Apple Arcade is finally here with the iOS 13 update for iPhone. And as a launch offer, Apple is giving away a 1-month trial with unlimited access to all games on Apple Arcade for free. After the free trial, you’ll be charged $4.99 a month.

But you know the best thing about Apple Arcade subscription? It comes as a single plan, and it includes Family Sharing at no additional cost.

Apple Arcade comes with Family Sharing pre-activated, and you cannot deactivate it. If you were already using Family Sharing features on your iPhone, your family members will get the Arcade subscription activated on their accounts as well when you subscribe.

Can you disable Apple Arcade family sharing for a specific member?

Unfortunately, NO. If you subscribe to Arcade, and you have a family to feed under your iPhone’s Family Sharing setting, the Arcade subscription will be shared with them. Whether you want it or not.

Apple Arcade subscription is shared with all family members without room for exceptions

So this means if daddy is playing games on mobile, the kid in the family is gonna do it as well. Boo you Apple!

Anyway, the only way to stop family members from using your Arcade subscription is to remove their account from Family Sharing features on your iPhone. But that also means removing shared features like Apple Music, Location Sharing, Screen Time, Purchase Sharing, and iCloud storage. If you’re gonna do it anyway, good luck explaining them wild horses in the house (the teens) why they are being deprived of their most used iPhone features because you want to play games. Boo you daddy!


Jokes apart. This is a grave error on Apple’s part to include Family Sharing on Apple Arcade, a service that offers very cool and addicting games, without proper options to disable it for certain members of the family.

🤔 What do you think? Let us in the comments section below.