Comparison

Minesweeper vs Niva

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

Head to head
About

Minesweeper

A classic single-player puzzle game where you uncover a minefield by deducing the location of hidden mines based on numerical clues. Enjoy retro-style gameplay with mobile-friendly features like zooming and panning.

Highlights
  • Single-player puzzle gameplay
  • Retro computer version design
  • Mobile-friendly zoom and pan
  • 3 default difficulty modes
  • Customizable minefield settings
  • Flagging mode for quick placement
  • Local best time tracking
  • Global leaderboards
Features
Read full description

GAME RULES ---------------- Minesweeper is a single player puzzle computer game. The objective of the game is to clear a rectangular board containing hidden mines without detonating any of them, with help from clues about the number of neighboring mines in each field. Minesweeper Retro is designed closest and similar to the computer version, adding some feature for mobile game play like zooming in/out, panning to move the board. FEATURES ---------------- + 3 default modes: Beginner (10 mines), Intemediate (40 mines), Expert (99 mines). + Custom modes: define your own minefield. Up to 24 rows, 30 columns, 667 mines. + Flag mode: quicker to put flags on cells. + Track local best times. + Compete against other players in the world leaderboards. CREDIT ------------------ + Game developed using LibGDX. + Sound resource: freesound.org. FAN PAGE ------------------ + Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/qastudiosapps + Twitter: https://twitter.com/qastudios

About

Niva

Features
Read full description

Niva is a daily minesweeper puzzle, and every board can be solved by logic alone. You never have to guess, and the game works fully offline. If you know classic Minesweeper, you already know the rules. Each number counts the mines that touch its tile, and you find the rest by deduction. There is one new board a day, the same for everyone. Each tile you open shows a small part of that day's picture. Tap a tile to dig, and hold it to plant a flag. When a number has all its mines flagged, tap it to open the tiles around it. There are four difficulty levels, and each has its own daily board and streak. Easy is 6×6 with 6 mines, Medium is 9×9 with 10, and Hard is 13×13 with 30. Medium and Hard each need a deeper kind of reasoning than the level below. Expert is the classic 30×16 board with 99 mines. You can pan and zoom it on a phone. When you clear a board, its picture fills with color and goes into your collection. You can save a board and play it again later. The Play more button gives you an extra random board at the same level, outside your streak. When you share a result, people see your time, your streak and the day's picture. They never see where the mines are. Niva is a no-guess minesweeper: a solver checks every board before you play it. Careful reasoning is always enough, and you never lose a game to a coin flip. Every tile has a screen reader label with its row, column and state. Text grows with your system text size, and animations follow the reduce motion setting. Niva has light and dark themes and is translated into 20 languages. There are no ads, and Niva needs no account. Every board comes with free hints. If you want more, you can buy a pack of 10 hints in the app, to use on any board. A board always uses its free hints first. Niva is the Belarusian word for a field.

Screenshots

Minesweeper3 screens
Niva3 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is price: Minesweeper at Free against Niva's $0.99. Minesweeper also leads on in-app purchases (none vs 1) and iOS requirement (12.0 vs 15.0). Niva's advantage is update cadence (weekly vs every 8 months). On 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

Minesweeper is free to download; Niva costs $0.99 up front. Niva sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. Minesweeper asks for nothing beyond the download.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Minesweeper ships an update every 8 months, Niva weekly. The most recent releases landed on October 21, 2026 and October 25, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard4 real differences · 6 level
Minesweeper versus Niva: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterMinesweeperNiva
PriceFree — better$0.99
Rating4.0 (5 ratings) — better—
Positive reviews75.0% of reviews—
Number of ratings5 — better—
Update frequencyEvery 8 monthsWeekly — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNo — betterYes
MonetizationFree—
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPodiPhone, iPad, iPod
Requires iOS12.0 — better15.0
Further details — not scored
Size46 MB42 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperQuang Duc VuVolha Kapytava

In-app purchases

None

Minesweeper

No in-app purchases

1 purchases

Niva

One-time1
  • 10 hints$0.99

Questions

Is Minesweeper free?
Minesweeper is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is Niva free?
Niva costs $0.99, and also offers in-app purchases.
Do Minesweeper or Niva have ads?
Neither Minesweeper nor Niva shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Minesweeper or Niva?
Minesweeper ships an update every 8 months, and Niva weekly. Most recently, Minesweeper was updated on October 21, 2026 and Niva on October 25, 2026.

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