Block Blast!+ drops its ads for Apple Arcade's $6.99 subscription

The version of Block Blast!+ arriving on Apple Arcade on September 3 differs from the chart-topping original in one notable way: the ads are gone, and so are the in-app purchases. Apple announced the addition on August 11, alongside Art of Fauna: Cozy Puzzles+, the 2025 App Store Award winner for Cultural Impact.

The game's appeal is easy to describe and harder to put down. Blocks fall onto a grid, players slot them in to clear rows and columns, and the loop chases one more combo. Apple describes Block Blast!+ as one of the most popular daily puzzle games, "simple to pick up and nearly impossible to put down." The Arcade version keeps the gameplay, without the interruptions.

The subscription is the price of an ad-free session

Outside Arcade, the game runs on ads. Apple's pitch for the subscription version is the removal of that machinery, in the company's words: "no ads, no in-app purchases, just pure play." For players, that means sessions without interruptions, at the cost of a $6.99 monthly subscription that covers the full catalog and up to six family members. For a game that has topped charts, the Arcade edition is a bet that a chunk of its players will pay to remove the noise.

Art of Fauna: jigsaw calm with a cultural award

The second arrival works in a different register. Art of Fauna: Cozy Puzzles+ won the 2025 App Store Award for Cultural Impact. It assembles nature-inspired artwork at the player's own pace, unlocking stories about wildlife and conservation along the way. Apple highlights its accessibility features, framing the game as both a real challenge and a moment of calm. That calm reaches beyond Arcade: Flamecraft, the turn-based strategy game about placing dragons in shops, has a PS5 demo live and a full release due later this year, per the Flamecraft demo report.

Five games in one week, plus late-August updates

September 3 also brings NFL Retro Bowl '27, which starts a new season with the high-stakes addition of Gauntlet Mode, plus Coloring Games for Families+, with over 3,000 activities for younger players, and Let's Play! Oink Games+, a digital collection of nine tabletop games ranging from cooperative missions to bluffing cards. Sony runs a similar rotation on PlayStation Plus, whose August lineup pairs cozy puzzles with zombie parkour and retro horror, per the August Plus lineup.

The five additions in one glance:

The newcomers join a puzzle shelf that already holds Grindstone, Flow Free+, Crossword Jam+, and recent arrivals Everyday Puzzles: Mini Games+ and Water Sort Puzzle: Get Color+. The genre's pull reaches beyond Arcade: Ball x Pit closed out its free-content run on August 6 with two new characters and an either/or build choice, per Ball x Pit's final update.

Before the September drop, three existing games get updates. On August 12, puffies. adds 28 new packs, including two collections with artwork for Oden Tomodachi and The Knights. Simon's Cat - Blast Time follows on August 20 with 200 new levels, rolling out 50 a week for a month. On August 26, stitch. hits 800 unique hoops, celebrated with a special commemorative hoop and achievement.

Pricing: $6.99 a month, or bundled into Apple One

Arcade costs $6.99 a month with a one-month free trial, and customers who buy a new iPhone, iPad, Mac, or Apple TV get three months free. The service is also part of Apple One at $19.95, $25.95, and $37.95 a month depending on the plan. A subscription covers a family of up to six and unlocks more than 200 games, with availability varying by device. Most of the catalog plays across iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple TV, and Apple Vision Pro. The price holds while one rival runs a rare discount: Xbox Game Pass Ultimate three-month codes dropped to $39.01 on Eneba, nearly 45% off the usual $69, per Game Pass's rare price break.

The Arcade push sits alongside Apple's broader games work. In June, the company detailed Managed Background Assets, which shrink install sizes by downloading only the language packs a player actually needs, and a new Game Porting Toolkit designed to speed Mac ports. The fall catalog drop is the player-facing side of that same effort.

The open question is what the ad-free pitch says about the economics of puzzle games. Block Blast!+ built its run as a game you can start in seconds, and the Arcade version makes a straightforward play: take a popular mobile game, strip out the ads, and let the subscription stand in for them. Whether that trade is worth $6.99 a month is for players to decide. The ad-free version exists only as long as the subscription does.