Comparison

Hocus Puzzle vs Apprentice Witch Match 3

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

Head to head
About

Hocus Puzzle

Embark on a magical puzzle adventure to restore a dried-up river by mixing potions and casting spells. Explore enchanting worlds, defeat villains, and challenge friends on leaderboards. Collect costumes for powerful advantages in over 200 levels.

Highlights
  • Mix and match potions
  • Cast spells
  • Over 200 spellbinding levels
  • Challenge friends
  • Collect costumes
  • Leaderboards
Features
Read full description

Boil, bubble, toil, puzzle! Join Serena on her spellbinding adventure and discover how to defeat the evil that’s drained the magical river dry. Mix and match potions, cast spells and focus on long paths to increase Serena’s power and help you complete the levels. Challenge friends to see who can get to the top of the leaderboards! Send gifts to give each other a helping hand and collect costumes to gain powerful advantages. THE MOST BEWITCHING PUZZLE GAME • Over 200 spellbinding levels featuring funny characters, cute graphics and exciting worlds to explore • Take on the evil Master Wizard and his fiendish followers including the fierce Yetis of the Frozen Mountains • Complete tasks such as destroying ice blocks on your way to the Giant Canyon and restarting the watermill in the Mad Forest • Easy to learn game mechanics • Hours of entertaining and challenging puzzles Get ready for a magic adventure where the witches bring the environment to life! Want to receive the latest updates? Like us on Facebook http://www.facebook.com/HocusPuzzle Do you have questions or feedback? We would love to hear from you! Visit http://www.hocuspuzzle.com/support or write to us at hocuspuzzle_en@customerservice-bigpoint.com Hocus Puzzle is completely free to play but you are also able to purchase some in-game items for real money. You can turn off the payment feature by disabling in-app purchases in your device’s settings.

About

Apprentice Witch Match 3

Embark on a magical puzzle adventure as a beginner witch collecting enchanted ingredients. This game features unique match-3 mechanics with distinct rules for day, night, and graveyard levels, offering hundreds of challenging puzzles.

Highlights
  • Unique match-3 mechanics for different times of day
  • Hundreds of unique puzzle levels
  • Variety of boosters and powerups
  • Challenging obstacles like frozen items and spellbooks
  • Social features with Facebook connect and leaderboards
  • Bewitched graphics and sounds
Features
Read full description

Who said becoming a witch was easy? Abracadabra! Hocus Pocus! Let's go for the magic broom! Help Ursula, the beginner witch to pick up her witchery stuff before the supreme sorcerer notice the mess. It seems that Aura the cat messed up all the potions and ingredients! If Ursula does not find out what happened, she will not be able to win her magic broom. This is not another match 3 game. It has a lot of levels, with different game mechanics. Very... bewitched game modes! * The daylight levels run under the match3 classic rules. Match 3 or more stuff to collect it. Matching more than three will you a witchery booster. At night levels, you need to connect the witchcraft stuff to collect it, Connect more than seven stuff to collect all same color items at once. Finally, the graveyard has it's own rules, you need to touch a witchcraft piece to pick up this one and its same color adjacents. Collecting more than three will give you amazing powerups. Each game mode, has its own boosters and powerups: * Vertical and horizontal cleaners * Skull Bombs * Explosive Crystall balls * Toad, will paint stuff * Full moon, use as wildcard Also, these game modes have each one their own troubles: * Crystal slots you need to break * Frozen witchcraft stuff you need to defrost before collecting them. * Spellbooks you have to vanish * White spiders to collect Same way, you have some boosters to make it easier: * Magic Broom to sweep same color witchcraft stuff * Claws to pick up a single bewitched piece * Tornado to shuffle it all Win gems to get free lives, boosters and other additional witchery. FEATURES; * Very fun, very easy but hard to master * Bewitched graphics and sounds. * Witchcraft elements for a scary experience. * Hundreds of puzzle levels each one is very unique * Free, so download now * Multiple difficulty levels * Play with your friends & Family. * Facebook connect, so you can share your goals and scores. * Ranks for all levels, so you can check your friends scores and defeat them. * Fun for all ages What are you waiting for? Play this amazing match3 and give Ursula the chance to win her magic broom and become the best witch ever. Fun to play, you will love this bewitched adventure, collecting witchery. Each level is an amazing puzzle to solve.

Screenshots

Hocus Puzzle4 screens
Apprentice Witch Match 34 screens

Verdict

The call

Hocus Puzzle and Apprentice Witch Match 3 both sit at 4.5 stars, but that hides the real split: 93% of Hocus Puzzle's written reviews are positive against 75% of Apprentice Witch Match 3's. Apprentice Witch Match 3's advantage is iOS requirement (13.0 vs 15.0). On price, rating, ratings volume 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. Hocus Puzzle sells 9 one-off in-app purchases and Apprentice Witch Match 3 sells 4 one-off in-app purchases. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 4.5 for Hocus Puzzle against 4.6 for Apprentice Witch Match 3. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 41 and 87 respectively. Written reviews are what separate them: 93% of Hocus Puzzle's written reviews are positive against 75% of Apprentice Witch Match 3's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Hocus Puzzle ships an update fortnightly, Apprentice Witch Match 3 every 2 weeks. The most recent releases landed on August 26, 2026 and July 27, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard2 real differences · 8 level
Hocus Puzzle versus Apprentice Witch Match 3: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterHocus PuzzleApprentice Witch Match 3
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.5 (41 ratings)4.6 (87 ratings) — better
Positive reviews92.9% of reviews — better75.0% of reviews
Number of ratings4187 — better
Update frequencyFortnightlyEvery 2 weeks — better
AdsYesYes
In-app purchasesYesYes
MonetizationFree with in-app purchasesFree with in-app purchases
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPodiPhone, iPad, iPod
Requires iOS15.013.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size265 MB257 MB
Age rating9+4+
DeveloperBigpoint GmbHOne Up Games Studio

Customer experience

Hocus Puzzle

All ratings41 ratings
Positive92.7%
Neutral4.9%
Negative2.4%
Written reviews552 reviews
Positive92.9%
Neutral4.9%
Negative2.2%

Apprentice Witch Match 3

All ratings87 ratings
Positive92.0%
Neutral6.9%
Negative1.1%
Written reviews8 reviews
Positive75.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative25.0%

Bugs and requests

Hocus Puzzle

Reported bugs

3 issues
  • Lottery wheel not working properly
  • Game freezing during updates
  • Losing progress after updates

Requested features

3 requests
  • More levels and content updates
  • Ability to convert coins to gems
  • Option to disable ads or in-app purchases

Apprentice Witch Match 3

Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.

In-app purchases

9 purchases

Hocus Puzzle

One-time9
  • Welcome Pack2 variants$0.99
  • Gem Pack n°1$0.99
  • Special Pack 5$1.99
Show 6 more
  • Special Pack 10$1.99
  • Gem Pack n°2$3.99
  • Win The Level$4.99
  • Gem Pack n°3$9.99
  • Gem Pack n°4$16.99
  • Gem Pack n°5$39.99
4 purchases

Apprentice Witch Match 3

One-time4
  • 30 Magic Gems$1.99
  • 100 Magic Gems$3.99
  • 300 Magic Gems$9.99
Show 1 more
  • 1000 Magic Gems$25.99

Questions

Is Hocus Puzzle free?
Hocus Puzzle is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Apprentice Witch Match 3 free?
Apprentice Witch Match 3 is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, Hocus Puzzle or Apprentice Witch Match 3?
Apprentice Witch Match 3 is rated higher. Hocus Puzzle averages 4.5 out of 5 from 41 ratings, while Apprentice Witch Match 3 averages 4.6 from 87 ratings.
Do Hocus Puzzle or Apprentice Witch Match 3 have ads?
Both Hocus Puzzle and Apprentice Witch Match 3 show ads.
Which is updated more often, Hocus Puzzle or Apprentice Witch Match 3?
Hocus Puzzle ships an update fortnightly, and Apprentice Witch Match 3 every 2 weeks. Most recently, Hocus Puzzle was updated on August 26, 2026 and Apprentice Witch Match 3 on July 27, 2026.

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