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

Summoners War vs AFK Arena

Summoners War 4.2★ · Free + IAP 60
Winner AFK Arena
AFK Arena 4.7★ · Free + IAP 75

AFK Arena is generally preferred for its engaging gameplay and better new player experience, despite some recent technical issues, while Summoners War struggles with persistent crashing, poor customer service, and a perceived pay-to-win model.

Full reviews: Summoners War · AFK Arena

AFK Arena offers an addictive idle RPG experience with good character designs and lore, though recent updates have introduced bugs and concerns about pay-to-win aspects. Summoners War, a long-standing gacha game, is praised for its depth and community but is hampered by frequent crashes, frustrating summon rates, and unresponsive customer support.

Head to head

Gameplay & Engagement edge: AFK ArenaR18R21R26R31
Summoners War Summoners War offers deep strategy and PvP mechanics that long-term players appreciate, providing a challenging and interactive experience R26. However, some users find the game's core mechanics, like 'violent procs' and RNG, can ruin the fun and strategy R18R31. The game is also criticized for becoming boring and overly focused on numerical increases rather than strategic depth R21.
AFK Arena AFK Arena is lauded for its fun, addictive, and engaging gameplay, with many different things to keep players busy and entertained . Users enjoy the character designs, lore, and events . However, some players experience burnout and find the game can get boring after a while, especially as it becomes more grindy .
Technical Performance & Reliability tieR9R13R15R27
Summoners War Summoners War suffers from severe and widespread technical issues, including frequent crashes, especially on older iOS devices, making the game unplayable for many R13R15R28. Users also report constant, large updates that take a long time to download and can cause further instability R9R27.
AFK Arena AFK Arena also experiences significant technical problems, with users reporting issues like the game not loading, getting stuck on black screens, or crashing R61. Updates are sometimes large and slow to download, which can hinder gameplay . Some users have also lost progress after linking accounts or due to game updates .
Monetization & Free-to-Play Experience tieR3R7R10R19
Summoners War Summoners War is widely criticized for being a 'greedy' and 'pay-to-win' game, with extremely low summon rates for desirable monsters, especially Light/Dark Nat 5s R7R10R19. While some newer players might get better summons, long-term free-to-play users feel disadvantaged and that the game is designed to milk cash R3R22R35.
AFK Arena AFK Arena is also perceived as 'pay-to-win' and 'money-oriented,' with expensive in-app purchases and a grindy progression for free players . Some users feel it's not worth spending money unless you're willing to spend over $1,000 . However, some reviews suggest it can be good for F2P players initially .
Customer Service & Account Management edge: Summoners WarR1R13R24R39
Summoners War Summoners War receives overwhelmingly negative feedback regarding its customer service, described as 'abysmally bad' and unhelpful R1R13R39. Users report difficulties using the requests portal, unhelpful responses, and even threats of legal action for submitting too many inquiries R1R13. Account recovery is also a significant issue, with players losing accounts due to poor support R24R39.
AFK Arena AFK Arena has some reported issues with account management, including players losing all progress after linking an account or due to game updates . There's also a report of an event bug that received no response or improvement from management R67.
Community & Content Moderation tieR12R91
Summoners War Summoners War has a significant problem with chat moderation, with users reporting rampant slurs, antisemitism, and other offensive content on global servers with no action taken R12.
AFK Arena AFK Arena's chat feature is a major concern, with a user reporting the presence of 'full grown adult groomers' and 'very gross things' being said, making it unsuitable for younger players R91.
Pick Summoners War if

Pick Summoners War if you are a long-term player who appreciates deep, complex PvP mechanics and strategic team building, and are willing to overlook significant technical issues and potentially frustrating monetization R26. It might also appeal if you've enjoyed it in the past and are looking to return, as some users find themselves coming back to it .

Pick AFK Arena if

Pick AFK Arena if you enjoy idle RPGs with engaging character designs, rich lore, and a variety of activities, and are looking for a game that can be fun to grind and check in with daily . It's also a good choice if you're a new player looking for a generally well-received game in the genre .

Evidence note: Reviews for both apps show a strong negative skew in recent feedback, primarily due to technical issues and monetization concerns. AFK Arena has a much higher lifetime rating, but recent reviews highlight significant problems, bringing its current user satisfaction closer to Summoners War, which has consistently struggled with these issues for longer.

Frequently asked

Which game is better for free-to-play players?
AFK Arena is generally considered more friendly to free-to-play players, especially in the early stages, with some users praising its generous gacha and lack of tedious grinding . Summoners War, while having some features catering to F2P and new players, is frequently criticized for being heavily pay-to-win with extremely low summon rates for desirable characters R3R7R22R35.
Do these games have good customer support?
Neither game appears to have good customer support, but Summoners War receives significantly more severe criticism, with users reporting 'abysmally bad' service, unhelpful responses, and difficulties with account recovery R1R13R39. AFK Arena has some reports of unaddressed bugs and issues with account progress loss, but fewer direct complaints about support interaction R67.
Which game has better technical performance?
Both games struggle with technical performance, experiencing frequent crashes, loading issues, and large, slow updates R9R13R28R61. Summoners War has long-standing issues with crashing, particularly on iOS devices R13R28. AFK Arena also has numerous reports of loading problems and game freezes R61.

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. [R18] Summoners War 3/5 · US Fun casual game. No strategy involved.: The game is only very fun if you can understand that everything is RNG. There is minimal skill involved even though the game claims “the more you fight and refine your strategy”. Your water team can easily lose to a fire team because they get 12 extra turns based on a 25% chance every turn. Other than that, it’s super fun to casually play everyday and summon
  2. [R21] Summoners War 3/5 · US Are you still a strategy game?: I feel this game simply forces players to increase stats, with no fun at all! · translated
  3. [R26] Summoners War 5/5 · US The best mobile game: I just really want to say thank you Com2Us for all of your hard work and making such an amazing game. I know a lot of people always find something to criticize, but when it comes down to it, we play this game because we love it. Sure it takes time to really learn the game, to learn team building and understand a lot of the PvP mechanics, but once you do, it’s so worth it. It’
  4. [R31] Summoners War 1/5 · US Strategy doesn’t matter in this game, just who can get violent procs: I have uninstalled this game so many times because of how much time I have spent on it in the past… but no wonder they are losing so many players.. game play is all of the place and sloppy. And it’s just random violent procs ruin the fun and strategy.. how can you play against some enemy that takes 4 turns in a row..
  5. [R9] Summoners War 3/5 · US Constant Update: Every single time I try and play the game, I have to download upwards of 4,000MB, and regardless of my WiFi connection strength it takes upwards of 20 mins!!!! Please fix .
  6. [R13] Summoners War 1/5 · US Developer doesn’t care: Update from the last review. It’s been a couple of months now and the game still crashes like crazy. If you are using older generation ipad, just don’t even bother to install the game. Their support will lie about being there for us. Don’t even bother to contact support. They will lie and blame it on your device and connection problem. They will also threaten you with civil
  7. [R15] Summoners War 3/5 · US Love the game but can’t play it. Update again.: I’ve had this game for years and recently about three updates ago I did the update for the game and now I can’t really play it. It crashes in the middle of me trying to do anything I can collect rewards or full complete the daily missions without it crashing several times. I can’t even participate in the labyrinth at this point how am I supposed to b
  8. [R27] Summoners War 3/5 · US STOP WITH UPDATES!!!: Please stop with all these updates!!! Why am I having to update this game every other day? Doing so many of these updates is making my game not work properly… I’m literally getting booted off the game in the middle of pvp matches for the past 3 days my app has been crashing as soon as I get to the tap to start screen I’ve uninstalled and reinstalled it and it’s still crashing
  9. [R3] Summoners War 3/5 · US Kinda disappointing: Played the game across a few accounts for a few years and I can say that this game isn’t kind to free to play
  10. [R7] Summoners War 1/5 · US Ne of the most greediest companies I know: Rerolling not worth it, not newbie friendly enough otherwise they give you a light or dark scroll mat 5 at start. They will nerf characters fast and one you just got probably be nerf and you would have wasted pulls. A lot of better gacha games out. Like epic seven gives free light and dark characters every so often and a lot during anniversaries. Characte
  11. [R10] Summoners War 1/5 · US Pull rates: The pull rates for any good monster are so incredibly low. It’s a shame how greedy this company is. If not for that it would be an amazing game. Too bad..
  12. [R19] Summoners War 1/5 · US Scam Game: Game is a complete scam. Rates are a lie, rate up is a lie, literally just designed to scam players. Stay away from this garbage game.
  13. [R1] Summoners War 1/5 · US Very Poor Customer Service: I’ve been playing on and off for probably close to 10 years. The game is fairly fun, it’s a good activity with friends. Unfortunately, their customer service is abysmally bad. Their actual requests portal only works half of the time, so you’ll find yourself writing out your message multiple times. Then, when you finally get it to send, their service team doesn’t even at
  14. [R24] Summoners War 3/5 · US I lost my account someone stole it: I lost my account someone stole it
  15. [R39] Summoners War 3/5 · US Wish it was easier to talk to someone: I’ve been playing this game off and on since 17. I got a new phone in 2025 and they messed up my email and I emailed them four different times and they could never get it straight so I lost everything I did and now I’m having to start over. Customer service is horrible.
  16. [R12] Summoners War 3/5 · US Game is fun, but chat has 0 moderation: The game is fun, but if you ever check english chat on global server there's a high chance there's people saying slurs or things such as "white is superior" as well as rampant antisemitism and there's 0 moderation or anything stopping them.
  17. [R91] AFK Arena 1/5 · US not for nine year olds: i was so happy to get the game and collect rewards and fight. i loved a few of the characters but the chat feature...its disgusting. there are full grown adult groomers on there and they say very gross things and want to sext. i dont recomend it to nine year olds...though im not sure any nine year old has played the game
  18. [R22] Summoners War 2/5 · US It’s never going to change: They’re just going to keep adding more and more ways for whales to be leagues above average f2p users I’ve given up and used to log in daily for YEARS I think I log in twice a week now I have an account that’s been around since the first six months of the game 100% f2p and I haven’t enjoyed playing the game in so long I can’t remember the last time I did I have an insan
  19. [R35] Summoners War 5/5 · US Best for f2p players: I have played since 2013 or so and after returning from a long break it’s nice to see a game like this catering to f2p and new players in a way I haven’t seen other games of the same genre manage. I’ve almost maxed my first strictly f2p account and feel relatively little to no restrictions. Whales run high end pvp, but what game isn’t like that. But even for that problem they
  20. [R67] AFK Arena 1/5 · US Event Vaul of time Bug: Event bugged for several days, reported many time no response no improve. Feel like no management anymore.
  21. [R28] Summoners War 2/5 · US Game Crashing for months: IOS players have been reporting a bug for MONTHS that makes the game almost unplayable. The game will crash randomly and very sporadically. It makes it impossible to do anything in the game and its been at least 6 months of this. Hate to quit the game, but I literally cant play. My IOS is updated and I have a newer device. Fix the game or lose players.
  22. [R61] AFK Arena 1/5 · US Won’t Load: When I try to play it won’t start I sat there for 30 minutes and it never loaded

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