swipe vs Blackbox
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both games, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
swipe
Navigate a white circle through challenging mazes to collect blue coins. This minimalist puzzle game offers intuitive gameplay with a modern, colorful design and a level editor for creating and sharing your own challenges.
- Minimalist puzzle gameplay
- Level editor with share function
- Intuitive controls
- Modern, colorful design
- 100 challenging levels
- 10 optional themes
- Customizable themes
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swipe the white circle through a maze of barriers to collect the blue coins • minimalist puzzle game • level editor with share function • intuitive gameplay • modern, colorful design • 100 tricky, varying levels • 10 optional themes to change the appearance • personalise your own theme • 120 Hz support for new devices • optimal for OLED screens
Blackbox
This puzzle game challenges you to solve intricate problems without touching the screen. It utilizes minimalistic visual cues, sonic interfaces, and haptic feedback to guide you through unique challenges that require thinking outside the box. Discover a new way to interact with your device and prove your cleverness.
- Touchless gameplay
- Minimalistic visual clues
- Sonic interfaces
- Haptic feedback
- External puzzle solving
- Easter eggs
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So you think you understand this thing you’re holding? Think again. Stop tapping. Stop swiping. In fact, stop touching the screen at all. To crack Blackbox’s puzzles you’ll need to find solitude and stillness, climb mountains, call on friends, get in tune with the cosmos, and think outside the box. Minimalistic visual clues make for incredibly satisfying “Aha!” moments, while sonic interfaces provide an extra level of guidance and nuance that makes Blackbox accessible with or without vision. Thoughtful haptic feedback, Easter eggs on Easter eggs, and solutions that can’t be found beneath the glass of your screen redefine what a puzzle can be. You’ll never see your device the same way again. Think you’re clever? Prove it. (Blackbox is a living game under active development by Ryan McLeod. When not eating burritos or drinking coffee, he’s busy designing and developing new Blackbox challenges.) ■
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is update cadence: Blackbox at every 9 days against swipe's every 4 months. Blackbox also leads on ratings volume (109K vs 2.3K) and chart position (#31 vs unranked). swipe's advantage is device support (6 vs 2) and iOS requirement (12.0 vs 16.6). On price, rating, review sentiment 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. swipe sells 4 one-off in-app purchases and Blackbox sells 10 one-off in-app purchases. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.
On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 4.7 for swipe against 4.8 for Blackbox. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Blackbox has 109K ratings behind it against 2.3K, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews are what separate them: 90% of swipe's written reviews are positive against 93% of Blackbox's.
swipe ships an update every 4 months, Blackbox every 9 days. Both last shipped on September 30, 2026.
| Parameter | swipe | Blackbox |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.7 (2.3K ratings) | 4.8 (109K ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 89.7% of reviews | 92.6% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 2.3K | 109K — better |
| Update frequency | Every 4 months | Every 9 days — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | Yes | Yes |
| Monetization | Free with in-app purchases | Free with in-app purchases |
| Best chart rank | — | #31 — better |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod, Mac, Apple TV, Apple Watch — better | iPhone, iPad |
| Requires iOS | 12.0 — better | 16.6 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 31 MB | 209 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Briegers GbR | Shapes and Stories LLC |
Customer experience
swipe
Blackbox
User reviews
swipe
From 2.3K App Store ratingsWhat we love
- 👍 Smooth gameplay
- 🎮 Great on Apple Watch
- 🎨 Simplistic and modern design
- 🔓 No ads or data harvesting
- 💡 Unique gesture-based controls
Room to improve
- 🔍 Limited number of hints
- 🤯 Some levels are very difficult
- 🔧 Level editor could be improved
- 🔊 Sound issues on certain devices
Blackbox
From 109K App Store ratingsWhat we love
- 👍 Unique and creative gameplay
- 🤔 Challenges users to think outside the box
- 😄 Humorous and witty comments
- 🔑 Utilizes phone features in innovative ways
Room to improve
- 🤯 Extremely challenging puzzles
- 💰 Expensive for additional content
- 🤖 Concerns about app accessing device permissions
- 🚗 Puzzles requiring travel/location are inaccessible for some
Bugs and requests
swipe
Reported bugs
2 issues- Level editor crashes
- Hints not always working as expected
Requested features
4 requests- More levels and content
- Ability to reverse moves
- Syncing progress across devices
- Customizable themes and visuals
Blackbox
Reported bugs
2 issues- Hints not working as expected
- Progress reset after app update
Requested features
4 requests- Add ability to earn hint credits through watching ads
- Include more free puzzles
- Improve accessibility for users with limited mobility
- Provide better guidance and instructions for puzzles
In-app purchases
swipe
- 2 hints$0.99
- Themes$1.99
- 5 hints$1.99
Show 1 moreShow fewer
- 10 hints$2.99
Blackbox
- Tiny Hint Pack$1.19
- Small Hint Pack$2.39
- Erudite Pack$2.99
Show 7 moreShow fewer
- Push Pack$2.99
- Coffee for Ryan$4.49
- Basic Pack$4.99
- Medium Hint Pack$5.00
- All Knowing Pack$7.99
- Large Hint Pack$10.00
- Extra Large Hint Pack$20.00
