Scaling Radar — August 25

2026-08-25

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, IT, ES). Reviews +142% over three days, install bracket jumped to 50K+. Three days ago it sat in one country at #99 — now it is #53 in Spain. The test is over, the tap is open.

Love Rules: Merge & Date (NetFun, Android, 7 days) — DK/SE, #50 in Denmark. A Scandinavian soft launch of merge-dating: expensive geo, zero volume so far, but the IAP catalog up to $99.99 is loaded in advance.

Build Block 3D: Battle World (Tappy Game, Android, 65 days) — 0 → 4 countries, all cheap SEA (ID, MY, TH, PE), #81 in Thailand. Tappy's second title in view this week, the same route.

Craft World Survival (Dev OPT, Android, 82 days) — 1 → 8 countries, entered US, BR, PH, ZA all at once, #97 → #24. At 5M+ installs this is re-buying on an old title, not a launch.

Word Tiles (Agave Games, Android, 32 days) — ES/PT, #90 → #42 in a day. Small, but it is the second Agave on the list — see the publishers.

Another 13 — noise: one country, zero reviews, half of them a farm of identical wrappers.

Breakdown

Zoodoku! (HURELAX, iOS, 30 days) — 7 → 13 countries, #7 in Malaysia, 401 reviews a day and +18% in 24 hours. The geo is narrow and deliberate: AU/CA/NZ + Scandinavia + SEA. Of the whole list this is the cleanest "caught at the start" — young, not yet smeared across 40 countries, but already with real volume.

Cute Scoop DIY: ASMR Packing (BLACKGEMS, 11 days) — 4 → 9 → 32 countries in three days, #67 → #11. The steepest run-up of the day and faster in pace than Hair Salon was. Reviews (55 a day) are not keeping up with the geo yet — watch whether they catch up by the weekend.

Smash Out: Cannon Fest 3D (Flare Star, 39 days) — 13 → 21 countries, #21 → #11 in Greece. All of tier-1 Europe plus JP/SG. A second consecutive day of steady gains, and yet reviews are still 14 a day — traffic is flowing, engagement is not visible.

Block City Mansion (ABW apps, 48 days) — 6 → 13 countries in a day, but the rank slipped (#66 → #70). Buying is widening, positions are not improving — either the bids were pushed up or the creative is spent.

Movement

Almost nobody from yesterday's list deflated, they simply gave way to sharper movers: Craft Builder (Coup Coup) reached 41 countries and #9 — from #49 in four days, the run-up of the week. House Cleaning ASMR (CAT Studio) took #1 in Belgium, 27 countries. Drama Story (SixGLab) #20 → #14. Runaway From Vlogger (Sprigame) #31 → #25. Gugu Gaga (Goldoint) 19 countries and #10, but reviews are still zero — a fifth day in a row. Jigsaw Drop (Runyou, iOS) 21 → 30 countries and #5 in the US with 966 reviews a day.

Two are genuinely slowing: Nail Salon: ASMR Simulator (WeGit) pulled back 15 → 12 countries after three days of growth, Arrows World (FunForge) 14 → 11.

Publishers

Oakever — again four titles across two platforms: Meowdoku is at #1 in Australia on both iOS (33 countries) and Android (37), Connect Tracks crawled up to #37 in Japan. The portfolio runs like a conveyor, the publisher is what to watch.

Runyou / Chengdu Runyou — Jigsaw Drop on both platforms at once: iOS 14 → 30 countries in three days, Android holds 45. The tap is open on both stores rather than testing one — a strong signal.

Cypher Games — Royal Smash also on both: #1 in Japan on Android, #3 in Turkey on iOS.

Agave Games — Find Em All! 9 → 20 countries and #3 in Belgium, plus the new Word Tiles entering. They are moving a portfolio, not a title.

Geo deltas in the breakdown are over three days.

Money — August 25

The headline number of the day: out of 22 Android candidates, one is present in Top Grossing. Not "few" — one. The entire rest of the list is pouring traffic that is not reflected in the revenue charts in a single country.

The only one paying back is Food Hunt (EVERFUN): Grossing in 46 countries, #12 in Denmark, catalog up to $124.99. A second day holding nearly full geo and it remains the benchmark for what paid-back buying looks like.

One bracket up today: Makeover Karma (MAGO) → 50K+ at the same moment it entered five tier-1 European countries. Play confirmed that installs multiplied on exactly the day the tap was opened — a rare case where both facts line up in one snapshot.

Living on ads, not on IAP. Five titles on the list have no IAP catalog at all: Jigsaw Drop (Runyou) — 1M+ and 45 countries, Craft World Survival (Dev OPT) — 5M+, Cash Arrows (StatusWorld) — 5M+ with 4,542 reviews a day, Hair Salon Halloween Party (Uchiha) — 1M+ and 31 countries, Gugu Gaga (Goldoint). Here an empty Grossing is not a diagnosis but a design: the economy is entirely in ads, and judging them by the revenue charts is pointless.

Volume grows, money does not. Here, though, the IAP catalog is there, the volume is there, Grossing is empty — and the age no longer excuses it:

Grass Master (SayGames, 175 days) — 1M+ installs, 11 → 24 countries in three days, catalog $0.99–99.99, zero countries in Grossing. The title is six months old, the publisher is professional, buying was just doubled — and the purchases are not coming. The most unpleasant case of the day.

Bus Crowd (Hyper Surfer, 68 days) — 31 countries, 500K+, catalog up to $99.99, Grossing empty. People Jam (Solid Games, 74 days) — 22 countries, 1M+, the same picture. Triple Harvest (Flyfox, 69 days) — 27 countries, 1M+, 1,130 reviews a day and again zero. Three titles in the same age zone with an identical profile: two-plus months is no longer "early".

House Cleaning ASMR (CAT Studio, 53 days) took #1 in Belgium today with 27 countries and a catalog of a single SKU at $2.99 — with pricing like that it really is hard to reach Grossing, but the revenue ceiling is visible in advance too.

Medal Hunter (Ten Square) — the reverse case: Top Free has been shrinking for a fourth day running (43 → 36 countries), while Grossing holds at 19 countries and #28. Buying is being wound down, revenue stays — the title has moved from scaling to retention. Of everyone on the list this week, this is the only completed cycle.