Magical Rays vs Pixel Sand
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Magical Rays
Experience a calming and meditative light effect application. Touch the screen to interact with dynamic light rays and create ever-changing visual patterns for relaxation and zen healing.
- Interactive light ray attraction
- Dynamic and changing light patterns
- Zen and healing atmosphere
- Touch screen interaction
- Relaxing visual experience
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Relax zen healing. A light effect app provided by Digital Gene. When you touch the screen, you can attract the light ray. Please enjoy the ever-changing patterns of light ray.
Pixel Sand
Create and interact with a dynamic pixelated world. Simulate physics with sand, water, snow, and acid. Build structures and observe their reactions in this digital sandbox.
- Pixelated sand simulation
- Water physics and rain
- Snow that melts
- Acid for destruction
- Build dams and walls
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Pixel Sand will turn your device into a box full of pixelated grains of sand. Touch the screen to make sand fall. Play with water. Make it rain! Create dams, lay stocks of sand to protect them. Build walls and watch how sand falls through them. Play with snow, that will melt into water... ... and you can burn through anything with acid!
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is review sentiment: Magical Rays at 83% against Pixel Sand's 32%. Magical Rays also leads on rating (4.6 vs 3.1) and ratings volume (206 vs 11). Pixel Sand's advantage is ads (none vs shown) and monetization model (free vs ad-supported). On price, update cadence, in-app purchases and device support 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.
Magical Rays holds the better App Store score, 4.6 against 3.1. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Magical Rays has 206 ratings behind it against 11, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 83% of Magical Rays's written reviews are positive against 32% of Pixel Sand's.
Magical Rays ships an update every 8 months, Pixel Sand every 5 months. The most recent releases landed on October 11, 2026 and October 13, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Magical Rays | Pixel Sand |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.6 (206 ratings) — better | 3.1 (11 ratings) |
| Positive reviews | 83.2% of reviews — better | 32.1% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 206 — better | 11 |
| Update frequency | Every 8 months | Every 5 months — better |
| Ads | Yes | No — better |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Ad-supported | Free — better |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod | iPhone, iPad, iPod |
| Requires iOS | 13.0 | 12.0 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 7 MB | 41 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Plus Inc. (Japan) | Patryk Zielinski |
Customer experience
Magical Rays
Pixel Sand
Bugs and requests
Magical Rays
Reported bugs
4 issues- Ads are intrusive and cannot be removed
- Sound effects are unavoidable
- App quits unexpectedly when saving a photo
- Google ads banner is persistent and ruins the experience
Requested features
7 requests- Add option to slow down or speed up the game
- Add a color wheel for particle customization
- Add more music options
- Add option to change background color
- Add option to permanently remove ads
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- Add multi-finger interaction
- Add slo-mo button
Pixel Sand
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
In-app purchases
Magical Rays
No in-app purchases
Pixel Sand
No in-app purchases
