No Man’s Sky Finally Sets iOS Release Date: October 28

No Man’s Sky is heading to iPhone and iPad after a decade of waiting. Hello Games confirmed on October 12 that the full game launches on iOS and iPadOS on October 28, 2026, bringing the complete decade-long experience to mobile rather than a stripped-down companion app.

Pre-orders are already live on the App Store, and the game is playable for free up to a point before requiring a one-time purchase to unlock everything else.

A Full Port, Not a Lite Version

Hello Games is emphasizing that this isn’t a scaled-back mobile spin-off. The iOS release includes every major update the game has received since its 2016 launch, more than 40 in total, covering everything from early additions like Foundation, Pathfinder, and Atlas Rises through to Worlds, Voyagers, Relics, Beacon, Remnant, and this year’s major Cosmos update.

The game has been rebuilt with redesigned touchscreen controls, but it also supports physical controllers and mouse and keyboard, including on iPad. Screen casting lets players move the experience onto a larger display, and Hello Games says significant work went into battery life and thermodynamics so the game can run comfortably during long play sessions.

Minimum requirements are set at iPhone 11 and third-generation iPad Air or newer, provided those devices meet the necessary operating system version.

How We Got Here

According to Hello Games, the technical groundwork for the iOS port came from work originally built for Light No Fire, the studio’s next game, which fed back into No Man’s Sky and made a true mobile port viable in a way it hadn’t been previously.

It’s a notable final step for a game that’s steadily expanded its platform footprint since a rocky 2016 launch. No Man’s Sky already supports PS4, PS5, PS5 Pro, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, Nintendo Switch, Switch 2, and PC, with cross-play and cross-save functioning across nearly all of them. iOS closes out what’s left of the major gaming platforms the title hadn’t yet reached, with Android still notably absent from Tuesday’s announcement.

One Date Discrepancy Worth Knowing

Hello Games’ own announcement and most coverage point to October 28, 2026, as the release date. However, the U.S. App Store listing currently shows October 29, with no explanation given for the one-day gap between the two. Players pre-ordering should keep an eye on their local App Store listing closer to launch in case the date shifts for their region.

Pricing is set at $19.99 for the full unlock, following the same free-trial-then-purchase model Hello Games has used for other platform expansions.

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