No Man's Sky is coming to iPhone and iPad on October 28

The whole game. Hello Games is clear on this point: "This is not No Man's Sky Lite."

The iOS version includes the full universe and over forty major updates the studio has released since 2016. That covers Cosmos, which came out just a few weeks ago, and Voyagers from last year, which let players build their own big rig starships.

Hello Games says Voyagers pushed player numbers to their highest level since the game's launch. So iPhone owners are getting the game at a busy moment, not a quiet one.

• Pre-orders: open now on the App Store.
• Release date: October 28, 2026.
• Trial: free to try at launch.
• Price: $19.99 for the full game, according to Ars Technica.

Ars Technica reports that Apple and Hello Games announced the port together on Monday, October 12.

This is the surprising part. Big PC and console games that make it to phones usually need the newest models. Hello Games went the other way.

No Man's Sky will run on the iPhone 11 and the third-generation iPad Air and anything newer. That means a lot of older phones still sitting in pockets and drawers qualify.

Hello Games says it wanted "the widest possible iPhone and iPad audience." The studio also says it put "tons of work" into battery life and heat, so long play sessions stay comfortable.

In real life If you have an iPhone 11 or newer, open the App Store, search for No Man's Sky and tap pre-order. It downloads on October 28, and you can try it before you pay for the full game.

The trick is that the planets don't exist until you visit them.

No Man's Sky builds its universe while you play. Ars Technica explains that every galaxy comes from a single mathematical starting point, called a seed. Because everyone starts from the same seed, every player sees the same planets in the same places.

Think of it like a recipe instead of a cake. The game doesn't ship millions of finished planets. It ships the recipe, and your phone bakes each world when you land on it.

By the numbers: Hello Games says the download is under 4GB, and that it installs from the App Store in one tap. A lot of phone games with far less to explore take up more space than that.

Hello Games puts it simply: there was "something magical about seeing that universe being generated on a tiny device."

There are two limits, and Hello Games lists both up front.

• Planetary Settlements: player-built bases on planets work only on the iPhone 15 Pro and newer.
• Multiplayer: not supported on any iOS device.

The catch: Hello Games also says it will "support it appropriately based on how many folks are playing." Ars Technica reads this as leaving the door open to skipping some future updates on iOS if not enough people play there.

The studio has done this before. When No Man's Sky came to the original Nintendo Switch, it also launched with limits. Hello Games says it listened to players and kept building, which eventually led to a much expanded version on Switch 2.

No Man's Sky has a lot going on: walking on planets, flying, first person and third person views, vehicles, even mechs. That makes the controls as big a challenge as the graphics.

Hello Games says it rebuilt the touch controls from the ground up. The studio also points out that survival games involve a lot of time in menus, crafting and managing your inventory, and it says the new touch controls handle that quickly.

If you would rather not use the touchscreen, you have options:

• iPhone: touch controls, game controllers and casting to a TV.
• iPad: all of the above, plus a mouse and keyboard.

Ars Technica notes that touch might actually suit a menu-heavy game like this one.

It started almost as a dare. Shortly after Hello Games announced the Mac version, someone on the team said, "I reckon I could get this running on an iPhone."

The studio's post admits nobody fully believed it. "I honestly didn't believe it until I played it myself for the first time," the post says.

Ars Technica reports that Hello Games spent three years on the iOS version. The studio also released a Mac version of the game, which Ars Technica describes as well received.

This fits a pattern. Hello Games says the game's jumps to virtual reality and to Nintendo Switch also began as technical challenges that looked impossible.

No Man's Sky first launched in 2016 on PC and PlayStation 4. CNET recalls that many players expected the big, beautiful worlds from the original trailer and reacted badly to what they got.

CNET reports that the backlash even led UK regulators to look into whether the game's advertising was misleading.

Then Hello Games kept working. Over ten years of free updates, CNET says, the studio not only delivered what it had promised at the start but went beyond it, and grew its player base along the way.

That arc is a big reason the iPhone version is getting attention. It's the full ten years of updates, arriving on a device most people already own.

No Man's Sky is the headliner of a promotion Apple calls Indie Games Week on the App Store. CNET counts seven games in the first batch, and all of them run on iPhone and iPad.

• Already available: titles including Sifu, Vampire Crawlers, Little Kitty, Big City, 9 Kings and Yes, Your Grace 2: Snowfall, which CNET lists at $5.
• Coming later: No Man's Sky, on October 28.
• Free trials: CNET says No Man's Sky, 9 Kings, Yes, Your Grace 2: Snowfall and Little Kitty, Big City all offer one.

Why it matters: CNET notes that these games are sold on their own and are not part of Apple Arcade, Apple's game subscription. You buy them like any other App Store game.

For more on Apple's busy month, see our Apple coverage.

Hello Games is already pointing fans to its next game, Light No Fire, and asks players to add it to their wishlists.

The studio is also helping Ghost Town Games, the team behind Overcooked, bring a co-op adventure called Stage Fright to players.

For now, the next date to watch is October 28, when the iPhone and iPad version goes live and the studio starts reading what mobile players think.

• Check your phone: an iPhone 11 or newer, or a third-generation iPad Air or newer, can run it.
• Try before you buy: the game is free to try at launch, and Ars Technica says the full version costs $19.99.
• Know the limits: no multiplayer on iOS, and building settlements needs an iPhone 15 Pro or later.
• Bring a controller if you like: controllers and TV casting work, and iPad adds mouse and keyboard.