Common Sense Media Review
By Patricia Monticello Kievlan
,
based on child development research. How do we rate?
Seemingly for kids; purchases, privacy issues age it up.
Parents Need to Know
Why Age 16+?
Any Positive Content?
Where to Download
Videos and Photos
Dragon City
Parent and Kid Reviews
Based on 27 parent reviews
Parents say that the mobile app has serious issues with inappropriate content and excessive monetization, raising concerns about its child-friendliness. The chat features have been criticized for enabling predatory behavior, and while some users praise the game's design and gameplay mechanics, many lament the pay-to-win model and the overwhelming number of ads, making it unsuitable for younger players.
- inappropriate content
- pay-to-win model
- predator concerns
- excessive ads
- unsuitable for kids
Summarized with AI
Summarized with AI
Based on 30 kid reviews
Privacy Rating Warning
Privacy Rating
Our expert evaluators create our privacy ratings. The ratings are designed to help you understand how apps use your data for commercial purposes.
Pass
Meets our minimum requirements for privacy and security practices.
Warning
Does not meet our recommendations for privacy and security practices.
Fail
Does not have a privacy policy and should not be used.
Privacy Rating
Our expert evaluators create our privacy ratings. The ratings are designed to help you understand how apps use your data for commercial purposes.
Pass
Meets our minimum requirements for privacy and security practices.
Warning
Does not meet our recommendations for privacy and security practices.
Fail
Does not have a privacy policy and should not be used.
What's It About?
DRAGON CITY is a simulation game where you raise cartoon dragons. First, you pick a habitat, and then you hatch, feed, and raise a dragon to adulthood. Once it's an adult, your dragon can fight or breed with other adults to create new baby dragons for your city. Breeding happens with floating hearts, and battling involves tapping buttons to choose moves, but the dragons don't actually touch each other -- they just incur damage points until they disappear. As you complete tasks, you earn experience points and in-app currency, each of which unlocks abilities or enables you to buy things. In-app purchases abound: You can speed up your leveling-up by using real money, and you can spend on anything from cool accessories for your dragon to increased powers in battle. To avoid spending real money, you can "earn" free gems by signing up for special offers, surveys, or other apps. Also, you can choose to visit the dragon cities that your contacts have created, where you can tap their dragons and habitats to add experience points and in-app currency to their coffers.
Is It Any Good?
Like SimCity BuildIt meets Farmville with a little battle game baked in, this build-and-accumulate model will attract little kids but isn't meant for them. The dragons are cute, and it's rewarding to be able to earn experience points for so many things, from feeding your dragon for the first time to clearing brush. That being said, this screen is really busy: It seems like there are a lot of possibilities for what you can do with your dragons, but there's a reasonably steep learning curve involved to understand how it all works. Also, even though the dragons are cute and potentially appealing to younger kids, this is definitely a game meant for older users. There's no iffy content, exactly, but the social features let you automatically connect with other users in a way that might make some parents (and some kids) uncomfortable. Also, it's too easy to make purchases or share personal information with third parties, all in the name of getting more stuff in the game. Overall, the complex interface, sharing features, and consumerism might best fit teens with their own devices -- or their parents.
Talk to Your Kids About ...
Families can talk about keeping information private: Why does the game offer links to sign up for things? How do you think this free app makes money? What information should we avoid sharing online?
Discuss your rules for in-app purchases before downloading.
Talk about games that let you collect and build. Why is it fun to play these games? What makes them so appealing to play again and again?
App Details
- Devices : iPhone , iPod Touch , iPad , Android
- Pricing structure : Free (many options for in-app purchases and upgrades)
- Release date : December 23, 2015
- Genre : Simulation Games
- Publisher : Socialpoint
- Version : 3.10.3
- Minimum software requirements : iOS 6.0 or later; Android 4.0 and up
- Last updated : October 9, 2025
Did we miss something on diversity?
Research shows a connection between kids' healthy self-esteem and positive portrayals in media. That's why we've added a new "Diverse Representations" section to our reviews that will be rolling out on an ongoing basis. You can help us help kids by
Suggest an Update
Common Sense Media's unbiased ratings are created by expert reviewers and aren't influenced by the product's creators or by any of our funders, affiliates, or partners.
See how we rate