Falling Blocks vs Retrogram
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both games, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Falling Blocks
Engage your mind with this addictive puzzle game where you strategically move and rotate falling blocks to form complete horizontal lines. Compete with friends, unlock new themes, and enjoy a brain-training experience with multiple difficulty levels.
- Swipe to move blocks
- Tap to rotate blocks
- Form horizontal lines to clear
- Challenge friends on Game Center
- Unlock theme packs
- Multiple difficulty levels
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Falling Blocks is a very addictive game that helps you exercise your brain and improve you logic skills. How to play - Swipe left and right to move the blocks - Tap to rotate the blocks - Swipe down to slam the blocks into place or wait for them to slowly fall into place - Form a line horizontally to clear out the blocks - There is no need to worry about matching colours - Try and beat your high score and challenge your friends on Game Center - Try to earn all the achievements on Game Center - Chose between dark and light theme - Collect stars and use them to unlock theme packs such as emoji and tennis - If you have an Apple Watch all your settings and themes will automatically sync to the watch Multiple Difficulties available - Easy: 10x15 grid with mostly original shapes - Medium: 12x18 grid with more complex shapes - Hard: 14x21 grid with more complex shapes than medium
Retrogram
Challenge your vocabulary with a daily word puzzle. Create as many words as possible from seven letters. Enjoy a stylish, retro-themed experience designed to sharpen your mind and introduce you to new words.
- Daily hand-made puzzles
- Solve puzzles together via SharePlay
- Apple Watch compatibility
- No ads
- Discover new words
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Think you’re a word nerd? Put your vocabulary to the test with new word puzzles every day Retrogram is a love letter to the 1970s — a cozy collection of handcrafted word games, curious words and satisfying puzzles to make part of your daily routine PLAY EVERY DAY SPELLOTRON Make as many words as you can using seven letters. Find the pangram, climb the ranks and discover interesting stories behind some of your favorite words WORDWAY Build a bridge of words from one word to another. Use the letters you’re given and find a path across the board THERE’S MORE Subscribe to Retrogram to catch up on the past week of daily puzzles, explore the Puzzle Vault, play limited-edition bonus packs, switch things up with vintage app icons, and play after dark with Neon Nites FEATURES * Two handcrafted word puzzles every day * Play today’s Spellotron and Wordway puzzles for free * Catch up on the past seven days * A growing Vault of bonus puzzles * Limited-edition puzzle packs * Neon Nites dark theme * Vintage alternate app icons * SharePlay — solve together over FaceTime * Play Spellotron on your Apple Watch * No ads, ever Additional details Privacy policy: https://retrogram.app/#privacy Terms of use: https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is rating: Retrogram at 4.4 against Falling Blocks's 3.0. Retrogram also leads on ads (none vs shown) and review sentiment (66% vs 35%). On price, update cadence, in-app purchases and monetization model 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. Falling Blocks sells 9 one-off in-app purchases and Retrogram sells 10 in-app purchases, starting at $4.99 per month. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.
Retrogram holds the better App Store score, 4.4 against 3.0. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Retrogram has 320 ratings behind it against 44, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 35% of Falling Blocks's written reviews are positive against 66% of Retrogram's.
Both ship on a similar rhythm, roughly every 3 weeks. The most recent releases landed on October 17, 2026 and October 18, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Falling Blocks | Retrogram |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 3.0 (44 ratings) | 4.4 (320 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 35.5% of reviews | 66.1% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 44 | 320 — better |
| Update frequency | Every 3 weeks | Every 3 weeks |
| Ads | Yes | No — better |
| In-app purchases | Yes | Yes |
| Monetization | Free with in-app purchases | Freemium |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, Apple TV, Apple Watch | iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch, Vision Pro |
| Requires iOS | 17 — better | 17.6 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 123 MB | 145 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | loay setrak | in Color |
Customer experience
Falling Blocks
Retrogram
Bugs and requests
Falling Blocks
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
Retrogram
Reported bugs
7 issues- Words marked as missed that were actually found
- Puzzle letters changing when spinning the wheel
- Apple Watch app no longer functioning
- Game progress deletion without explanation
- Inconsistent word acceptance across different puzzles
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- Hint feature disappeared in recent updates
- Contact support only available through Apple Mail
Requested features
10 requests- Access to previous/archived puzzles
- Multiple puzzles per day or puzzle difficulty levels
- Statistics tracking (completion rate, pangram frequency)
- Hint system that doesn't impact streak
- Word find rate percentages for context
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- Immediate answer reveal after puzzle completion
- Cheaper one-time purchase option instead of subscription
- In-game dispute method for word validation
- Apple Watch functionality restoration
- Automatic daily prefix posting on social media
In-app purchases
Falling Blocks
- 100 Stars2 variants$0.99
- 500 Stars$1.99
- 1,000 Stars$2.99
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- 1000 Stars$3.99
- 2,500 Stars$4.99
- 5,000 Stars$7.99
- Remove Ads$9.99
- 7,500 Stars$9.99
- 10,000 Stars$12.99
Retrogram
- Daily Puzzle (Monthly)$4.991 Month
- Daily Puzzle (Yearly)$29.991 Year
- Where in the World$3.99
- 80s Dinner Party$4.99
- Gaming Icons$4.99
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- Stone Cold$4.99
- Flower Power$4.99
- Dear Reader$4.99
- Outer Rim$4.99
- Daily Puzzle (For Life)$49.99
