Comparison

Cardio Quest vs Ashenmarch

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

Head to head
About

Cardio Quest

This fantasy role-playing game transforms your real-life workouts into epic battles. Track your heart rate to fight monsters, earn loot, and level up your hero. Compete with friends on leaderboards and track your fitness progress.

Highlights
  • Heart rate tracking for combat
  • Fantasy role-playing gameplay
  • Monster battles during workouts
  • Earn loot and level up hero
  • Friend tracking and leaderboards
  • Workout tracking
Features
Read full description

Cardio Quest is a fantasy role-playing video game that challenges players to get active and improve their health. By tracking heart rate during exercise, players do battle while they work out in real life. Watch your Hero slay monsters as you get fit and earn epic loot. Follow friends, rank on leaderboards, track your workouts, and level up as you turn your workouts into gaming marathons. Cardio Quest is currently in Open Beta. Come join the future of connected fitness!

About

Ashenmarch

Transform real-world walks and runs into territorial conquests. Claim land, build your noble house, and engage in strategic warfare against rivals. Your personal achievements drive your progress, ensuring a fair and engaging experience for all players.

Highlights
  • Claim real-world land by walking or running
  • Found and build a noble house with custom blazon
  • Engage in live war-map battles and sieges
  • Import activities from Strava, Apple Health, and Garmin
  • Personal bests are rewarded, not pay-to-win
  • Permanent rank history and conquest milestones
Features
Read full description

Your runs are conquests. Ashenmarch turns the real world into a map of contested ground — every route you run or walk claims and defends territory, builds your noble house, and raises your standing in the realm. Lace up, close a loop through your neighborhood, and the land inside it becomes yours — painted in your house colors, your blazon at its heart. Run it again to fortify. March out and back to raise walls. Cross into a rival's ground to lay siege. Every mile works for your house. CLAIM REAL-WORLD LAND Close a loop on the map and take the ground inside it. Outposts grow into citadels the more you march them. FOUND A NOBLE HOUSE Name your house, design your coat of arms, and watch your holdings, walls, and treasury grow. Rise through the ranks and take your place among the great houses. A LIVE WAR-MAP Run in-app with a live parchment war-map, distance and grip tracking, auto-pause, and a herald who announces your conquests as they happen. OR BRING YOUR OWN RUNS Already run with Strava? Connect it and your activities import automatically — the same conquest logic applies. Apple Health and Garmin are welcome too. Strava is a data connection, not a login; disconnect any time. MEASURED AGAINST YOU Everything is judged against your own baseline. A beginner's personal best counts exactly as much as an elite athlete's — beat your own mark and you're rewarded. It's never pay-to-win. WAGE WAR, WIN GLORY Lay siege to rivals, defend your borders, hire sellswords, plunder gold, uncover treasure, and join a court to hold whole provinces together. YOU CANNOT BE ELIMINATED There is no defeat screen and no losing your account. Your rank history and conquest milestones are permanent — only the ground itself changes hands, and lost land can always be retaken. Your first conquest is free. After that, every new player gets 30 days of full access, and membership continues through the App Store. The realm gathers on Discord — find rivals and join a court. Play on iPhone and iPad. On iPhone Duo, march on the outer display and survey the realm on the inner one. An Apple Watch companion keeps your march on your wrist. The map is being drawn now. Take your place. Terms of Use: https://www.ashenmarch.com/terms Privacy Policy: https://www.ashenmarch.com/privacy

Screenshots

Cardio Quest4 screens
Ashenmarch4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is rating: Ashenmarch at 5.0 against Cardio Quest's 4.2. Ashenmarch also leads on review sentiment (100% vs 59%) and update cadence (every 5 days vs every 2 weeks). Cardio Quest's advantage is ratings volume (59 vs 3) and iOS requirement (12.0 vs 17.0). On price, ads, in-app purchases and monetization model 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. Cardio Quest sells 2 one-off in-app purchases and Ashenmarch sells 2 in-app purchases, starting at $7.99 per month. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

Ashenmarch holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 4.2. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Cardio Quest has 59 ratings behind it against 3, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 59% of Cardio Quest's written reviews are positive against 100% of Ashenmarch's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Cardio Quest ships an update every 2 weeks, Ashenmarch every 5 days. The most recent releases landed on October 27, 2026 and October 31, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard5 real differences · 5 level
Cardio Quest versus Ashenmarch: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterCardio QuestAshenmarch
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.2 (59 ratings)5.0 (3 ratings) — better
Positive reviews59.5% of reviews100.0% of reviews — better
Number of ratings59 — better3
Update frequencyEvery 2 weeksEvery 5 days — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesYes
MonetizationFree with in-app purchasesFree with in-app purchases
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPodiPhone, iPad, Apple Watch
Requires iOS12.0 — better17.0
Further details — not scored
Size1.2 GB45 MB
Age rating9+17+
DeveloperPress Forward Games LLCCunningPlay, LLC

Customer experience

Cardio Quest

All ratings59 ratings
Positive79.7%
Neutral5.1%
Negative15.3%
Written reviews37 reviews
Positive59.5%
Neutral8.1%
Negative32.4%

Ashenmarch

All ratings3 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%
Written reviews1 reviews
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

Bugs and requests

Cardio Quest

Reported bugs

18 issues
  • Cannot connect to Hyperate application
  • Bug interface
  • Needs separate app for Apple Watch data
  • Sync feature has limitations (free version)
  • App loses track of heart rate
Show 13 more
  • UI is unintuitive
  • Cannot figure out how to level up
  • Won't connect to Garmin
  • Cannot add devices via app
  • Calories burned not accurate for stairs
  • Duplicate gear not going into inventory
  • Sync issues with heart rate
  • Game needs to be resynced constantly
  • Disconnects during workouts
  • Doesn't sync
  • Can't sync iWatch
  • Doesnt work with device
  • Incomplete at the moment

Requested features

12 requests
  • Simpler UX for new users
  • More things to manage
  • Less time managing/learning
  • Add an idle element (e.g., mining)
  • Upgrade system for duplicate gear
Show 7 more
  • View pets during battles
  • Move around a virtual world like an MMO
  • Combat and social aspects
  • Compatibility with cheaper smartwatches
  • Option to use data from Apple Fitness
  • Retroactively correct step count
  • Allow app to run in background for quests

Ashenmarch

Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.

In-app purchases

2 purchases

Cardio Quest

One-time2
  • Monthly Premium Features$4.99
  • Monthly Battle Pass$9.99
2 purchases

Ashenmarch

Subscriptions2
  • Ashenmarch Membership1 Month trial$7.991 Month
  • Ashenmarch Membership1 Month trial$59.991 Year

Questions

Is Cardio Quest free?
Cardio Quest is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Ashenmarch free?
Ashenmarch is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, Cardio Quest or Ashenmarch?
Ashenmarch is rated higher. Cardio Quest averages 4.2 out of 5 from 59 ratings, while Ashenmarch averages 5.0 from 3 ratings.
Do Cardio Quest or Ashenmarch have ads?
Neither Cardio Quest nor Ashenmarch shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Cardio Quest or Ashenmarch?
Cardio Quest ships an update every 2 weeks, and Ashenmarch every 5 days. Most recently, Cardio Quest was updated on October 27, 2026 and Ashenmarch on October 31, 2026.

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