The Marimo vs Garden Eel
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both games, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
The Marimo
Care for a virtual green ball creature that grows over time. Keep its environment clean and provide light to ensure its survival. Customize its appearance and interact with it through various gestures.
- Virtual pet care
- Growth simulation
- Environment maintenance
- Customization options
- Interactive controls
- Social sharing
Read full descriptionHide full description
Thank you 1,130,000 download!! [About Marimo] Marimo means a plant like a green ball which grow in Hokkaido, Japan. You can raise a Marimo. A marimo will grow up little by little every day. When water become dirty, you need to refresh water. If you don't take care of a Marimo long time, Marimo will wither. [Other Features] - You can rename Marimo, and change background. - Drag to move Marimo. - Double tap to pick tap Marimo. - Rotate marimo with two finger. - Marimo moves by the direction of the device. - You can upload image of Marimo on Twitter/Facebook. - Photosynthesis occurs in a bright place.
Garden Eel
A relaxing simulator where you nurture garden eels by managing their environment. Swipe to create currents, clean the seabed, and feed your eels to help them grow. Drive away unwanted sea creatures to ensure a thriving habitat.
- Swipe to create currents
- Clean the seabed
- Feed garden eels
- Drive away sea creatures
- 5 kinds of garden eels
- Apple Watch support
- iCloud data saving
Read full descriptionHide full description
Garden Eel is a garden eel simulator. Swipe and make current, then feed garden eels. Swipe sea bottom and make it clean. Then new garden eel will appear and they'll grow. There are 5 kinds of garden eels. When fishes and sea cucumbers appear, tap and drive them away. This game is inspired by the sea of Saipan, Okinawa, etc. This app supports Apple Watch(garden eel animation with feeding indicator). Animations of the Watch App will be added when the new garden eel appears in the iPhone App. This app saves play data to iCloud in every two minutes. Saved data can be downloaded by new install of app in another device. Or Garden Eel AR/VR for viewing in 3D!!
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is rating: Garden Eel at 5.0 against The Marimo's 4.4. Garden Eel also leads on device support (4 vs 2) and iOS requirement (12.0 vs 15.6). The Marimo's advantage is ratings volume (16 vs 2). On price, update cadence, 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.
Garden Eel holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 4.4. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: The Marimo has 16 ratings behind it against 2, so its average is the more settled of the two.
Both ship on a similar rhythm, roughly every 3 months. The most recent releases landed on October 12, 2026 and October 7, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | The Marimo | Garden Eel |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.4 (16 ratings) | 5.0 (2 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 79.6% of reviews | — |
| Number of ratings | 16 — better | 2 |
| Update frequency | Every 3 months | Every 3 months |
| Ads | Yes | Yes |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Ad-supported | Ad-supported |
| Devices | iPhone, iPod | iPhone, iPad, iPod, Apple Watch — better |
| Requires iOS | 15.6 | 12.0 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 18 MB | 80 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Kosuke Ogawa | KENSHI DOI |
Customer experience
The Marimo
Garden Eel
In-app purchases
The Marimo
No in-app purchases
Garden Eel
No in-app purchases
