Umamusume: Pretty Derby

Review by eFreeware

The premise is the strangest part and the reason people talk about it. Umamusume: Pretty Derby takes real Japanese racehorses, gives them names, personalities and voices, and turns them into characters you raise. You are the trainer. The developer, Cygames, has built a whole career structure around getting one of these runners from a promising newcomer to a racer who wins, and the game frames that as a sports life simulation rather than a pure racing title.

That framing is what makes it interesting to me. It is free to play, carries a Teen rating and has been out since June 24, 2025, with a small bug fix arriving in September 2026. More than five million installs and a 4.1 average from over 60,000 ratings suggest a large audience has already found it. It suits players who like management games, anime casts and the idea of watching a plan come together over a season rather than controlling a car or a horse directly.

A cast of runners rather than a stable of stats

The roster is the heart of the thing. The developer lists more than twenty Umamusume, each with a name, a voice and a personality, and the named cast includes Special Week, Silence Suzuka, Tokai Teio, Oguri Cap, Gold Ship, Vodka, Daiwa Scarlet, Mejiro McQueen, Symboli Rudolf, Rice Shower, Haru Urara and Nice Nature, among others. Voice actors are credited for each of them.

What I like about this setup is that it gives the training loop a face. You are not optimizing an anonymous stat block; you are trying to get a specific runner to a specific goal. Each of the runners carries a unique charm, and leading them to victory is your job, which is the emotional hook the whole game hangs on.

The historic angle adds another layer. These characters inherit names from real racers, and the stories are framed around those legacies. If you already follow Japanese racing, that connection gives the roster a second meaning beyond the anime presentation.

Scouting, training and the season you build

The core loop is scouting and raising. You recruit trainees and supporters, then work through a training system to develop a runner's abilities. The developer describes this as in-depth, and the goal is straightforward: bring your Umamusume to her fullest potential and turn her ambitions into results.

Racing is how you measure that progress. You enter races and try to win as many as you can, and the game treats competition as the main path to growth. Triumph comes to those who train hard and communicate well, and cooperation is part of taking the crown, which suggests the relationship between trainer and runner matters as much as the numbers.

The structure will feel familiar if you have played a career or management sim before: prepare, compete, adjust, repeat. What distinguishes it here is that the preparation is tied to characters with voices and goals rather than a spreadsheet. I would expect the appeal to come from seeing a plan pay off over time, not from a single race.

Eighteen runners and a live call

Races are the spectacle. Up to eighteen Umamusume compete at once, which is a crowded field by any standard, and the game pairs that with live commentary meant to sell the moment. The developer promises realistic commentary, and on a field that size the call is doing a lot of work to keep you oriented.

The presentation is where the budget shows. The race is presented with high-end 3D graphics and dramatic performances, and it is clearly meant to be watched rather than skimmed. You are cheering for your runner from the sidelines rather than steering her, which fits the trainer role the game assigns you.

After the race comes the concert. The winner gets a stage performance, and the game treats that as part of the reward rather than an afterthought. It is an unusual way to close out a competition, but it fits a game that is as much about idol-style performance as it is about sport.

A free game with ads and purchases

Umamusume: Pretty Derby is free to download and carries ads alongside in-app purchases. You can start without paying, and the game is built around a model that includes both advertising and optional spending.

It is worth saying plainly that this is a live game. The most recent update was a minor bug fix. A Teen rating is also a reasonable guide to what to expect: this is anime-flavored sports drama, not a gritty simulation.

Where the appeal lands

The strongest case for this game is the combination of a management loop and a cast you get attached to. If you enjoy raising a character across a season, watching races you have prepared for, and seeing the payoff in a concert, the pieces line up. The award it picked up as Best Mobile Game at The Game Awards 2025 suggests the presentation and the loop landed with a broad audience, not just racing fans.

It is also a good fit for players who like anime storytelling with a lot of voices attached. Twelve named racers with credited voice actors, plus more than twenty characters in total, means there is a lot of personality to work through, and the historic-racer angle gives that personality a real-world echo.

The flip side is that this is a specific kind of game. It is a training and career simulation with a racing spectacle attached, and the racing itself is something you watch rather than control. If you are looking for direct control of a runner, the trainer role will feel like a step removed. If you like the idea of building a career around a character and seeing it play out in 3D, that removal is the point.

What to expect from the first season

New players should expect a lot of moving parts. Scouting, training and racing all feed into one another, and the game asks you to think about which runners and supporters to bring in before you think about winning. Communication and cooperation are part of success, so the relationship between you and your trainee is not decorative.

The scale of the race is also worth knowing up front. Eighteen runners in one event is a busy screen, and the live commentary is there to help you follow it. That is a different experience from a two-horse duel, and it is clearly the format the game is built around.

The last thing to keep in mind is the free-to-play shape. Ads and in-app purchases are part of the package. That is the part each player has to answer for themselves.

A training sim for players who like a cast to raise

I would recommend Umamusume: Pretty Derby to players who want a management sim with a strong character hook and a presentation that makes the results feel like an event. The training loop, the roster of more than twenty runners and the race-then-concert structure give it a clear identity, and the free download makes it easy to see whether the loop suits you.

It is less obviously a fit for someone who wants to drive the race themselves. The game puts you in the trainer's seat, and the racing is something you watch unfold with commentary rather than steer. That is a deliberate design choice, and it is the line that separates people who will love this from people who will bounce off it.

With five million-plus installs, a 4.1 average and an award behind it, the game has clearly found its audience. If raising a character toward a goal sounds like your idea of a good time, this is built for exactly that.

What's new in version 1.35.2

Minor bug fixed.