Dear Reader vs Good Sudoku+
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both games, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Dear Reader
Engage with classic literature through unique word puzzles. Unscramble passages, unlock new books, and complete challenges to discover special abilities. This game transforms beloved stories into interactive wordplay experiences.
- Play with over 130 classic books
- Unlock dozens of wordplay puzzle types
- Acquire new books from a rotating selection
- Earn Rare Books by completing goals
- Embark on Research missions for abilities
- Solve daily word challenges
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• Play with more than a hundred classic books • Unlock dozens of ways to Wordplay • Acquire new books from a rotating selection in the Bookstore • Earn Rare Books by completing challenging Reading Goals • Embark on Research missions to unlock special abilities • Puzzle through increasingly difficult Daily Challenges “If I’m not actually reading in my down time then I’m likely playing Dear Reader.” -one of our dear players Dear Reader lets you curl up and play your favorite books, turning classic literature into clever word puzzles. Unscramble passages from famous books, unlock unique puzzles, and add new books to your library. Dear Reader includes over 130 literary classics and dozens of different types of word puzzles, from unscrambling anagrams to swapping lines of text. Dear Reader is the first and only game where you can play with the actual written words of so many tempting books of classic literature! As Game Developer’s Alissa McAloon wrote, Dear Reader is “a game that’s as difficult to put down as a good book.” Best Apple Arcade Games, IGN Top 5 Apple Arcade recommended games, Bustle Magazine 12 Best Apple Arcade games, Gamespot 10 Best Mobile Games of the Year, Paste Magazine Official Finalist, IndieCade Official Selection, Indie Megabooth GDC Showcase Official Selection, Wordplay Festival Best Gameplay Finalist, Games for Change Best Meaningful Play, International Mobile Gaming Awards
Good Sudoku+
This app transforms your device into an AI-powered Sudoku companion. It offers a vast library of high-quality puzzles, intelligent hints, and tools to reduce tedious tasks, making the game more enjoyable and educational for all skill levels.
- AI-powered hint system
- Over 70,000 high-quality puzzles
- Tools to reduce busywork
- 3 standard game modes
- 3 daily puzzle modes with leaderboards
- 6 difficulty levels
- Import and share custom puzzles
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You’ve never played Sudoku like this. Good Sudoku turns your iOS device into an AI powered Sudoku genius whose only mission is to help you learn and love this classic game. Whether you’ve never tried Sudoku, or you play every day, Good Sudoku’s elegant layout, intelligent hint system, and busywork reducing tweaks will help you play better and have more fun. - Over 70,000 of the highest quality puzzles you’ll see anywhere - Optional tools to reduce busywork - AI powered hint support to continuously boost your skills - 3 standard modes: Good, Arcade, and Eternal - 3 Daily puzzle modes that get harder throughout the week + global leaderboards - 6 levels of difficulty - Import your own puzzles from elsewhere in Custom mode (and share them with friends!) --- We put everything we could into making the best digital Sudoku game ever released: - We wrote a puzzle generator from scratch to create over 70,000 of the highest quality puzzles you’ll see anywhere. We spent weeks figuring out how to generate intricate and complex puzzles you won’t find in other Sudoku apps. Our hardest puzzles require wild techniques like “XYZ Wings”, “Hidden Quadrouples”, “Jellyfish”, and “Swordfish”. - Most people don’t know this but Sudoku puzzles are actually generated by programatic Sudoku solvers. The fastest way to know how hard your puzzle is, or if it’s valid, is to write a solver that knows all the strategies that can try it. With Good Sudoku, we run our solver as you are playing, so if you get stuck, it can detect what you know by looking at your answers and your notes, and then help you find the next technique you need to solve the puzzle. - Most Sudoku games classify difficulty into vague Easy, Medium, and Hard difficulties — But what do these difficulties mean? Typically they refer to the kinds of solving techniques that are required to solve a given puzzle without resorting to guess-and-check. In Good Sudoku we aren’t vague about it at all. We lay out exactly which techniques are required for each difficulty level. Good Sudoku allows you to practice them individually outside of puzzles, and keeps track of which ones you’ve learned! - When we first got interested in Sudoku we noticed that a lot of players spend most of their time looking at the board and counting. On easy puzzles, this counting serves as a way to increase the difficulty by making the puzzle take longer. We know some sudoku players love the counting but we found it a bit tedious and designed some tools to alleviate the busywork. At first these tools might feel a bit like cheating, but once your mind is freed up from counting you’ll have space to see the much deeper more fascinating side of Sudoku: all of the beautiful technique structures. Freed from the burden of busywork Sudoku becomes one of the best search-style games we’ve ever played. More fun than word-searches and solitaire, high-level Sudoku is a real treat — and with Good Sudoku and a little practice, anyone can learn it! - We noticed when looking at other Sudoku apps although there are often daily puzzle modes, those modes never include global leaderboards. Weird! Good Sudoku remedies this problem! - We wanted to make the best Sudoku out there, and while we’re proud of our puzzles, we recognize that puzzles come from all places. That’s why we built a quick and easy custom puzzle mode into Good Sudoku, so if you have a paper puzzle that you’re stuck on, or you’re trying some wild variant (Like the Miracle Sudoku!) it’s easy to put it into the game, play it, and share it with your friends. If the puzzle follows standard Sudoku rules, our hint system will even help you get unstuck! We truly hope Good Sudoku can introduce you to, or deepen your love for this great game. -Zach and Jack
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is monetization model: Dear Reader at free against Good Sudoku+'s paid. Dear Reader also leads on rating (4.5 vs 4.1) and review sentiment (75% vs 59%). On price, ratings volume, update cadence 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.
Dear Reader holds the better App Store score, 4.5 against 4.1. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 574 and 649 respectively. Written reviews point the same way: 75% of Dear Reader's written reviews are positive against 59% of Good Sudoku+'s.
Dear Reader ships an update every 3 months, Good Sudoku+ every 2 months. The most recent releases landed on October 20, 2026 and October 24, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Dear Reader | Good Sudoku+ |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.5 (574 ratings) — better | 4.1 (649 ratings) |
| Positive reviews | 74.7% of reviews — better | 58.6% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 574 | 649 — better |
| Update frequency | Every 3 months | Every 2 months — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Free — better | Paid |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod, Apple TV — better | iPhone, iPad, iPod |
| Requires iOS | 13.0 — better | 13.6 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 387 MB | 164 MB |
| Age rating | 12+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Local No. 12 | Zach Gage |
Customer experience
Dear Reader
Good Sudoku+
User reviews
Dear Reader
From 574 App Store ratingsWhat we love
- 🚀 Engaging word puzzles
- 📚 Variety of classic books
- 👍 Relaxing gameplay
- 💡 Unique concept of 'playing books'
- 🤓 Helps improve reading and language skills
Room to improve
- 🐛 Crashes and bugs
- 🔋 High battery consumption
- 🤔 Heavily abridged book excerpts
- 🙄 Repetitive daily challenges
- 💰 Expensive rare books
Good Sudoku+
From 649 App Store ratingsWhat we love
- 🚀 Excellent teaching and learning features
- 👍 Intuitive and customizable interface
- 🎨 Gorgeous visual design and themes
- 🧠 Helps improve sudoku skills
- 📚 Vast number of puzzles at various difficulties
Room to improve
- 🐛 Frequent crashes and bugs
- 🔍 Confusing or unintuitive UI elements
- 💤 Loses progress when switching apps
- 🤔 Hints and techniques not always clear
- 🔢 Accidental button presses (hint, undo)
Bugs and requests
Dear Reader
Reported bugs
3 issues- Game progress being deleted
- Inability to exit the library
- Crashes when trying to purchase rare books
Requested features
5 requests- Add more modern and popular book titles
- Option to read full unabridged books
- Dark mode
- Ability to report typos and errors
- More varied and engaging goals/achievements
Good Sudoku+
Reported bugs
5 issues- Crashes when opening/closing app
- Inconsistent behavior of note-taking tools
- Leaderboard scores not updating properly
- Inability to rotate on certain iPad models
- Disappearing UI elements (back button)
Requested features
5 requests- Automatic iCloud/cloud sync between devices
- More color theme options
- Ability to disable auto-fill/auto-note features
- Clearer explanations for advanced techniques
- Confirmation prompts for actions like hints
In-app purchases
Dear Reader
No in-app purchases
Good Sudoku+
No in-app purchases
Questions
Is Dear Reader free?
Is Good Sudoku+ free?
Which has better reviews, Dear Reader or Good Sudoku+?
Do Dear Reader or Good Sudoku+ have ads?
Which is updated more often, Dear Reader or Good Sudoku+?
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