I just released a game [1] on both iOS and Android.

The Google Play process is more thorough. There are a lot of steps and you need to clear them one by one. This means waiting several days between each step. The Play Console dashboard is quite well documented to be honest but can be overwhelming. The main obstacle is that you need to find at least 12 testers to play your game for 2 weeks straight. I ended up paying a service to test my app.

On iOS, the process is a bit more obscure. It's fairly easy to submit an app, but then you don't really know what's happening. You can only see a status like "Pending review". And then one day, you are approved.

Overall, the iOS process felt easier for me. As long as your build succeeds and you provide the correct information, your game can be live within a week. The Android process took more than a month in total.

[1] https://jgthms.com/hopera/

Released my game a few months back. I generally agree with you, however Apple process was more painful / took longer when you start adding in-app-purchases and providing all the financial info required for that to be approved.

And, as I'm doing weekly updates, I found both stores approving builds typically within 12-14 hours which was a nice surprise

Finding 12 testers was a struggle for my app [1]. Had to use a mix of LinkedIn begging, work colleagues, friends, and people from random Whatsapp groups I was in.

Once you get over that hurdle for your first release, at least you don't have to do it for every update.

The Play Console is a bit fiddly and I'm always getting random warnings that I need to comply with some new rule by an arbitrary date or my app will get delisted.

[1] https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.gads.hamil...

> but can be overwhelming

That's an understatement and a half. It's massively over engineered and complicated, especially when compared with (say) the dashboard on Itch.