Articles

Our daily write-ups — the same ones posted to the Telegram channel

• Scaling Radar — October 6

  40 candidates, 8 new. A Nebula day, an Operator day, and an old guard leaving the podium. The read The Operator (Bureau 81, 11 days) — 4 → 46 countries, AR 2, 1,798 reviews a day. The tabletop analogue of R6 that rolle…

• Scaling Radar — September 26

  40 candidates, 8 new. A day of heavy hitters: four titles at 2,000+ reviews a day, and first money for private newcomers. The read Royal Smash! (Cypher, 94 days) — 44 countries (Android), BE 1, 4,027 reviews a day. Fou…

• Scaling Radar — September 25

  40 candidates, 16 new. A strong day: titles at 3,400 reviews a day, the 24 HIT portfolio, and first Grossing for newcomers. The read Royal Smash! (Cypher, 93 days) — 44 countries (Android) plus 22 (iOS), BE 1, 3,413 re…

• Scaling Radar — September 24

  40 candidates, 20 in the radar for the first time. The flood of "new" marks a report rebuilt after a week-long collection gap, so gains are over a week, not 24 hours. Today is a day of mimic-party games and three-day lau…

• Scaling Radar — September 23

  40 candidates, more than half a dozen substantive. A day with real movement, not noise rotation. The read Rap Star: Idle Clicker (Dragonfly, 178 days) — 30 → 37 countries, NG 2, 1,154 reviews a day. A grown title in it…

• Scaling Radar — September 22

  40 candidates, but a sparse day: most "new" entries are one-or-two-country flings from the weekend. Only about ten substantive titles. The read Fashion Arena: Dress Up Game (Sprigame, 32 days) — 12 → 36 countries, IN 2…

• Scaling Radar — September 21

  40 candidates, 7 titles in the radar for the first time. Five of them are real, the rest is noise. New Privateers: Pirate Wars (MadFatCat, 58 days) — 11 countries in one burst, TW 10, chart jump +82, already 4 countrie…

• Scaling Radar — September 19

  40 candidates, 11 titles in the radar for the first time — four of them substantive. The rest are single-country entries. New Flick Shot Rogues (Noodlecake, 3 days) — 12 countries, IT 13, reviews +96% in a day. Three d…

• Scaling Radar — September 18

  40 candidates, 14 titles in the radar for the first time — three of them substantive. The rest are single-country entries with no reviews. New Dino Survival: Dinosaur Isle (Wayfu Game Studio, 9 days) — 1 → 18 countries…

• Scaling Radar — September 16

  40 candidates, 21 titles in the radar for the first time — four of them substantive. The rest are single-country entries with no reviews. New Yarnscapes: Color by Number (LoveColoring, 19 days) — 5 → 8 countries, GB 43…

• Scaling Radar — September 15

  40 candidates, 20 new alerts — four of them substantive, the rest single-country entries with no reviews. New Bola Capture (KAYAC, Android, 41 days) — 1 → 5 → 10 countries in three days, KR 24. The Japanese publisher i…

• Scaling Radar — September 14

  40 candidates, 9 new alerts. An Android day: three young titles took off over the weekend, while on iOS the favourites of the week slowed down for the first time. The main thing Block Out! — Color Sort Puzzle (Grand Ga…

• Scaling Radar — September 12

  40 candidates, 26 new alerts. An iOS day: three titles the radar has been tracking all week accelerated at once, and one new entry looks like a launch with a budget already in place. The main thing MiniMuses (Studio Si…

• Scaling Radar — weekly digest, September 4–10

  A check on my own forecasts: who the radar flagged over the week and what became of them. They delivered Wild Water World (Just Game, 9 days) — title of the week. 11 → 19 countries, holding 1 all seven days without a s…

• Scaling Radar — September 10 (iOS only)

  23 candidates, 10 new alerts, two of them substantive. The main thing — MiniMuses is entering tier-1 from day one with no tests at all, while yesterday's hero Sand Fill has vanished from iOS entirely. Headline of the da…

• Scaling Radar — September 9

  40 candidates, 13 new alerts, three of them substantive. The main thing — Sand Fill turned around on both platforms at once, and this is that rare case where we are standing at the very beginning of a rollout rather than…

• Scaling Radar — September 8

  40 candidates, 13 new alerts, four of them substantive. The main thing of the day is the pullback: two Saturday salvos on iOS did not hold, while the quiet rollouts keep gaining. The main thing Brobuddy (24 HIT Riga, i…

• Scaling Radar — September 7

  40 candidates, 17 new alerts, four of them substantive. The main thing is not among the new ones: two titles the radar had been tracking as one- and two-country tests went out to the whole of tier-1 within 24 hours. The…

• Scaling Radar — September 5

  40 candidates, 13 new alerts, five of them meaningful. Publishers with proven economics are launching their next titles through cheap tests, while this week's iOS rollouts have moved into expensive geo. New alerts Cate…

• Scaling Radar — September 4

  40 candidates, 8 new alerts, four of them meaningful. An iOS day: all of the past 24 hours' movement is there, and almost all of it comes from publishers running a title on both platforms at once. The main story: ABI is…

• Scaling Radar — September 3

  40 candidates. No meaningful new alerts: all five newcomers are one or two countries on zero reviews, noise. But at the portfolio level it's a strong day. The main story: VOODOO relaunched Galactic Merge Idle For six m…

• Scaling Radar — September 2

  After yesterday's portfolio volley the market exhaled: almost nobody expanded their geo, but 71 titles jumped an install bracket in 24 hours. Volume is growing, reach is flat. 40 candidates, 16 new alerts, four of them…

• Scaling Radar — September 1

  The first of the month, and you can tell: the big portfolios expanded their geo all at once, and the small fry got squeezed out of the charts. There are a hundred fewer unique titles in the Android charts at the same cap…

• Scaling Radar — August 31

  40 candidates, 21 new alerts. Eight of them are meaningful, the other thirteen are noise: one country, zero reviews. New alerts Paint & Color: Hide Seek Guys (HIGAME Studio, 5 days) — a volley into 16 countries, 33 in…

• Scaling Radar — August 29

  40 candidates, five new alerts. The main story today isn't a single game but a clone war around one mechanic. Mystery Dumpling: three on one field Brocker Bus holds the original — Mystery Dumpling: Unbox ASMR, 46 count…

• Scaling Radar — August 28

  40 candidates, three new alerts — and all three are noise: one or two countries, zero reviews (AgentRookie SvipeFast, Escape Game Marine House, Juicy Fusion). All the substance of the day is in the movement of the old on…

• Scaling Radar — August 26

  40 candidates, 8 new alerts, three of them meaningful. New alerts TukTuk Turnpoint (zaks, Android, 20 days) — 1 → 9 countries in three days, 92 → 38. The geo is cheap throughout: BR, AR, CL, ZA, PK, SA. But reviews are…

• Scaling Radar — August 25

  40 candidates, 18 new alerts, five of them meaningful. New alerts Makeover Karma: Triple Tile (MAGO, Android, 33 days) — the best entry of the day: 1 → 6 countries, and straight into all of tier-1 Europe (DE, GB, FR, I…

• Scaling Radar — August 24

  40 candidates, 11 new alerts, four of them meaningful. New alerts Fruit Strike (Ironwood Ventures, Android, 26 days) — a salvo straight into 6 tier-1 European countries, 26 in Finland. The install bracket is still tiny…

• Scaling Radar — August 23

  40 candidates, 15 new alerts, five of them meaningful. New alerts Find Em All! - Hidden Objects (Agave, Android) — 5 → 18 countries in a day, 8 in Belgium. Yesterday an iOS alert fired on this same title — now Agave ha…

• Scaling Radar — August 22

  40 candidates, 19 new alerts, seven of them meaningful. New alerts Gugu Gaga: Keyboard Escape (Goldoint, 9 days) — 1 → 4 → 11 countries in three days, install bracket jumped to 100,000+. A classic exit from test into s…

• Scaling Radar — August 21

  40 candidates, 29 new alerts, eight of them meaningful. New alerts Cat Match (SoftoVerse, 7 days) — 9 countries, all of them cheap: PH, VN, ID, MY, TH, PK, ZA, HK, AE. 2 in the Philippines, 550 reviews a day on a week-…

• Scaling Radar — August 20

  40 candidates, 20 new alerts, seven of them substantive. New alerts Craft Battle: Block Wars (Coup Coup, 3 days) — a salvo straight into 44 countries in 24 hours, 2 in Chile, install bracket already 1,000,000+. And yet…

• Scaling Radar — August 18

  40 candidates, 16 new alerts — six of them substantive. New alerts Spider-Man 2: Mobile (SPACE INC 786, 14 days) — 1 → 11 countries in 24 hours, 97 → 32, and Grossing in three countries right away with a single $19.99…

• Scaling Radar — August 17

  40 candidates, 6 new alerts. New alerts Boom Champions (NexorForge, Android, 50 days) — from zero into 5 countries in 24 hours: CA/GB/ES/PL/AR, 40 in Canada. Straight into tier-1, skipping the cheap test — that's how y…

• Scaling Radar — August 16

  40 candidates, 28 new alerts. New alerts Gold Miner Inc (MesibaGames, Android, 76 days) — 9 → 18 countries in 24 hours, 26 → 18, the whole entry in tier-1: DK 18, JP 22, NZ 23, US 28. 283 reviews a day, purchases $8.99…

• Scaling Radar — August 15

  40 candidates, 11 new alerts. New alerts Four are substantive. Block Bloom: Color Blast (Nebula Studio, Android, 46 days) — from zero into four countries in Asia, 31 in Vietnam, 107 reviews/day at 100,000+ installs: th…

• Scaling Radar — August 14

  40 candidates, 12 new alerts. New alerts Four are substantive. Aurora Jigsaw (Android, 31 days) — 0 → 5 countries, strictly tier-1 (AT/AU/CA/GB/SE), 64, IAP catalogue up to $99.99. A narrow, expensive entry, the earlie…

• Scaling Radar — August 13

  40 candidates, 13 new alerts. Headline: the Paint & Hide clone wave on Android 12+ titles built on the same mechanic — "paint and hide" — are sitting in the charts at the same time. Already wide: Painty Hide n Seek (CD…

• Scaling Radar — August 12

  158 in scoring, 20 above the threshold. New alerts Nine, five of them meaningful. Emerald Flower (Muhammed Enes Uge, iOS, 10 days) — 4 in Turkey with a 96-position jump, reviews +420%. A classic Turkish home test, ca…

• Scaling Radar — August 11

  977 in scoring, 40 above the threshold. New alerts Fourteen, seven of them meaningful. The rest — one country, zero reviews, noise. Wordoku (Tripledot, iOS, 6 days) — a fresh word puzzle in soft launch, 20 in the Phi…

• Scaling Radar — August 10

  980 in scoring, 40 above the threshold. New alerts Twenty-nine, ten of them meaningful. The rest — one country, zero reviews, noise. Mystery Dumpling: Unbox ASMR (Brocker Bus Studio) — the salvo of the day: third day…

• Scaling Radar — August 9

  970 in scoring, 40 above the threshold. New alerts Seventeen, five of them meaningful. The other twelve — one country, zero reviews, noise. Escape from ChungaChanga (Spaghetti House) — alert of the day: fourth day si…

• Scaling Radar — August 8

  951 in scoring, 40 above the threshold. New alerts Twenty-one, seven of them meaningful. The other thirteen — one country, zero reviews, noise. BALL x PIT (Devolver) sits at the top of the list: 1 → 33 countries, 17…

• Scaling Radar — August 7

  917 in scoring, 40 above the threshold. New alerts Twenty-two, six of them meaningful. The rest — one country, zero reviews, and this time a batch of slot wrappers slipped through: Joker Jewels, Joker Match Run, Fortu…

• Scaling Radar — August 6

  888 in scoring, 40 above the threshold. New alerts Six of substance: Ocean Merge, Colony Flow!, Coin Merge Fortune, Drone Strike, Medal Hunter and Angry Smash — breakdown below. Another fourteen are noise: one country…

• Scaling Radar — August 5

  773 in scoring, 40 above the threshold. Highlights Top Force: Commander (Century Games) — yesterday a two-country test in Scandinavia, today 2 → 24 countries in a day and 1 in Denmark. Top 5 in Australia, Belgium, Aus…

• Scaling Radar — August 4

  523 in scoring, 40 above the threshold. New alerts Top Force: Commander (Century Games) — entered the charts in Denmark and Norway, 20. Strategy, 56 days, two countries and 9 reviews a day: Century is probing Scandina…

• Scaling Radar — August 3

  310 in scoring, 40 above the threshold. Most interesting by stage 1. Loop Master™: Color Jam Sort (Pleasure City) — 14 days, already 31 countries, 1M+ installs, 630 reviews/day. A sort puzzle poured out wide from the…

• Scaling Radar — August 2

  148 in scoring, 13 above the threshold, 9 new alerts. New alerts - Word Tiles (Agave Games) — 5 days, entered TR top 21. Agave is testing a word puzzle on its home market, no reviews yet. The earliest point on the lis…

• Scaling Radar — August 1

  144 in scoring, 16 above the threshold, 9 new alerts. New alerts - Cat Mafia: Idle Tycoon (Neptune Company) — top 1 KR + an entry in HK, 18 reviews/day, 46 days. Idle tycoon, a Korean publisher warming up its home mar…

• Scaling Radar — July 31

  A fresh pull from the sandbox is impossible again (Apple — 403 on the tunnel, same as on the 27th and the 30th). Data: the local run of July 30, 22:44, which overwrote `latest.json` after the morning report and was never…

• Scaling Radar — July 30

  Data: the local 00:16 run (iOS-only, `--no-android`). A fresh re-pull from the sandbox is impossible — the network to Apple is closed (403 on the tunnel), same as on the 27th. 142 in scoring, 15 above the threshold, 8 ne…

• Scaling Radar — July 29

  Data: the local 00:16 run (iOS-only, `--no-android`). 143 in scoring, 24 above the threshold, of which 13 are new alerts. The comparison base is July 26 (the DB has no charts for the 27th–28th), so all deltas (`newcountr…

• Scaling Radar — report for July 25

  Run 1, cold start. There's no history yet, so this isn't "who accelerated over 3 days," it's "who currently looks like a game in a buying phase": young + wide geo + a fast inflow of reviews. Full deltas will appear from…