Hungry Studio’s casual puzzler Block Blast was second only to Roblox in Appmagic’s top downloads of 2024 chart, with a colossal ~216m installs last calendar year.
So we tracked down Hungry Studio VP Jason Wang to ask him how his studio achieved that total. The answer was pleasingly blunt:
“Honestly, we can openly admit that Block Blast’s growth has heavily relied on user acquisition,” he told us. “It’s no secret that the user acquisition landscape is extremely competitive right now. And to be fair, developers can’t really expect to thrive just by leaning on UA strategies anymore.”
As of December 2024, Block Blast has over 40m DAU and 160m MAU across iOS and Android, the firm says. It was founded in 2021, and in Wang’s words, it started making casual puzzlers but quickly realised the market was “already saturated with similar games – heavy on themed content and competitive, challenge-driven mechanics.”
So the studio leaned more and more casual, intent on making a puzzler that “anyone can play” while also focusing hard on the science of getting Block Blast in front of the right players. Indeed, Wang describes his studio as being “obsessed” with A/B testing.
“Every week, we run more than 50 A/B tests across different versions of features, visuals, and gameplay mechanics,” he tells us. “Most of these tests – about 97% – fail. But we see this as a strength, not a weakness.”
All of this has contributed to a pretty sticky player base, says Wang. “Based on benchmarks with other casual games, our user retention rate is higher than the industry average,” he says.
“A low success rate shows the depth of our exploration and our commitment to trying new ideas. High success rates often come from playing it safe and sticking to past experiences. Success means continually pushing into uncharted territory.”
That has led to experiments in new and untested marketing channels, “even if the payoff isn’t immediate or guaranteed”, says Wang, including Connected TV ads and partnerships with smartphone OEMs. “These aren’t always the most efficient channels in terms of cost or scale, but they teach us so much,” says Wang.
The firm is also using what it calls its Block AI Robot to test “complex game scenarios and adapt to players’ skill levels and playstyles,” says Wang. “It’s capable of mimicking real user interactions, making our iteration and evaluation processes faster and more effective.”
There’s also a “minimalist” version of Block Blast for players in regions with limited network access or low-performance devices, again designed to get it in front of as many eyeballs as possible.
So what will 2025 bring? Wang says Hungry Studio is staying focused on Block Blast rather than growing its portfolio, and it is not interested in publishing other developers’ games either. “Spreading our limited resources across too many projects might bring short-term gains, but it can distract us,” adds Wang.
