Verithiathe honest score on any app
Updated July 2026 · real, multi-region App Store reviews
Head-to-head

Dragon City vs DragonVale

Dragon City 4.8★ · Free + IAP 70
Winner Dragon City
DragonVale 4.7★ · Free + IAP 55

Dragon City is the better choice for players seeking a more active and varied gameplay experience, despite its aggressive monetization, while DragonVale appeals to those who prioritize a relaxed, nostalgic dragon-collecting game, provided they can overlook its significant technical issues.

Full reviews: Dragon City · DragonVale

Dragon City offers a dynamic experience with breeding, battling, and empire building, but is criticized for excessive ads and pay-to-win mechanics. DragonVale provides a nostalgic, relaxing dragon collection game, but is plagued by severe loading issues, bugs, and a perceived increase in greed.

Head to head

Features & Gameplay edge: Dragon CityR50R11R23R15
Dragon City Dragon City offers a wide range of activities including hatching, dueling, breeding, and building a dragon empire, providing many things to do R50R11R23. However, some players find the game slow at the beginning and time-consuming R15. There are also complaints about outdated skins and elements like the dragon portal .
DragonVale DragonVale is praised for its extensive collection and breeding of unique dragons, allowing players to grow their park . Users appreciate the relaxing nature of the game and its nostalgic value . However, some players find the game becomes boring quickly due to a lack of new content or advancement opportunities at higher levels .
Ease of Use & Performance tieR26R6R7R42
Dragon City Some Dragon City players find the game easy to understand once they figure it out R26. However, many users report significant issues with pop-up ads and random in-game ads that disrupt gameplay R6R7R42. There are also reports of bugs requiring app reinstallation R20, loading screen freezes , and general unplayability for some users .
DragonVale DragonVale is described as generally easy to play and relaxing . However, a major recurring issue is extremely long loading times, sometimes 15-20 minutes, even with good internet R64. Many players experience the game not opening at all or crashing R79R80. Visual bugs are also common, with scrambled elements, invisible dragons, and blacked-out backgrounds R72.
Monetization & Value tieR12R16R34R36
Dragon City Dragon City is heavily criticized for being a "pay to play" or "pay to win" game, with long wait times for upgrades that push users to buy items R12R16R34R36. Many players feel forced to spend money to progress R33. Ads are frequent and intrusive, appearing as pop-ups and during gameplay R6R7R39R42. Some users even report being scammed out of in-game currency like gems .
DragonVale DragonVale is seen by some as becoming increasingly "gem greedy" and "money hungry," with many essential items requiring paid gems R66. Players report spending hundreds of gems without success in breeding . While some claim ads are minimal , others state ads don't work, forcing game restarts and missing rewards . There are also reports of being charged twice for in-app purchases .
Reliability & Support tieR1R25R19R20
Dragon City Dragon City users report various bugs, including inability to summon dragons R1R25, battle registration issues R19R20, and being stuck on tutorial screens . Some players claim customer support is unhelpful, providing excuses and no refunds for losses . There are also age restrictions preventing players from accessing the game despite being over the stated age .
DragonVale DragonVale suffers from significant reliability issues, with many users unable to open the game at all R79R80. Visual glitches, such as invisible dragons and scrambled elements, are common after updates R72. Support is criticized for not responding to issues like offerwall failures or missing event access . Players also report event bugs causing them to miss content or spend gems to catch up .
Pick Dragon City if

you enjoy active gameplay with breeding, battling, and empire building, and are willing to tolerate frequent ads and in-app purchase prompts to progress R50R23.

Pick DragonVale if

you value a nostalgic, relaxing dragon collection experience with unique dragons and park customization, and are patient enough to deal with potential long loading times and occasional bugs .

Evidence note: Dragon City has significantly more reviews, leading to a broader range of reported issues and positive experiences. DragonVale's recent reviews are heavily skewed negative due to severe technical problems, which contrasts with its higher lifetime rating, suggesting a recent decline in quality.

Frequently asked

Are Dragon City and DragonVale free to play?
Both Dragon City and DragonVale are free to download and play, but both heavily feature in-app purchases (IAP) and are criticized for pushing players to spend money to progress or avoid long wait times R12R16R33R66.
Which game has more ads?
Dragon City is widely reported to have significantly more ads, with users complaining about too many pop-ups and random ads appearing frequently during gameplay R6R7R39R42. DragonVale also has ads, but the main complaint is that they often don't work, forcing players to restart the app .
Do these games have technical issues?
Yes, both games have technical issues, but DragonVale's are more severe and widespread, including extremely long loading times (15-20 minutes), frequent crashes, and major visual glitches like invisible dragons and blacked-out screens R64R72R79R80. Dragon City also has bugs, such as freezing loading screens and issues with battle registration, but they appear less pervasive than DragonVale's current problems R20.

What reviewers actually said

Built only from these 120 real reviews (foreign ones translated). Superscripts jump to the quote here. Apple has no per-review links, so [ref] opens that app's reviews on the App Store.

  1. [R50] Dragon City 5/5 · US Perfect: I love this game you hatch dragon eggs, duel, breed, and more it does have ads but not a lot. It is so fun and satisfying I totally recommend it 🐉🐲
  2. [R11] Dragon City 5/5 · US This is your own dragon empire there’s no limit to your creativity and this dragon seat: First, I knew that if you’re in it in time and you’re outside or off-line, but it doesn’t make you off-line and when you reconnect, you could have more fun
  3. [R23] Dragon City 5/5 · US So fun: So many things to do fighting is not too hard or easy it is just in my rang hope you guys love it as much as I do
  4. [R15] Dragon City 3/5 · US It’s very fun but lots of cons: I’d say it’s pretty slow at the beginning for sure and pretty time consuming.
  5. [R26] Dragon City 5/5 · US Figure out the game: When you figure out the game, it’s easy
  6. [R6] Dragon City 3/5 · US Adds: Too many pop ups when you open the game, the red notification circles never go away or come back randomly, adds can be annoying bc they pop up randomly while playing
  7. [R7] Dragon City 1/5 · US Quá nhiều quảng cáo: Quảng cáo nhiều quá Chơi khó chịu
  8. [R42] Dragon City 3/5 · GB Good but..: It was a amazing game until they added ads every 30 seconds. I was fine with the optional ads but they added ads every time I pressed a button I need those optional ads back, and not a ad every 30 secs Less ads please
  9. [R12] Dragon City 3/5 · US So/so: It’s and ok game it’s can be fun but it’s a lot of being force to by things to upgrade because the time wait is crazy long ,witch means you can’t upgrade that leads to not being about to battle then you can’t level up so you’ll stuck just collecting until you earn enough to do everything witch will Mean a longer wait for the next level ..so I really don’t see my self passing the game on or
  10. [R16] Dragon City 2/5 · US Unable to get Dragon without Paying: I like the game but am unable to get a certain dragon without purchasing it, so I can not move forward in the permanent events. It is extremely frustrating.
  11. [R34] Dragon City 1/5 · US Pay to play: Use to be a fun game. Now if you are not willing to drop at least 100 a week you can not play. Big spenders ruin any fairness in the combats. You are congested just to keep enough habits.
  12. [R36] Dragon City 3/5 · GB Good game but way too P2W still quite fun even without it though: Cool
  13. [R1] Dragon City 1/5 · US I can’t summon while others can: Please fix this, this will stay a 1 start till it goes away if I still play it.
  14. [R25] Dragon City 2/5 · US I can’t not summon dragon: Game is fun and I love it but I can not summon dragon althouth I got 30lv. Im quite disapoited for that
  15. [R19] Dragon City 1/5 · US FRAUD!: I’ve been playing Dragon City for a long time, and it’s become incredibly frustrating because the game feels more unfair than fun. One of the biggest issues is the Arena and League battles, where I constantly lose to opponents that I have already defeated before, even though my dragons have gotten stronger, gained levels, and improved since then. Sometimes an enemy dragon’s health bar reac
  16. [R20] Dragon City 5/5 · US Bugs: This a fun game especially when I’m bored out of my mind during the day but I’ve had to delete and download it again twice today for some random bugs that keep happening. And they don’t fix when I close and re-open the app, like for the race it told me to do 2 league battles and I did both but didn’t register and said I didn’t do them so I bought a refill to try again with my gems but no mat
  17. [R33] Dragon City 3/5 · GB So…: Way too many micro transactions but a fun game in general
  18. [R66] DragonVale 3/5 · US A little too gem greedy: This game is cute and all, but it goes a little too gem heavy with almost everything being needed to bought with PAID gems. Maybe the game gets a little more generous as time goes on and offers gems as rewards for things, but I’m level 13 and it’s not looking too generous at the moment. I’d be more inclined to buy gems if the game wasn’t so stingy with them.
  19. [R39] Dragon City 3/5 · GB Not bad, but too much ads: The title and also I don’t think there should be a limit for how much you can skip with ads Thank you very much reply down below ty
  20. [R64] DragonVale 1/5 · US 15 minute load time: With WI-FI, full bare service or both, you have to wait 15-20 minutes just to load in.
  21. [R72] DragonVale 3/5 · US What happened?: Used to love this game, and reached level 180 or 185. Today I opened it after a long time, and the game is almost unplayable! Elements are scrambled, many dragons are constructed of text, and the images are often checkerboards. It’s nearly impossible to play the game. Coins and gems look normal, and a few characters can be seen wandering the paths, but other characters are only gra
  22. [R79] DragonVale 2/5 · US Won’t work: I’ve been playing this game for years and all of a sudden I cannot open to game. I have updated my phone, reset it, deleted and updated the app, but to no avail my app still crashes anytime I try to even open the game. I don’t understand what happened but it’s very annoying!
  23. [R80] DragonVale 5/5 · US Love game but it’s not working right now: I love this game I log in every day, but right now it’s not working. I try to open the app and it won’t let me. I click the app and it opens the DECA screen for a second and then closes. Is this something that can be fixed? I LOVE this game and would love to continue to play it. Please please PLEASE tell me it will work again! 😭😭😭😭😭

Synthesized from 120 recent App Store reviews · updated July 2026 · View on the App Store