War Dragons vs Explodey
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both games, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
War Dragons
Command a powerful army of dragons to build and defend your island kingdom. Breed legendary dragons, strategize with friends in guilds, and fortify your base against attackers. Become the ultimate dragon rider and strategist to achieve greatness.
- Breed over 100 unique dragons
- Join or start guilds with friends
- Real-time synchronous multiplayer
- Build and fortify island defenses
- Strategize attack and defense tactics
- Unlock legendary dragons like Khrysos
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Dragons are the most powerful force in nature. Enter the world of War Dragons, where you are put in control of this ultimate power. Your father has left you in charge of his island kingdom, and you will need to breed, train, and battle dragons to raise your new kingdom to greatness. Find your father's attacker, explore new lands, build your defenses, and take vengeance on the enemies at your gates. You will need to become the ultimate dragon rider and strategist to survive War Dragons. BREED LEGENDARY DRAGONS War Dragons has more than 100+ unique dragons possessing different attack styles, spell abilities, and classes. Breed your dragons to create an even more powerful army. See if you can unlock the furious behemoth Khrysos and dominate the battlefield! COMBINE FORCES WITH FRIENDS Start or join a guild to combine forces with other dragon lords. With true synchronous multiplayer, you can chat with teammates in real time and coordinate attack and defense strategies against other guilds. BUILD AND DEFEND YOUR BASE Strategize and fortify your island fortress with the optimal combination and placement of defensive towers. Choose from over 15 towers with unique special attacks, such as the long-range howitzer, poison ballista, debuff lightning, and more!! Protect your base against enemy attacks while you build up your forces. WHAT’S NEW Summer 2021 *New Season: Aftermath, the much-awaited Summer Season, has come to War Dragons! The first wave of the season does not fail to bring the fight with new veteran dragons of the celestial conflict! *New Leaderboards: Brand new to the Aftermath season, full season leaderboards to compete against Dragon Lords around the world! Please note that War Dragons is free to play, but you are able to purchase game items with real money. If you don’t want to use this feature, please disable in-app purchases. Your use of this application is governed by the Terms of Service available at http://pocketgems.com/terms. Collection and use of your data are subject to the Privacy Policy available at http://pocketgems.com/privacy.
Explodey
Pilot a fighter through exotic planets, battling enemies and solving puzzles to save the galaxy. Customize your ship with a variety of weapons and face challenging bosses. Engage in multiplayer battles with friends and unlock cosmetic hats.
- AAA side-scroller gameplay
- Battle across 5 exotic planets
- Customize fighter with diverse weaponry
- Conquer ground and air units
- Solve challenging puzzles
- LAN multiplayer battles
- Unlock cosmetic hats
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The galaxy is in peril. Equipped with the latest weaponry, pilot your heavily armed fighter through 5 exotic planets to destroy the evil Dr Grag and save the Life Spark. Joining you on your journey is The Engineer, a silicon being capable of building anything you need. Unfortunately, he's also a bit of a jackass... ENGAGE THE ENEMY AND BLOW THEM TO BITS * AAA side scroller * Battle across 5 exotic planets * Conquer a large variety of ground and air units * Deliver precision strikes with an advanced dual joystick configuration * Solve challenging puzzles CUSTOMIZE YOUR FIGHTER WITH EXPLOSIVE WEAPONRY * 5 Ship Bodies - Each improving in destructive power as you progress * 5 Blasters - Normal, Spread, Heal, Cannon, and Sniper * 4 Rockets - Normal, Rapid Fire, Fire Ball, BIG ONE * 4 Bombs - Normal, Mini, Napalm, Fast Drop * 2 Special Weapons - Floating Mine, Shield BATTLE 5 CHALLENGING BOSSES * Battle The Ice Elemental, Mega Tank, Xenogiger, Zargbots, and Dr Grag - the evil mastermind who is holding the galaxy hostage * Recover each of 5 powerful crystals to re-ignite the Life Spark and save the galaxy * Follow along with a riveting story and cast of characters, including you (The Soldier), The Engineer, Dr Grag, and General Goat (The Leader of Resistance, Leader of The Knights of Galadorn, Defender of the Universe, and our pet). DESTROY YOUR FRIENDS IN MULTIPLAYER * Engage in LAN battles with friends. Show them who's boss by exploding them. INCREASE YOUR SOCIAL STATUS WITH HATS * Yeah, they don't do anything special except make you look awesome * Complete all levels and earn The General's Hat, complete with Cigar * Complete all achievements and earn The Mighty Beanie of Galderon. MAKE TRIPS TO THE TOILET LAST 4x LONGER * Forget sending email and browsing Instagram on the toilet - what a waste of time. Play Explodey for hours and hours and when your boss asks what's been going on, you can say EXPLODEY JERK. MORE INFO * Works with just the touch screen, but you can also use a gamepad (must be MFi compatible) * Headphones recommended to soak up the sound * The game is free to play the first world and to play LAN multiplayer. $2.99 unlocks the rest of the galaxy. You can also buy hats on the cheap or you can find them during missions. All proceeds go to tacos, coffee, the kids' college fund, and my next insane project. * iMessage stickers include a dancing engineer, for your dancing engineer convenience. Come chat on our Discord channel! https://discord.gg/7cRKNqD
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is rating: War Dragons at 4.4 against Explodey's 3.9. War Dragons also leads on ratings volume (28K vs 9) and chart position (#114 vs unranked). Explodey's advantage is ads (none vs shown) and update cadence (every 3 days vs every 2 months). On price, review sentiment, in-app purchases and monetization model 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. War Dragons sells 10 one-off in-app purchases and Explodey sells 12 one-off in-app purchases. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.
War Dragons holds the better App Store score, 4.4 against 3.9. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: War Dragons has 28K ratings behind it against 9, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews complicate that: 63% of War Dragons's written reviews are positive against 67% of Explodey's, so the app with the better star average is not the one people write more warmly about.
War Dragons ships an update every 2 months, Explodey every 3 days. The most recent releases landed on October 13, 2026 and September 16, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | War Dragons | Explodey |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.4 (28K ratings) — better | 3.9 (9 ratings) |
| Positive reviews | 62.9% of reviews | 66.7% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 28K — better | 9 |
| Update frequency | Every 2 months | Every 3 days — better |
| Ads | Yes | No — better |
| In-app purchases | Yes | Yes |
| Monetization | Free with in-app purchases | Free with in-app purchases |
| Best chart rank | #114 — better | — |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod, Apple Watch — better | iPhone, iPod |
| Requires iOS | 13.0 | 8.0 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 206 MB | 1.1 GB |
| Age rating | 12+ | 12+ |
| Developer | Pocket Gems, Inc. | YitYat Studios |
Customer experience
War Dragons
Explodey
Bugs and requests
War Dragons
Reported bugs
4 issues- Inconsistent attack results across devices
- Disappearing in-game items and resources
- Crashes and freezes during events
- Unreliable server stability
Requested features
4 requests- Ability to trade or exchange runes/glyphs
- Option to repeat past seasonal events
- More accessible mythic dragon acquisition
- Improved base defense balance
Explodey
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
In-app purchases
War Dragons
- 30 Days of First Time Buyer Elite Account$1.99
- Value Pack 1A$4.99
- Value Pack 1B$4.99
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- Elite Account - 30 Days$4.99
- Atlas War Pack$4.99
- Value Pack 2A$19.99
- Value Pack 2B$19.99
- Atlas Event Elite$19.99
- Value Pack 4A$99.99
- Value Pack 4B$99.99
Explodey
- VR Goggles$0.99
- Mohawk$0.99
- Pirate Hat$0.99
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- Plain Hat$0.99
- Top Hat$0.99
- Wizarding Hat$0.99
- Hair Bow$0.99
- Hard Hat$0.99
- Elf Hat$0.99
- Viking Hat$0.99
- Cheese$0.99
- Unlock All Worlds$2.99









