Arcbound vs Orbinaut
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both games, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Arcbound
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Arcbound is a colony simulation game set entirely on a single evolving starship. Everything is connected. And everything can fail at any moment. Design and expand your ship room by room, manage oxygen, power, and crew survival, and guide a fragile civilisation from Earth’s final evacuation into deep space. WHAT YOU DO Design and expand your Arcship room by room Manage oxygen, power, water, and food to keep your crew alive Send missions to Earth to recover resources and survivors Grow your ship into a self-sustaining spacefaring civilisation Every system connects. Every decision has consequences. Inspired by classic colony sims, Arcbound takes the genre into a single fully interconnected starship, where layout, systems, and social dynamics are tightly linked. FROM ESCAPE SHIP TO STAR-BOUND SOCIETY Early Access includes both phases of Arcbound’s journey: Phase 1: The Exodus Stabilise your ship before Earth collapses and prepare for launch. Phase 2: The Voyage Guide a growing civilian population during multi-year transit as your Arcship becomes a living society facing internal pressure, scarcity, and unknown signals from deep space. BUILD YOUR ARCSHIP Start with a small emergency platform and grow it into a fully functioning star-faring vessel. Design living quarters, engineering bays, hydroponics, research facilities, and life-support systems while managing power, water, atmosphere, and maintenance across a fully simulated ship. A well-designed ship creates stability. A poorly planned one barely survives. MANAGE YOUR CREW Your crew are more than workers. They form friendships and rivalries, develop beliefs, suffer stress, and react to the decisions you make as commander. Social relationships and ideology evolve over time, influencing morale, productivity, and the long-term identity of your Arcship. Rescue new survivors, but every arrival may change the culture of your ship. SURVIVE THROUGH MISSIONS Send crews beyond your vessel on dangerous expeditions to secure vital resources. Recover technology, extract survivors, or raid for fuel, missions always return something… but consequences follow. Injuries, conflict, and unexpected events can reshape life aboard your ship long after the mission ends. Missions can trigger injuries, political tension, or unexpected consequences that ripple through life aboard the ship. KEY FEATURES Grid-based ship construction and expansion Fully simulated oxygen, power, water, and resource networks Crew needs, skills, relationships, and ideology systems Consequence-driven mission system Research unlocking new technologies and discoveries Civilian population and societal stability management Emergent storytelling driven by player decisions Pause and time controls for relaxed strategic play Designed for long-form sandbox progression In Arcbound, your entire civilisation exists within a single evolving Arcship. Every decision shapes not just your ship, but the society living inside it. Stabilise your ship before Earth collapses… or carry your failures with you into the void. A CALM SURVIVAL EXPERIENCE Arcbound is designed as a chilled but thoughtful space management experience. Most of the time you’ll be carefully expanding and optimising your ship, until emergencies, social tension, or difficult choices introduce moments of drama. There is no single correct way to survive. Only the ship you build… and the future you create. Join the community on Discord
Orbinaut
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One orb. Two rings. One tap. Orbinaut is a pick-up-and-play arcade game about staying alive. Your orb races endlessly around glowing neon rings — tap anywhere to hop between lanes, dodge the spikes, and grab gems for bonus points. Every run starts gentle and gets faster, until one wrong hop ends it all. Simple to learn, hard to master. Rounds last under two minutes, restarts are instant, and your high score is always on screen daring you to beat it. HOW TO PLAY • Tap anywhere to hop between the inner and outer ring • Dodge the spikes — one touch ends your run • Collect gems, grab the rare bonus star, and ride the shield • Survive as the speed climbs and the rings shift colour FEATURES • One-touch controls anyone can pick up — great for all ages • Daily Challenge: one shared board for the whole world, every day • Level up every 20 points as the rings change colour and the pace rises • REVERSE rounds that flip your direction (always with a warning!) • A shield power-up that lets you bulldoze through spikes • Crashed? Use an extra life and keep your best run alive • Game Center leaderboards — take on the world's best Orbinauts • 8 achievements to unlock • High score and stats sync across your devices with iCloud • Slick neon visuals, satisfying haptics and arcade sound • Game controller support and iOS Game Mode • No ads. No tracking. No waiting, no energy systems. Can you beat 1000?
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is iOS requirement: Arcbound at 15.0 against Orbinaut's 17.0. On price, update cadence, ads and in-app purchases 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. Arcbound sells 1 one-off in-app purchase and Orbinaut sells 3 one-off in-app purchases. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.
Both ship on a similar rhythm, roughly every 2 days. The most recent releases landed on October 6, 2026 and October 7, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Arcbound | Orbinaut |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Update frequency | Every 2 days | Every 2 days |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | Yes | Yes |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod — better | iPhone, iPad |
| Requires iOS | 15.0 — better | 17.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 336 MB | 3 MB |
| Age rating | 17+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Dean Lennard | Mike Rozwadowski |
In-app purchases
Arcbound
- Arcbound - Early Access$9.99
Orbinaut
- 3 Extra Lives$0.99
- 10 Extra Lives$1.99
- 20 Extra Lives$2.99









