Scaling Radar — September 5

2026-09-05

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

Catedrop: Card Puzzle (Goodroid, iOS, 34 days) — EG #22, first appearance. The third title from a publisher whose Bus Traffic Fever and CubeAway sit at #1 in 45–46 countries on iOS. Egypt as a test market — we're watching where it goes next.

Dummy Drop! (Playwill, iOS, 18 days) — CA #22, AU #24. A classic HC pair for a soft launch, exactly the point where you want to catch one.

Survivor Tapper (Dreamweave, iOS, 19 days) — HK #24. The studio's second title: Zombie Rush sits in Grossing in 30 countries with Top Free in 11 — the economics are there, so they're trying the next one.

Alliance: Air War (Art of the State, Android, 5 days) — a volley straight into 12 countries: GR #7, SA #13, CZ #16, AE #21, NL #26. 100k installs and 1,350 ratings in five days, purchases up to $99. Not an HC profile — a midcore air shooter launched without a test straight into MENA and Europe.

Speed Escape: Obby Parkour (Booma Top, 6 days, ID #39) and Obby Supercar Race Keyboard (Doublentil, 9 days, HK #64) — two more entries into keyboard-obby, more on that subgenre separately at 11:00.

Another six are noise, two of them bookmaker wrappers. Revolt X (Wild Sky, 33 days) jumped 1 → 5 countries with CZ #20, but a thousand installs and zero reviews — it doesn't look like a game.

Who's in phase

Colony Flow! (ABI, iOS) — 2 → 9 → 14 → 19 → 22 countries in four days, and the peak is already US #7, BR #8, NL #9, CH #10. The Android version brought Top Free back 17 → 21 (DK #24) with Grossing at #11 across all 47 countries. The cleanest two-platform rollout on the list.

Colorever: Gem Art Puzzle (Oakever, iOS) — 1 → 5 → 8 → 12 → 25 countries in four days: IL #5, IE #6, US #9, BR #10 and all of tier-1 Europe in the top 20. The Android version is in one country, US #86: they're only buying on iOS. Meanwhile Connect Tracks (Oakever, Android, 29 days) went 2 → 7 countries, JP #44 — the portfolio's fourth title is moving.

Wild Water World (iOS, 4 days) — 14 countries, #1 in Hong Kong for the fourth day running, and today also #1 in JP/TW and #2 in KR/TH — on 16 reviews a day. Either featuring, or a very precise volley into East Asia.

Superstore Story 3D (Pusilung) — Android 23 countries, DE #6, US #14; iOS 1 → 5 (FR #14, NL #16, DE #19). And its first Grossing entry — DE #89. Two platforms plus first money on day 63.

Movement

Smash Land! (Flow Games, 22 days) — eighth day at 18 countries, US #10, IT #9, 1,190 reviews a day, 100k, purchases up to $99 — and zero in Grossing. For three weeks that's still normal, but the geo is tier-1 across the board, and the clock is ticking.

Cat Match (SoftoVerse, 22 days) — 11 → 8 countries in a week, ZA #4, PH #7, 1,360 reviews a day. Not expanding — buying out three markets.

Racing Square (Amobear, 112 days) — 3 → 9 → 14 countries in a week, PL #8, CZ #16: a late but fresh run at Europe.

Cooling off: Ocean Block Shoot (HM Games) 26 → 16 → 7 → 5 countries in a week, GR #33 → #45; Bus Loop (Shoyo) 24 → 6, Grossing 11 → 5; Fruit Merge Drop (Gimica, 11 days) 2 → 6 → 5, SG #11 → #17 — didn't take off.

Publishers

Oakever — four titles: Meowdoku #1 in 39/40 countries on both platforms, Amaze GO 31 countries BE #4, Colorever 25, Connect Tracks 7. Goodroid — two #1s plus the Catedrop test. ABI, Pusilung, Heseri, CozyCraft, Cypher — one title each across two platforms. Booma Top — Seek Paint 21 countries plus the new obby. HIGAME — the five are holding (40/39/27/22/14 countries), Paint & Color crossed 50k → 100k.

_Android geo deltas — over three days._

Money — September 5. Two subgenres that eat Top Free and don't bring in a cent

Today isn't about individual titles but about two waves that together take up a noticeable share of the young Top Free on Android: ASMR unboxing/makeover and keyboard-obby. I recounted everything younger than seven months that sits in at least three countries.

ASMR: about twenty titles, tens of millions of installs, Grossing — zero

Mystery Dumpling: Unbox ASMR (Brocker Bus) — 47 countries, #1 in GB, 5M+, 39k ratings, purchases $9.99–14.99 in the catalog. Grossing: zero countries. Mukbang ASMR (BLACKGEMS) — 44 countries, 10M+. Zero. Bracelet Maker (Brocker) — 43, #1 VN, 1M+. Zero. House Cleaning ASMR (CAT Studio) — 38, #1 IE. Zero. Cute Scoop DIY (BLACKGEMS) — 39 countries, the install bracket just went 100k → 500k. Zero. Mystery Dumpling Glitter (HIGAME) 39, Squishy Box (Brocker) 36, ASMR Satisfy (Amazuro) 31, Skincare ASMR (CAT) 5M+ — zero for all of them.

Out of two dozen, not one showed up in Top Grossing in any of the 47 countries. Almost all of them have purchases in the catalog — from $0.99 to $16.99 — but nobody buys them. This is pure ad monetization on volume, and the volume here is colossal: Brocker Bus alone has three titles with a combined floor of 6M installs.

Obby: a dozen titles, money for one

Keyboard Escape (H2T) — 42 countries, #1 SA, 1M+, 18k ratings, purchases up to $169.99 — the only one in the entire wave that's in Grossing at all: TR #47 and KR #89. Two countries out of 42. Keyboard Obby (HIGAME) — 40 countries, #3, 1M+, zero. Obby Keyboard ASMR Runner (Evkar) — 25, SA #8, zero. Gugu Gaga (Goldoint) — 24, #1 NZ, 500k, zero. +1 Speed Slime (Beos), Monkey Obby and Backflip Obby (H2T) — 100k each, zero.

What this means

Two waves, about thirty titles, on the order of 30M installs as a lower bound — and two lines in Grossing between them. Brocker, HIGAME, BLACKGEMS, H2T, CAT Studio, Goldoint, Booma — different wrappers, one economy: ads inside, zero bet on IAP. And the geo isn't only cheap: obby lives in SA/AE/VN/ID, while Brocker's unboxing sits at #1 in GB, AU, CA and DE.

Within the wave there are two different qualities of traffic, and you can see it in ratings per install. Brocker and BLACKGEMS are at the HC norm — one rating per 100–150 installs (Mystery Dumpling 5M / 39k, Cute Scoop 500k / 3.9k): people open the game and play, they just don't pay. But at the tail — ASMR Makeover: Skincare (stick hunter) 5M+ and 305 ratings, ASMR Satisfy (Amazuro) 1M+ and 294, Nail Salon (WeGit) 500k and 154, Gugu Gaga 500k and 384 — that's one rating per thousands, sometimes per 16 thousand installs. That's either junk traffic or people closing the app in the first session. The first group earns on ads; the second, it seems, only spends.

One more thing: this wave isn't in the iOS charts. All three keyboard-obby titles there are Vietnamese one-day wonders in the SA/VN top 25. Brocker, HIGAME and H2T haven't shown up on iOS at all — with an expensive user, an ad model with this profile doesn't add up, and they know it.

Correction to Thursday

I wrote that Hatch Dragons (Runaway Play) was cooling on both axes. Top Free did indeed shrink to 7 countries, but Grossing grew 34 → 40 countries over three days, VN #13. They cut the buying and the money didn't go away — the title is living on retention, and that's the best possible outcome.

Medal Hunter (Ten Square Games) — Grossing 18 → 21 countries, CZ #21, with Top Free at 26 and 1M+. Quietly growing on both axes without any volleys.