No Man’s Sky iPhone Release Date Set for Oct. 28

No Man’s Sky arrives on iPhone and iPad on October 28, bringing the full decade of post-launch updates from Hello Games’ space exploration survival title to Apple’s mobile operating systems. Pre-orders opened Monday as part of the App Store’s Indie Games Week showcase.

The port supports devices dating back to the iPhone 11 and third-generation iPad Air, a hardware floor significantly broader than most console-to-mobile adaptations require. The installation footprint stays under 5GB. Players can use rebuilt touch controls, cast gameplay to a television, or connect external controllers. iPad users also have mouse and keyboard support.

Two major components of the No Man’s Sky experience are absent at launch: multiplayer connectivity and settlement building. Hello Games co-founder Sean Murray confirmed the studio intends to add those features based on player feedback and install numbers, mirroring the development path the team followed after releasing the game on Nintendo Switch. The Mac version arrived in 2023, which prompted internal testing that ultimately proved an iPhone build was viable.

Unlike subscription-based cloud streaming services such as Xbox Cloud Gaming or NVIDIA GeForce Now, this release runs natively on Apple silicon. That distinction matters for latency-sensitive inputs and offline playability, areas where streamed games frequently struggle on cellular connections.

Sloclap’s martial arts action game Sifu is also available now on iOS, featuring a reworked camera system designed for smaller screens and custom touch inputs. Because Sifu relies heavily on precise parry timing and rapid combo execution, the native port required significant input optimization to function without the frame drops that would compromise its difficulty curve.

Several other titles launched alongside the showcase. Vampire Crawlers adapts the bullet-heaven genre into a card-based strategy format. Dome Keeper combines roguelite mining mechanics with tower defense. Strategy releases Yes, Your Grace 2: Snowfall and 9 Kings, along with the adventure game Little Kitty, Big City, are all downloadable now.

Apple has increasingly positioned the App Store as a destination for premium ports rather than exclusively free-to-play microtransaction economies. The company introduced metalFX upscaling and expanded Game Controller framework support in recent iOS iterations specifically to attract studios capable of delivering complex experiences to mobile hardware. App Store Worldwide head Carson Oliver framed Indie Games Week as a direct effort to elevate independent developers taking creative risks on the platform.

No Man’s Sky will be free to try upon release, though pricing details for the full unlock were not immediately specified beyond the pre-order window. The Nintendo Switch 2 version of the game recently received the multiplayer and settlement updates that iOS players currently lack.