The short version
Apple Arcade is Apple’s games subscription: $6.99 a month or $49.99 a year, with a one-month free trial (three months with a new device), and it is bundled into Apple One from $19.95 a month. Every game in it is required to have no ads and no in-app purchases, and the catalogue runs to a couple of hundred titles across iPhone, iPad, Mac and Apple TV. Very few of them are augmented-reality games.
Down The Drone is one game, not a catalogue: a first-person AR shooter for iPhone from KIDA Studios. It is free, with no ads, no in-app purchases, no account and no connection required. If the thing you were paying Arcade for is the absence of a free-to-play loop, this is the same absence for $0.
Side by side
| Apple Arcade | Down The Drone | |
|---|---|---|
| What it is | Subscription catalogue of 200+ games | One AR first-person shooter |
| Price | $6.99/month, $49.99/year, or inside Apple One | Free |
| Free trial | 1 month (3 months with a new device) | Not needed |
| Ads | None, by policy | None |
| In-app purchases | None, by policy | None |
| Augmented reality games | A handful | Yes — the whole game |
| Works offline | Most games, once downloaded | Fully |
| If you stop paying | Games lock | Nothing changes |
| Platforms | iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple TV | iPhone (iOS 13+, ARKit) |
When Apple Arcade is worth it
Arcade is a good deal if you play a lot of different games, share it with a family through Apple One, or want the specific exclusives in it. $6.99 a month for a rotating library with no monetisation tricks is fair pricing, and the catalogue includes some of the best-made mobile games there are. If you already pay for Apple One, it is effectively free and there is no reason not to use it.
When it is not
Arcade is a poor fit if you wanted it for AR. The catalogue has never leaned into augmented reality; the AR titles in it are few and mostly older. It is also a poor fit if you play one or two games at a time — you are renting a library to use a shelf of it, and the moment you cancel, the games stop working.
The thing most people actually want from Arcade — a game that does not interrupt you with ads or nudge you toward a store — does not require a subscription. It requires a developer who chose not to do those things. Down The Drone is built that way: it runs entirely on the device, in airplane mode if you like, and there is nothing to buy or cancel.
What Down The Drone actually is
It is a first-person shooter that uses ARKit to place hostile drone swarms into your real surroundings. You scan the room, the drones arrive from above, and you aim by pointing the phone. Rounds are short by design because holding a phone at eye level is tiring, and enemies come to you so you never need floor space. Requirements are an iPhone 6s or later on iOS 13 or later; it supports Game Center for scores.
It is one game. If you want twenty, subscribe to Arcade. If you want a clean, current AR game without paying monthly, this is it — and the round-up of free AR shooting games covers the rest of the free field.
We make Down The Drone, so read this as a comparison from someone with a stake in it. Facts about other apps and services come from their App Store listings, official pricing pages and published reviews as of 2026-09-15; listings change, so confirm anything decision-critical on the store page itself.