Dragon Con vs Play! Pokémon Access
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Dragon Con
This app is your guide to a massive multimedia pop culture convention. Discover schedules for nearly 40 fan tracks, a film festival, parade, art show, concerts, and thousands of hours of panels and gaming events.
- Convention schedule
- Fan tracks
- Film festival
- Parade information
- Art show details
- Concerts and parties
- Costume contests
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Dragon Con is the largest multimedia, popular culture convention focusing on science fiction and fantasy, gaming, comics, literature, art, music and film in the known universe! Held every Labor Day weekend in Atlanta, GA, Dragon Con boasts close to 40 fan-based tracks, a film festival, Atlanta's largest parade throughout downtown, an art show, comics, pop art exhibits and displays, nightly concerts and parties, bands and DJs, tons of costume contests, over a hundred dealers and exhibitors, and almost 5000 hours of panels, workshops, games and gaming of every flavor.
Play! Pokémon Access
Discover local events and tournaments for Pokémon video games, the Trading Card Game, and Pokémon GO. Connect with the community, find new battles, and forge friendships. This app is your gateway to the Play! Pokémon program.
- Discover local Play! Pokémon events
- Search for video game tournaments
- Find Trading Card Game tournaments
- Locate Pokémon GO tournaments
- Connect with the Pokémon community
- Find prizes and make friends
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The Play! Pokémon program brings Trainers of all skill levels together at their local Play! Pokémon Stores, where battles are fought, friendships are forged, prizes are won, and—most importantly—fun is had by all. Play! Pokémon Access makes it easier than ever for Trainers to stay connected. Whether you’re a player, Professor, or parent, Play! Pokémon Access puts you on the path to discovering new events happening in your area. Plus, it provides tools to make starting your Pokémon journey a breeze—you can search for tournaments for the Pokémon video games, Pokémon Trading Card Game, and Pokémon GO.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is rating: Dragon Con at 3.4 against Play! Pokémon Access's 2.1. Dragon Con also leads on review sentiment (31% vs 14%) and iOS requirement (10.0 vs 15.0). Play! Pokémon Access's advantage is monetization model (free vs ad-supported) and chart position (#189 vs unranked). On price, ratings volume, update cadence and ads 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. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
Dragon Con holds the better App Store score, 3.4 against 2.1. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 134 and 90 respectively. Written reviews point the same way: 31% of Dragon Con's written reviews are positive against 14% of Play! Pokémon Access's.
Both ship on a similar rhythm, roughly every 2 months. The most recent releases landed on October 24, 2026 and October 27, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Dragon Con | Play! Pokémon Access |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 3.4 (134 ratings) — better | 2.1 (90 ratings) |
| Positive reviews | 31.0% of reviews — better | 14.5% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 134 — better | 90 |
| Update frequency | Every 2 months | Every 2 months |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Ad-supported | Free — better |
| Best chart rank | — | #189 — better |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod, Apple Watch — better | iPhone, iPad, iPod |
| Requires iOS | 10.0 — better | 15.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 91 MB | 53 MB |
| Age rating | 17+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Dragon Con, Inc | THE POKEMON COMPANY INTERNATIONAL, INC. |
Customer experience
Dragon Con
Play! Pokémon Access
User reviews
Dragon Con
From 134 App Store ratingsWhat we love
- 👍 Useful for organizing schedule
- 👍 Contains lots of info
- 👍 Helps navigate the con
- 👍 Good for keeping track of events
- 👍 Great customer support response
Room to improve
- 🐛 Crashes frequently
- 🐛 Slow performance
- 🐛 Outdated information
- 🐛 Confusing UI/navigation
- 🐛 App locks up
Play! Pokémon Access
From 90 App Store ratingsWhat we love
- 🚀 Conceptually a big step forward
- 🔒 Useful tools in one place
Room to improve
- 🐛 Lack of basic functionality like sorting by date
- 🔍 Difficult to find events, limited search radius
- 🔒 Forced to use app, no browser-based event locator
- 🤯 Inconvenient user experience
Bugs and requests
Dragon Con
Reported bugs
65 issues- App won't update to new version
- Keeps showing old year's info
- Side panel can't be hidden
- Back key resets schedule
- Favorite processing takes too long
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- App locks up
- App Store prompts for update when none exists
- Crashes on open
- Line up locations for panels not listed
- Crashes frequently
- Share schedule with friends function not working
- App keeps crashing
- Iconography is confusing
- Freezes when adding to calendar
- Force closes on every open
- Not formatted for new iPhones
- Clunky navigation and categorization
- Email is the only way to share friend code
- App not updated to current year
- App mixes up with other apps (e.g., mixgram)
- Slow to respond
- Calendar doesn't allow editing custom event timings
- Custom event color scheme hard to read
- App updates in foreground, not background
- 'Show more' link is terrible
- Main menu harder to use
- Main menu not high contrast enough
- Crashes constantly
- Interactive maps/directions not implemented
- Friend list needs recreating yearly
- Main menu icons don't mean anything
- Main menu white on grey background
- App crashes when trying to open
- App crashes constantly
- App crashes every 30 seconds
- Lags randomly
- Can't open without crashing
- Crashes constantly
- Tap navigation widget: crash
- Add event to calendar: crash
- Delete and reinstall requires redoing schedule
- Friend list shows up multiple times
- Crashing constantly on iPhone 6 and iPad
- App crashes when trying to start on iPad
- App makes user wait for updates on startup
- Maps don't have North to the top
- Maps don't show current location
- App tries to automatically update
- Update process takes too long to cancel
- Midnight to midnight schedule listing is a pain
- Alert message about update already applied
- Layout difficult to navigate
- Searching within app not possible
- Search broadens to all days without warning
- App gets stuck at updating attendees screen
- Can't access previous year's events
- App no longer supports older phones/devices
- App crashes when updating information
- App support link not useful
- iOS 7.0 requirement prevents use on older devices
- Schedule not available until close to con
- Difficult to figure out sessions in specific buildings
- Terrible time finding alternate sessions
- Randomized list of sessions when searching by hotel
- Event staff can't mark sessions as full
Requested features
19 requests- Update to 2025/2026 info
- Hide side panel
- Add Watch complication
- Navigation component for Watch app
- Improve share schedule function
Show 14 moreShow fewer
- Invest in app development
- Take notes from Momocon App
- Add interactive maps/directions
- Color code schedule by hotel
- Add walk of fame info
- Guests check in when signing
- More realistic day display (e.g., 6AM-6AM)
- Ability to mark sessions as full
- Improve search functionality within days
- Allow viewing event info without clicking through
- Persistent storage for schedules
- Improve friend code sharing
- Add theatre and history tracks
- Update for newer iPhones (dynamic island)
Play! Pokémon Access
Reported bugs
2 issues- Event information not displayed properly
- Functionality downgraded compared to previous website
Requested features
4 requests- Sort events by date
- Increase search radius beyond 50 miles
- Add events to phone calendar
- Support multiple accounts
In-app purchases
Dragon Con
No in-app purchases
Play! Pokémon Access
No in-app purchases
