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Updated July 2026 · real, multi-region App Store reviews
Head-to-head

Hill Climb Racing vs Subway Surfers

Hill Climb Racing 4.6★ · Free + IAP 60
Winner Subway Surfers
Subway Surfers 4.6★ · Free + IAP 75

Subway Surfers is the better choice for a classic endless runner experience, despite its ad frequency, while Hill Climb Racing struggles with recent changes to its in-game economy that frustrate long-time players.

Full reviews: Hill Climb Racing · Subway Surfers

Subway Surfers maintains its status as a highly entertaining and addictive endless runner, praised for its fun gameplay and offline accessibility, though many users are frustrated by frequent ads. Hill Climb Racing, while historically popular, is currently facing significant backlash from players due to recent nerfs to coin payouts and increased ad interruptions, making progression much slower and less enjoyable.

Head to head

Gameplay & Fun edge: Subway SurfersR1R2R3R4
Hill Climb Racing Hill Climb Racing is described as a fun and engaging physics-based racing game with many vehicle choices, enjoyed by players for years, and can be played offline R2R5. However, recent updates have significantly reduced coin payouts for tricks like air time and flips, making progression difficult and frustrating for many R1R3R4.
Subway Surfers Subway Surfers is widely regarded as a highly fun, addictive, and entertaining endless runner, with many users having played it for years R65. It's praised for being playable without WiFi, making it suitable for travel R65R90R98. Some users, however, find the game repetitive and lacking in challenge after a while .
Monetization & Ads tieR1R10R13R18
Hill Climb Racing Hill Climb Racing has been criticized for recent updates that drastically reduce coin earnings from gameplay, forcing players to rely on daily gifts which are 'riddled with ads' or to pay for coins R1R10R13R18. Players also report an increase in pop-up ads for revives and coin doubling, even after purchasing to remove ads R36R51R53.
Subway Surfers Subway Surfers is heavily criticized for its frequent and intrusive ads, which interrupt gameplay and are a major source of frustration for many users . Some users feel it's 'pay to win' or that new events encourage spending money .
Reliability & Bugs tieR9R15R16R23
Hill Climb Racing Hill Climb Racing users report various bugs, including the game crashing before rewards are received R15, loss of all progress, cars, and achievements R16, and issues with daily challenges and event maps R23. Some also note Bill glitching instead of falling out of the vehicle upon crashing R9 and an 'invisible wall' killing them .
Subway Surfers Subway Surfers experiences issues with glitches, such as being super slow in showdown races , high scores not being registered , the game not loading , and advertisements not giving rewards . Some users also report lag , the game glitching their phone to the point of being unclosable , and losing their entire account progress .
Updates & Content tieR1R9R10R12
Hill Climb Racing Hill Climb Racing has received negative feedback for recent updates that 'ruined the progression' by significantly decreasing coin payouts, which many players view as a greedy move R1R10R13R18. Players also express disappointment about the lack of a track editor in the original game, unlike its sequel, and desire new features like custom makers, more maps, and new music R9. The Apple TV version is noted to have less cars and challenges R12.
Subway Surfers Subway Surfers frequently updates with new events and changing themes, music, and backgrounds based on different countries, which some users dislike and wish for a return to the classic mode . Players desire more free characters and designable characters , and some suggest adding characters with wheelchairs or prosthetics .
Pick Hill Climb Racing if

Pick Hill Climb Racing if you prefer a physics-based racing game with vehicle upgrades and enjoy playing offline, and you are willing to tolerate slower progression or potential in-app purchases due to recent changes in the coin economy R5.

Pick Subway Surfers if

Pick Subway Surfers if you enjoy fast-paced endless runner games, appreciate frequent content updates with changing themes, and can overlook frequent ad interruptions R65.

Evidence note: Both apps are free with in-app purchases. Many negative reviews for both apps revolve around ads and monetization, which is common for free-to-play mobile games. Hill Climb Racing's recent negative reviews are heavily skewed by changes to its in-game economy, specifically coin payouts, which have significantly impacted player progression and satisfaction.

Frequently asked

Which game has fewer ads?
Based on recent reviews, both games are heavily criticized for frequent and intrusive ads, making it difficult to definitively say which has fewer (R36, R51, R53, for Hill Climb Racing; , , , , R90, , , , , , for Subway Surfers). Hill Climb Racing also has ads tied to daily gifts and bonus offers, even after an ad-removal purchase R21.
Can you play these games offline?
Yes, both Hill Climb Racing and Subway Surfers are praised by users for being playable without an internet connection, making them suitable for travel or situations without WiFi R5R65R90R98.
Which game has better progression without paying?
Subway Surfers appears to offer a more consistent progression experience, despite some 'pay to win' accusations and desires for more free content . Hill Climb Racing's progression has been severely hampered by recent updates that significantly reduced coin payouts for in-game actions like flips and air time, making it 'impossible to do progress as quick as I used to' without paying R1R4R10R13.

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. [R1] Hill Climb Racing 1/5 · US Bring back normal payouts: what's with these jokes? Decided to turn into a donation dump? Well, good luck. I deleted it as soon as I saw that payouts were cut by 2-3 times. · translated
  2. [R2] Hill Climb Racing 5/5 · US Fun game. Would recommend.: I got this game when i was 5 after seeing a friend of my family playing it. He let me play it not knowing i wasn’t supposed to play games at that time but i absolutely attached to it and now have both games and most cars. When you get bored just delete and redownload. It resets your progress.
  3. [R3] Hill Climb Racing 3/5 · US Money collecting: They ruined the air time money
  4. [R4] Hill Climb Racing 1/5 · US Money not working properly: So i recently bought the mutant and 1 day after buying it something strange happened. The game didnt update or anything yet my backflips now give 150 instead of 1000, missions give 45k instead of 100k and like this it’s impossible to do progress as quick as i used to.
  5. [R10] Hill Climb Racing 1/5 · US Thanks Devs: It’s silly stuff like this as to why more and more games are tanking, they do stuff like what follows losing people who have had the game for awhile and who will delete and never come back to it because of. They change the points system and lowered flips and air time, yet add new tracks for 1,500,000 points. I’m not paying for coins.
  6. [R13] Hill Climb Racing 1/5 · US Why lower the amount of money you get for air time and flips?: Used to be that you could go on the moon level and grind out a bunch of coins to buy the different cars and what not, they lowered the flips from 1,000 to just 150. And air time used to be 25 to start then 100 every second your in the air. I’m tired of seeing people go back and ruin old games for greed. Absolutely disgusting, uninstall
  7. [R18] Hill Climb Racing 3/5 · US What the hell guys?!: Why did you cut the coins on all of the vehicles? I just switched to a new friggin phone and found…this! Why is it that you ALWAYS monetize EVERYTHING! Ads! Sponsor Tickets! Revives! AND NOW, IT TAKES ME A FULL WEEK JUST TO HIT 1 MIL. Look, it’s a well made game. That’s true. But fix it. Until you do, we’ll probably all go on strike. Please respond promptly. -Price
  8. [R9] Hill Climb Racing 3/5 · US Track maker, hello?: So I see you put a track editor on hcr2 but uh no track maker on the original hcr, the game that walked so hcr2 could run, so what’s with that? I also noticed you completely nerfed the dirtbike on moon coin farm fix ur game fingersoft bring back what we want to see we want to see bill fall out of the vehicle everytime he crash’s not glitch every everytime I die as a big fan of
  9. [R15] Hill Climb Racing 3/5 · US Game keeps crashing: My game keeps crashing before I receive my reward. Other than that the game is fun, but I am deleting app.
  10. [R16] Hill Climb Racing 1/5 · US I lost everything yup, EVERYTHING why fingersoft why😭: so as the title said I came in today and everything was GONE all of the cars my achievements gone , wiped out , missing please fix this😭😭😭
  11. [R23] Hill Climb Racing 4/5 · US Bug: Love this game, however whenever I do a Daily Challenge or Event map, every other map gives me +5 air time and +230 flip. Please fix this, everything else is awesome!
  12. [R12] Hill Climb Racing 3/5 · US Apple TV Version: Why is it that the ATV version is so much different? It has less cars and challenges. It would be great if you added all off the same or even made it available on Arcade for ATV. LOVE THE GAME!!! Just hate that the TV doesn’t get the same love.
  13. [R21] Hill Climb Racing 3/5 · US Recent Game Balance: The most recent game balance causes you to rely on the daily gift line which is riddled with ads. Money is much harder to get as certain maps no longer give the normal amount of money for air, flips, etc. progression is very slow.
  14. [R36] Hill Climb Racing 3/5 · US Ad Pop-ups: I've always enjoyed Hill Climb, and its still a very fun little physics racing game, but recently they've been shoving in as many pop-ups as they can muster. Now every time a level ends there's a big obnoxious pop-up with "oh no, you died! Watch this ad to be revived!" or "wow, level's over, want to watch this ad to double your coins & get tickets?" its just really annoying and sad to
  15. [R51] Hill Climb Racing 3/5 · GB Commercial breaks!?: Loved this game. Undownloaded no2 fr this one …You used to be able to play add free after purchasing anything . Now i get commercial breaks . Awful addition . What where you thinking? I get it on the newer one but you’ve killed this old gem of a game with ads . As always . Spoilt it .
  16. [R53] Hill Climb Racing 4/5 · US Not bad: The game has way too many commercials, and some of the tracks are a little on the annoying side. The game had a little more consistency in a way it would reward and help you Advanced would be better.
  17. [R5] Hill Climb Racing 5/5 · US Great game: This game is supper fun and needs no WiFi also has cars to drive also funny
  18. [R65] Subway Surfers 5/5 · US Best game ever!!! 👍👍👍: This is the best game ever so much fun and WiFi free so perfect for traveling!!!
  19. [R90] Subway Surfers 3/5 · GB Ads: The game is amazing but every time I play it it glitches sometimes so please change the glitches . I really want the game to become a WiFi less app so I can play whenever I want please take this seriously and stop ignoring people comments it’s annoying u b
  20. [R98] Subway Surfers 4/5 · US Love this game: I love this game so much I love that you don’t even need internet to play great

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