No Man’s Sky is coming to iPhone and iPad, and the App Store listing shows an expected release date of October 29, 2026. You can download it free and play the opening before you pay. The full game is a one-time $19.99 unlock, and the listing says that includes 10 years of updates.
The game is a space exploration and survival title set in a procedurally generated universe, so the planets are created by the game rather than hand-built. Hello Games released it in 2016 on PC and PlayStation 4. Critics were split at launch, and the studio kept adding to the game afterward. The listing says the iPhone and iPad version includes all major updates since launch, including the Cosmos update, which is why the 10-year promise has real material behind it.
That also makes it a bigger commitment than a few-dollar iPhone game. The paid picks in this indie roundup, such as Monument Valley at $3.99, cost a few dollars. No Man’s Sky asks for a lot more, and big console-style games on iPhone are still the exception, so this one matters more than its price tag suggests.
What your device needs
You need iOS 26 or iPadOS 26 and a device with an A12 Bionic chip or newer, which covers the iPhone XS and later models. The App Store lists the game at 3.8 GB, so clear room before you download. The iPhone and iPad requirements sit on one listing, so one app covers both devices. The listing only mentions English.
On an iPhone, 3.8 GB is a serious chunk of storage for one game. The iPad makes more sense if you have one that qualifies, since a game built around long exploration sessions usually benefits from a bigger screen.
What the listing leaves out
The listing describes a shared universe where every other player lives in the same galaxy, and it lists Game Center support, which ties your games to friends, achievements, and leaderboards. It doesn’t say what’s left out of the iPhone version, and the game’s official site doesn’t spell it out either. Until Hello Games does, treat any list of missing features as unconfirmed.
The iPad promise took a long time
An Apple version was announced at WWDC 2022, with an iPad release promised for late that year. The Mac version arrived in 2023. Now the iPhone and iPad version has an App Store page and a date, which makes this a long wait for anyone who has been asking for it since 2022.
The free start is the smart way in. Play the opening, see whether the game grabs you, and buy it only if you’d happily spend more than a weekend in it. At $19.99 and 3.8 GB, that’s the test that matters.
