Hello Games will release No Man’s Sky on iOS on October 28. The No Man’s Sky iOS version lets players try the opening of the game for free, then unlock the rest with a single purchase through the App Store.
That one-time purchase includes every major update the studio has shipped since the game launched in 2016. It covers ten years of free expansions, from the first “Foundation” update through the recent “COSMOS” 7.0 release. Neither the announcement nor the App Store overview lists a price yet.
How the No Man’s Sky iOS trial works
The App Store overview describes a “try before you buy” model. Players can start the game at no cost and play through the beginning. After that, one payment unlocks the full game, so there are no separate purchases for individual updates.
This approach skips the free-to-play model common on mobile. Instead, Hello Games is carrying over the deal it has used on consoles and PC, where every update has been free to existing owners.
Ten years of updates in one purchase
The update list is long. It runs from “Foundation,” “Pathfinder” and “Atlas Rises” through “NEXT,” the 2.0 “BEYOND” update, “ORIGINS,” “Frontiers,” “Waypoint” (4.0), “Worlds Part I” (5.0) and “Voyagers” (6.0). The newest entries are “Remnant,” “Xeno Arena,” “The Swarm” and “COSMOS” (7.0). In total, the listing names 35 updates.
Those updates reshaped the game after its rocky 2016 debut, when players criticized missing features. Over the following decade, the studio added online multiplayer, base building, living ships, drivable mechs, community expeditions and reworked planet generation.
What players do in the game
No Man’s Sky is a space exploration and survival game set in a procedurally generated universe. Each star has planets with their own life forms. Players can fly from deep space down to a planet’s surface with no loading screens, then explore, trade, fight and gather resources.
The App Store description frames the game around three play styles. Fighters can hunt pirates for bounties, while traders can mine remote worlds and sell resources at the best prices. Explorers, meanwhile, can upgrade their engines to jump farther and strengthen their suits against toxic planets. A mysterious pull from the galactic center drives the main story.
All players share the same galaxy. As a result, discoveries can appear on a shared map, and other players may come across worlds that someone else has already found.
Platforms and release timing
No Man’s Sky is already available on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, Nintendo Switch 2, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch and PC through Steam and the Microsoft Store. The No Man’s Sky iOS launch on October 28 brings the game to Apple’s mobile platform for the first time.
Alongside the date, Hello Games released a new trailer titled “No Man’s Sky iOS Deep Dive,” which walks through the mobile version.