Comparison

Tickle the Pig vs Backyard Baseball '01

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

Head to head
About

Tickle the Pig

Interact with a virtual pig by tapping to tickle it, earning in-game currency to customize its appearance. Engage in social features like trading 'tickles' and bestowing blessings or curses upon friends, while your in-game alignment influences your path.

Highlights
  • Tap to tickle a virtual pig
  • Customize pig with hats and accessories
  • Social features: trade tickles, bless/curse friends
  • Alignment system: Generous vs. Greedy
  • Weekly bounties and seasonal pass
  • No ads or leaderboards
Features
Read full description

Meet Rosie. She's a pig, and she'd like a tickle. Tap to tickle. Earn snouts. Spend them on a closet full of hats, halos, capes, auras, and goofy held items. Wear what you want to be seen wearing. Bring your sounder. Add friends and you unlock the whole social loop. Trade tickles. Bless a friend with a warm tea (faster regen!) or a halo kiss (a soft glow). Or curse them — a sluggish snout, a phantom itch, a goblin whisper. One blessing and one curse per day. Pick a side. Your alignment ticks toward Generous or Greedy as you play. Lean in — Saint of the Sounder and Goblin King are the destinations, and the game watches who you become along the way. Weekly bounties + a season pass. Three rotating bounties each week. A snout pass with named tiers, real cosmetic rewards, and a finale moment when the season closes. Built for a small audience that pays attention. No ads. No leaderboards screaming for engagement. No notifications without a reason behind them. Tickle the Pig is a quiet whimsy game. Sign in with Apple, add a few friends, and tickle.

About

Backyard Baseball '01

Relive a classic baseball game enhanced for modern devices. Assemble your dream team with quirky kids and legendary MLB players, then compete in pick-up games or full seasons with fun power-ups and lively commentary.

Highlights
  • Assemble dream teams
  • Play pick-up games or full seasons
  • Customize uniforms
  • Utilize pitching and batting power-ups
  • Features legendary MLB players
  • Includes hilarious bloopers
Read full description

STEP UP TO THE PLATE Relive the second baseball game in the Backyard Sports franchise, now enhanced to run on iOS. Whether you're picking your dream team, playing a pick-up game, or diving into a full season, step up to the plate and experience the game that made baseball fun for everyone! Backyard Baseball ‘01 teams up the Backyard kids with Backyardified MLB legends. Create your own Backyard team, customize your uniforms, and strategize to win the Championship. Play a single pick-up game or play through an entire season. Backyard Baseball ‘01 features intuitive controls for all ages! SWING BACK INTO BASEBALL Enjoy baseball like it’s 2001! 30 Charming Backyard kids Legendary MLB Players MLB Team Marks Hilarious Bloopers 8 Classic Ballparks 9 Pitching Power-ups and 4 batting Power-ups Lively commentary from Sunny Day and Vinnie To get into the swing of things, choose a batter and face Mr. Clanky for some batting practice. This is where you’ll learn just when to click to make your chosen batter hit the ball! THE GOAT RETURNS Play with the legend himself, Pablo Sanchez. Build a roster from a cast of 30 hilarious child athletes and 28 legendary pros that made Backyard Baseball ‘01 a sports classic. Returning MLB players include Derek Jeter, Alex Rodriguez, Cal Ripken Jr., Sammy Sosa, Mike Piazza, Randy Johnson, Nomar Garciaparra, Jeff Bagwell, Jason Giambi, Chipper Jones, Jeromy Burnitz, Mark McGwire, Shawn Green, Vladimir Guerrero, Kenny Lofton, Jason Kendall, Barry Larkin, Marty Cordova, Mo Vaughn, Raul Mondesi, Curt Schilling, Alex Gonzalez, Juan Gonzalez, Larry Walker, Carlos Beltran, Tony Gwynn, Ivan Rodriguez, and Jose Canseco. Game Modes include: Choose from three modes of play (Easy Mode, Medium Mode, Hard Mode) Random Pick-up: A quick way to jump right in! The computer chooses a random team for you and itself and the game starts immediately. Single Game: You take turns with the computer choosing players from a random pool of characters. Season: You pick your home field, create a team, and manage the team through a 14 game series. The opposing teams are computer generated. At the end of the season, the best two teams advance to the BBL playoffs (best of 3). If you keep winning, you’ll compete in the Super Entire Nation Tournament and Ultra Grand Championship of the Universe Series! ADDITIONAL INFORMATION At our core, we are fans first – not just of video games, but of the Backyard Sports franchise. Fans have asked for accessible and legal ways to play their original Backyard titles for years, and we are excited to deliver. Without having access to the source code, there are hard limitations on the experience we can create. As an example, we can’t use the original 32bit code to support modern macOS, as even with an incredibly clever wrapper, macOS can’t execute the binaries. Backyard Baseball ‘01 runs well, looks better than ever, includes new bonus features to test your mettle, and creates a new installation for digital preservation within the Backyard Sports catalog that allows the next generation of fans to fall in love with the game.

Screenshots

Tickle the Pig4 screens
Backyard Baseball '014 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is price: Tickle the Pig at Free against Backyard Baseball '01's $4.99. Tickle the Pig also leads on review sentiment (100% vs 56%) and rating (5.0 vs 3.9). Backyard Baseball '01's advantage is update cadence (every 2 days vs every 2 weeks) and ratings volume (689 vs 12). On ads, in-app purchases, device support and iOS requirement 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

Tickle the Pig is free to download; Backyard Baseball '01 costs $4.99 up front. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

Tickle the Pig holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 3.9. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Backyard Baseball '01 has 689 ratings behind it against 12, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 100% of Tickle the Pig's written reviews are positive against 56% of Backyard Baseball '01's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Tickle the Pig ships an update every 2 weeks, Backyard Baseball '01 every 2 days. The most recent releases landed on October 23, 2026 and October 30, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard7 real differences · 4 level
Tickle the Pig versus Backyard Baseball '01: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterTickle the PigBackyard Baseball '01
PriceFree — better$4.99
Rating5.0 (12 ratings) — better3.9 (689 ratings)
Positive reviews100.0% of reviews — better55.8% of reviews
Number of ratings12689 — better
Update frequencyEvery 2 weeksEvery 2 days — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNoNo
MonetizationFree — betterPaid
Best chart rank—#3 — better
DevicesiPhone, iPodiPhone, iPad, iPod — better
Requires iOS15.115.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size75 MB359 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperBrian BroekingPlayground Productions LLC

Customer experience

Tickle the Pig

Written reviews4 reviews
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

Backyard Baseball '01

All ratings649 ratings
Positive68.7%
Neutral8.8%
Negative22.5%
Written reviews217 reviews
Positive55.8%
Neutral18.0%
Negative26.3%

Bugs and requests

Tickle the Pig

Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.

Backyard Baseball '01

Reported bugs

2 issues
  • Soft-lock in Season mode
  • Inconsistent player abilities (e.g., Pablo Sanchez)

Requested features

3 requests
  • Online multiplayer
  • Full-screen mode on mobile
  • Faster game pace

In-app purchases

None

Tickle the Pig

No in-app purchases

None

Backyard Baseball '01

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Tickle the Pig free?
Tickle the Pig is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is Backyard Baseball '01 free?
Backyard Baseball '01 costs $4.99, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, Tickle the Pig or Backyard Baseball '01?
Tickle the Pig is rated higher. Tickle the Pig averages 5.0 out of 5 from 12 ratings, while Backyard Baseball '01 averages 3.9 from 689 ratings.
Do Tickle the Pig or Backyard Baseball '01 have ads?
Neither Tickle the Pig nor Backyard Baseball '01 shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Tickle the Pig or Backyard Baseball '01?
Tickle the Pig ships an update every 2 weeks, and Backyard Baseball '01 every 2 days. Most recently, Tickle the Pig was updated on October 23, 2026 and Backyard Baseball '01 on October 30, 2026.

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