No Man's Sky Comes to iPhone and iPad on October 28: Price, Supported Devices and What's Missing

Hello Games is bringing almost the full No Man's Sky universe to iPhone and iPad on October 28. Here's the price, which devices can run it and what's left out at launch.

Ten years after it first launched, No Man's Sky is going somewhere it has never been: your pocket. Hello Games announced on October 12 that its space exploration sandbox is coming to iPhone and iPad on October 28, and pre-orders are already open on the App Store.

The headline claim is a bold one. Studio founder Sean Murray says the mobile version is essentially the whole game, not a stripped-down spin-off – in his words, "This is not No Man's Sky Lite." There are a couple of notable gaps, though, and not every Apple device gets every feature. Here's what we know.

Release date and price

No Man's Sky launches on iPhone and iPad on October 28, 2026. It uses a try-before-you-buy model: the opening part of the game is free to play, and a one-time purchase of $19.99 unlocks the full experience.

Pre-orders went live on the App Store on October 12, the same day as the announcement.

Which iPhones and iPads can run it?

The minimum requirements are surprisingly generous for a game of this scale:

That means iPads going back to 2019 are supported. There is one big asterisk: according to the announcement details reported by several outlets, planetary settlements require an iPhone 15 Pro or newer. Owners of older phones can still play the rest of the game, but they won't be able to manage settlements. Hello Games hasn't spelled out how settlements work on iPad.

The download is also small for a game with a near-infinite universe – under 5GB. That's possible because No Man's Sky generates its planets on the device as you play rather than storing them as data, the same procedural trick the game has relied on since 2016.

What's included

This is where the "not Lite" promise matters. The iOS version includes the content from the game's more than 40 major free updates, including 2025's Voyagers and the recent COSMOS update. That means base building, freighters and fleets, space-to-surface flight, trading, combat, survival and the long-running Atlas storyline – the same universe players on PC and consoles are exploring today.

Hello Games says it rebuilt the touch controls from the ground up for phones and tablets. If you'd rather not play on glass, there are alternatives:

• Controllers are supported on iPhone and iPad.
• Mouse and keyboard work on iPad.
• Screen casting to a TV is supported, so you can play on a bigger screen.

The studio also says it put a lot of work into battery life and heat management, which will be key for a game people tend to sink long sessions into. How well that holds up on older devices like the iPhone 11 is something we'll only know after launch.

What's missing: multiplayer

The biggest omission is multiplayer. The iOS version won't support online play at launch, so no joining friends and no shared bases. Hello Games has suggested that whether multiplayer is added later will depend on how many people play the mobile version.

None of the reports so far mention cross-save with other platforms, so for now it's safest to assume your existing PC or console save won't carry over to your phone. If that changes, it would be a major selling point for returning players.

Why it matters

No Man's Sky is one of gaming's great comeback stories. It launched in August 2016 to fierce criticism over missing features and broken promises, then spent a decade turning itself around with a long string of free updates. It's already on PC, PlayStation, Xbox and Switch, and it has been available on Mac since June 2023 – work on the iOS version followed that Mac release.

Bringing almost all of it to phones is a technical statement as much as a business move. Big console games on iPhone have had a mixed track record, often limited to the newest Pro models. No Man's Sky running on a 2019 iPhone 11, with a sub-5GB download, would put it in rare company if the performance holds up.

It's also an interesting price point. At $19.99, it costs a fraction of most premium console ports on iOS, and the free opening section means anyone with a compatible device can see how it runs before paying a cent. For lapsed players who drifted away years ago, a free taste on a phone might be all it takes to get them back into the universe.

The bottom line

No Man's Sky arrives on iPhone and iPad on October 28 for $19.99, with a free opening section to try first. It runs on iPhone 11 and 3rd-gen iPad Air or newer, includes almost every update from the past decade and supports controllers, mouse and keyboard and TV casting. The catches: no multiplayer at launch, and settlements are limited to iPhone 15 Pro and newer. If you've ever wanted to name a planet on your commute, it's two weeks away.

This article was written by AI (Claude) and checked against the sources above. Games are updated regularly, so details may change.