Scaling Radar — September 9

2026-09-09

40 candidates, 13 new alerts, three of them substantive. The main thing — Sand Fill turned around on both platforms at once, and this is that rare case where we are standing at the very beginning of a rollout rather than in the middle of it.

Headline of the day

Sand Fill: Block Puzzle (Stormborn) — on iOS it was one country, Denmark at #22, and became six: DK #7, NO #14, SE #19, NL #21, BE #24, PL #25. Scandinavia and Benelux back to back — the classic staircase before entering Germany and Britain. In parallel, Android went 2 → 4 countries, GB #56 → #35, with DE, FR, JP added; Grossing GB #94 → #85, installs moved into the 10k bracket, ratings 92 → 247. Age 34 days on Android, 23 on iOS, narrow geo, and the store is already showing money. Both platforms in sync — the publisher has made a decision, not run a test.

Young titles with narrow geo

Obby Supercar Race Keyboard (Doublentil, 12 days) — 2 → 7 countries, TR #61 → #24, with TW, MY, TH, KR, AE, JP switched on. Asia plus Turkey, a cheap test, 10k installs. No reviews at all — look again next week to see whether it moves.

Skincare ASMR: Makeover Games (CozyTap, 20 days) — 2 → 5 countries, CZ #51 → #19, DE, FR and IT came in. Install bracket 1k → 5k, ratings 144 → 368 in two days. Straight from a CZ/PL test into Western Europe — faster than these usually travel.

Artie's Jigsaw Adventure (Gimica, 27 days) — entered from zero straight into CA #72 and US #73, 159 reviews a day. A first entry into the most expensive geo, skipping the tests — either they are very confident or it is a one-off salvo. We will check tomorrow.

Bouncy Match: Bubble Word (Finger Rush, iOS) — yesterday's JP #5 became JP #2 plus SA #11 and IT #21. The Android version meanwhile slipped from #45 to #92: they are buying on iOS.

New alerts

Fish Sort Puzzle — Bubble Jam (SUPLIFE, iOS) — entered AU #17, DK #21, CA #22 from zero. A clone of Fish Sort Puzzle (Shycheese), which currently holds 36 countries on Android — the genre is being taken apart into copies.
Seek Paint: Hide and Seek (Booma Top) — 24 → 30 countries, PH #6, ID #9, TR #10, 1M+ installs.

Another eleven — noise: one country, zero reviews, installs from 0 to 500. Among them three identical blanks in NG (BNSkybolt, BNNimbus, BNRidge) and two test entries by Pocket Spark in PL.

Movement

Alliance: Air War (Art of the State, 9 days) — 25 → 32 countries, GR #1, CZ #6 → #2, NL #8 → #3, with ES and IT added. Installs 100k → 500k. The fastest rollout of the week.

Wild Water World (iOS, 8 days) — the geo stopped at 21, but the quality went up: KR joined the #1s in HK/JP/TW, CA came in straight at #9. Reviews +92%.

Superstore Story 3D (Pusilung) — both platforms narrowed the geo and improved the rank: Android 21 → 19 countries at #6 → #3, iOS 9 → 8 at #14 → #6. They are concentrating the budget.

Block Bloom: Color Blast (Nebula) — 11 → 16 countries not counting the small stuff: BR, FR, ID, MY, NL, PL. Its first move beyond Asia.

Brobuddy (24 HIT Riga, iOS) — 18 → 4 → 1 country. Saturday's salvo was a measurement, not a launch; I am retracting Monday's conclusion for good.

Publishers

oZ Studio — three titles at once (Ragdoll Survival, Prison Break: Dig Escape, Gun Box), all with 1M+ installs and zero in Grossing. Sprigame — two (Prison Escape Journey 8 → 12 countries, Melon Hunter 4 → 7). HIGAME under two legal entities — two ASMR titles, both with a bracket jump upward. Nebula/HURELAX — four, of which Block Bloom is the only one moving.

_Android deltas are over two days, not 24 hours._

Money — September 9. ASMR unboxing has become a genre with 20 million installs and zero in Grossing

Yesterday I showed Mystery Dumpling as an isolated case of "the volume is there, the money isn't". Within a day it became clear that this is not a title but an entire niche, and the whole of it is built the same way.

Mystery Dumpling: Unbox ASMR (Brocker Bus) — the install bracket jumped 5M → 10M. 46 countries, #1, 43.7k ratings, purchases at $9.99–14.99 in the catalogue. Lines in Grossing over a month of life — zero.

Mystery Dumpling Glitter Unbox (HIGAME Studio) — 100k → 500k, 39 countries, #2. Grossing zero, and no purchases in the catalogue at all.
Bracelet DIY: ASMR Charm Maker (HIGAME Global, the same entity family) — 10k → 50k, 21 countries, #6, only 87 ratings. Grossing zero.
Mystery Dumpling: Squishy Box (Brocker Bus) — 35 countries, #15, 100k+. Grossing zero.
House Cleaning: ASMR Makeover (CAT Studio) — 41 countries, #1 in DE/FR/IT/ES, 1,029 reviews a day, a $2.99 purchase. Grossing zero.
Skincare ASMR (CozyTap) — bracket 1k → 5k, no purchases whatsoever.

Six titles, four publishers, over 20M installs between them — and not a single line in Top Grossing for any of them. Monetisation here is entirely ad-based; IAP is either absent or there for show. The practical takeaway: read the Top Free charts in this genre as media buying for ad arbitrage, not as product success. It only makes sense to go in there with a strong ad stack already in place — nobody is making IAP money there, and this is not an "it's still early", it is how the niche is built.

The same thing, outside ASMR

Titan Rope Hero: Vice City (Skyverty) — bracket 1M → 5M, 40 countries, #10 in IN/EG/ZA. No purchases in the catalogue, Grossing zero. The biggest bracket jump of the day.
Alliance: Air War (Art of the State, 9 days) — 100k → 500k, 32 countries, GR #1, purchases up to $99.99. Grossing still zero. For a nine-day-old title that is normal, but next week will tell: if the bracket goes up again and Grossing stays empty, then here too it is ads.

Where it adds up

Pixel Gun 2 (Cubic) — the iOS peak collapsed (31 → 7 countries, #2 → #15), while Android entered Grossing in earnest at exactly the same time: 2 → 6 countries, #84 → #49, on a single line in Top Free (#88). Classic midcore: the buying did its job, and from here it lives off the paying core.

Knock Knock: Room Defense (Joy Nice) — Grossing 17 → 18 countries, best #20 → #17, and Top Free finally caught up: 1 → 4 countries, #93 → #31. Ratings 1,033 → 1,988 in two days. The only one from yesterday's list to improve both halves at once.

Galactic Merge Idle (Voodoo) — bracket 50k → 100k, Top Free 34 countries #9, Grossing 33 countries #32. A rare case where both tables match in width.

Sand Fill (Stormborn) — GB #94 → #85 on 10k installs and four countries. Small, but growing for a third day in a row.

Grossing without Top Free

A whole basket of merge-story titles lives with no buying at all: Her Comeback (Judian) — 43 countries in Grossing at #19 and zero in Top Free; Merge Bistro (Gaming Laboratory) — 36 countries #24 on one; Whisper Castle (Microfun) — 35 countries #21 on two; E.D.E.N: The Last Line (Gameduo) — 31 countries #2 on one. The radar did not miss them — they are simply not buying traffic right now, they are milking the base. Compare with Frost Valley (LiteOrange): 42 countries in both tables, #8 and #13 — that is what the same genre looks like in an active buying phase.

And a small one: Skullburn (24 HIT Riga) took the first Grossing line of its life — #93 — on exactly the day their own Brobuddy finally collapsed from 18 countries to one.