Candy Crush Saga vs The Gardens Between

How do Candy Crush Saga and The Gardens Between compare on difficulty, ad pressure, in-app-purchase pressure and what real reviewers say? A side-by-side look, grounded in App Store data.

	Candy Crush Saga	The Gardens Between
Genre	Puzzle	Puzzle
Price	Free	Paid
Difficulty	hard	medium
Ad intensity	high	none
In-app-purchase pressure	high	none
Typical session	variable	medium
Rating	4.7 / 5	4.8 / 5
Ratings count	3,988,014	3,686
Reviews say	What players like Addictive core match-3 gameplay with escalating difficulty Free to play with offline support Daily rewards and time-limited events for engagement Common complaints Aggressive ad placement and hard-to-close ad windows causing accidental clicks Pay-to-win mechanics with removed ad-based rewards after updates Technical bugs including crashes, freezing, and broken iPad UI	What players like Storybook-inspired vibrant art style Innovative time-manipulation puzzle mechanics Meaningful narrative about friendship and growing up Common complaints <UNKNOWN>

Candy Crush Saga — Match-3 puzzle game where you blast candies through thousands of levels while navigating aggressive monetization and intrusive ads. (rated hard difficulty, high ad pressure) The Gardens Between — A poetic puzzle game where you manipulate time across dreamlike gardens to explore the memories and bonds of two childhood friends. (rated medium difficulty, none ad pressure)

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Data: Apple App Store, as of 2026-08-24. Last updated 2026-08-24.