Comparison

Minesweeperᅠ vs Dots & Boxes

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

Head to head
About

Minesweeperᅠ

Enjoy a classic puzzle experience with a clean interface and no advertisements. Customize your game with various difficulty levels and grid sizes, and track your progress with detailed statistics. Play across multiple Apple devices with a single purchase.

Highlights
  • No ads
  • Universal app purchase
  • Auto-Complete feature
  • Performance statistics
  • Safe first reveal
  • Customizable difficulty and grid sizes
  • Dark Mode support
Features
Read full description

- No ads, ever! - Universal app: one purchase to play on iPhone, iPad, & Mac - Auto-Complete to quickly finish the game - Statistics to keep track of your performance - First reveal of each game will always be safe - Tap and hold to quickly flag a space Personalize your game in Settings - Choose from four difficulty settings and four grid sizes - Switch to a dynamically sized grid to fill the screen - Zoom and scroll through the grid - More amazing features coming soon! Native iOS Design - Supports all devices and orientations - Dark Mode enabled - Split View and Slide Over compatible - Keyboard shortcuts for most actions Privacy Policy: crawbuck.com/privacy Terms of Use: crawbuck.com/terms

About

Dots & Boxes

Experience the classic pen-and-paper game on your mobile device. Connect dots to complete boxes and outsmart your opponents in various game modes, including online multiplayer and AI challenges. Enjoy a tactile, ad-free gaming experience with customizable board sizes.

Highlights
  • Online multiplayer
  • AI opponent challenges
  • Pass & Play local multiplayer
  • Customizable board sizes
  • Ad-free gameplay
  • Resume paused games
Features
Read full description

Bring the classic pen-and-paper game to your phone. Connect neighboring dots, complete boxes and outsmart your opponent one line at a time. Remember Dots & Boxes at the back of class? Two pens, one notebook page, a grid of dots and a lot of friendly trash talk. Dots & Sticks brings that classroom classic to your phone: play online, climb the Solo Challenge, challenge a friend, or pass one phone back and forth. And no ad ever interrupts a match. Known as Dots & Boxes, Dots and Lines, Dots and Dashes or simply Squares, it is easy to learn and harder to master than it looks. HOW TO PLAY Take turns drawing a line between two neighboring dots. Close the fourth side of a square and the box is yours, and you play again. One careless line can hand your opponent a whole chain of boxes, so every move counts. When the notebook page is full, the player with the most boxes wins. PLAY YOUR WAY - Solo Challenge: climb a ladder of four opponents, from Easy on a small grid to Expert on an 8x8 board. Beat one to unlock the next, and earn up to three stars for every win. - Quick Match: jump into an online game with another player and see who plays the better chains. - Play a Friend: create a private room, share the code or the link, and play from anywhere. Pick the board size, then ask for a rematch. - Pass & Play: two players, one phone. Perfect for the coffee table, a long trip or a classroom break. - Learn in 30 seconds: a short, hands-on walkthrough teaches the rules the first time you play. - Pause any game, close the app and resume exactly where you left off. MEET YOUR OPPONENTS Every opponent on the ladder has a name and a playing style of their own. The first ones make beginner mistakes; the later ones count the chains, punish loose lines and make you earn every box. Win by a wide margin to collect all three stars, then come back and replay for a perfect score. ONLINE, WITH PERSONALITY Pick a name and an emoji avatar, and show your country flag if you like (you can switch it off in Settings). Your online rating rises when you win and falls when you lose, and your stats screen tracks games, wins, win streaks and your best run. You can delete your online data at any time from that screen. CHOOSE YOUR BOARD Play on 5x5, 6x6, 7x7 or 8x8 dots, from a quick round of a minute or two to a long strategic battle. The bigger the grid, the more chains, sacrifices and double-crosses you will need to plan. NO ADS WHILE YOU PLAY Your game is never interrupted. Ads only appear after a game ends, never in the middle of a match and never after your very first game. The game is free to play, with no sign-up and no in-app purchases. A NOTEBOOK COME TO LIFE Hand-drawn ink lines, ruled paper, pencil doodles in the margins and soft classroom sounds make every move feel tactile, never glossy and never neon. The layout adapts to phones, tablets and landscape, and the game speaks English, French, German and Spanish, picking your device language automatically. MADE FOR SHORT BREAKS A game on a small grid takes just a couple of minutes, so it fits a queue, a commute or the gap between lessons. Hand the phone to a sibling, a classmate or a grandparent: nobody needs a tutorial, and everybody remembers the rules. WORKS WHEN YOU DO Solo Challenge and Pass & Play need no connection at all, so you can play on a plane, on the bus or anywhere the signal drops. Online games reconnect on their own if your connection wobbles. TIPS FROM THE BACK OF THE CLASS - Avoid drawing the third side of a box: it hands that box to your opponent. - Count the chains near the end. Sometimes giving up a few boxes wins the game. - Small grids reward careful counting, big grids reward patience. - Going second? Stay calm: the last chains often decide everything. If you love classic board games, paper games, two-player games or strategy puzzles, Dots & Sticks is the dots and boxes game made for you. Grab a friend and claim the squares.

Screenshots

Minesweeperᅠ4 screens
Dots & Boxes4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is review sentiment: Dots & Boxes at 100% against Minesweeperᅠ's 33%. Dots & Boxes also leads on in-app purchases (none vs 10) and update cadence (every 4 days vs every 3 months). On price, ads, device support and iOS requirement 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. Minesweeperᅠ sells 10 in-app purchases, starting at $0.99 per year. Dots & Boxes asks for nothing beyond the download.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Minesweeperᅠ ships an update every 3 months, Dots & Boxes every 4 days. The most recent releases landed on October 25, 2026 and November 1, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard4 real differences · 6 level
Minesweeperᅠ versus Dots & Boxes: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterMinesweeperᅠDots & Boxes
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.0 (101 ratings) — better—
Positive reviews33.3% of reviews100.0% of reviews — better
Number of ratings101 — better—
Update frequencyEvery 3 monthsEvery 4 days — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesNo — better
MonetizationFree with in-app purchasesFree — better
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPod, Mac — betteriPhone, iPad, iPod
Requires iOS15.015.0
Further details — not scored
Size19 MB17 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperDelta Engineering Labs, LLCSurbhi Agrawal

Customer experience

Minesweeperᅠ

All ratings86 ratings
Positive76.7%
Neutral3.5%
Negative19.8%
Written reviews21 reviews
Positive33.3%
Neutral9.5%
Negative57.1%

Dots & Boxes

Written reviews3 reviews
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

In-app purchases

10 purchases

Minesweeperᅠ

Subscriptions6
  • Minesweeper Premium$0.991 Year
  • Minesweeper Premium7 Days trial$0.991 Year
  • Minesweeper Premium3 Days trial$0.991 Year
Show 3 more
  • Minesweeper Premium$1.991 Year
  • Minesweeper Premium7 Days trial$1.991 Year
  • Minesweeper Premium3 Days trial$1.991 Year
One-time4
  • Minesweeper Premium$0.99
  • Minesweeper Premium$1.99
  • Minesweeper Premium$2.99
Show 1 more
  • Minesweeper Premium$4.99
None

Dots & Boxes

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Minesweeperᅠ free?
Minesweeperᅠ is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Dots & Boxes free?
Dots & Boxes is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Do Minesweeperᅠ or Dots & Boxes have ads?
Neither Minesweeperᅠ nor Dots & Boxes shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Minesweeperᅠ or Dots & Boxes?
Minesweeperᅠ ships an update every 3 months, and Dots & Boxes every 4 days. Most recently, Minesweeperᅠ was updated on October 25, 2026 and Dots & Boxes on November 1, 2026.

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