Snowball vs Hold The Button
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both games, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Snowball
Guide a penguin on a journey to collect snowflakes and build a giant snowball. Navigate treacherous crumbling floors with simple swipe or tilt controls. Enjoy an ad-free and purchase-free gaming experience.
- Collect snowflakes
- Build a snowball
- Crumbling floor mechanic
- Swipe controls
- Tilt controls option
- No ads
- No in-app purchases
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Snowball is easy to play, but hard to master. Play as a penguin trying to collect enough snowflakes to make his very own snowball, but watch out as the floor crumbles below! Simply swipe to move, or enable classic tilt controls via the options menu. The game contains no ads or in-app purchases. Snowball has been available exclusively for iPhone since 2008.
Hold The Button
Test your patience, willpower, and stamina by holding down a button for as long as possible. Compete with friends and players globally in this reactivated classic game.
- Hold a button challenge
- Patience test
- Willpower assessment
- Stamina evaluation
- Global leaderboards
- Improved graphics and animations
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Hold The Button has captivated more than 250,000 players from around the world. After a while, we have reactivated it! You can play again the game that you have missed all this time. Do you think you are patient? Do you think you have willpower? Do you think you have stamina? Put it to the ultimate test with Hold The Button. Compare yourself and compete with your friends and gamers from around the world. More graphics! More animations! More fun!
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is rating: Hold The Button at 4.3 against Snowball's 2.9. Hold The Button also leads on update cadence (every 3 months vs every 9 months) and iOS requirement (8.0 vs 17.6). Snowball's advantage is ratings volume (185 vs 30). 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. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
Hold The Button holds the better App Store score, 4.3 against 2.9. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Snowball has 185 ratings behind it against 30, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews complicate that: 48% of Snowball's written reviews are positive against 41% of Hold The Button's, so the app with the better star average is not the one people write more warmly about.
Snowball ships an update every 9 months, Hold The Button every 3 months. The most recent releases landed on November 6, 2026 and October 31, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Snowball | Hold The Button |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 2.9 (185 ratings) | 4.3 (30 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 48.3% of reviews — better | 41.3% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 185 — better | 30 |
| Update frequency | Every 9 months | Every 3 months — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Free | Free |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad | iPhone, iPod |
| Requires iOS | 17.6 | 8.0 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 5 MB | 22 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Paul Ewers | Alvaro Balbontin |
Customer experience
Snowball
Hold The Button
User reviews
Snowball
From 185 App Store ratingsWhat we love
- 👍 Fun and entertaining
- 👍 Addictive gameplay
- 👍 Great time waster
- 👍 Cool graphics
- 👍 Simple to pick up and play
Room to improve
- 👎 Not worth the price
- 👎 Lacks features
- 👎 Repetitive gameplay
- 👎 Annoying music
- 👎 Poor controls (older versions)
Hold The Button
From 30 App Store ratingsWhat we love
- ⏱️ Simple concept - easy to understand gameplay
- 💰 Free to download
- 🏆 Competitive leaderboard system
- 📱 Good for killing time
- 😄 Humorous novelty appeal
Room to improve
- 📺 Intrusive fullscreen ads that interrupt gameplay
- 🐛 Frequent crashes and freezes
- 🔋 Drains battery quickly
- 😴 Extremely boring and pointless gameplay
- ⏸️ Ads cause progress loss and game over
Bugs and requests
Snowball
Reported bugs
2 issues- Poker invite message appears every time
- Sound plays even on vibrate
Requested features
6 requests- Add levels
- Add mission mode
- Add unlockable characters
- Option to turn off sound
- Remove poker invite message
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- Option to revert to older version
Hold The Button
Reported bugs
10 issues- App crashes after 10 minutes of use
- Crashes when timer hits certain intervals
- High scores not saving properly
- App fails to reopen after closing
- Profile creation stuck on 'sending to server'
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- High score list access causes crash to home screen
- Screen lock causes app to freeze
- Finger detection fails despite holding button
- Major lag and performance issues
- Assistive touch causes uncontrollable behavior
Requested features
7 requests- Remove or relocate ads from middle of screen
- Add missions or challenges during gameplay
- Implement lifelines feature
- Add chat/messaging with other players
- Reward system for top players
Show 2 moreShow fewer
- Better device compatibility updates
- Fix high score saving mechanism
In-app purchases
Snowball
No in-app purchases
Hold The Button
No in-app purchases
Questions
Is Snowball free?
Is Hold The Button free?
Which has better reviews, Snowball or Hold The Button?
Do Snowball or Hold The Button have ads?
Which is updated more often, Snowball or Hold The Button?
Other comparisons
