Report updated May 7, 2026

SOULS is a well-regarded games app that is free with in-app purchases. With a 4.4/5 rating from 115.9K reviews, it maintains solid user satisfaction. Users particularly appreciate absence of forced advertisements creates a refreshing experience for mobile rpg players, though pvp matchmaking imbalances create frustrating experiences for players entering higher tiers remains a common concern.

What is SOULS?

SOULS is a squad-based tactical RPG for mobile, featuring grid-based combat and hero collection mechanics.

Players hire SOULS for a visually immersive, ad-free tactical experience that avoids the intrusive monetization common in the idle-RPG genre.

Current Momentum

v3.12 · today

Active
  • Added new hero Rael and skin.
  • Implemented hero ban system in Arena.
  • Added auto-recommend to Pet Wishlist.

Active Nemesis

Idle Heroes - Idle Games

Idle Heroes - Idle Games

By DHGames

Other Rivals

MARVEL Strike Force: Squad RPG
MARVEL Future Fight
Age of Apes
The Walking Dead: Survivors
Sky: Children of the Light

7-Day Rank Pulse 🇺🇸

Games

No ranking data

Rating Pulse 🇺🇸

Recent User Mood

What makes this app unique?

What Does It Look Like?

What Are The Key Features?

Tile-based CombatDifferentiator

Tactical grid-based positioning system requiring formation management to defeat enemies

Hero CollectionStandard

Inventory of over 60 unique characters with individual skills and personalities

World ArenaDifferentiator

Competitive PvP mode featuring a hero ban system and seasonal deck restrictions

How much does it cost?

Freemium
  • Free to play
  • In-app purchases for gems and resources

Freemium model relies on IAP-driven hero and artifact acquisition, with daily resource caps on competitive modes to control progression speed.

What do users think recently?

High confidence · Latest 100 of 129 total reviews analyzed · Based on 129 reviews. Signal may be noisy.

How did the latest release land?

Overall
4.4/ 5
(115.9K)
Current version
4.6/ 5
+0.2 vs overall
(12.7K)
Main signal post-update: absence of forced advertisements creates a refreshing experience for mobile RPG players.

What is the recent mood?

Excited

Recent user voice shows a excited sentiment. Users appreciate absence of forced advertisements creates a refreshing experience for mobile rpg players, but report pvp matchmaking imbalances create frustrating experiences for players entering higher tiers.

What Users Love

Absence of forced advertisements creates a refreshing experience for mobile RPG players

What Frustrates Users

PvP matchmaking imbalances create frustrating experiences for players entering higher tiers

What Users Want

Automated battle skip functionality requested to reduce time spent on repetitive campaign tasks

View the full user-sentiment analysis

Mood gauge, ratings & review-volume history, every praise / complaint / request, and sentiment over time.

Go deeper

What is the competitive landscape for SOULS?

How's The Games Market?

How does it evolve in the Games market?

SOULS maintains a strong rating of 4.6 on iOS and 4.3 on Android, but the high volume of Android reviews (103k) relative to iOS (12k) indicates a platform-skewed user base that requires parity in feature updates to maintain retention.

Rank progression

137 active rankings tracked — 30-day window

The rivals identified

Nemeses(1)

Idle Heroes - Idle Games icon

DHGames Limited

4.7(1.1M)

This title is the definitive benchmark for the idle-RPG genre, sharing the exact core loop and monetization structure as SOULS.

Differentiators

  • Features a massive, decade-long accumulation of hero content and faction-based synergy systems that dwarf current offerings.
  • Utilizes a mature guild-war and cross-server competitive infrastructure that creates deep, long-term social retention loops.
  • Employs a highly refined gacha-pity system that has been tuned over years to maximize player spending.

Head to head

SOULS must lean into its superior visual fidelity to capture the premium-casual segment, as it cannot currently out-scale the deep meta-game content of this established incumbent.

Contenders(2)

MARVEL Future Fight icon

Netmarble Corporation

4.1(3M)

Shares the squad-RPG collection mechanics and tactical combat focus, serving as a primary alternative for hero-collector enthusiasts.

Differentiators

  • Provides a more action-oriented, real-time combat experience compared to the more passive, idle-focused mechanics of SOULS.
  • Offers extensive character customization through costume and gear systems that provide deeper progression paths for power users.

A direct competitor in the squad-based RPG space, leveraging high-IP recognition to capture the same tactical-collection audience.

Differentiators

  • Leverages globally recognized Marvel intellectual property to drive organic acquisition and lower long-term marketing costs.
  • Implements high-frequency live event cycles that keep the meta-game shifting every few weeks to prevent stagnation.

Same space(2)

The Walking Dead: Survivors icon

Galaxy Play Technology Limited

4.5(1.2M)

Operates in the same strategy-RPG ecosystem, competing for the same time-budget of players who enjoy base-building and hero management.

Differentiators

  • Integrates survival-horror elements into the base-building loop, creating a different emotional hook for the player base.
  • Employs a more aggressive, high-velocity release schedule for new content to maintain engagement in a crowded market.
Age of Apes icon
Age of Apesmoat: low

TAP4FUN (HONGKONG) LIMITED

4.6(1.1M)

While the theme differs, it occupies the same 'mid-core' strategy-RPG space with similar monetization and progression pacing.

Differentiators

  • Focuses on social-heavy clan warfare and territory control rather than the hero-collection focus of SOULS.
  • Utilizes a distinct, humorous art direction that differentiates it from the dark, epic fantasy tone of SOULS.

New entrants(1)

Sky: Children of the Light icon

thatgamecompany

4.5(1.1M)

An emerging threat that competes for the same 'immersive art' audience, despite having a different core gameplay loop.

Differentiators

  • Prioritizes social-emotional connection and non-verbal communication as the primary driver for player retention and engagement.
  • Delivers a high-fidelity, atmospheric world-building experience that sets a new industry standard for mobile graphical immersion.

Compare SOULS against every rival

All rivals in one side-by-side table — identity, store metrics, ratings & sentiment, and strategic intel — plus a head-to-head page for each.

Go deeper

The outtake for SOULS

Strengths to defend, gaps to attack

Core Strengths

  • High-fidelity art style sustains organic install velocity
  • Ad-free core experience differentiates from genre-standard ad bombardment

Critical Frictions

  • PvP matchmaking lacks power-level balancing
  • Late-game progression walls create pay-to-advance friction

Growth Levers

  • Automated battle skip functionality would reduce churn on repetitive campaign tasks

Market Threats

  • Idle Heroes' established meta-game content creates high switching cost for power users

What are the next best moves?

highInvest

Ship automated battle skip functionality because manual re-runs are the top-requested feature → reduce churn on repetitive tasks

Sentiment analysis identifies battle skipping as the #1 request to mitigate chore fatigue.

Trade-off: Pause the development of new hero skins — automation has a higher impact on long-term retention.

mediumMaintain

Audit PvP matchmaking logic because power-level disparity is the top complaint → improve competitive sentiment

High-frequency complaints regarding lopsided arena matches threaten the retention of non-paying players.

Trade-off: Same-quarter capacity available — no major lever displaced.

A counter-intuitive read

The game's lack of ads is a strategic liability, not a strength, as it removes the primary mechanism for non-paying players to accelerate their progression, forcing a harder pay-wall that drives churn.

Feature Gaps vs Competitors

  • Massive faction-based synergy systems (available in Idle Heroes but absent here)
  • Cross-server competitive infrastructure (available in Idle Heroes but absent here)

Key Takeaways

SOULS holds its category lead through visual fidelity and an ad-free loop, but the lack of automation in late-game progression risks alienating the core player base, so the team must prioritize battle-skipping to prevent churn.

Where Is It Heading?

Stable

The squad-RPG market is consolidating around titles that offer deeper meta-game content and automated progression, leaving SOULS exposed to churn if it remains in maintenance-mode for quality-of-life features. The team must transition from content-only updates to core-loop refinement to prevent the player base from migrating to more mature incumbents.

The latest release added a hero ban system to the Arena, signaling active investment in competitive meta-game balance.

Persistent complaints about manual battle requirements indicate that the core loop is becoming a chore, which threatens long-term retention.

Disclosure: Independent intel to help mobile builders succeed.

AI-powered analysis with editorial review, built from publicly available sources. Marlvel.ai is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by SOULS, its developer, the app publisher, Apple, or Google Play. All trademarks, logos, and screenshots referenced remain the property of their respective owners.

What's new

The app introduced competitive PvP features but experienced a decline in sentiment score and rating due to matchmaking imbalances and unresolved chore fatigue.

declined

Sentiment Score and Rating Drop

added

World Arena PvP Mode

added

New Weakness: PvP Matchmaking

added

New Threat: Idle Heroes

Cite this report

Marlvel.ai. “SOULS Intelligence Report.” Updated May 7, 2026. https://marlvel.ai/apps/souls

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Data licensed under CC-BY-NC 4.0