Building Arcadia vs Mars
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both games, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Building Arcadia
Build a sci-fi utopia on a new planet as the first Grand Architect. Manage resources, expand your city with futuristic buildings, and uncover ancient secrets and threats in this story-driven idle builder.
- Story-driven gameplay with comedy
- Active design with meaningful tasks
- Manage 40+ procedurally generated locations
- Expand with 25+ futuristic buildings
- Battle ancient evils and discover anomalies
- Idle and incremental gameplay
- Offline play
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WELCOME TO BUILDING ARCADIA, a sci-fi city-builder where strategy meets survival. As the first human Grand Architect, transform the planet Fortuna into a thriving utopia, while uncovering hidden secrets and ancient threats. UNIQUE FEATURES OF BUILDING ARCADIA: - Story-Driven Gameplay: An idle game with a twist of comedy that keeps the narrative engaging. - Active Design Philosophy: Always have meaningful tasks, enhancing engagement. - Inspired by Classics: If you love Anno, Simcity and Idle Planet Miner, you'll find new challenges here. - Fair Free-to-Play: No forced ads, earnable premium currency, and offline play. DYNAMIC CITY-BUILDING AND STRATEGIC ADVENTURE: - Manage over 40 procedurally generated sci-fi locations. - Expand your city with 25+ futuristic buildings. - Battle ancient evils and discover over 11 mysterious anomalies. - Dive into a rich storyline with colorful characters and a witty AI 'Quanta' as your guide. IDLE AND INCREMENTAL GAMEPLAY: - Effortlessly manage resources and growth, even while idle. - Unlock groundbreaking technologies and establish a prosperous economy. STUNNING VISUALS AND ENGAGING GAMEPLAY: - Enjoy crisp, vibrant 3D graphics that bring your cityscape to life. - Experience both casual and challenging gameplay perfect for strategy veterans and new players alike. JOIN OUR COMMUNITY: Discord: https://discord.gg/tnPx479RBs Instagram: https://bit.ly/3lyfRtw READY TO BUILD A UTOPIA? Download Building Arcadia now for an unparalleled city-building adventure in a sci-fi universe. Shape humanity's future among the stars and uncover the mysteries of Fortuna!
Mars
Build and manage a thriving colony on Mars in the year 2050. Explore the planet, research new technologies, and collaborate with other colonies to overcome daily challenges and establish a new civilization.
- Explore Mars with Rovers
- Collaborate on Mega Builds
- Help Citizens with Minigames
- Research New Technologies
- Build Colony Structures
- Collect and Study Stone Samples
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We are in the year 2050, all the resources on Earth are close to depletion, so we have no choice but to colonize other planets. Mars is the closest planet to us, and we have to find a way to colonize it as fast as possible. However, going to a new planet that we never lived on before is not going to be easy. Every day is different and comes with new challenges. -Explore the Mars- Upgrade or unlock new Rovers to explore Mars on exciting Expeditions and collect and study Stone Samples. -Collaborate with other Colonies- Together with other Colonies you can collaborate on building a Space Lift or other Mega Builds. -Help your Citizen with Minigames- Meet various Citizens of your Colony. Like Freddy the Mechanic, Luna the Scientist, Nura the Gardener or Yuri the Technician and help them with little Puzzles or fun Minigames. -New Technologies- Research on new Technologies like Fusion Energy to unlock new Possibilities for your Colony and Humanity -Build your own Colony- Aluminum Mines, Water Pumps, Solar Power Plants, Residences, Nuclear Power Plants, Science Centers and many more Buildings. Build up a completely new Civilization on Mars. Give it a try for yourself and enjoy creating the best Mars Colony of all!
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is rating: Building Arcadia at 4.2 against Mars's 2.3. Building Arcadia also leads on ratings volume (52 vs 3). Mars's advantage is update cadence (every 4 days vs every 2 months). On price, review sentiment, ads and in-app purchases 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. Building Arcadia sells 6 one-off in-app purchases and Mars sells 11 one-off in-app purchases. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.
Building Arcadia holds the better App Store score, 4.2 against 2.3. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Building Arcadia has 52 ratings behind it against 3, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 23% of Building Arcadia's written reviews are positive against 20% of Mars's.
Building Arcadia ships an update every 2 months, Mars every 4 days. The most recent releases landed on July 5, 2026 and September 11, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Building Arcadia | Mars |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.2 (52 ratings) — better | 2.3 (3 ratings) |
| Positive reviews | 23.1% of reviews — better | 20.0% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 52 — better | 3 |
| Update frequency | Every 2 months | Every 4 days — better |
| Ads | Yes | Yes |
| In-app purchases | Yes | Yes |
| Monetization | Free with in-app purchases | Free with in-app purchases |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod | iPhone, iPad, iPod |
| Requires iOS | 12.0 | 11.0 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 309 MB | 402 MB |
| Age rating | 9+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Papanix Ltd | Paul Noack |
Customer experience
Building Arcadia
Mars
In-app purchases
Building Arcadia
- Smallest Karma pack$0.99
- Small Karma pack$1.99
- Medium Karma Pack$4.99
Show 3 moreShow fewer
- Large Karma pack$9.99
- Largest Karma pack$19.99
- Karma Chest$48.99
Mars
- Tiny Antimatter Pack$0.99
- Small Antimatter Pack$1.99
- Medium Antimatter Pack$3.99
Show 8 moreShow fewer
- Small Bundle$4.99
- Large Antimatter Pack$8.99
- Small Bundle$12.99
- Medium Bundle$13.99
- Extra Large Antimatter Pack$24.99
- Large Bundle$31.99
- Medium Bundle$34.99
- Large Bundle$69.99









