Comparison

Vampire Survivors vs RetroArch

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

Head to head
About

Vampire Survivors

Survive endless waves of monsters in this roguelike survival RPG. Mow down thousands of enemies, gather gold for upgrades, and become a powerful warrior. Explore diverse stages and choose your weapons to become the last survivor.

Highlights
  • Minimalistic gameplay
  • Bullet hell survival
  • Gold collection for upgrades
  • Hundreds of monsters
  • Weapon and skill upgrades
  • Couch co-op mode
Read full description

Vampire Survivors is a roguelite time survival RPG game with minimalistic gameplay. The supernatural indie phenomenon that lets you be the bullet hell has arrived on mobile! The whole game is also playable in 1-4 player couch co-op in landscape. Hell is empty, the devils are here, and there's no place to run or hide. Survive as long as you can until death inevitably puts an end to your struggles. Gather gold in each run to buy upgrades and help the next survivor. Mow down thousands of night creatures and survive until dawn! Vampire Survivors is a gothic horror casual game with roguelite and roguelike elements. Your choices can allow you to quickly snowball against the hundreds of monsters that get thrown at you. Test your mettle against the legions of hell using your touchscreen. This wave survival will bring you the edge! Stand against hordes of enemies, exterminate monsters and finish the game as a lone survivor! There is no way to defeat an enemy army without a collection of great weapons. This roguelike game has it all. Cross, garlic, king bible or magic wand? The choice is yours. Upgrade your skills and become a warrior with unlimited potential. Take the most out of this hero survival - battle evil and dangerous hell creatures without mercy! Starting Tips for the best attack survival: - Take your time to grab gems and items, they won't disappear. - Get two or three offensive weapons at first, but focus on leveling them up one at a time. - Armour and Luck are good starting power-ups to spend money on. - Refund power-ups often, it's free, and try new upgrade paths. Waves of undead legions are all around, have you thought it’s going to be easy? The challenge is what makes this one of the best horde survival games. It’s time to enjoy an exciting rouge survival adventure. Explore different stages and learn how to slay enemies anywhere, whether that is library, dairy plant, or old capella. Roguelite skill experience will help you collect bonuses and find treasure. You don’t want to be the last survivor with an empty pocket, do you? Select your favorite character and begin the best adventure roguelike game of your life. Join the fans of this roguelike RPG game on Twitter and TikTok: https://twitter.com/poncle_vampire https://www.tiktok.com/@poncle_games We’re only just getting started. Expect improvements and enhancements as we continue to refine the mobile experience in Vampire Survivors roguelite role playing game.

About

RetroArch

This application serves as a versatile frontend for emulators and game engines, supporting a vast array of systems through downloadable cores. It offers advanced features like netplay, save states, and customizable controls for an enhanced gaming experience.

Highlights
  • Supports numerous gaming systems via libretro cores
  • Netplay for multiplayer gaming
  • Save states and fast forward/rewind
  • Controller support and key remapping
  • Customizable shaders and overlays
  • RetroAchievements integration
  • AI translations for games
Features
Read full description

RetroArch is a free, ad-free, open source, and cross platform frontend/framework for emulators, game engines, video games, media players, and other applications. Supported systems come in the form of libretro cores. The following systems are supported through various cores: * 2048 * Acorn - BBC Micro * Amstrad - CPC/GX4000 * Anarch * Arcade * Arduboy * Atari - 2600 * Atari - 5200 * Atari - 7800 * Atari - Jaguar * Atari - Lynx * Bandai - WonderSwan/Color * Cave Story * Coleco - ColecoVision * Commodore - Amiga * Commodore - C128 * Commodore - C64 * Commodore - C64 SuperCPU * Commodore - CBM-II 5x0 * Commodore - CBM-II 6x0/7x0 * Commodore - PET * Commodore - PLUS/4 * Commodore - VIC-20 * Dinothawr * Doom * DOS * Fairchild ChannelF * Flashback * GCE - Vectrex * Game Music Emu * Handheld Electronic * MSX/SVI/ColecoVision/SG-1000 * Mattel - Intellivision * Mega Duck / Cougar Boy * Mr.Boom * NEC - PC Engine / SuperGrafx / CD * NEC - PC-FX * NEC - PC-98 * Nintendo - DS * Nintendo - Game Boy / Color * Nintendo - Game Boy Advance * Nintendo - NES / Famicom * Nintendo - Nintendo 64 * Nintendo - Pokemon Mini * Nintendo - SNES / SFC * Nintendo - Virtual Boy * Palm OS * PocketCDG * Quake * Quake II * Rick Dangerous * SNK - Neo Geo AES/MVS * SNK - Neo Geo CD * SNK - Neo Geo Pocket / Color * ScummVM * Sega - MS/GG/MD/CD/32X * Sega - MS/GG/SG-1000 * Sega - Saturn * Sharp - X68000 * Sinclair - ZX Spectrum * Sony - PlayStation * Sony - PlayStation Portable * Texas Instruments TI-83 * The 3DO Company - 3DO * Thomson - MO/TO * Vircon32 * VirtualXT * WASM-4 * Watara - Supervision RetroArch supports a broad range of features, including: * Netplay * Soft patching * RetroAchievements * Save states * MFi controller support * Key remapping per core or per game * Gyro * Cheats * Custom overlays * Shaders * Fast forward and rewind * Game artwork * AI translations * Advanced latency management **RetroArch and Libretro are in no way affiliated with Nintendo. The name "Nintendo" and all associated game console names are registered trademarks of Nintendo Co., Ltd.**

Screenshots

Vampire Survivors4 screens
RetroArch4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is in-app purchases: RetroArch at none against Vampire Survivors's 7. RetroArch also leads on update cadence (weekly vs every 3 weeks) and device support (5 vs 3). Vampire Survivors's advantage is rating (4.6 vs 4.3). On price, review sentiment, ratings volume and ads 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. Vampire Survivors sells 7 one-off in-app purchases. RetroArch asks for nothing beyond the download.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

Vampire Survivors holds the better App Store score, 4.6 against 4.3. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 5.2K and 1.9K respectively. Written reviews split almost evenly too, at 70% and 69% positive.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Vampire Survivors ships an update every 3 weeks, RetroArch weekly. The most recent releases landed on November 9, 2026 and November 8, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard5 real differences · 5 level
Vampire Survivors versus RetroArch: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterVampire SurvivorsRetroArch
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.6 (5.2K ratings) — better4.3 (1.9K ratings)
Positive reviews69.7% of reviews — better69.1% of reviews
Number of ratings5.2K — better1.9K
Update frequencyEvery 3 weeksWeekly — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesNo — better
MonetizationFree with in-app purchasesFree — better
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPodiPhone, iPad, iPod, Mac, Apple TV — better
Requires iOS13.012.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size961 MB652 MB
Age rating12+9+
DeveloperPoncleLibretro

Customer experience

Vampire Survivors

All ratings5,143 ratings
Positive89.7%
Neutral3.1%
Negative7.2%
Written reviews694 reviews
Positive69.7%
Neutral8.6%
Negative21.6%

RetroArch

All ratings1,547 ratings
Positive82.7%
Neutral6.9%
Negative10.5%
Written reviews1,471 reviews
Positive69.1%
Neutral11.3%
Negative19.6%

User reviews

Vampire Survivors

From 5.2K App Store ratings

What we love

  • 🚀 Faithful port of PC version
  • 👍 No intrusive ads, only optional ones
  • 👍 Great value, tons of content for free
  • 🚀 Smooth performance, handles late-game well
  • 👍 Retro pixel art style with charm

Room to improve

  • 🐛 Crashes and progress loss when switching apps
  • 🐛 Occasional freezing and performance issues
  • 🔋 No suspend/resume feature, runs reset when app is closed

RetroArch

From 1.9K App Store ratings

What we love

  • 🚀 Smooth emulation performance
  • 🎮 Wide range of supported systems
  • 🕹️ Controller support
  • 💯 Comprehensive emulation features
  • 🔓 No ads or tracking

Room to improve

  • 🤯 Steep learning curve
  • 🤖 Unintuitive user interface
  • 🐛 Stability issues and crashes
  • 🔌 Slow loading times
  • 🤷‍♂️ Inconsistent core support

Bugs and requests

Vampire Survivors

Reported bugs

3 issues
  • Merchant UI not working properly
  • Certain level mechanics (Infernas) causing soft-locks
  • Movement and controls sometimes unresponsive

Requested features

3 requests
  • Add suspend/resume functionality to save progress
  • Implement cross-save between devices
  • Add controller support for better controls

RetroArch

Reported bugs

5 issues
  • N64 games not loading textures properly
  • Crashes when changing settings or cores
  • Bios files not being recognized
  • Inconsistent performance across devices
  • Saved settings not persisting

Requested features

5 requests
  • Add support for PS2, GameCube, and 3DS emulation
  • Improve iCloud/cloud storage integration
  • Implement customizable button layouts
  • Add a more user-friendly setup wizard
  • Provide better documentation and tutorials

In-app purchases

7 purchases

Vampire Survivors

One-time7
  • Emerald DioramaFree
  • Legacy of the Bloodmoon$0.99
  • Legacy of the Moonspell$0.99
Show 4 more
  • Tides of the Foscari$1.79
  • Emergency Meeting$2.49
  • Operation Guns$2.49
  • Ode to Castlevania$3.99
None

RetroArch

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Vampire Survivors free?
Vampire Survivors is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is RetroArch free?
RetroArch is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, Vampire Survivors or RetroArch?
Vampire Survivors is rated higher. Vampire Survivors averages 4.6 out of 5 from 5.2K ratings, while RetroArch averages 4.3 from 1.9K ratings.
Do Vampire Survivors or RetroArch have ads?
Neither Vampire Survivors nor RetroArch shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Vampire Survivors or RetroArch?
Vampire Survivors ships an update every 3 weeks, and RetroArch weekly. Most recently, Vampire Survivors was updated on November 9, 2026 and RetroArch on November 8, 2026.

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