Apple Arcade Subscription Gaming Service Goes Live Alongside iOS 13, One Month Free Trial Available

Apple Arcade, Apple's new subscription gaming service, is now available for everyone following the launch of the iOS 13 update for the iPhone.

‌Apple Arcade‌ offers up dozens of games for one monthly $4.99 price, and reviews of the service have been positive, praising the wide selection of available titles.

apple arcade devices
Apple actually began rolling out ‌Apple Arcade‌ to iOS 13 and iOS 13.1 beta testers earlier this week, but now it is available to everyone who has installed the release version of iOS 13.

When ‌Apple Arcade‌ first became available, there were just over 50 games available, but more titles have already been rolling out. Apple says that new ‌Apple Arcade‌ titles will be coming out on a weekly basis, with at least 100 games in the works.

applearcade
While ‌Apple Arcade‌ is priced at $4.99 per month, that price allows up to six family members to access games through Apple's Family Sharing feature. There's also a one-month free trial available, so everyone can give it a try before paying.

applearcadeinterface
You can access ‌Apple Arcade‌ through the App Store using the new ‌Apple Arcade‌ tab in the navigation bar. ‌Apple Arcade‌ looks similar to the standard ‌App Store‌ with apps arranged into different categories like "Start Your Adventure," "New Arrivals," "You Have to Hear This," "No Time to Blink," and more.

applearcadecategories
Apple's editorial team will highlight standout ‌Apple Arcade‌ titles, but there's also an option to access all available games, and you can search for titles as well.

Right now, ‌Apple Arcade‌ is available only on the ‌iPhone‌, though iOS 13 and 13.1 beta testers on iPad can install the update. Apple isn't releasing iPadOS until September 30, and tvOS 13 and macOS Catalina also aren't coming out until a future date. For more details on ‌Apple Arcade‌, make sure to check out our Apple Arcade guide.

If you have a favorite ‌Apple Arcade‌ title, make sure to share it in the comments down below, because there's a lot of available content to go through. Our sister site TouchArcade also has a dedicated Apple Arcade forum for discussing games, which is well worth checking out.

Popular Stories

AirPods Pro Firmware Feature

Apple Releases New Firmware for AirPods Pro 2, AirPods Pro 3, and AirPods 4

Thursday November 13, 2025 11:35 am PST by
Apple today released new firmware designed for the AirPods Pro 3, the AirPods 4, and the prior-generation AirPods Pro 2. The AirPods Pro 3 firmware is 8B25, while the AirPods Pro 2 and AirPods 4 firmware is 8B21, all up from the prior 8A358 firmware released in October. There's no word on what's include in the updated firmware, but the AirPods Pro 2, AirPods 4 with ANC, and AirPods Pro 3...
iOS 26

iOS 26.2 Available Next Month With These 8 New Features

Tuesday November 11, 2025 9:48 am PST by
Apple released the first iOS 26.2 beta last week. The upcoming update includes a handful of new features and changes on the iPhone, including a new Liquid Glass slider for the Lock Screen's clock, offline lyrics in Apple Music, and more. In a recent press release, Apple confirmed that iOS 26.2 will be released to all users in December, but it did not provide a specific release date....
CarPlay Pinned Messages

iOS 26.2 Adds New CarPlay Setting

Thursday November 13, 2025 6:48 am PST by
iOS 26 extended pinned conversations in the Messages app to CarPlay, for quick access to your most frequent chats. However, some drivers may prefer the classic view with a list of individual conversations only, and Apple now lets users choose. Apple released the second beta of iOS 26.2 this week, and it introduces a new CarPlay setting for turning off pinned conversations in the Messages...
homepod mini thumb feature

New HomePod Mini, Apple TV, and AirTag Were Expected This Year — Where Are They?

Wednesday November 12, 2025 11:42 am PST by
While it was rumored that Apple planned to release new versions of the HomePod mini, Apple TV, and AirTag this year, it is no longer clear if that will still happen. Back in January, Bloomberg's Mark Gurman said Apple planned to release new HomePod mini and Apple TV models "toward the end of the year," while he at one point expected a new AirTag to launch "around the middle of 2025." Yet,...
ios 26 digital id passport wallet

Apple Announces Launch of U.S. Passport Feature in iPhone's Wallet App

Wednesday November 12, 2025 9:15 am PST by
Apple today announced that iPhone users can now create a Digital ID in the Apple Wallet app based on information from their U.S. passport. To create and present a Digital ID based on a U.S. passport, you need: An iPhone 11 or later running iOS 26.1 or later, or an Apple Watch Series 6 or later running watchOS 26.1 or later Face ID or Touch ID and Bluetooth turned on An Apple Account ...
Tesla Charging

Tesla Working to Add Apple CarPlay Support to Vehicles

Thursday November 13, 2025 8:31 am PST by
Tesla is working to add support for Apple CarPlay in its vehicles, Bloomberg's Mark Gurman reports. Tesla vehicles rely on its own infotainment software system, which integrates vehicle functions, navigation, music, web browsing, and more. The automaker has been an outlier in foregoing support for Apple CarPlay, which has otherwise become an industry standard feature, allowing users to...
m1 chip slide

Five Years of Apple Silicon: M1 to M5 Performance Comparison

Monday November 10, 2025 1:08 pm PST by
Today marks the fifth anniversary of the Apple silicon chip that replaced Intel chips in Apple's Mac lineup. The first Apple silicon chip, the M1, was unveiled on November 10, 2020. The M1 debuted in the MacBook Air, Mac mini, and 13-inch MacBook Pro. The M1 chip was impressive when it launched, featuring the "world's fastest CPU core" and industry-leading performance per watt, and it's only ...
iOS 26

Everything New in iOS 26.2 Beta 2

Wednesday November 12, 2025 3:29 pm PST by
Apple today provided developers with the second beta of iOS 26.2, which adds a few new features worth knowing about. Measure App Apple's Measure app now features a Liquid Glass design for the level, with two Liquid Glass bubbles instead of white circles. Games App There's now an option to sort games in the Games app Library by size, in addition to Name and Recent. CarPlay The...
apple intelligence erroneous support list

Apple Intelligence Apparently Too Smart for M1 Macs After Listing Error

Wednesday November 12, 2025 2:49 am PST by
Update: It took a day, but Apple has now corrected its Apple Intelligence device compatibility list to show support for the earliest Apple silicon Macs. The original article follows. Apple's website is causing some confusion among Mac owners, and for good reason – its device compatibility listing for Apple Intelligence appears to have dropped support for M1 Macs. The U.S. version...
tvOS 26 Profiles

tvOS 26.2 Adds a Useful New Feature to Your Apple TV

Friday November 14, 2025 10:02 am PST by
Starting with the upcoming tvOS 26.2 update, currently in beta, additional profiles created on the Apple TV no longer require their own Apple Account. In the Settings app on the Apple TV, under Profiles and Accounts, anyone can create a new profile by simply entering a name and indicating whether the profile is for a kid. The profile will be associated with the primary user's Apple Account,...

Top Rated Comments

Unity451 Avatar
80 months ago
Can't wait to delete all the freemium garbage games on my phone!
Score: 5 Votes (Like | Disagree)
blasto2236 Avatar
80 months ago
It’s a real bummer that this isn’t available for tvOS at launch. For me, that’s a huge part of the appeal of the service, and having tested a lot of these games on the iPadOS beta, I’m eager to try them on a larger screen with a controller.

Sadly, it looks like this won’t be possible until my free trial is mostly up. Don’t have any interest in playing these games on a tiny iPhone screen, where I have the least amount of storage space. Kinda lame that’s the only officially available platform at launch.
Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)
darkslide29 Avatar
80 months ago

No true gamer will ever take this seriously. Glorified iOS titles & company that has never gotten gaming. Fail
A game on an iOS device doesn't mean that it's a bad or a sub-par experience anymore - it's time to end that thinking. The Apple TV, and the iPad Pro specifically (remember the keynote benchmarking it equal to an Xbox One S?), are capable of running some really good games, without any sacrifice of making it a 'light' version. And for whatever market reason, many games are priced even more affordable than their counterpart on a PS4, Nintendo Switch, or Steam.

Take for example games such as Dead Cells, Oxenfree, and Hyper Light Drifter. These are examples of games that are well reviewed by 'true gamers' on PC or traditional console, but now also available on Apple devices as a complete port including proper (thank goodness) controller support in iOS 13. Hyper Light Drifter even runs natively at 120hz on an iPad Pro, arguably making it the better version vs the Nintendo Switch (60hz) if you're using a controller. So we are far from the days of glorified iOS titles.

Sure, you won't be playing Call of Duty or Borderlands 3 on an Apple TV. At least not yet. But Apple Arcade are getting good indie developers to make games, with many expressing their excitement at this. Mini Metro is very much an indie but a beloved game, so it's nice to see that the developer put out Mini Motorways on Arcade. Exit the Gungeon is another one to check out since Enter the Gungeon was such a popular and well reviewed game. So long as they continue to be enticing and bring in well established developers, it will go well. Apple aren't even requiring games to be an absolute Arcade exclusive, as some of these games will be on PC. They just aren't going to be on other mobile platforms is all. This isn't the $15/mo Ultimate Game Pass that Xbox offers for AAA games today, but at just $5, I think we can already be optimistic for this starting point and where it can grow from here.
Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Kabeyun Avatar
80 months ago
This is what a subscription feels like it should be for: pay a monthly fee, have access to a bunch of stuff. I know I’m picking an old scab, but the current money-grabbing trend of subscriptions for a single app, even one with no services, is a bunch of malarkey. Otoh, $5/month for a gaming catalog seems reasonable.
Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Ar40 Avatar
80 months ago

No true gamer will ever take this seriously. Glorified iOS titles & company that has never gotten gaming. Fail
Don't you mean "no true scotsman"?
Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)
aevan Avatar
80 months ago

Apple should give Mac, iPhone, iPad, and Apple TV buyers one free year of the Arcade service. Like the TV service, I'm not excited enough by this offering of what has so far looked like basic mobile games to start paying a separate monthly fee for it. Especially if these are the same games the Mac will be receiving.
Games offer much more value than a couple of TV shows. It’s a great service. The games are not exactly console level in terms of scope, true, but it’s a start.
Score: 1 Votes (Like | Disagree)