Comparison

Pixel Starships™ vs Space Arena

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

Head to head
About

Pixel Starships™

Command every aspect of your starship in a persistent online universe. Build, battle, explore, and manage resources in this 8-bit spaceship management game. Form alliances and conquer with friends.

Highlights
  • Build custom starships
  • Command multiple races and factions
  • Online player battles
  • Manage resources and power
  • Explore planets and secrets
  • Form alliances
  • Program AI for automatic combat
Features
Read full description

Featured by Apple in Best New Games! From one of the most successful Mobile Game Kickstarter campaigns of the year comes Pixel Starships! Pixel Starships is the world’s first total spaceship management game in an 8bit massive online universe. In Pixel Starships, you command every aspect of your ship from construction to battles in a single persistent world. Featured Reviews - Touch Arcade - Pixel Starships tasks you with outfitting your very own ship with resource rooms, staff, and weapons. This looks Awesome! MMGN - The graphics in this 8Bit indie game is the best we've seen in a retro style game for a long time PocketTactics - I’m intrigued by the cutaway side-view of the starship with turbolifts and transporters at the ready TechTimes - The World’s First 8-Bit Total Starship Management Game Hits The Online Universe The Discovery Channel - A fully immersive starship captain experience. Key Features - ● Build Epic Starships of your own design. ● Many races, aliens, factions to command and conquer. ● Battle it out with other real players in a single massive online universe. ● Manage diplomacy, recruitment, research, exploration! ● Control ship's power and limited resources. Discover epic weapons. ● Build and deploy support ships to support your Starfleet. ● Cross section full ship control and battles. ● Explore planets, discover secrets of space. ● Form alliances and battle with your friends to achieve victory! ● Program situational AI commands to systems and crew allowing automatic combats and offline play. If you're a fan of Star Wars and Star Trek; if you enjoy games like EVE, Clash of Clans, FTL, or Homeworld, you'll love Pixel Starships! Note - Pixel Starships is totally free to play and is designed for perfect balance for all players. However, there are in-app items that can be purchased for real money to help speed up progress or offer cosmetic improvements. If you don't want this feature, please disable in-app purchases in your device's settings. Note on Auto-Renewing Subscription - Pixel Starships contains a optional Subscription Membership. Members receive extra missions, bonuses, and daily rewards. Membership content is regularly updated. The Monthly Membership Subscription cost is USD $3.99 per month or a similarly adjusted currency price in your local region. Please refer to IAP menu or in app display for localised pricing. Payment will be charged to iTunes Account at confirmation of purchase. The subscription is auto renewable and will renew monthly unless cancelled at least 24 hours prior to the end of the current period. Subscription can be cancelled via iTunes subscription manager. There is also a 7 day free trial for the membership; the free trial period is not transferrable and any remaining free time is cancelled if a paying subscription starts. Subscriptions may be managed by the user and auto-renewal may be turned off by going to the user's Account Settings after purchase. EULA: http://www.pixelstarships.com/eula Privacy Policy: http://www.pixelstarships.com/privacypolicy As per Terms of Service and Privacy Policy, you must be at least 13 years of age to play or download Pixel Starships.

About

Space Arena

Design and battle custom spaceships in a futuristic arena. Compete against other players worldwide to prove your design skills and climb the ranks. Unlock new blueprints and modules to create unique, powerful vessels for epic space combat.

Highlights
  • Unique gameplay
  • Unlockable spaceship blueprints
  • Masses of building modules
  • Beautiful space battles
  • Multiplayer ranking system
Features
Read full description

It's the year 4000-something. You are a rookie spaceship designer wanting to prove yourself to the world. Enter Space Arena, an entertainment arena of the future, where only the best of the best rule! Competitive Multiplayer Game featuring layers of deep strategy and endlessly evolving game content! FEATURES: - Unique, never before seen gameplay - Dozens of exciting spaceship blueprints to unlock and build - Masses of different modules to build with - Beautiful space battles to validate your designs - Beat ships designed by other players to progress in ranks and leagues Take your place as the Top #1 ship designer of Space Arena! __ \ \_____ ###[==_____> /_/ _____________________________________ The game supports the following languages: English, German, French, Spanish, Italian, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, Russian. _____________________________________ support email: sa-help@herocraft.com Join Space Arena community! Discord: https://discord.gg/spacearena Facebook: facebook.com/SpaceshipBattlesGame Instagram: instagram.com/spacearenaofficial/ Reddit: reddit.com/r/SpaceArenaOfficial/ Tiktok: vm.tiktok.com/ZSJdAHGdA/ Website: space-arena.com/ Visit HeroCraft socials: Twitter: twitter.com/Herocraft YouTube: youtube.com/herocraft Facebook: facebook.com/herocraft.games

Screenshots

Pixel Starships™4 screens
Space Arena4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is ads: Pixel Starships™ at none against Space Arena's shown. Pixel Starships™ also leads on review sentiment (82% vs 54%) and update cadence (every 10 days vs monthly). On price, rating, ratings volume 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

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

Both are free to download. Pixel Starships™ sells 11 in-app purchases, starting at $3.99 per month and Space Arena sells 19 one-off in-app purchases. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 4.7 for Pixel Starships™ against 4.7 for Space Arena. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 35K and 18K respectively. Written reviews are what separate them: 82% of Pixel Starships™'s written reviews are positive against 54% of Space Arena's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Pixel Starships™ ships an update every 10 days, Space Arena monthly. Both last shipped on September 24, 2026.

Scorecard3 real differences · 7 level
Pixel Starships™ versus Space Arena: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterPixel Starships™Space Arena
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.7 (35K ratings)4.7 (18K ratings)
Positive reviews82.2% of reviews — better54.5% of reviews
Number of ratings35K — better18K
Update frequencyEvery 10 days — betterMonthly
AdsNo — betterYes
In-app purchasesYesYes
MonetizationFree with in-app purchasesFree with in-app purchases
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPod, Mac — betteriPhone, iPad, iPod
Requires iOS15.015.0
Further details — not scored
Size449 MB390 MB
Age rating9+9+
DeveloperSavy Soda Pty LtdHC GLOBAL DISTRIBUTION LIMITED

Customer experience

Pixel Starships™

All ratings35,033 ratings
Positive95.1%
Neutral2.1%
Negative2.7%
Written reviews770 reviews
Positive82.2%
Neutral4.7%
Negative13.1%

Space Arena

All ratings18,259 ratings
Positive92.9%
Neutral3.8%
Negative3.3%
Written reviews885 reviews
Positive54.5%
Neutral14.7%
Negative30.8%

User reviews

Pixel Starships™

From 35K App Store ratings

What we love

  • 🚀 Decent game with no pay wall harassment
  • 🚀 Great little game
  • 🚀 Good game
  • 🚀 Straight gas
  • 🚀 Amazing game

Room to improve

  • 🐛 Glitchy
  • 🐛 Horrible backend, would not recommend for slower devices
  • 🐛 Cleverly disguised ad farm
  • 🐛 Needs some fixing
  • 🐛 Unfair in battle

Space Arena

From 18K App Store ratings

What we love

  • 🚀 Unique ship building mechanics
  • 👍 Enjoyable gameplay
  • 💡 Potential for strategy and customization
  • 🚀 Decent progression without spending money

Room to improve

  • 🐛 Matchmaking issues and unbalanced opponents
  • ⏱️ Excessive repair times and waiting
  • 💰 Pay-to-win elements and expensive upgrades
  • 🐛 Inconsistent ship behavior and AI
  • 🔍 Lack of visual feedback during battles

Bugs and requests

Pixel Starships™

Reported bugs

8 issues
  • Crew abilities not working as intended
  • Losing resources and trophies due to connection issues
  • Ads not rewarding the promised amount of Starbux
  • Scrolling issues when rearranging ship layout
  • Inconsistent loading times
Show 3 more
  • Missions consuming daily allowance even on error
  • Starbux purchases not being credited
  • Resources not properly credited after selling on the market

Requested features

17 requests
  • Lower how much bux people can ask for items and resources
  • Set a limit on bux that's not too ridiculous
  • Add more galaxies to explore
  • Add larger ships
  • Add smaller support craft that can fight alongside the main ship
Show 12 more
  • Add a faction war mode with 3v3 or 5v5 battles
  • Add a way to have multiple ships in your fleet
  • Add a ranking system for top players and top ships
  • Add more ship customization options
  • Add a way to remove items from the market
  • Add a panel to view all crew stats
  • Add a button to fix all modules at once
  • Add multiple AI preset options for combat
  • Add a way to fight against your own ship to test vulnerabilities
  • Add a permanent live PvP mode
  • Add a way to change the email associated with an account
  • Add a daily login bonus that increases over consecutive days

Space Arena

Reported bugs

3 issues
  • Crashes and account data loss issues
  • Glitches with daily challenges and rewards
  • Incorrect or misleading in-app purchase offers

Requested features

5 requests
  • Add visual combat animations
  • Improve matchmaking and ship balancing
  • Reduce repair times or add alternative progression
  • Allow ship rotation and more customization options
  • Implement a sandbox mode for testing builds

In-app purchases

11 purchases

Pixel Starships™

Subscriptions1
  • One Month Membership7 Days trial$3.991 Month
One-time10
  • Special Offer$1.99
  • Clip of Starbux$4.99
  • Special Offer$4.99
Show 7 more
  • Season Pass$8.99
  • Roll of Starbux$9.99
  • Special Offer$9.99
  • Stash of Starbux$19.99
  • Special Offer$19.99
  • Case of Starbux$49.99
  • Bank of Starbux$99.99
19 purchases

Space Arena

One-time19
  • Celestium Bundle #1 (Sale4)$1.99
  • Remove ads + 20 Celestium$2.09
  • 300 Celestium (Sale)$3.99
Show 16 more
  • Celestium Bundle #1$4.19
  • Ship Wing + Bonus$5.19
  • Exclusive special pack$5.19
  • Pirates special offer!$5.99
  • Special Offer2 variants$6.99
  • Super good offer$7.49
  • Age Eagle ship$8.49
  • Special Offer$9.99
  • Iota + bonus$9.99
  • 1350 Celestium (Sale)$9.99
  • Celestium Bundle #2$10.49
  • Pirates special offer!$10.49
  • Special Offer$12.99
  • Pirates special offer!$18.99
  • Destroyer Vega Ship$20.99
  • Celestium Bundle #3$26.99

Questions

Is Pixel Starships™ free?
Pixel Starships™ is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Space Arena free?
Space Arena is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, Pixel Starships™ or Space Arena?
Pixel Starships™ and Space Arena are both rated 4.7 out of 5 on the App Store, from 35K and 18K ratings respectively.
Do Pixel Starships™ or Space Arena have ads?
Space Arena shows ads; Pixel Starships™ does not.
Which is updated more often, Pixel Starships™ or Space Arena?
Pixel Starships™ ships an update every 10 days, and Space Arena monthly. Most recently, Pixel Starships™ was updated on September 24, 2026 and Space Arena on September 24, 2026.

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