Scaling Radar — September 1

2026-09-01

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 capacity — budgets opened up, the chart contracted.

40 candidates, 25 new alerts, six of them meaningful.

New alerts

Survival FPS: The Last Stand (WONDERGAMES, 40 days) — a volley entry into 11 Northern European countries, #24 in Ireland, 500k installs. The zero review velocity at that kind of volume is worrying.

Beauty Foodie™: Sort & Stories (Pexix, 81 days) — 7 countries, but straight into DE/FR/GB/JP/KR, #28 in Germany, 35 reviews/day. Expensive geo from the very first step.

Garden Glow: Bloom Story (ARTHUR PEI, 40 days) — only 4 countries, but it's already in Grossing (#88 in Brazil). A rare case where the money shows up before the reach.

Word Jam — Screw Puzzle (Inno Nexus, 165 days) — 138 reviews/day across four countries. An old title that's been accelerated all over again.

Also Piano Cat (Agile Lion) and Pose Stack (KAYAC) — two countries each, too early to follow. The other nineteen are noise: one country, zero reviews.

Who we caught early

Amaze Belle: Escape Puzzle (OSIRIS INFO SEC, 5 days) — the best on the list. 8 → 21 countries in two days, #73 → #34 in Finland, 47 reviews/day, and the install bracket jumped up. Entering Scandinavia and Japan on day five isn't a soft launch, it's confidence.

Bracelet DIY: ASMR Charm Maker (HIGAME, 6 days) — 3 → 21 countries, #47 → #12 in the Czech Republic, bracket up as well. Exactly the same curve as the neighboring HIGAME title a week ago.

Fruit Merge Drop (Gimica, 7 days) — 6 countries, #11 in Singapore, 346 reviews/day. Narrow and very fast.

Prison Break: Dig Escape (oZ Studio, 26 days) — continuing its steady staircase: 2 → 13 countries, #83 → #25, installs moved from 10k into 50k. The forecast is holding so far.

Splash Buster (Nebula, 36 days) — 3 → 23 countries in four days, #94 → #33.

For contrast: Superstore Story 3D (59 days, 22 countries) and Craft Builder 3D (79 days, 37 countries) rank high by score, but that's a late catch.

Movement

Keyboard Escape: Speed Parkour (H2T) — the move of the day: 8 → 42 countries in two days and #15 → #3 in Saudi Arabia. Galactic Merge Idle (VOODOO) — 3 → 29 countries, #23 → #6. Mystery Dumpling: Squishy Box (Brocker Bus, 7 days) — 21 → 37 countries, #9 in Indonesia. Bracelet Maker: DIY ASMR — 34 → 43 countries and #1 in Vietnam. Cute Scoop DIY — 30 → 40. Wonder Castle (Eureka) is adding for the eighth day running, 2 → 17 countries, installs 50k → 100k.

Only two pulled back: Car Driving Open World 24 → 10 countries and #19 → #43, Nail Salon ASMR 20 → 14 and #10 → #22.

Correction to Friday: about Goddess Diff I wrote that the pour had been stopped. The geo was indeed cut, but over those days the install bracket went from 10k to 50k — they didn't stop it, they narrowed and intensified it. My conclusion was hasty.

Publishers

KAYAC — eleven titles added geo at once, +63 countries in total. That's how you move a budget, not a game.
Sunday.gg (+51 across six), VOODOO (+43 across three), CASUAL AZUR (+40 across six), SayGames (+29 across five) — the same pattern on the same day.
HIGAME — +47 countries across three titles, two of them less than a week old. The conveyor is still the densest on the radar.
H2T Global — Keyboard Escape and the fresh Monkey Obby, +40 combined.

_Deltas are over three days, not 24 hours._

Money — September 1

Whose buying is paying back

Galactic Merge Idle (VOODOO) — the only clean case in several days. Grossing from 2 countries (#91) to 31 countries (#40), and at the same time Top Free 3 → 29 countries and installs from the 10k bracket into 50k. Reach, volume and money all moved in sync — that's what a proven setup looks like when it's finally switched on full.

Coin Collector (VENTURESIS) — has held #1 in Top Free in thirty countries for a week without moving, and against that backdrop Grossing grew from 2 countries to 5, #85 → #74. Slow, but in the right direction: the buying is steady and the payers are only starting to accumulate.

Volume growing, no money

Slow Mo Strike: Knives in Time (KAYAC) — installs moved from 1M into 5M, the title sits at #1 in 44 countries, it has not a single country in Grossing and no purchases in the catalog at all. That's not a monetization failure, it's a deliberate pure-advertising model at maximum reach. The largest volume in today's list.

Mystery Dumpling: Unbox ASMR (Brocker Bus, 25 days) — 47 countries out of 47, #1, 5M installs, more than thirteen thousand reviews in a week. There are purchases in the catalog and they even widened the range ($9.99 → $9.99–14.99), but zero countries in Grossing. At that reach and at 25 days old this is still fine; if Grossing is still empty in a month, IAP simply doesn't work here.

Keyboard Escape: Speed Parkour (H2T Global) — now this is worrying. The title is 69 days old, in two days it rolled out from 8 to 42 countries and sits at #3, purchases go up to $169 an item, and Grossing sits exactly where it sat, at two countries (#51 → #46). The geo grew fivefold, the money didn't. Either they're buying at a loss, or all the revenue is in ads and nobody buys the expensive IAP.

Install brackets up

Besides the ones named: Bus Crowd (Hyper Surfer) and Drama Story: Exposed Prank (SixGLab) — both from 500k to 1M, both across 35–44 countries. Wonder Castle (Eureka) 50k → 100k, Prison Break (oZ) 10k → 50k, Bracelet DIY (HIGAME) 5k → 10k, Paint & Color (HIGAME) 1k → 10k — straight past a step, Amaze Belle 1k → 5k.

Note this: both of HIGAME's fresh games jumped a bracket at the same time today. A portfolio-wide pour, not a lucky title.

Living on retention, not on buying

A separate category — those sitting in Grossing while being entirely absent from Top Free. Dynasty Warriors: Overlords (NEOCRAFT, 34 days) — 19 countries in Grossing, #7, zero in Top Free. Knock Fever (Kite Games) — 15 countries, #53. American Farming 2 (SquadBuilt) — 12 countries, #43. The money comes from a base they built earlier; they aren't buying new installs. For HC scouting these aren't targets, but they're a useful benchmark: that's how much a title can weigh without a single dollar of buying.