Scaling Radar — September 4

2026-09-04

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 shifting Colony Flow! onto iOS

Over the week the Android version gave up Top Free from 22 down to 17 countries (Denmark #28 → #37), but it sits in Grossing across all 47 countries at #11 — the money is coming in without any buying now. At exactly that moment they switched on iOS: 1 → 2 → 9 → 14 countries in three days, Brazil #21 → #10, entries into the US, Germany, Switzerland and all of Scandinavia. The economics are confirmed on Android, and the budget goes to the platform with the expensive user. A textbook case.

New alerts

Shoot Die Repeat (Heseri, iOS) — an entry into the US at #24 on 138 ratings. The Android version has been crawling for ten days along a chain of AU/NZ → CL/IL/HK/SG/TW, 6 countries, install bracket 50k → 100k. Both platforms, and on iOS straight into the most expensive geo. Alongside it, Car Evolve from the same Heseri holds #1 in 40 countries on iOS.

Apex Hunter: Animal Shooting (CozyCraft) — Android 3 → 12 countries in a week, US #9–10 for two weeks without a break, install bracket 100k → 500k. The iOS version has been sitting in the US top 10 for a month along with Canada and India. Two platforms again, and the US first again.

Fashion World: Makeup & Dressup (Sleep Stories, 71 days) — it lived in Egypt alone for a month (#73 → #32), then went 3 → 12 countries: NG, GR, IE, FI, BE. A million installs on 4 reviews a day — a slow rollout along a strange map.

Yonatan Goldshtein — an indie with two iOS titles on the same day: CarBox (19 days) DK #22 and LARP Tycoon (78 days) NO #19. Two prototypes being tested in Scandinavia at once.

Another three are noise (one country, zero reviews), one is a bookmaker wrapper.

Off the list

+1 Speed Slime Escape (Beos, 34 days) — 13 countries, VN #12, install bracket 50k → 100k. The fourth keyboard-obby in a scaling phase at the same time: the H2T original — 42 countries, #2 SA; Gugu Gaga (Goldoint) — 23, #1 AE; Keyboard Obby (HIGAME) — 40, #3. Four publishers are buying into the subgenre at once.

Wild Water World (iOS, day two) — #1 in HK/JP/KR/TW, #2 in SG/MY, 15 countries on a single review. On day two that looks like either featuring or a very large volley. Watching.

Movement over 24 hours

iOS: Colorever: Gem Art Puzzle (Oakever) 1 → 5 → 8 countries, IL #13 — Oakever's third title accelerating while Meowdoku sits at #1 in both stores. Royal Smash (Cypher) 29 → 31, TR #2.

Android brackets up: Paint & Color (HIGAME, 9 days) 10k → 50k across 25 countries on zero reviews — HIGAME's second title with that profile after Bracelet DIY; Beauty Foodie (Pexix) 50k → 100k across 7 tier-1 countries, FR #18, 138 reviews/day; Cute Scoop DIY (BLACKGEMS, 20 days) 100k → 500k across 39 countries; Monkey Obby (H2T, 7 days) 50k → 100k.

Dream Tiles: Puzzle Link (Magic Products, 77 days) vanished from all 14 charts overnight — that looks like a delisting, not the end of a buying run.

Publishers

HIGAME — five young titles in the charts at once: Keyboard Obby (40 countries, #3, 1M), Mystery Dumpling Glitter Unbox (40, #2), Paint & Hide (15, #2, 1M), Paint & Color (25, #13), Bracelet DIY (23, #9). Grossing — zero for all five.

Brocker Bus holds three (47/43/37 countries, two #1s). Heseri, CozyCraft, ABI, Cypher, Oakever — one title each on both platforms simultaneously.

_Android Top Free didn't refresh over the past 24 hours; the movement there is only installs, reviews and Grossing._

Money — September 4

Over the past 24 hours none of the young titles entered Grossing or added countries. So today is about budgets being shifted around inside portfolios, and about the ones cooling off.

Rollic is reshuffling

Car Sort: Color Puzzle (139 days) — Top Free 5 → 14 countries in a week, with Grossing standing at 34 countries and #20 for a month now (500k, purchases up to $99). They switched the buying back on for a title that long ago proved it pays. At the same time Endless Puncher (94 days), about which I wrote two weeks ago that "Rollic will keep pushing," is giving up Top Free 12 → 9 countries and #34 → #45; Grossing shrank 27 → 22 countries, though the best position climbed to #14 in Vietnam. One title to accelerate, the other to hold — that's what a budget reallocation inside a single publisher looks like.

Who's paying back

Quack Bag: Duck Mafia (Noodle, 46 days) — 41 countries and #4 in Top Free, 33 countries in Grossing, a million installs. The youngest title in the field whose money is coming in broadly. But the best Grossing position slid from #13 to #23 over the week with reach unchanged — they've collected their payers, and it's not growing beyond that.

Zombie Rush: Idle Survival (Dreamweave, 41 days) — the opposite profile: Top Free 5 → 10 countries in a week (TW #28), while Grossing went 30 → 31 countries and #70 → #53 in Germany. Narrow reach, broad money — they're buying little and precisely.

Pop Epoch: Civilization Tycoon (Nex Wave) — 6 countries in Top Free (SG #1) against 34 in Grossing and #2 in Switzerland. Living on retention, buying is pinpoint, in Asia.

Cooling off

Hatch Dragons (Runaway Play) — Top Free 16 → 8 countries in a week, US #42 → #55, Grossing 38 → 33. They cut the buying and the money followed with a three-day lag.

Bus Loop: Jam Master (Shoyo) — two weeks ago it was 25 countries in Top Free and 11 in Grossing. Now it's 8 and 6, #48 → #56. Deflated on both axes.

Mythic Survivors (Pixery, 91 days) — Top Free 10 → 4, Grossing 26 → 20. The same path in miniature.

One publisher, two economies

Goodroid: Bus Traffic Fever — 46 countries in Top Free at #1 and 46 countries in Grossing at #9 on 10M installs. CubeAway — the bracket crossed 1M → 5M, 43 countries, #6, but in Grossing it's 4 countries at #75. One publisher, one scale of buying, and only one game pays.

Three months of tier-1 with no money

Beauty Foodie: Sort & Stories (Pexix, 83 days) — bracket 50k → 100k, 7 countries, all of them DE/FR/GB/JP/KR, FR #18, 138 reviews a day, purchases up to $99. Zero countries in Grossing. For a three-month-old title being bought into the most expensive geo, that's no longer "early" — that's a minus.

Week in review — August 28 – September 3

Six days with data, not seven.

Trajectories

The week's best forecast — Splash Buster (Nebula): on Saturday 9 countries and #71, today 26 and #28, installs 10k → 100k. A steady staircase all six days. Next to it Wonder Castle (Eureka): 8 → 18 countries, #31 → #11, 10k → 100k — nine days at one or two countries a day, no volleys. That's what a controlled scale looks like.

The volley-style accelerations hit their ceiling and stopped: Amaze Belle 8 → 21 countries in two days and exactly 21 for three days running (installs 1k → 10k); Bracelet DIY (HIGAME) 3 → 23 and stop, on zero reviews at 10k installs; Blox World 1 → 21 and stop; Prison Break (oZ) 2 → 13 → 12, but installs 0 → 100k — they're buying depth.

Forecasts that didn't pan out. Rampcrest Car Trials (Hubkom) — a week ago I advised keeping it on the list: 20 countries, #3. The next day it disappeared from every chart — apparently delisted. KPOP Sandbox: Demon Hunters (Q8Power) — 3 → 17 countries in two days on Monday, and from Tuesday it's in no country at all; with a name like that the reason is obvious. Goddess Diff — over the week I changed my conclusion twice (stopped / narrowed and intensified). The result: 27 → 6 countries at 50k installs — they narrowed it far more than they intensified it.

Deflated without being delisted: Craft & Survive 22 → 15, Car Driving Open World 24 → 6, Block City Mansion 32 → 17 and #9 → #49, Bendy's Nightmare Run 25 → 6.

Genres and geo

Last week: Trivia +0.85, Word +0.80, Racing +0.79 countries per title. This week: Trivia −0.67, Word −0.54, Racing −1.07. Everything that was growing rolled back — one-off impulses, not a trend. Only Simulation is holding (+0.75 → +0.37), and Arcade has pulled up next to it (+0.37). Casual, across 399 titles, is +0.01.

The entry countries have changed. A week ago the young ones (under 60 days) were entering Android via ID/NG/EG/TH/ZA, and iOS via IE/IL/SA. Now Android: NZ, CZ, ID, BR, AT, IE, TR, DK, SE; iOS: DK, TW, HK, US, KR. Denmark is the entry country of the week on both platforms, and the US is in the iOS top five entry markets for the first time in a month: some publishers are skipping the cheap warm-up.

Publishers of the week

H2T Global +34 countries across three titles — almost all of it is Keyboard Escape (8 → 42), but Monkey Obby and Backflip Obby have been launched alongside it. Brocker Bus +25 across three, all three in the top 12. oZ Studio +17: Prison Break +11, Ragdoll Survival +5 — two titles growing at once. Century Games — six titles on two platforms, with the whole iOS portfolio growing: Lordrush 14 → 20 (#4), Top Force 16 → 21 (#1), Family Farm Merge +4. Oakever +12 on iOS across four.

Giving ground portfolio-wide: Tripledot −28 across six titles, Voyagerone −20 (Hollywood Merge 37 → 18), Tappy Game −15.

Money for the week

Of the twenty largest install-bracket jumps of the week, two are present in Grossing: Idle Cat Gunner (500k → 1M, #9 in 41 countries) and CubeAway (#75 in 4). The other eighteen have zero countries. Among them is Amaze GO! (Oakever): 50M → 100M installs, 45 countries, #2, Grossing empty. A hundred million on pure advertising.

Grossing grew over the week for Pop Epoch (29 → 34 countries, #2) and Merge Hope (5 → 9, #74 → #46) — both with a narrow Top Free, both on retention.

Volume growing, no money — the young ones: Smash Land! (Flow Games, 20 days) 0 → 100k in two weeks, 18 countries, purchases up to $99, Grossing zero. Word Tiles (Agave, 41 days) 10k → 50k, five countries, zero. Shoot Die Repeat (Heseri, Android) 50k → 100k, zero — and that's with the publisher opening it on iOS in the US today.