Comparison

Pico Islands vs Rubylands

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

Head to head
About

Pico Islands

Lead settlers to build a thriving medieval city, manage resources, and expand your empire across islands. Engage in trade, conquest, and technological discovery to achieve global domination or enjoy a peaceful simulation.

Highlights
  • Build and expand your city
  • Manage resources and production
  • Trade with neighbors
  • Conquer new islands
  • Research new technologies
  • Optimize building placement and transportation
Features
Read full description

You have landed on a small island with a group of settlers. As the new king of this land it is now up to you to enlarge your realm and lead your people to glory. Capture the resources of this world and let your small village grow to a respectable city. Trade with your neighbors, capture gold and diamonds with your conquests. Eventually you will cross the sea to conquer many more islands and fortify the domination of your civilization and discover the many secrets beyond the ocean. The real time strategy game Pico Islands is an economy simulation taking place in a medieval world. In the quest for prosperity you can pursue the conquest of the whole world or simply lean back and watch your townsmen bustle around. The game is self-explanatory and does not require knowledge of the English language. Features: * By effective placement of your buildings and a well organized network of tracks and roads you will optimize the productivity of your settlers. * Use the right tactics and strategies in building your town to use the natural resources of your land the most effective way. * Collect lumber and stone as building materials for your constructions. * Place tracks and roads for optimized transportation of your goods. * Produce grain in your farms, only with a working agriculture your bakers can provide bread for your citizens, while your fishermen supply your sailors with sufficient food. * Let your alchemists brew magical potions that will lead your way to the discovery of new technologies. * Provide your miners with sufficient food, the mines will produce stone, coal, iron, copper and of course gold which serve as crafting materials for your manufactories. * Build harbors to cross the seas with your ships and become a formidable conqueror * Forge tools, jewelry and swords that your sailors and knights will use to explore new islands, to trade or to pillage. Enter the fantasy world of Pico Islands now and become a fearless adventurer, an acclaimed leader, a formidable conqueror and the hero of your own empire in this RTS game! Do you like retro, tycoon, idle clicker or simulation games? Then you should take a look at Pico Islands! You can download and play Pico Islands free of charge, but you have the opportunity to enhance your gaming experience with In-App-Purchases for real money. Featuring music by Matthew Pablo https://matthewpablo.com

About

Rubylands

Engage in real-time strategy with settlement building, resource management, and defensive combat. Build epic defenses, compose armies, and use magic to overcome enemies in this offline RTS experience.

Highlights
  • Real-time RTS strategy
  • Settlement building and defense
  • Resource gathering
  • Offensive and defensive combat
  • Survival sandbox mode
  • Magic system
  • Offline play
Read full description

The key to success is your resource gathering, settlement building, defense and offensive combat RTS skills. Regularly adjust to enemy tactics and build up your RTS military strategy troops! Build an epic defense of towers, magic that withstands the toughest encounters with ease. Compose your armies, RTS defense strategy wisely, because your kingdom depends on them. Recapture your islands by destroying colossus or try to survive with an RTS. Use magic to win in the most difficult situations when there is no hope. Be prepared for any epic quests and defenses that lie ahead! Features: Real-time RTS strategy with no direct control of units. Build a strong settlement defense with towers that will withstand any attack. Choose the troops and defense towers with which you want to build your way in the RTS. Survival sandbox mode. Try yourself in SANDBOX survival mode, as long as you can hold out fighting off endless attacks from various golems that want to destroy your settlement. Create or destroy. Use magic to create the world around you, or destroy all living things. And much more. Are you ready to lead your settlement to victory? Do you have the best strategy for victory? The world of RUBYLANDS is waiting for you. Community: Discord: https://bit.ly/3xgBjDe Get the latest information: https://rubylands.info/ Terms of Service: RUBYLANDS is free to download and play, but some game elements can be purchased for real money. If you do not want to use these features, please disable in-app purchases in your device settings. You can play this RTS offline without wi-fi or internet connection Download RUBYLANDS - RTS game for FREE! If you are experiencing any problems, please do get in contact with me here: dev@supermoonbox.com Leave a feedback or suggestions if you want to see more features and units in this free real time strategy game!

Screenshots

Pico Islands4 screens
Rubylands4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is rating: Pico Islands at 4.2 against Rubylands's 2.9. Pico Islands also leads on review sentiment (65% vs 50%) and ratings volume (131 vs 33). Rubylands's advantage is ads (none vs shown). 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

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

Both are free to download. Pico Islands sells 5 one-off in-app purchases and Rubylands sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

Pico Islands holds the better App Store score, 4.2 against 2.9. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 131 and 33 respectively. Written reviews point the same way: 65% of Pico Islands's written reviews are positive against 50% of Rubylands's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Pico Islands ships an update every 5 weeks, Rubylands every 3 weeks. The most recent releases landed on July 25, 2026 and June 1, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard4 real differences · 6 level
Pico Islands versus Rubylands: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterPico IslandsRubylands
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.2 (131 ratings) — better2.9 (33 ratings)
Positive reviews65.5% of reviews — better50.0% of reviews
Number of ratings131 — better33
Update frequencyEvery 5 weeksEvery 3 weeks — better
AdsYesNo — better
In-app purchasesYesYes
MonetizationFree with in-app purchasesFree with in-app purchases
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPodiPhone, iPad, iPod
Requires iOS13.012.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size102 MB101 MB
Age rating9+4+
DeveloperBitSpree GmbHArtem Karpenko

Customer experience

Pico Islands

All ratings131 ratings
Positive79.4%
Neutral3.8%
Negative16.8%
Written reviews113 reviews
Positive65.5%
Neutral14.2%
Negative20.4%

Rubylands

All ratings33 ratings
Positive45.5%
Neutral9.1%
Negative45.5%
Written reviews18 reviews
Positive50.0%
Neutral5.6%
Negative44.4%

Bugs and requests

Pico Islands

Reported bugs

4 issues
  • Forester lookups result in 404 errors
  • Inability to undo 10 map limit
  • Crashes when redeploying roads
  • Inconsistent cookie consent management

Requested features

6 requests
  • Add map selection/replay
  • Improve tutorial and documentation
  • Implement graphics settings
  • Add more content and progression
  • Introduce multiplayer/competitive modes
Show 1 more
  • Improve performance and optimization

Rubylands

Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.

In-app purchases

5 purchases

Pico Islands

One-time5
  • Buy 20 Gems$0.99
  • Buy 110 Gems$4.99
  • Remove ads$13.99
Show 2 more
  • Buy 500 Gems$19.99
  • Buy 1500 Gems$49.99
1 purchases

Rubylands

One-time1
  • Premium content$0.99

Questions

Is Pico Islands free?
Pico Islands is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Rubylands free?
Rubylands is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, Pico Islands or Rubylands?
Pico Islands is rated higher. Pico Islands averages 4.2 out of 5 from 131 ratings, while Rubylands averages 2.9 from 33 ratings.
Do Pico Islands or Rubylands have ads?
Pico Islands shows ads; Rubylands does not.
Which is updated more often, Pico Islands or Rubylands?
Pico Islands ships an update every 5 weeks, and Rubylands every 3 weeks. Most recently, Pico Islands was updated on July 25, 2026 and Rubylands on June 1, 2026.

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