Comparison

A Dark Room vs Progress Knight

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

Head to head
About

A Dark Room

Awaken in a mysterious world with a throbbing head and blurry vision. Follow the voices' instructions to survive and explore this text-based adventure. Experience a game free from ads, loot boxes, in-app purchases, and tracking, fully playable with VoiceOver.

Highlights
  • Text-based adventure
  • Survival mechanics
  • Exploration
  • Resource management
  • VoiceOver compatible
  • No ads or IAP
Features
Read full description

awake. head throbbing. vision blurry. the voices say to survive. - One of Apple's most downloaded apps of 2014. - Ranked in the top 10 games in 70 countries, #1 app overall in 7 countries. - No ads, no loot boxes, no IAP, no tracking. - 100% playable via VoiceOver. - Relive the glory days of gaming from the era of Zork.

About

Progress Knight

Embark on a fantasy life-simulation where you progress through careers, gain skills, and manage expenses. Choose your path from commoner to military or magic, and eventually prestige for faster progression in subsequent lives.

Highlights
  • Fantasy medieval life simulation
  • Career progression
  • Skill acquisition
  • Expense management
  • Multiple career paths (commoner, military, magic)
  • Prestige system for multipliers
  • Idle gameplay
Features
Read full description

Progress Knight is a life-sim incremental based in a fantasy/medieval setting, where you must progress through the career ladder and acquire new skills to become the ultimate being. You first start off as a beggar, barely being able to feed yourself as the days go by. However, over the years you learn new skills and gain plenty of work experience to enter new high paying jobs while managing your living expenses... Will you decide to take the easy route of doing simple commoner work? Or will you go through harsh training to climb the ranks within the military? Or maybe will you decide to study hard and enrol in a magic academy, learning life-impacting spells? Your career path is open-ended, the decision is up to you. Eventually, your age will catch up to you. You will be given an option to prestige and gain xp multipliers (based on the performance of your current life) for your next life at the cost of losing all your levels and assets. Fear not though, as you will re-gain your levels much, much more quickly than in your previous life...

Screenshots

A Dark Room4 screens
Progress Knight4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is price: Progress Knight at Free against A Dark Room's $1.99. Progress Knight also leads on update cadence (every 3 weeks vs every 2 months). A Dark Room's advantage is in-app purchases (none vs 1) and ads (none vs shown).

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

Progress Knight is free to download; A Dark Room costs $1.99 up front. Progress Knight sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. A Dark Room asks for nothing beyond the download.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

A Dark Room holds the better App Store score, 4.8 against 4.4. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: A Dark Room has 2.7K ratings behind it against 257, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 93% of A Dark Room's written reviews are positive against 72% of Progress Knight's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

A Dark Room ships an update every 2 months, Progress Knight every 3 weeks. The most recent releases landed on October 21, 2026 and October 20, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard11 real differences · 0 level
A Dark Room versus Progress Knight: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterA Dark RoomProgress Knight
Price$1.99Free — better
Rating4.8 (2.7K ratings) — better4.4 (257 ratings)
Positive reviews92.7% of reviews — better72.2% of reviews
Number of ratings2.7K — better257
Update frequencyEvery 2 monthsEvery 3 weeks — better
AdsNo — betterYes
In-app purchasesNo — betterYes
MonetizationPaidFree with in-app purchases — better
Best chart rank#21 — better—
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPod — betteriPhone
Requires iOS11.0 — better16.4
Further details — not scored
Size100 MB53 MB
Age rating12+4+
DeveloperAmirali RajanNoe LE PHILIPPE

Customer experience

A Dark Room

All ratings2,655 ratings
Positive94.4%
Neutral1.4%
Negative4.2%
Written reviews1,401 reviews
Positive92.7%
Neutral1.6%
Negative5.7%

Progress Knight

All ratings257 ratings
Positive85.6%
Neutral5.1%
Negative9.3%
Written reviews97 reviews
Positive72.2%
Neutral11.3%
Negative16.5%

Bugs and requests

A Dark Room

Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.

Progress Knight

Reported bugs

4 issues
  • Progress and data loss issues
  • Skill level resets after transcendence
  • Autopause not working as expected
  • Compatibility issues with older devices

Requested features

4 requests
  • More content and updates
  • Auto-purchase feature for the store
  • Offline progress tracking
  • Improved autopause functionality

In-app purchases

None

A Dark Room

No in-app purchases

1 purchases

Progress Knight

One-time1
  • Remove the ads$2.99

Questions

Is A Dark Room free?
A Dark Room costs $1.99, with no in-app purchases.
Is Progress Knight free?
Progress Knight is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, A Dark Room or Progress Knight?
A Dark Room is rated higher. A Dark Room averages 4.8 out of 5 from 2.7K ratings, while Progress Knight averages 4.4 from 257 ratings.
Do A Dark Room or Progress Knight have ads?
Progress Knight shows ads; A Dark Room does not.
Which is updated more often, A Dark Room or Progress Knight?
A Dark Room ships an update every 2 months, and Progress Knight every 3 weeks. Most recently, A Dark Room was updated on October 21, 2026 and Progress Knight on October 20, 2026.

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