Comparison

Hobo Simulator vs Ethos Idle

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

Head to head
About

Hobo Simulator

Embark on a rags-to-riches journey, starting as a homeless individual. Engage in various street activities to earn money, build businesses, and climb the social ladder. Manage your health and happiness to survive and thrive in this random, life-simulation game.

Highlights
  • Earn money through street activities
  • Start businesses and startups
  • Manage health, happiness, and satiety
  • Randomly generated events
  • Compete with friends
  • Purchase immortality pill
Features
Read full description

• Get drunk and achieve the maximum popularity! • Search for coins on the streets, wash cars, get into street fights, rob strangers and banks! • Open your office or found your own startup! • Make the most money in the shortest time! Compete with your friends! Almost every event in this game happens randomly. Every move equals one day. Every day your health, happiness and satiety decrease. If your health, happiness or satiety will drop to zero, you have 7 days to improve the situation, otherwise you will die. Every year you will celebrate your birthday and get presents. Every day you have a chance to find empty bottles and then sell them. Sooner or later you will die from old age. To avoid that, you can buy an immortality pill. Note that it DOES NOT protect you from dying from hunger, sickness, unhappiness or poverty.

About

Ethos Idle

Guide humanity's progress from its earliest discoveries to the distant future. Manage your tribe's choices, develop over 200 unique ideas, and explore the world. Advance your civilization, unlock bonuses, and enjoy a single-player, offline experience with optional ads.

Highlights
  • Develop over 200 historic ideas
  • Explore and exploit the world
  • Manage tribe choices
  • Unlock exploration bonuses and synergies
  • Prestige mechanic upgrades
  • Customizable challenge scenarios
  • Offline single-player experience
Features
Read full description

Chart the progess of Humanity through the ages, and guide their every discovery from the moment they kindle the first fire to the far future. Develop over 200 unique ideas across three different flavours of thought. Help your people to conquer or make peace with their enemies, explore and exploit the world, and develop projects to meet their needs. Manage your tribe's choices to squeeze out more strength, or sit back and idle as your clan develop on their own. Advance as far as you can take your people, and then collect bonuses to improve future runs. Select varied challenges that change the way the game plays, and combine these challenges to create your own unique scenarios with big rewards. Features: - Over 200 historic ideas to develop, across 3 flavours of thought - Dozens of exploration bonuses and synergies to unlock and exploit - Permanently power up your civilisation with prestige mechanic upgrades - Combine varied challenge conditions to create your own scenarios with powerful rewards - Optional, out-of-the-way ads won't interrupt your experience - A completely offline, single player experience - All game content is accessible for free

Screenshots

Hobo Simulator4 screens
Ethos Idle4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is ads: Hobo Simulator at none against Ethos Idle's shown. Hobo Simulator also leads on ratings volume (2.7K vs 239) and iOS requirement (12.0 vs 15.0). Ethos Idle's advantage is rating (4.8 vs 4.5) and update cadence (fortnightly vs monthly). On price, review sentiment, 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. Hobo Simulator sells 6 one-off in-app purchases and Ethos Idle 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

Ethos Idle holds the better App Store score, 4.8 against 4.5. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Hobo Simulator has 2.7K ratings behind it against 239, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 82% of Hobo Simulator's written reviews are positive against 84% of Ethos Idle's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Hobo Simulator ships an update monthly, Ethos Idle fortnightly. The most recent releases landed on October 18, 2026 and September 29, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard5 real differences · 5 level
Hobo Simulator versus Ethos Idle: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterHobo SimulatorEthos Idle
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.5 (2.7K ratings)4.8 (239 ratings) — better
Positive reviews82.0% of reviews84.4% of reviews — better
Number of ratings2.7K — better239
Update frequencyMonthlyFortnightly — better
AdsNo — betterYes
In-app purchasesYesYes
MonetizationFree with in-app purchasesFree with in-app purchases
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPodiPhone, iPad, iPod
Requires iOS12.0 — better15.0
Further details — not scored
Size11 MB101 MB
Age rating17+4+
DeveloperDenis TokarevGraham Goldstein

Customer experience

Hobo Simulator

All ratings2,742 ratings
Positive86.1%
Neutral5.7%
Negative8.2%
Written reviews615 reviews
Positive82.0%
Neutral6.8%
Negative11.2%

Ethos Idle

All ratings239 ratings
Positive93.7%
Neutral3.8%
Negative2.5%
Written reviews64 reviews
Positive84.4%
Neutral9.4%
Negative6.3%

User reviews

Hobo Simulator

From 2.7K App Store ratings

What we love

  • 👍 Fun and addictive game
  • 💡 Unique concept
  • 🚀 No ads
  • 🚀 Low power consumption

Room to improve

  • 🐛 Glitchy save system
  • 🐛 Unclear mechanics and lack of tutorial
  • 🐛 Overly harsh random events
  • 🐛 Difficulty progressing early on

Ethos Idle

From 239 App Store ratings

What we love

  • 🚀 Fast progression
  • 👍 Minimal ad interruption
  • 👍 Simple and enjoyable design
  • 👍 Great for relaxing and watching numbers go up
  • 👍 Excellent incremental game design

Room to improve

  • 🐢 Slower progression speed desired
  • 🛒 IAP for 2x production doesn't eliminate video ads

Bugs and requests

Hobo Simulator

Reported bugs

2 issues
  • Incorrect deduction amounts for bodyguard and lawyer
  • Inability to survive on disability for too long

Requested features

4 requests
  • Calendar and calendar events
  • More variety in jobs and content
  • Notification for impending death
  • Rebirth/prestige system

Ethos Idle

Reported bugs

2 issues
  • RNG for challenges is unfair and unfun
  • Unlocking buffs for inaccessible technologies

Requested features

2 requests
  • Option to remove ads entirely
  • Clarification on prestige warp gain multipliers

In-app purchases

6 purchases

Hobo Simulator

One-time6
  • The Immortality Pill$0.99
  • Pack 1$0.99
  • Pack 2$1.99
Show 3 more
  • Pack 3$3.99
  • Pack 4$6.99
  • Pack 5$9.99
1 purchases

Ethos Idle

One-time1
  • x2 Speed$6.99

Questions

Is Hobo Simulator free?
Hobo Simulator is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Ethos Idle free?
Ethos Idle is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, Hobo Simulator or Ethos Idle?
Ethos Idle is rated higher. Hobo Simulator averages 4.5 out of 5 from 2.7K ratings, while Ethos Idle averages 4.8 from 239 ratings.
Do Hobo Simulator or Ethos Idle have ads?
Ethos Idle shows ads; Hobo Simulator does not.
Which is updated more often, Hobo Simulator or Ethos Idle?
Hobo Simulator ships an update monthly, and Ethos Idle fortnightly. Most recently, Hobo Simulator was updated on October 18, 2026 and Ethos Idle on September 29, 2026.

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