An Infinite Universe Even on iPhone 11 - No Man's Sky Coming Soon to iOS
Hello Games has announced the release date for No Man’s Sky on iPhone and iPad. The space sandbox will arrive on Apple mobile devices on October 28, 2026, and even owners of iPhone 11 and third-generation iPad Air will be able to run it.
Studio founder Sean Murray spoke about the mobile version during App Store Indie Games Week and also recalled how it all began:
“It’s nice to remind ourselves that we’re still an indie studio. Our main game, No Man’s Sky, came out ten years ago and was made by a very small, tiny indie team. We’ve been very lucky: tens of millions of people have played it on consoles and PC. And we’re very excited to bring that entire experience to iPhone and iPad.”
According to Murray, this is “not No Man’s Sky Lite” — the mobile version will receive all the content accumulated over years of updates, although it will launch without multiplayer and planetary settlements — similar limitations were present in the original Nintendo Switch version.
It took the developers about three years to port the full game to smartphones. The main challenge was memory and processing power limitations, especially on older devices. However, Hello Games fundamentally did not want to release the port only for the latest flagships:
“We didn’t want to limit ourselves to just the latest flagship devices. We wanted to bring the game to as wide an audience as possible, so we set ourselves an even more difficult task: to get it working on devices starting with the iPhone 11 and third-generation iPad Air. We wanted to make it as accessible as possible and give people the opportunity to fully enjoy No Man’s Sky.”
Procedural generation helped save space: planets and their contents are created during gameplay, so there’s no need to store the entire universe on the device. As a result, the developers managed to fit No Man’s Sky into just 5 GB:
“The entire game fits within a five-gigabyte limit, so it can be downloaded directly from the App Store. No additional download is required upon launch.”
For the mobile version, touch controls were developed from scratch, and menus and the interface were redesigned. Gamepad support is also provided, and on iPad, you can play with a mouse and keyboard. Special attention was paid to device heating and battery consumption so that players can spend long sessions in space.
Further development of the port will depend on audience interest and feedback. Murray himself hopes that the mobile version will attract new players and allow long-time fans to return to space exploration at any time:
“It’s an opportunity to introduce them to No Man’s Sky, and for existing players, to allow them to play at any time. Putting an infinite universe in your pocket that you can explore seemed like a fun idea.”
At launch, the mobile version of No Man’s Sky will be available to try for free before purchase. As on other platforms, no additional purchases will be required: all subsequent content will be free.
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