ark Nova $10.99 up front. Wingspan sells 12 one-off in-app purchases. Ark Nova asks for nothing beyond the download.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 4.8 for Wingspan against 4.8 for Ark Nova. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Wingspan has 13K ratings behind it against 1.3K, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews are what separate them: 61% of Wingspan's written reviews are positive against 73% of Ark Nova's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Wingspan ships an update every 2 weeks, Ark Nova every 3 weeks. The most recent releases landed on November 1, 2026 and October 30, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard7 real differences · 4 level
Wingspan versus Ark Nova: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterWingspanArk Nova
Price$9.99 — better$10.99
Rating4.8 (13K ratings)4.8 (1.3K ratings) — better
Positive reviews61.0% of reviews73.1% of reviews — better
Number of ratings13K — better1.3K
Update frequencyEvery 2 weeks — betterEvery 3 weeks
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesNo — better
MonetizationFree with in-app purchases — betterPaid
Best chart rank#6 — better#40
DevicesiPhone, iPadiPhone, iPad, iPod — better
Requires iOS17.015.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size1.0 GB682 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperMonster CouchDire Wolf Digital

Customer experience

Wingspan

All ratings13,046 ratings
Positive96.1%
Neutral1.3%
Negative2.6%
Written reviews982 reviews
Positive61.0%
Neutral11.6%
Negative27.4%

Ark Nova

All ratings1,262 ratings
Positive96.8%
Neutral1.7%
Negative1.5%
Written reviews134 reviews
Positive73.1%
Neutral10.4%
Negative16.4%

User reviews

Wingspan

From 13K App Store ratings

What we love

  • 🎨 Beautiful gameplay
  • 🎶 Lovely music and sound effects
  • 🕰️ Relaxing and calming experience
  • 📚 Educational bird facts
  • 🕹️ Faithful digital adaptation of the board game

Room to improve

  • 🐛 Frequent crashes and bugs
  • 🔍 Small text and icons difficult to read
  • 🕰️ AI opponents take too long to make moves
  • 🔋 High battery consumption
  • 🤯 Frustrating online multiplayer experience

Ark Nova

From 1.3K App Store ratings

What we love

  • 🚀 Great implementation overall
  • 👍 Lots of fun
  • 👍 Good animations
  • 👍 Choice of modes
  • 👍 Clean, modern and enjoyable design

Room to improve

  • 🐛 Tile placement/rotation issues on iPad
  • 🐛 Building placement UI issues
  • 👎 Difficult to read board state on mobile
  • 👎 Lack of simultaneous view for key game info
  • 👎 Cumbersome to create games with friends

Bugs and requests

Wingspan

Reported bugs

5 issues
  • End-of-game buttons not working
  • Unfinished games not clearing from main menu
  • Inconsistent response when tapping on cards/habitats
  • Incorrect behavior of certain bird abilities
  • Crashes when playing specific card combinations

Requested features

8 requests
  • Ability to reorder cards in hand
  • Option to save/friend usernames for online play
  • Faster AI turns
  • In-game chat function
  • Ability to view opponent's hand size
Show 3 more
  • Option to disable end-of-round animations
  • Leaderboard for online competitions
  • More detailed achievement descriptions

Ark Nova

Reported bugs

2 issues
  • iPad Flash exit issue
  • Rewards screen being blocked by other UI elements

Requested features

4 requests
  • Option to enable larger UI buttons for modal panels
  • Full screen mode
  • Option to reverse zoom direction
  • Improved card readability/zoom

In-app purchases

12 purchases

Wingspan

One-time12
  • Seasonal Decorative Pack$4.99
  • Woodland Wonders Pack$4.99
  • Seasonal Decorative Pack 2$4.99
Show 9 more
  • Birds of Continental Europe$5.99
  • Bird Pack: Additional Asian Avians$5.99
  • Bird Pack: British Birds$5.99
  • European Expansion$9.99
  • Oceania Expansion$11.99
  • Asia Expansion$11.99
  • Bird Packs Season Pass$12.99
  • Bird Packs Season Pass$18.99
  • Bird Packs Season Pass$24.99
None

Ark Nova

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Wingspan free?
Wingspan costs $9.99, and also offers in-app purchases.
Is Ark Nova free?
Ark Nova costs $10.99, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, Wingspan or Ark Nova?
Ark Nova is rated higher. Wingspan averages 4.8 out of 5 from 13K ratings, while Ark Nova averages 4.8 from 1.3K ratings.
Do Wingspan or Ark Nova have ads?
Neither Wingspan nor Ark Nova shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Wingspan or Ark Nova?
Wingspan ships an update every 2 weeks, and Ark Nova every 3 weeks. Most recently, Wingspan was updated on November 1, 2026 and Ark Nova on October 30, 2026.
Which is more popular, Wingspan or Ark Nova?
Wingspan currently peaks at #6 in the App Store charts, and Ark Nova at #40. Chart position reflects recent download velocity rather than total install base.

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