Comparison

Plague Inc. vs Hitori

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

Head to head
About

Plague Inc.

A strategic simulation game where you evolve a deadly pathogen to infect the world and end humanity. Adapt your plague against global defenses and master different disease types to achieve victory. It's a high-stakes battle of strategy against the entire planet.

Highlights
  • Evolve deadly global plagues
  • Adapt against human defenses
  • Master 12 disease types
  • Infect 50+ countries
  • Hundreds of traits to evolve
  • Daily Diseases and Outbreak Mode
Features
Read full description

Can you infect the world? Plague Inc. is a unique mix of high strategy and terrifyingly realistic simulation. Your pathogen has just infected 'Patient Zero'. Now you must bring about the end of human history by evolving a deadly, global Plague whilst adapting against everything humanity can do to defend itself. Brilliantly executed with innovative gameplay and built from the ground up for iPhone & iPad, Plague Inc. evolves the strategy genre and pushes mobile gaming (and you) to new levels. It’s You vs. the world - only the strongest can survive! ◈◈◈ #1 top game globally with well over a billion games played ◈◈◈ Plague Inc. is a global hit with over a million 5 star ratings and features in newspapers such as The Economist, New York Post, Boston Herald, The Guardian and London Metro! The developer of Plague Inc. was invited to speak at the CDC in Atlanta about the disease models inside the game! ▶ “The game creates a compelling world that engages the public on serious public health topics” – The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention ▶ "Plague Inc: The Cure encapsulates the complexities of a global pandemic response and highlights how crucial international collaboration is needed to address such a threat.” – Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations ▶ “Best Tablet Game” - New York Daily News ▶ “Plague Inc. will snag your attention in all the right ways and keep it there” - Touch Arcade ▶ “No denying Plague Inc.'s high-level of quality” - Modojo ▶ “Plague Inc. should not be as much fun as it is” – London Metro ▶ “Will leave you hoping to destroy the world, all in the name of a bit of fun” – Pocket Lint ▶ “Plague Inc.'s gameplay is infectious” - Slide to Play ▶ Winner – “Overall Game of the Year” – Pocket Gamer ▶ “Killing billions has never been so fun” – IGN ◈◈◈ Features: ● Stunning retina graphics with a highly polished interface (Contagion guaranteed) ● Highly detailed, hyper-realistic world with advanced AI (Outbreak management) ● Comprehensive in-game help and tutorial system (I am Legendarily helpful) ● 12 different disease types with radically different strategies to master (12 Monkeys?) ● Full Save/Load functionality (28 Saves Later!) ● 50+ countries to infect, hundreds of traits to evolve and thousands of world events to adapt to (Pandemic evolved) ● Full game support for scoreboards and achievements ● Expansion updates add the mind controlling Neurax Worm, the zombie producing Necroa Virus, Speed Runs and real life Scenarios! ● Can you save the world? Take control and stop a deadly global plague in our biggest expansion yet! ● Take on Daily Diseases, earn powerful upgrades and compete against the world in Outbreak Mode! Localised in English, German, Spanish, Brazilian Portuguese, Italian, French, Japanese, Korean, Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese and Russian. (more coming soon) P.S. Give yourself a pat on the back if you got all the themed literature references! Special sale price to celebrate being one of the most popular paid iPhone games ever! ◈◈◈ Like Plague Inc. on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/PlagueInc Follow me on Twitter: www.twitter.com/NdemicCreations

About

Hitori

A logic puzzle game where players eliminate numbers in a grid. The goal is to ensure remaining numbers appear only once per row and column, with specific adjacency rules for filled cells.

Highlights
  • Grid-based number puzzles
  • Eliminate duplicate numbers
  • Row and column uniqueness
  • Adjacency rules for filled cells
  • Single connected component for remaining cells
Features
Read full description

Hitori is one of the puzzle game. The rule is simple. Hitori is played with a grid of squares or cells, and each cell contains a number. The objective is to eliminate numbers by filling in the squares such that remaining cells do not contain numbers that appear more than once in either a given row or column. Filled-in cells cannot be horizontally or vertically adjacent, although they can be diagonally adjacent. The remaining un-filled cells must form a single component connected horizontally and vertically.

Screenshots

Plague Inc.4 screens
Hitori4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is price: Hitori at Free against Plague Inc.'s $0.99. Hitori also leads on in-app purchases (none vs 10) and iOS requirement (8.0 vs 13.0). Plague Inc.'s advantage is review sentiment (76% vs 40%) and ratings volume (168K vs 6). On rating, update cadence, ads 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

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

Hitori is free to download; Plague Inc. costs $0.99 up front. Plague Inc. sells 10 one-off in-app purchases. Hitori asks for nothing beyond the download.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 4.8 for Plague Inc. against 4.8 for Hitori. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Plague Inc. has 168K ratings behind it against 6, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews are what separate them: 76% of Plague Inc.'s written reviews are positive against 40% of Hitori's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Both ship on a similar rhythm, roughly every 2 months. The most recent releases landed on November 10, 2026 and November 1, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard7 real differences · 4 level
Plague Inc. versus Hitori: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterPlague Inc.Hitori
Price$0.99Free — better
Rating4.8 (168K ratings)4.8 (6 ratings) — better
Positive reviews75.9% of reviews — better40.0% of reviews
Number of ratings168K — better6
Update frequencyEvery 2 monthsEvery 2 months
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesNo — better
MonetizationFree with in-app purchasesFree — better
Best chart rank#1 — better—
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPodiPhone, iPad, iPod
Requires iOS13.08.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size116 MB51 MB
Age rating+94+
DeveloperNdemic CreationsYuki Fujimoto

Customer experience

Plague Inc.

All ratings167,824 ratings
Positive96.4%
Neutral2.0%
Negative1.6%
Written reviews1,397 reviews
Positive75.9%
Neutral5.0%
Negative19.0%

Hitori

All ratings6 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%
Written reviews5 reviews
Positive40.0%
Neutral20.0%
Negative40.0%

Bugs and requests

Plague Inc.

Reported bugs

4 issues
  • Inability to restore purchased content
  • Glitches with certain disease types
  • Inconsistent DNA point rewards
  • Sudden difficulty spikes on normal mode

Requested features

5 requests
  • Multiplayer mode (player vs player)
  • More realistic cure distribution and development
  • Ability to customize game scenarios
  • Expanded free content without paywall
  • Improved progression for free-to-play users

Hitori

Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.

In-app purchases

10 purchases

Plague Inc.

One-time10
  • Unlock Virus$0.99
  • Neurax Worm Expansion Pack$1.99
  • Necroa Virus Expansion Pack$1.99
Show 7 more
  • Simian Flu Expansion Pack$1.99
  • Shadow Plague Expansion Pack$1.99
  • Unlock 7 Standard Plagues$2.99
  • Scenario Pack$2.99
  • Unlock All Genes$7.99
  • Unlock Cheats$9.99
  • Plague Pack$12.99
None

Hitori

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Plague Inc. free?
Plague Inc. costs $0.99, and also offers in-app purchases.
Is Hitori free?
Hitori is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, Plague Inc. or Hitori?
Hitori is rated higher. Plague Inc. averages 4.8 out of 5 from 168K ratings, while Hitori averages 4.8 from 6 ratings.
Do Plague Inc. or Hitori have ads?
Neither Plague Inc. nor Hitori shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Plague Inc. or Hitori?
Plague Inc. ships an update every 2 months, and Hitori every 2 months. Most recently, Plague Inc. was updated on November 10, 2026 and Hitori on November 1, 2026.

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