Comparison

Sudoku Mega Bundle vs Cracking the Cryptic

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

Head to head
About

Sudoku Mega Bundle

Explore hundreds of unique Sudoku variations beyond the classic grid. Challenge yourself with diverse puzzle types, difficulty levels, and helpful tools. Enjoy customizable gameplay and track your progress with leaderboards and achievements.

Highlights
  • Hundreds of unique Sudoku variations
  • Multiple difficulty levels
  • Hints and smart notes
  • Savepoint functionality
  • Zoom and customization options
  • Leaderboards and achievements
Features
Read full description

Hundreds of unique sudoku varations!!! Including: Killer, Jigsaw, Skyscrapers, 16x16, Samurai, Kropki, Word, Duplex and many more! • Easy, Medium, Hard and Expert difficulties for every game type! • Tons of puzzles guarenteed to have only one solution! • Hints to help when you're stuck, or automatically fill all notes! • Create Savepoints for when you want to make a guess! • Smart notes are automatically removed when placing another cell's correct number! • Easy note taking! Select multiple cells at once! • Zoom in and out of any puzzle to see the numbers better! • Leaderboard and achievements! • Completely customize the game's appearance to your liking! • Current Game Types: 0-9 2-3-4 3D 3D Bishop 3D Black Knight 4-5 4x4 6x6 8x8 10x10 12x12 16x16 16x16 X 37 123 147 12345 Anti Knight Anti Knight Boxless Anti White Knight Jigsaw Anti X Anti X Boxless Ascension Asterisk Atypical Atypical Fractures Big Killer Binary Bishop Black Knight Blackout Blind Killer Boxless Boxless Frame Boxless Pseudoku Brick Butterfly Centers Circular Circular 10 Circular Box Clock Color Columndoku Compressed Consecutive Cross Cube Cube Bishop Cube Black Knight Cube White Knight Deficit Dependency Diamond Digital Disjointed Disjointed Irregular Double Double Cell Double Cube Double Cube Bishop Double Cube Black Knight Double Line Double Ring Doubledoku Doubledoku Bishop Doubledoku Black Knight Doubledoku White Knight Duplex Difference Duplex Plex Duplex Sum Even Extra Space Extra Staircase Flower Fortress Fractured Bridge Fractured Spiral Fractured Staircase Fractured Target Fractured Web Fractures Frame Gattai 3 Gattai 3 Mix NPS Gattai 4 Gattai 4 Mix AMDE Greater Than Greater Than Killer Greater Than Killer Samurai Greater Than Samurai Heptagram Hexadoku Hexagon Hexagram Hexagram Bishop Hexagram Black Knight Hexagram White Knight Isodoku Isodoku Black Knight Isosudoku Jigsaw Jigsaw 6x6 Jigsaw Cube Jigsaw Skyscrapers Killer Killer 16x16 Killer Jigsaw Killer Modulo Killer Parity Killer Product Killer Samurai Killer Skyscrapers Kropki Kropki 16x16 Krychle Krychle 9x9 Layers 4x4x4 Layers 6x6x6 Lean Box Lean Cross Lean Gear Lean Patch Lean Wheel Lean Windoku Little Killer Lucky Seven Mathdoku Min Max Missing Musketry No Touch Nonconsecutive Nonconsecutive Boxless Nonconsecutive Circular Odd Odd Even Big Small Odd Even Big Small Boxless Outside Outside Boxless Palindrome Parquet Block Parquet Block Boxless Parquet Square Parquet Twist Pencil Mark Pentagram Pseudoku Quadruple Quadruple Boxless Queen Regular Samurai Samurai 9-Grid Samurai 9-Grid Kropki Samurai 13-Grid Kropki Samurai 16-Grid Kropki Samurai Kropki Samurai Mix WKSOT Samurai Mix XKJFO Sandwich Scatter Scatter 6x6 Search Nine Search Nine Boxless Sensei Sigma Sigma Circle Skyscrapers Snowflake Snowflake X Sohei Staircase Star Subtwodoku Subtwodoku 6x6 Suguru 5x5 Suguru 6x6 Suguru 7x7 Suguru 8x8 Suguru 9x9 Surplus Swap Symbol Tape Thermo Threedoku Threedoku Mix CFM Tight Fit Touchless Triangle Tricky Tridoku Trinary Triple Triple Mix SVQ Tripledoku Tripledoku Mix OGS Twin Boxes Twodoku Vudoku White Knight White Knight Jigsaw White Knight X Windmill Windoku Wing 3 Wing 5 Word X

About

Cracking the Cryptic

This app offers a curated collection of handcrafted Sudoku puzzles from world-renowned constructors. Explore classic and unique variants, with new puzzle packs released regularly. A free introductory pack is included with download.

Highlights
  • Handcrafted Sudoku puzzles
  • Curated by expert constructors
  • Classic and unique variants
  • Regularly released puzzle packs
  • Free introductory puzzle pack
Features
Read full description

OUR NEWEST PACK – CLASSIC VOLUME #2! Classic sudoku is where it all began, and there is still lots of skill to be deployed to solve classic puzzles, and new techniques to be explored. Nikoli, the Japanese puzzle house, named and popularised sudoku from 1984, and we have commissioned 20 puzzles from them for this Classic Sudoku 2 app. We have also created 20 ourselves, and sourced 20 more from Sam Cappleman-Lynes, the brilliant British sudoku expert. The result is a wonderful 60-puzzle pack which will delight and challenge you. -------------------- Welcome to the brand new Sudoku app from the most popular Sudoku channel, Cracking The Cryptic. Unlike other Sudoku apps, we feature handcrafted and curated puzzles from the world’s best Sudoku constructors. Each collection features puzzles made by various authors that are now familiar names to those who follow the channel. Authors like Phistomefel, Clover, Sam Cappleman-Lynes, Christoph Seeliger, Richard Stolk, jovi_al, Qodec, Prasanna Seshadri and of course, Simon and Mark! Downloading Cracking the Cryptic will give you access to our first free collection – a variety pack by Prasanna Seshadri featuring 7 puzzles inspired from our previous Sudoku apps; Sandwich, Classic, Chess, Thermo, Miracle, Killer and Arrow Sudoku. We also have purchasable packs designed for all skill levels and featuring many unique variants not seen previously. We’ll be releasing more free and paid packs in the future so keep an eye on the app for more Sudoku content from Cracking The Cryptic!

Screenshots

Sudoku Mega Bundle4 screens
Cracking the Cryptic4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is ads: Cracking the Cryptic at none against Sudoku Mega Bundle's shown. Cracking the Cryptic also leads on update cadence (every 3 weeks vs every 2 months) and iOS requirement (13.0 vs 17.1). Sudoku Mega Bundle's advantage is rating (4.8 vs 4.4) and ratings volume (2.9K vs 208). 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

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

Both are free to download. Sudoku Mega Bundle sells 4 in-app purchases, starting at $1.99 per month and Cracking the Cryptic sells 13 one-off in-app purchases. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

Sudoku Mega Bundle holds the better App Store score, 4.8 against 4.4. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Sudoku Mega Bundle has 2.9K ratings behind it against 208, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 78% of Sudoku Mega Bundle's written reviews are positive against 72% of Cracking the Cryptic's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Sudoku Mega Bundle ships an update every 2 months, Cracking the Cryptic every 3 weeks. The most recent releases landed on September 22, 2026 and September 21, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard5 real differences · 5 level
Sudoku Mega Bundle versus Cracking the Cryptic: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterSudoku Mega BundleCracking the Cryptic
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.8 (2.9K ratings) — better4.4 (208 ratings)
Positive reviews78.0% of reviews — better72.1% of reviews
Number of ratings2.9K — better208
Update frequencyEvery 2 monthsEvery 3 weeks — better
AdsYesNo — better
In-app purchasesYesYes
MonetizationFree with in-app purchasesFree with in-app purchases
DevicesiPhone, iPadiPhone, iPad, iPod — better
Requires iOS17.113.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size94 MB234 MB
Age rating12+4+
DeveloperGammaLateral LLCNick Carney

Customer experience

Sudoku Mega Bundle

All ratings2,889 ratings
Positive96.6%
Neutral2.1%
Negative1.3%
Written reviews141 reviews
Positive78.0%
Neutral7.1%
Negative14.9%

Cracking the Cryptic

All ratings208 ratings
Positive84.1%
Neutral6.3%
Negative9.6%
Written reviews147 reviews
Positive72.1%
Neutral13.6%
Negative14.3%

User reviews

Sudoku Mega Bundle

From 2.9K App Store ratings

What we love

  • 🚀 Variety of games
  • 👍 Customizable options
  • 🚀 Challenging puzzles
  • 👍 User-friendly interface

Room to improve

  • 🐛 Bugs and glitches
  • 💸 Intrusive ads
  • 🔒 Locked difficulty levels
  • 🔒 Inability to close ads

Cracking the Cryptic

From 208 App Store ratings

What we love

  • 🚀 Best sudoku app
  • 👍 Great variety of puzzles
  • 👍 Excellent user interface
  • 👍 Challenging and fun puzzles
  • 👍 Constant updates with new puzzles

Room to improve

  • 🐛 Hints are often incorrect or unhelpful
  • 🐛 Bugs and crashes, especially after updates
  • 🔋 Battery draining issues
  • 🔒 Too many in-app purchases required to access content

Bugs and requests

Sudoku Mega Bundle

Reported bugs

4 issues
  • App crashes after update
  • Ads causing game to freeze or redirect
  • Incorrect puzzle solutions
  • Pencil marks not working as expected

Requested features

5 requests
  • Ability to input game seed
  • Option to turn off zoom
  • Ability to modify color of lines in Killer Sudoku
  • Addition of 6x6 Killer Sudoku
  • Ability to take notes in pencil mode without errors

Cracking the Cryptic

Reported bugs

4 issues
  • Puzzle progress and purchases disappearing after updates
  • Incorrect rules or hints in certain puzzles
  • Crashes and freezes, especially on older devices or Macs
  • Inconsistent behavior when switching between portrait and landscape modes

Requested features

5 requests
  • Add more color options for pencil marking and highlighting
  • Implement a way to clear progress or start puzzles from scratch
  • Integrate all CTC apps into a single app for better organization
  • Add keyboard support, especially on Mac
  • Improve the quality and clarity of hints

In-app purchases

4 purchases

Sudoku Mega Bundle

Subscriptions1
  • Remove Ads$1.991 Month
One-time3
  • Get 20 Hints$0.99
  • Get 50 Hints$1.99
  • Remove Ads$9.99
13 purchases

Cracking the Cryptic

One-time13
  • CTC Worms - James Sinclair$0.99
  • CTC Worms - Marty Sears$0.99
  • CTC Worms - Zetamath$1.99
Show 10 more
  • CTC Worms - Blobz$1.99
  • CTC Worms - Michael Lefkowitz$1.99
  • CTC Worms - Phistomefel$1.99
  • GAS Volume #1$2.99
  • GAS Volume #2$2.99
  • CTC Approachable Sudoku #1$2.99
  • Domino Sudoku Pack$4.99
  • Lines Variety Pack$4.99
  • Classic Volume #2$4.99
  • CTC Fog Pack #1$4.99

Questions

Is Sudoku Mega Bundle free?
Sudoku Mega Bundle is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Cracking the Cryptic free?
Cracking the Cryptic is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, Sudoku Mega Bundle or Cracking the Cryptic?
Sudoku Mega Bundle is rated higher. Sudoku Mega Bundle averages 4.8 out of 5 from 2.9K ratings, while Cracking the Cryptic averages 4.4 from 208 ratings.
Do Sudoku Mega Bundle or Cracking the Cryptic have ads?
Sudoku Mega Bundle shows ads; Cracking the Cryptic does not.
Which is updated more often, Sudoku Mega Bundle or Cracking the Cryptic?
Sudoku Mega Bundle ships an update every 2 months, and Cracking the Cryptic every 3 weeks. Most recently, Sudoku Mega Bundle was updated on September 22, 2026 and Cracking the Cryptic on September 21, 2026.

Other comparisons