42 MACWORLD DECEMBER 2019
iOSCENTRAL GAMECLUB AND APPLE ARCADEtoss your
subscription
money at. Never
fear, dear
readers. We’ve
dug in and
compared to
the two services
so you don’t
have to.
If you decide
you want to
subscribe to
both of them, you’d still only be paying
around $10 a month. If you’re looking to
play around 150 games on a budget, that
ain’t too shabby.
APPLE ARCADE HAS SLIGHTLY
MORE GAMES (FOR NOW)
At the time of writing, Apple Arcade offers
84 games, while GameClub offers 70.
These numbers will likely change soon, as
GameClub claims it will add new games
every week.
Apple, for its part, has been living up to
its nebulous promise of delivering
“frequent” updates by releasing new
games every week this month.
NEITHER SERVICE HAS ADS OR
IN-APP PURCHASES
If you hate mobile games that distract you
with ads or demand you plunk out some cash
if you want to get another chance at a puzzle
without waiting 30 minutes, either service will
serve you fine. All you’ll ever have to pay is
the $4.99 monthly subscription fee. But
there’s a small catch in that regard with
GameClub, as you’ll see in the next section.YOU CAN DOWNLOAD AND
PLAY GAMECLUB GAMES
WITHOUT A SUBSCRIPTION
Apple Arcade locks its games behind a
paywall (agreeable as it is), but you can
download GameClub games just as you
might download a regular game on the
App Store. It’ll often also let you play
without a subscription if you “join”
GameClub by simply entering your email
address. You’ll miss out on many of the
benefits of subscribing to the service in
the first place, though, as most of these
out-of-service games will still have ads.You’ve got plenty of options for playing.