Software Alternatives & Reviews

SpriteKit VS LibGDX

Compare SpriteKit VS LibGDX and see what are their differences

SpriteKit logo SpriteKit

SpriteKit makes it easy to create high-performance, power-efficient 2D games on Apple platforms.

LibGDX logo LibGDX

Libgdx is a Java game development framework that provides a unified API that works across all...
  • SpriteKit Landing page
    Landing page //
    2022-05-18
  • LibGDX Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-05-07

SpriteKit videos

SpriteKit iPhone Game Dev - Jumping Ball Physics

More videos:

  • Review - Deep Dive Into Using SpriteKit On an iPad | Is This Xcode On iPad?

LibGDX videos

A Closer Look At LibGDX

More videos:

  • Review - LibGDX Game Jam - February 2019 in Review
  • Review - libGDX Jam March 2020 in Review

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to SpriteKit and LibGDX)
Game Development
14 14%
86% 86
Game Engine
14 14%
86% 86
3D Game Engine
19 19%
81% 81
2D Game Engine
100 100%
0% 0

User comments

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Reviews

These are some of the external sources and on-site user reviews we've used to compare SpriteKit and LibGDX

SpriteKit Reviews

Top 10 Mobile Game Development Tools For Intellectual Games
If your motive is to develop and deploy a game only on Apple, then you could not find the best framework like SpriteKit. SpriteKit is Apple’s proprietary game engine to create 2D games. It is available on iOS and OS X and supports both Objective-C and Swift languages. A wide range of features comes in handy to create high performing battery-efficient 2D titles.
Source: unaryteam.com
The Best 15 Mobile Game Engines / Development Platforms & Tools in 2020
Apple has launched its own game engine to create 2D games: SpriteKit. This platform supports both Swift and Objective-C languages and it offers developers a wide range of features that will help them in creating high-performance 2D titles. If you are thinking of developing a game for Apple this is the platform for you. Take note: if it’s supported by Apple it means that you...
Source: thetool.io

LibGDX Reviews

The Top 10 Video Game Engines
The libGDX forums are alive as well, with topics that cover development with libGDX and tutorials for getting started. There’s also a “source guide” with demos and examples you can take advantage of.

Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, LibGDX should be more popular than SpriteKit. It has been mentiond 6 times since March 2021. We are tracking product recommendations and mentions on various public social media platforms and blogs. They can help you identify which product is more popular and what people think of it.

SpriteKit mentions (2)

  • App dev question - specifically IOS animation
    I don't recommend it but what you are looking for is probably Spritekit. Maybe it can be useful to give you an easy start and get you more interested. Source: almost 2 years ago
  • iOS Game Development Path/Materials Suggestions
    There are tutorials on https://www.raywenderlich.com that I can recommend. Also Apple's Documentation is usually good: https://developer.apple.com/spritekit/. Source: almost 2 years ago

LibGDX mentions (6)

  • Ask HN: Released games built on FOSS engines?
    Some popular games were builtwith LibGDX[1]: Slay the Spire, Mindustry, Space Haven, and others[2]. [1]: https://libgdx.com/ [2]: https://libgdx.com/showcase/. - Source: Hacker News / 7 months ago
  • What is the best 2D mobile gaming framework ?
    I am looking for a new framework to develop 2d Game on Android devices. I used Libgdx (a java framework) actually I am using flutter flame. Please send me alternative. Source: 7 months ago
  • Ask HN: Favorite Game Engine?
    This answer is most likely based on what programming language you use most. The C++ folks will like Unreal and the JS folks have the preference as well. [0] https://libgdx.com/. - Source: Hacker News / 8 months ago
  • Suitability for 2D development
    I switched from godot to this: https://libgdx.com They understand 2D rendering pipeline better. Godot is just throwing everything to GPU with zero optimizations. Source: about 1 year ago
  • What game engine should I use?
    Not an engine, but if you like Java, then there is https://libgdx.com/. Source: about 1 year ago
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What are some alternatives?

When comparing SpriteKit and LibGDX, you can also consider the following products

Corona SDK - Cross-platform mobile app development.

Godot Engine - Feature-packed 2D and 3D open source game engine.

Marmalade - Platform to author, deploy and manage high performance 2D and 3D games.

Unreal Engine - Unreal Engine 4 is a suite of integrated tools for game developers to design and build games, simulations, and visualizations.

Unity - The multiplatform game creation tools for everyone.

MonoGame - MonoGame is an open source implementation of the Microsoft XNA 4 Framework.