[8] A separate version of the game was released for Mainland China on Android and iOS devices that is co-developed and published by NetEase.

The in-game world consists of seven unique realms, each with a variety of areas to explore, and a theme representing different stages of life.

There are also many cosmetic items to collect including capes, masks, hairstyles, hats, pants, shoes, playable musical instruments, expressions, and more.

Candles are obtained by collecting pieces of light (called wax in game) and forging them, or by purchasing them for real money.

"Hearts" are the social currency of Sky, and are obtained when players receive gifts from others, or can be bought directly from spirits with candles.

"Ascended candles" are the rarest currency in Sky, which are rewarded to players for giving their winged light to "The fallen" at the end of the game.

The game was developed and published by American studio Thatgamecompany over the course of seven years, developing a custom game engine based on their previous work on PlayStation titles, to initially support the Apple Metal API, later expanding it to add support for other platforms as well.

[10][11] The game servers are hosted on Amazon Web Services infrastructure (credited in-game as AWS),[12] with parts of the backend being written in Erlang in cooperation with Amber Studio.

Sky features an orchestral score composed by Vincent Diamante, with some tracks performed by FAME'S Macedonian Symphonic Orchestra.

[20] In April 2021, Sky hosted its second "Days of Nature" event, using the game to promote awareness towards plastic pollution of the ocean.

[34] Nintendo Life scored the Switch version 8 out of 10, sharing the same praise as other reviewers, though highlighting that the simplistic gameplay may not keep players engaged in the long term, and how the option to toggle the FPS from 60 to 30 is objectively worse and provides only minor improvements.