Apple released Arcade in 2019, currently the subscription fee is $4.99/month (price has changed to $6.99 per month) and offers free up to 3-months trial, YMMV. Is it really worth it? Let’s take a look.
Apple Arcade has ton of games for kids and some games for “grown ups.” Arcade games are ad-free. It is basically $60 (or $59.88) per year. If you play games, these days a single game is gonna cost you between $20-$60 and probably you are not going to play that for more than 100 hours if that. No ads, no IAP, no timers, no loot boxes, no forced-social crap, no notifications begging to buy more (
or spend more).
If you have kids, it is worth paying $4.99 unless it is a distraction for kids from their academic and social life. If you don’t have kids, if you carry iPhone, iPad or Mac with you all the time. If you want to get out of stress or distract yourself from negative feelings or thoughts, it may be worth it. Especially, if you had a bad meeting or a bad day and want to get out of those thoughts and bring nostalgic positive feelings, try it out.
Conclusion: There is no one size fits all. If you have kids and they have budgeted screentime and once in a while you like to play some games, it is definitely worth a try. If you are lucky, you may get 3 months free.
Click here to go to the App Store and subscribe to Apple Arcade