Contraband vs WiseMan
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both games, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Contraband
Engage in a fast-paced drug trading simulation across six American cities. Manage your cash, survive random events, and choose a criminal faction to maximize your profits within a 30-day limit. Your choices determine your survival and success in the game's challenging circuit.
- Drug trading simulation
- Six American cities
- 30-day survival challenge
- Multiple criminal factions
- Random street events
- Health and jail mechanics
- Banking and loan system
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Twelve cities. Thirty days. One question — how much can you walk away with? Contraband is a trading game about risk. Buy low in one city, sell high in another, and stay ahead of everyone who wants what you're carrying: police, informants, rivals, and a loan shark who doesn't take excuses. THE RUN You start with a little cash and a map of twelve American cities, each with its own market. The cheapest heroin in Baltimore. The cheapest meth in Albuquerque. Cocaine moving through Miami at port prices. Those markets drift every time you travel, so the spread you planned on may not be waiting when you arrive. Thirty days. Then the clock stops and you're scored on what you built. SEVEN FACTIONS, SEVEN GAMES Choose who you run with. Your faction changes where you start, what you pay, who you owe — and what you can do when a night goes wrong. - The Mafia make a phone call. Someone downtown always owes them. - The Outlaws outrun it, and feel it in the morning. - The Cartel answer with force. It works. The city remembers. - The Yakuza negotiate. Never free, never a disaster. - The Red Network simply disappear for a day. - The Syndicate call the block — if the block is still cold. - The Independent has nothing but nerve and whatever name they've built. No two factions solve the same problem the same way. WHAT'S WORKING AGAINST YOU HEAT - Every bust raises the temperature in that city. Hot streets are dangerous streets, and heat only cools while you're somewhere else. REPUTATION - Build a name and trouble starts finding its own way around you. HEALTH - You can be hurt, badly. Carry a med pack. Carry a tourniquet for the night it saves your life. JAIL - A sentence costs you days you don't have. Draw one longer than your remaining time and the run ends behind bars. THE LOAN SHARK - Borrow when you're desperate, repay within six days. He is not a patient man. THE BANK - The only money an event can't take from you. EVERY RUN IS A STORY Hundreds of written outcomes rather than silent dice. Police chases, undercover buys, cut product, worse partners, and the occasional very good night. What happens is written from your faction's point of view, so the same bad luck reads differently depending on who you run with. Runs save automatically - close the app mid-deal and come back to it exactly where you left off. Final scores post to a global leaderboard ranked on net worth. Free to play. Two factions are free; the rest can be unlocked individually or all at once. --- All characters, organizations, markets and substances depicted are entirely fictional. Contraband is a strategy simulation and does not represent, promote or endorse real individuals, groups or activities.
WiseMan
Lead a criminal empire from a small-time operator to a feared boss in this choice-driven story game. Build your crew, forge alliances, and make critical decisions that shape your path to power. Survive betrayal and explore different outcomes for high replayability.
- Story-driven campaigns
- Build your crew
- Survive betrayal
- Choice-driven narrative
- High replayability
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You are born with nothing — a name, a country, and a family you did not choose. From there, one year at a time, you decide who you become. WiseMan is a life simulator. The street is one road, not the only one. You can stay in school and become a doctor. You can open a shop and turn it into a holding company. You can run for office. Or you can take the other door, and find out what it costs. ONE CHOICE A YEAR Every year hands you a card. A friend needs an alibi. Your father calls for money. A stranger offers you work you shouldn't take. There is no right answer — only the answer you can live with, and the years that follow it. WHAT YOU CHOOSE COMES BACK A choice is not a number. Take the blame for someone today and, six years from now, a door opens that was closed to everyone else. Look away, and someone remembers. The game keeps your record and reads it back to you. THE INFLUENCE LADDER Street, money, office and name — four pillars, one score, seven rungs, from Kid of the Block to Legend. The top rungs do not fit inside a single life: a dynasty needs a second generation, a legend a third. A WHOLE LIFE, NOT A MENU Fall in love, marry, raise children, lose people. Study, work, get promoted, get fired. Buy a car, a shop, a house, a ship. Get sick, get old. Chronic illness does not go away — you manage it, and pay for it, for the rest of your life. Prison changes what people will do with you afterwards. WHEN YOU DIE, IT ISN'T OVER Your child inherits your name, your debts and your reputation. The Dynasty Book records the peak of every life — not the moment you died, but the highest you ever stood. BORN ANYWHERE Pick from over 250 countries and regions. Where you are born changes the names around you, the money in the house, the schools, the work, and the roads open to you. 22 LANGUAGES Written for each language, not run through a translator. Free to play. Optional purchases and rewarded ads; you can remove ads for good. No account, no sign-up. Your save lives on your phone and the game works offline.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is ads: Contraband at none against WiseMan's shown. Contraband also leads on review sentiment (100% vs 69%) and monetization model (free vs free with in-app purchases). WiseMan's advantage is update cadence (every 2 days vs every 8 days) and ratings volume (60 vs 8). On price, 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
Both are free to download. Contraband sells 5 one-off in-app purchases and WiseMan sells 13 one-off in-app purchases. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.
Contraband holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 4.7. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: WiseMan has 60 ratings behind it against 8, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 100% of Contraband's written reviews are positive against 69% of WiseMan's.
Contraband ships an update every 8 days, WiseMan every 2 days. The most recent releases landed on October 28, 2026 and October 29, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Contraband | WiseMan |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 5.0 (8 ratings) — better | 4.7 (60 ratings) |
| Positive reviews | 100.0% of reviews — better | 69.2% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 8 | 60 — better |
| Update frequency | Every 8 days | Every 2 days — better |
| Ads | No — better | Yes |
| In-app purchases | Yes | Yes |
| Monetization | Free — better | Free with in-app purchases |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad | iPhone, iPad, iPod — better |
| Requires iOS | 16.0 | 15.1 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 82 MB | 143 MB |
| Age rating | 17+ | 12+ |
| Developer | Ian Robinson | Mahmut Akyol |
Customer experience
Contraband
WiseMan
In-app purchases
Contraband
- The Mafia$0.99
- The Cartel$0.99
- The Outlaws$0.99
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- The Yakuza$0.99
- The Red Network$0.99
WiseMan
- 50 GEMS PACK$0.99
- 150 Gems Pack$1.99
- Starter Pack$1.99
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- Captain Pack$4.99
- Remove Ads$4.99
- Prison Life$4.99
- Family Legacy$4.99
- Sea Empire$4.99
- 500 Gems Pack$4.99
- Boss Pack$6.99
- Enterprise Pack$9.99
- Don Pack$9.99
- All Expansions$19.99









