The Highrise game

Highrise is a free social avatar world for phones and computers. You dress up a 3D avatar, build rooms, and meet other real players in text and voice chat. Pocket Worlds, a company in Austin, Texas, makes it.

The key facts:

• Developer and publisher: Pocket Worlds. Wikipedia names Anton Bernstein, Jimmy Xu and Gordon Su as its designers.
• Platforms: iPhone, iPad, Android, and Windows and Mac through Steam.
• Price model: free to play, with in-app purchases, ads, and an optional monthly subscription.
• Players: Wikipedia says Highrise had more than 50 million registered users by 2025.

Wikipedia gives this history. Pocket Worlds started in 2013. Highrise came to iOS as a beta in March 2015. The Android version came out in January 2020. Highrise Studio, a tool to build 3D worlds in Unity, came out in 2024.

Do not mix it up with Project Highrise. Project Highrise is a different game, a building management game about skyscrapers. This guide covers the Highrise social app only.

This is the LifeSim blog. LifeSim is our game, and it is a different kind of game: a single-player life with AI characters. We opened the store pages, the Highrise Help Center, Wikipedia, and Common Sense Media on November 13, 2026. The facts below come from these pages. We did not play Highrise for this post.

In Highrise, you style an avatar, visit rooms, and talk to people. There is no main story and no goal that ends the game. The people in the rooms are other players, not computer characters.

Dress up your avatar

Fashion is the center of the game. The Steam page says that you can choose from more than 50,000 items. The App Store page talks about “weekly fashion drops” and design contests. Players also enter fashion events.

Build and visit rooms

You decorate your own room, and you visit rooms that other players made. The Steam page names fashion shows, dance parties and voice chat rooms. The official site shows a list of live rooms with the number of players in each one.

Chat, crews and friends

Highrise has text chat, voice chat, emotes and a feed for posts. Wikipedia also names crews, a friend system, and events where a crew plays together. The App Store page lists minigames and pets that you can collect.

Trade in a player economy

Players buy, sell and trade items with each other on the Marketplace. The Steam page says, “Every transaction is player to player.” The Highrise blog says that trades are final. You cannot reverse or refund a trade after you confirm it.

Play worlds that players built

Creators build games and worlds in Highrise Studio, and other players visit them inside the app. The Help Center says that creators can earn gold when players spend time in their worlds.

Yes. Highrise: Avatar & Social World came to Steam on October 22, 2025, for Windows and Mac. It is free to play, and one account works on PC, Mac and phone. The Steam page lists cross-platform multiplayer.

On a Mac, you can also get the App Store version. The App Store page lists iPhone, iPad, Mac and Apple Vision.

We found no official version that plays in a web browser. The official site lists the App Store, Google Play, Steam, macOS and Windows only. Some other sites offer a “Highrise for PC” download. They do not come from Pocket Worlds, so use the Steam page instead.

The Steam page asks for Windows 7 or newer (64-bit) or macOS 11 or newer, 4 GB of RAM and 1 GB of storage. Steam itself needs Windows 10 or newer.

Yes. You download and play Highrise for free. Pocket Worlds makes money from in-app purchases, from ads, and from a monthly subscription. We left out the prices, because they change. Check the store page before you buy.

Gold, the premium currency

Gold is the money of Highrise. Players use gold to buy items, enter events, shop on the Marketplace and trade. Most players buy gold in the app or on the Highrise web shop. The Highrise blog says that gold has no cash value.

The Help Center lists ways to get gold without a purchase:

• Watch ads, up to a daily limit.
• Complete sponsor offers in the shop.
• Sell items on the Marketplace, or trade with other players.
• Win design contests.
• Get tips and gifts from other players.
• Build worlds in Highrise Studio that players visit.

The Help Center also says that Highrise does not give free gold when you ask for it. Players in App Store reviews say that gold is hard to earn, and that the best event items go to players who spend money.

Highrise+, the subscription

Highrise+ is an optional monthly subscription. The Help Center lists these perks: a monthly gold amount, more hair and eye colors, more outfit slots, a profile badge, and a bonus on gold packs. You can play the full game without it.

Ads

The Google Play listing says that the app contains ads. In Highrise, some ads are optional: you watch them to earn gold.

The Highrise Help Center says, “The suggested age to play Highrise is 17+, with the minimum being 13.” Highrise removes players under 13 who cannot prove their age. Parents should treat it as an app for older teens and adults.

The store ratings

The ratings are not the same in each store. On the US App Store, Highrise has a 16+ rating. The listing names loot boxes, ads, chat and user-generated content, and it lists simulated gambling as infrequent. In some other countries, the App Store page shows 17+. The Google Play data that we found says 13+.

Common Sense Media rates Highrise 18+. Its review names sex talk in chat rooms, pressure to spend money, and bullying. The review shows an old version number, so some parts may be out of date. Read it as a warning, not as a full picture of the app today.

The safety tools

The Help Center lists these tools:

• Block a player, to stop messages, tags and room visits from that player.
• Report a player from the profile or from the flag icon in a room.
• Turn on Safety Lock, a PIN that protects your items in trades.

Highrise uses human moderators and an AI system to find rule breaks. The Help Center also says that Highrise staff will never ask for your password or your Safety Lock PIN.

What players complain about

App Store reviews from 2022 to 2024 name scams in trades, adult players who send unwanted messages, and account bans that support did not explain. Do not trust a payment that you see only in chat. Trade only through the trade window, and do not buy gold from other sites. Highrise does not permit it, and you can lose your account.

Yes. Pocket Worlds still updates Highrise, and players still fill its rooms. Here is the proof that we found on November 13, 2026:

• The App Store page shows version 4.30.3, released on October 29.
• The Google Play data shows an update on October 28, 2026, and more than 26 million installs.
• The Steam version is about one year old. Its reviews are “Mostly Positive”.
• The Highrise blog posted new articles in March, April and May 2026.
• The official site shows live rooms with thousands of players in them.

The App Store page has a rating of 4.6 out of 5 from about 166,000 ratings. So most players like it, even when they complain about prices and moderation.

The closest games to Highrise are IMVU, Avakin Life and ZEPETO. All three are avatar worlds with fashion, rooms and chat with real players. Second Life and VRChat are larger worlds, mostly on PC.

A Highrise article from March 2026 lists these virtual world apps. Highrise wrote it, so the list puts Highrise first.

• IMVU: an old avatar fashion app with a large catalog that players made.
• Avakin Life: a mobile social app with avatars and themed places to meet.
• ZEPETO: a 3D avatar app with K-style fashion and brand collaborations.
• Roblox: a large platform of games that players made, with a younger population.
• Rec Room: user-made rooms and games with voice chat, on many platforms.
• Second Life: a long-running virtual world with a deep economy, mostly on PC.
• VRChat: user-made worlds and live events on PC and in VR.

For more choices in each group, read games like IMVU and games like Second Life. If you want the history of online life games, read about The Sims Online.

LifeSim: a different kind of game (ours)

LifeSim is our game, and it is not a Highrise copy. It is a single-player life. The people in it are AI characters, not other players. They have jobs, homes and friends. They answer in their own words, and they remember you.

You pick any city on a real 3D map of Earth, and your life runs a day at a time, on its own clock. LifeSim is free to play, with no ads, no subscription, and nothing to buy. It plays in any browser at play.lifesim.com and on iPhone and iPad.

LifeSim does not do what Highrise does best. It has no avatar fashion, no trading, no voice rooms, and no real players to meet. If you want those things, Highrise or one of the apps above is the better choice. To see how a LifeSim day works, read how to play LifeSim.

For more single-player games of this kind, read games where you live a life, the best life sim games, 3D life simulator games and games where you can talk to AI.

Use this rule to decide:

• Play Highrise if you are 17 or older and you want to dress up, decorate rooms and talk to real people. It is free, and it is on phone, PC and Mac.
• Set a limit before you start if you spend money easily. The best items cost gold, and players say that gold is hard to earn.
• Look at the apps above if you want the same kind of world with a different style or population.
• Try LifeSim if you want a life to live alone, with AI characters who talk back and remember you. It is free, and it plays in your browser.

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• Wikipedia: Highrise (video game)
• Highrise on the App Store
• Highrise: Avatar & Social World on Steam
• Highrise: official site
• AppGoblin: Highrise on Google Play (store data)
• Highrise Help Center: Staying safe on Highrise
• Highrise Help Center: What is gold and how do I get it?
• Highrise Help Center: Highrise+
• Highrise blog: Gold, Gold Bars and trading (May 4, 2026)
• Highrise news: The best mobile virtual world apps in 2026 (March 27, 2026)
• Highrise Studio
• Common Sense Media: Highrise parents’ guide