Scaling Radar — August 16

2026-08-16

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 $8.99–11.99. Three days ago it was one country at #72.

Ragdoll Skater (KAYAC, 80 days) — 2 → 20 countries in 24 hours, all of Europe plus JP/KR/TW. The ranks are even (#41–70): the buying was switched on all at once and wide.

Crafty Blox World (Tappy Game, 38 days) — 8 → 17 countries, all cheap: TR/MY/ZA/TH/ID/IN, TR and MY both at #34.

Pattern Flow Logic (FOPS, 37 days) — 8 → 13 countries, VN #8, PE #14, install bracket up.

Idle Cat Gunner (TREEPLLA, 120 days) — #1 in Korea, 32 countries, #10 in Top Grossing in 38 countries.

The other 11 — one country, zero reviews, noise.

Breakdown

The best catch today isn't where the high score is.

Perfect Bento: Block Master (Think Different, 32 days) — 1 → 2 → 5 countries, KR #64 → #46 → #25. Reviews +53%, install bracket up. Five countries, a month old, Korea as the base market — this is the very start of the phase.

Clone Run (Hyperlab, 30 days) — three countries, DK #28, install bracket up, and there's already a Top Grossing presence. A rare case where the money arrived before the rollout.

Chickpot Load (Swatercolour, 17 days) — two countries, DK #27. A Danish entry is a classic test point, look again in two days.

Pattern Flow Logic — the geo is narrow and entirely cheap (VN/PE/PK/ZA/SA), #8 in Vietnam on day 37. Exactly the soft-launch → scale transition.

Whereas Gold Miner Inc, Ragdoll Skater and Idle Cat Gunner were caught late: 18–32 countries, the ranks have already settled. The high score here is for the volume of movement, not for the early stage.

Movement

Jigsaw Drop (Runyou) on iOS 2 → 10 countries, #22 → #11; on Android it's been at 46 countries for a long time — iOS is catching up. Get Color Pack (Tripledot) 21 → 28. Drama Story 28 → 35, TR #16. Snake Out 9 → 13. POINPY from zero into 19 countries in Europe. No WiFi Mini Games 7 → 11, PH #9. Dear passenger 1 → 4, SG #33.

Gave way: Hedgehog Ranger 18 → 10 — yesterday's rollout folded up. Chillquarium 20 → 15, the Asian entry didn't hold. Dear Passengers 10 → 7, fifth day of squeezing, but it's holding #1. Block Bloom (Nebula), yesterday's best new alert, 4 → 3 countries: the test was shut down in a day.

Publishers

Tripledot — third day of portfolio moves: Get Color Pack (+7 countries), Angry Smash (5 → 9), Code Word (launch, 3 days).

KAYAC — Ragdoll Skater (Android, +18 countries) and Slow Mo Strike, whose iOS is at 17 countries while Android has stood at 44 countries with #1 for a week. Yesterday I called iOS the best start of the week — the start was on Android, on iOS it's the second wave.

Pocket Spark Games — two launches in one day (Flick Sort, Voxel Galaxy), both in one country each.

On both platforms: Slow Mo Strike, Idle Cat Gunner, Jigsaw Drop, Jewel Loop, Mukbang Scoop.

Money — August 16

Pays off

Idle Cat Gunner (TREEPLLA) — the only clean example of the day: #1 in Korea in Top Free, #10 in Top Grossing and 38 countries in Grossing right away, install bracket 500,000+ and moved up, purchases up to $49.99. The buying pays back across the whole geo, not in a couple of countries.

Human Rise: Idle Evolution (24 HIT Riga, 58 days) — Grossing expanded 16 → 21 countries, the best rank holding at #36. Meanwhile in Top Free it slipped from #25 to #31 and added only three countries. A good sign: they've stopped expanding and started taking money off what they've already gathered.

Clone Run (Hyperlab, 30 days) — three countries in both Top Free and Grossing, Grossing rank #60. Not much, but for a thirty-day-old title in three countries that's already confirmation of unit economics.

Volume grows, no money

Five titles today confirmed install growth with a Play bracket, and not one of them is visible in Top Grossing:

Snake Out (Advance Cap, 154 days) — 9 → 13 countries, 50,000+ and the bracket up, but no purchases in the catalogue at all. A six-month-old title living on ads that has only now had buying switched on.

POINPY (Devolver, 30 days) — from zero into 19 countries in Europe, bracket up, purchases $1.99–9.49, zero in Grossing. For a thirty-day-old that's normal, but the scale of the rollout doesn't match a zero in Grossing.

Dear passenger (WINNER FEED MILL, 10 days) — bracket up, purchases $14.99–19.99 across four countries. The price tag is high, the basket is high, and there's no money in the charts yet — either it's far too early, or they're not buying.

Pattern Flow Logic and Perfect Bento — both with no purchases in the catalogue at all, both brackets up. These are pure ad monetizations, they won't be in Grossing at all.

Worrying

Get Color Pack (Tripledot, 139 days) — 28 countries, #24, 500,000+ installs, 580 reviews a day, purchases up to $89.99 — and zero countries in Top Grossing. The title is almost five months old, the purchase catalogue is expensive, there's volume, and the charts don't see the money. At that age this isn't "early" any more.

Jewel Loop (TaTa Game, 51 days) — 18 countries, AU and KR both at #8, 634 reviews a day, purchases up to $99.99, and the last Grossing sighting was six days ago, one country at #96. An expensive catalogue with a complete absence of chart revenue — either the catalogue is decorative, or the wrong people are buying the game.

Water Sort: Color Match (FunForge, 192 days) and Boom Chip Battle (Phone Games, 123 days) — both with a million installs, both expanding geo, both with a zero in Grossing. Six months on the market — the question is no longer "when", it's "what are they living on".

Cash Arrows (StatusWorld) — 5,000,000+ installs, 4,289 reviews a day, seven countries, PH #3. No purchases in the catalogue at all, and we don't expect anything but a zero in Grossing: this is a pure ad funnel on cheap geo, and by its own model it works exactly as it should.

Clone waves

Two are noticeable today. Zoodoku is running as two different games from different publishers: Nebula Studio on Android (28 countries, DK #11) and HURELAX on iOS (21 days, three countries, PH #24). And Dear Passengers — three titles from three legal entities at once: the original by JOY FAST FOOD is squeezing down to seven countries, while WINNER FEED MILL and Asier Urresti are launching their versions on day ten and day four. When clones appear faster than the original manages to roll out, the mechanic has already been handed to the market.