Comparison

Backgammon Reserve vs GGammon

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

Head to head
About

Backgammon Reserve

A premium backgammon experience focused on serious players. Enjoy ranked online matches with Elo ratings, daily play options, and in-depth post-game analysis. Challenge a sophisticated AI opponent and track your global and friends' standings.

Highlights
  • Ranked online matches with Elo rating
  • Daily play with up to 24 hours per move
  • Match play to 3, 5, or 7 points
  • Advanced AI opponent 'Sir Reginald'
  • Detailed post-game analysis and review
  • Global and friends standings
  • Secure, unbiased dice rolls
Read full description

Backgammon Reserve is backgammon the way serious players want it. Most backgammon apps bury the game under casino mechanics: coin balances, spin wheels, loud effects. This is the opposite. A quiet, premium table for people who already love the game and want a trustworthy place to play it. PLAY RANKED ONLINE Match against real players on a live Elo rating. Server-generated dice, a match clock, and full rules enforcement. The doubling cube, gammons, and backgammons all count. Your rating, global rank, and percentile are real, earned, and on display. PLAY DAILY Backgammon on your schedule. Up to 24 hours per move and up to twenty games at once, rated in the same pool as live play with the cube in full effect. A notification tells you the moment it is your move, and the app icon counts the games waiting on you. MATCHES TO 3, 5 OR 7 Play a proper match, not just a game. First to the target score, Crawford rule included, with the cube live throughout. Agree a format with a friend, or pick one against the bot and in Pass and Play. TAKE ON SIR REGINALD One opponent. The whole community trying to beat him. Sir Reginald plays matches to 3, 5 or 7 and never a single game. He is not a difficulty setting and nothing against him touches your rating: his ladder is its own contest, ranked two ways, most wins and best average performance rating. His judgement comes from a neural network that taught itself backgammon over 750,000 games against itself, with no strategy written by hand. A bot built from written rules can only be as good as whoever wrote them. One that learns from results is free to find plays nobody thought to teach it. SEE WHERE YOU WENT WRONG Every match against Sir Reginald ends with a full review. A rating for how you played, your costliest decision shown on the board with the better move beside it, and a chart of how your chance of winning moved with every decision. It separates the dice from the play, so you can tell being outplayed from being unlucky. STANDINGS See exactly where you stand. The global board ranks the strongest players by rating, and your own row stays with you whether you are in the top 25 or climbing toward it, with the exact gap to the player above. A separate friends board ranks the people you actually know. Every rated game moves you, live or daily, and one rated game puts you on it. FAIR DICE Dice come from a cryptographically secure random source with bias rejection. No streaks engineered to keep you playing, no rolls tilted toward anyone. Online, the server rolls, so neither player's device can influence them. Against Sir Reginald you need not take it on faith: his page charts every die face rolled against the mathematics. SHARPEN YOUR GAME AGAINST THE BOTS Four tiers, from Beginner to Expert, all driven by the same self-taught network. Each is defined by how much it may give away per decision, so a weaker bot plays weaker moves rather than random ones. Bot games never touch your rating. PASS AND PLAY Hand the phone across the table. A clean two-seat mode for playing in person, at a single game or a full match. CHALLENGE YOUR FRIENDS Add friends, send a direct challenge, and settle it in a rated match. Play live with a clock, or start a daily game and take it slow. Agree the format, from a single game to a match to 7. A RECORD OF EVERY GAME Full match history, win and loss stats, streaks, recent form, and an interactive rating chart tracking every rated game you have played. DESIGNED LIKE A MEMBERS LOUNGE Walnut and brass, ivory checkers, understated motion. No neon, no confetti, no noise. WHAT YOU WON'T FIND • No coins, chips, or gambling mechanics • No ads • No pay-to-win mechanics. Nothing for sale. • No engineered dice Full backgammon rules are enforced: bar entry, blot hitting, forced maximum-pip plays, exact and overshoot bear-off, and the doubling cube with proper gammon and backgammon scoring.

About

GGammon

Engage in backgammon matches against friends or AI. Analyze your gameplay, understand strategic decisions, and track your progress. Unlock new opponents as you gain experience.

Highlights
  • Backgammon gameplay
  • Play against computer opponents
  • Multiplayer matches
  • Game analysis and strategy explanations
  • Progress tracking with XP
  • Offline practice mode
Features
Read full description

Play backgammon. Learn from your moves. Play with friends or practice against computer opponents. Review your decisions, compare moves and explore explanations that help you understand backgammon strategy. Earn XP, unlock opponents and track your progress as you play. Free includes backgammon, multiplayer, personal statistics, daily Game and Cube Review access and limited Why explanations. Opponents unlock through your progress. GGammon Pro is an optional monthly subscription with unlimited Game Review and more Why explanations. Revisit your decisions, replay moves and understand the alternatives. Multiplayer and statistics are included with both Free and Pro. A subscription does not unlock opponents. The current local subscription price is shown before purchase. Payment is charged through your Apple Account. The subscription renews automatically unless cancelled in your App Store account settings. You can manage or cancel it there, and restore purchases in the app. Offline practice is available without an internet connection. Online features require internet access and a GGammon account. No real-money gambling or redeemable virtual currency. Privacy Policy: https://ggammon.ai/privacy Terms of Service: https://ggammon.ai/terms Terms of Use (EULA): https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/

Screenshots

Backgammon Reserve4 screens
GGammon4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is in-app purchases: Backgammon Reserve at none against GGammon's 1. Backgammon Reserve also leads on ratings volume (18 vs 3). GGammon's advantage is iOS requirement (15.0 vs 17.0). On price, rating, review sentiment and update cadence 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. GGammon sells 1 in-app purchase, starting at $4.99 per month. Backgammon Reserve asks for nothing beyond the download.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 5.0 for Backgammon Reserve against 5.0 for GGammon. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Backgammon Reserve has 18 ratings behind it against 3, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews split almost evenly too, at 100% and 100% positive.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Backgammon Reserve ships an update every 5 days, GGammon every 3 days. The most recent releases landed on November 10, 2026 and November 6, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard4 real differences · 6 level
Backgammon Reserve versus GGammon: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterBackgammon ReserveGGammon
PriceFreeFree
Rating5.0 (18 ratings)5.0 (3 ratings)
Positive reviews100.0% of reviews100.0% of reviews
Number of ratings18 — better3
Update frequencyEvery 5 daysEvery 3 days — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNo — betterYes
MonetizationFree — betterFreemium
DevicesiPhone, iPadiPhone, iPad, iPod — better
Requires iOS17.015.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size17 MB271 MB
Age rating12+4+
DeveloperBenjamin TaylorVR Gammon, LLC

Customer experience

Backgammon Reserve

All ratings18 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%
Written reviews10 reviews
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

GGammon

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

In-app purchases

None

Backgammon Reserve

No in-app purchases

1 purchases

GGammon

Subscriptions1
  • GGammon PRO$4.991 Month

Questions

Is Backgammon Reserve free?
Backgammon Reserve is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is GGammon free?
GGammon is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, Backgammon Reserve or GGammon?
Backgammon Reserve and GGammon are both rated 5.0 out of 5 on the App Store, from 18 and 3 ratings respectively.
Do Backgammon Reserve or GGammon have ads?
Neither Backgammon Reserve nor GGammon shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Backgammon Reserve or GGammon?
Backgammon Reserve ships an update every 5 days, and GGammon every 3 days. Most recently, Backgammon Reserve was updated on November 10, 2026 and GGammon on November 6, 2026.

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