Comparison

Bloons Monkey City vs Realm Grinder

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

Head to head
About

Bloons Monkey City

Build and manage a thriving city while defending it from invading bloons in this strategic city-building and tower defense game. Expand your territory, upgrade towers, and compete with friends.

Highlights
  • City building and management
  • Tower defense gameplay
  • Territory expansion
  • Tower upgrades
  • Economic buildings (farms, banks)
  • Social features (friends, contests)
  • Player vs. player attacks
Features
Read full description

Create, upgrade, and customize your very own Bloons Monkey City in this groundbreaking blend of city building and tower defense awesomeness! UNIQUE SIMULATION + STRATEGY GAMING Take back the wilderness from the invading bloon hordes and pop your way from a modest settlement to a thriving metropolis. Attack bloon-infested territory adjacent to your city, win a short tower defense game, and add the captured territory to your city as a space on which to build. Buildings are the heart of your city, and each one has a specific purpose - individual monkey towers for battle, upgrades for those towers, farms and banks to drive your economy, power to supercharge your city, epic buildings for epic powers, and decorations to make your city more awesome. Every time you build, your city looks cooler, you increase your power potential in tower defense play, and you open up even more rewards and challenges. AMAZING DEPTH AND VARIETY All 21 of the fully awesomized and carefully balanced Bloons TD 5 towers are available within Monkey City, with completely new unlock mechanics. More than 130 buildings and decorations give you endless strategies and city design options. Explore the wilderness to find treasure tiles and uncover 11 powerful special items like the Banana Replicator and the Dark Temple Idol. Burst bloons on 55 all new tower defense maps or test your mastery on 13 wildly challenging original special missions. Either way, be ready to encounter all new bloon waves and special bloon attack patterns like Cash Starve or Fast and Furious. REINFORCE YOUR FRIENDS Connect with Facebook and Game Center friends, then help each other win and expand. Send Supply Crates back and forth for bonus starting cash. Visit friends' cities to check out their strategies and their city design skills, and while you're there root out any bloon spies to win a reward for both you and your friend. SHOW OFF YOUR SKILLS Build up the strongest lineup of monkey towers possible and compete with other players for the best score in weekly Contested Territory events. Use the latest in monkey science to send player vs. player bloon attacks, then see whose defenses are the strongest and earn extra rewards for victory. Download for free and play Bloons Monkey City now! Pro tip: You can move your buildings when they are not upgrading or damaged - just tap and hold then move to a free captured tile! Please Note: Bloons Monkey City is free to download and play (aside from internet, carrier, data, device, and other services for which the player is financially responsible), but some in-game items can be purchased with real money. You can turn off the payment feature by disabling in-app purchases in your device's settings, or reach us at support@ninjakiwi.com for help. City data is organized individually, so if you share multiple cities on one device through multiple Game Center or Facebook logins, do note that your IAP will only apply to the city active during purchase.

About

Realm Grinder

Build a vast kingdom from humble beginnings, earning wealth even offline. Explore deep strategic choices by aligning with diverse factions, unlocking hundreds of upgrades, and discovering new game systems. Enjoy frequent events and collect numerous achievements.

Highlights
  • Kingdom building and offline wealth generation
  • Deep strategic choices with multiple factions
  • Hundreds of upgrades and unique buildings
  • Unlock new game systems and content
  • Collect hundreds of achievements
  • Frequent in-game events
Features
Read full description

Grow your kingdom, build alliances, and explore one of the deepest idle RPG's ever! Use your money and influence to grow your kingdom from a single farm to a huge realm that earns wealth even while you're not online! In Realm Grinder, the player is given an incredible array of choices in how they build forge their new kingdom. KEY FEATURES: *Deep Strategy - Choose to align yourself with a dozen different factions, each of which has their own distinct play style. Will you align with the elves, who reward tapping for treasure, or the demons, who give massive bonuses to the most powerful structures? *Hundreds of Upgrades - Further fine tune your strategy by choosing unique upgrades, buildings, and spells to invest in. *Tons of Content - Continue to unlock new and exciting systems like new factions, research, reincarnations, excavations, and way more. Months and months of unique content! *Collect Hundreds of Achievements - Achievement hunters will be delighted with the broad range and depth of the achievement system. And it's not just eye candy! Many strategies rely on collecting trophies in order to boost certain upgrades. *Frequent Events - Beyond the expansive base content in the game, there are frequent events where players can enjoy unique mechanics and exciting bonuses. Please Note: Realm Grinder is a free-to-play game, but some extra game items can be purchased for real money. You can disable in-app purchases in your device's settings.

Screenshots

Bloons Monkey City4 screens
Realm Grinder4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is rating: Bloons Monkey City at 4.7 against Realm Grinder's 4.5. Bloons Monkey City also leads on ratings volume (46K vs 3.1K) and review sentiment (77% vs 64%). 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

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

Both are free to download. Bloons Monkey City sells 11 one-off in-app purchases and Realm Grinder sells 9 one-off in-app purchases. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

Bloons Monkey City holds the better App Store score, 4.7 against 4.5. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Bloons Monkey City has 46K ratings behind it against 3.1K, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 77% of Bloons Monkey City's written reviews are positive against 64% of Realm Grinder's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Bloons Monkey City ships an update every 2 months, Realm Grinder every 6 weeks. The most recent releases landed on October 31, 2026 and October 29, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard3 real differences · 7 level
Bloons Monkey City versus Realm Grinder: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterBloons Monkey CityRealm Grinder
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.7 (46K ratings) — better4.5 (3.1K ratings)
Positive reviews77.1% of reviews — better63.8% of reviews
Number of ratings46K — better3.1K
Update frequencyEvery 2 monthsEvery 6 weeks — better
AdsYesYes
In-app purchasesYesYes
MonetizationFree with in-app purchasesFree with in-app purchases
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPodiPhone, iPad, iPod
Requires iOS12.0 — better13.0
Further details — not scored
Size125 MB53 MB
Age rating9+9+
DeveloperNinja Kiwi LimitedKongregate

Customer experience

Bloons Monkey City

All ratings45,621 ratings
Positive93.7%
Neutral3.0%
Negative3.2%
Written reviews721 reviews
Positive77.1%
Neutral7.8%
Negative15.1%

Realm Grinder

All ratings3,114 ratings
Positive89.0%
Neutral4.6%
Negative6.3%
Written reviews726 reviews
Positive63.8%
Neutral10.3%
Negative25.9%

User reviews

Bloons Monkey City

From 46K App Store ratings

What we love

  • 👍 Fun and challenging gameplay
  • 🚀 Addictive and engaging
  • 💡 Unique city-building mechanics
  • 👍 Great combination of tower defense and city management
  • 👍 Generous free-to-play model

Room to improve

  • 🐛 Occasional progress loss/resets
  • 🕰️ Lengthy upgrade/research times
  • 📺 Intrusive and frequent ads
  • 🔨 Accidental demolition/cancellation issues
  • 🤯 Difficulty spikes and imbalanced levels

Realm Grinder

From 3.1K App Store ratings

What we love

  • 🚀 Fantastic game, getting even better
  • 🚀 Best idle game imo
  • 🚀 Really Good!
  • 🚀 Great game, just hard to read the text
  • 🚀 Amazing, Addicting, Creative, and Addicting Game!

Room to improve

  • 🐛 Scry not working - no response from support team
  • 🐛 Crashes constantly
  • 🐛 Impossible to read/play on iPhone 12
  • 🐛 Impossible to read/play on iPhone 12
  • 🐛 Broke

Bugs and requests

Bloons Monkey City

Reported bugs

3 issues
  • Tutorial issues and getting stuck
  • Music/audio glitches
  • Connectivity problems and login failures

Requested features

5 requests
  • Add sandbox/freeplay mode
  • Improve social/multiplayer features
  • Expand city customization options
  • Reduce upgrade/research timers
  • Implement difficulty selection for levels

Realm Grinder

Reported bugs

10 issues
  • Scry not working since last release
  • Crashes constantly
  • Impossible to read/play on iPhone 12
  • Impossible to read/play on iPhone 12
  • Can't collect lava stone, only holy symbols
Show 5 more
  • No lava stones
  • UI bad
  • Crashes every time it connects to Game Center
  • Spells cast not counting
  • Can't purchase anything

Requested features

5 requests
  • Have to add some faction wars
  • Change the screen bigger for newer iPhone models please
  • Please add Chinese
  • Please add Chinese
  • Suggestion

In-app purchases

11 purchases

Bloons Monkey City

One-time11
  • Sci Fi Wall$0.99
  • Small Bloonstone Pack$1.99
  • $10,000 City Cash$1.99
Show 8 more
  • Banana Farmer$1.99
  • Starter Pack$2.99
  • Medium Bloonstone Pack$3.99
  • Medium Bloonstone Pack$4.99
  • Wild Card Pack$4.99
  • 30 Monkey Knowledge Packs$11.99
  • Large Bloonstone Pack$19.99
  • King's Pack$19.99
9 purchases

Realm Grinder

One-time9
  • Gift of the Heroes$4.99
  • Small Pack of Rubies$4.99
  • Gift of the Kings$9.99
Show 6 more
  • Medium Pack of Rubies$9.99
  • Gift of the Faithful$9.99
  • Gift of the Myths$14.99
  • Gift of the Gods$19.99
  • Large Pack of Rubies$19.99
  • Huge Pack of Rubies$49.99

Questions

Is Bloons Monkey City free?
Bloons Monkey City is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Realm Grinder free?
Realm Grinder is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, Bloons Monkey City or Realm Grinder?
Bloons Monkey City is rated higher. Bloons Monkey City averages 4.7 out of 5 from 46K ratings, while Realm Grinder averages 4.5 from 3.1K ratings.
Do Bloons Monkey City or Realm Grinder have ads?
Both Bloons Monkey City and Realm Grinder show ads.
Which is updated more often, Bloons Monkey City or Realm Grinder?
Bloons Monkey City ships an update every 2 months, and Realm Grinder every 6 weeks. Most recently, Bloons Monkey City was updated on October 31, 2026 and Realm Grinder on October 29, 2026.

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