One of my favorite exploration games is coming to iPhone. Even an iPhone 11 can run it

There are games I play to finish, and there are games I play simply because I want to disappear somewhere else for a while, and No Man’s Sky comes in this second category. Despite its disastrous launch, Hello Games’ continued support turned the game around, making it one of gaming’s biggest comebacks.

Now, ten years of updates have turned Hello Games’ space sandbox into one of my favorite games for pure exploration and depth. Soon, this enormous universe is going to live on something as mundane as the phone in your pocket. Hello Games is bringing No Man’s Sky to iPhone and iPad on October 28, and the hardware requirements are surprisingly forgiving. You’ll need an iPhone 11 or newer, or a third-generation iPad Air or newer.

This is a lot of game for 5GB

In the official announcement, it was clear that this isn’t some heavily stripped-back mobile spin-off. Hello Games says the iOS edition contains the game’s major updates released across the decade since launch, including the enormous Voyagers expansion. The recent Cosmos era has continued that absurd development streak, with Hello Games noting in September that it had released 41 named updates over the game’s lifetime.

There are two significant omissions at launch: multiplayer and planetary settlements. Hello Games founder Sean Murray compares the approach to the original Nintendo Switch release, which the studio subsequently expanded based on player feedback. Even with all of that, the actual download size is just 5GB.

Hello Games has built new touchscreen controls specifically for mobile, alongside controller support and screen casting. On iPad, you’ll even be able to use a mouse and keyboard. The studio added that it has also spent significant time optimizing thermals and battery consumption for longer sessions.

What mobile gaming actually needs

Slop is a word often used to describe attention-grabbing, shoddy work across any form of media. Art and games are a couple of examples of AI-built artwork that are flooding the market and social media. But No Man’s Sky, on the other hand, is a handcrafted experience built over the last decade–and there’s no better place than the Apple ecosystem to get started.

We watched Apple’s AAA gaming push grow for years. We’ve seen Resident Evil Village, Resident Evil 4, Death Stranding, and other console games running surprisingly well across iPhones and iPads. The lingering question has always been whether people actually want to experience those games on a phone.

But bringing No Man’s Sky aboard just made the mobile gaming platform a lot more fun on the Apple side now. Its rhythm is built around wandering. I can spend an hour jumping between star systems, or 15 minutes landing on a strange planet just to see what’s there. The game will be free to try when it launches on October 28, while Hello Games hasn’t revealed the full purchase price yet.

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