Bingchuan Network’s bizarre hit game X-Hero has returned to the top of the App Store charts, after mysteriously disappearing on September 30.
At the time of writing, X-Hero is the number one iPhone game in the US, Australia, Canada and Italy, according to Sensor Tower. It is at number two in Germany and four in the UK and France. X-Hero has not returned to iOS in big markets like China, Japan, Korea, Hong Kong, India and Taiwan, however.
In the top grossing charts, it’s at 38 in the US iPhone charts, 29 in France, 46 in Germany and 47 in the UK, at the time of writing.
On Android, where it’s known as Epic Heroes – Save Animals, it’s nowhere near on the same scale as it is on iOS, but it has returned in the US, Australia, New Zealand, Canada and most south east Asian and LatAm markets. It is not available in the UK, Europe, China, Korea, Japan and Russia.
Epic Heroes is currently 80th in the US top free charts on Android, though is doing better in nations like Canada (10th), Brazil (11th) and Australia (13th). The game is not in the top 100 downloads in Indonesia, but is the 13th top grossing title there, according to Sensor Tower.
X-Hero was updated on iOS four days ago, according to the game’s version history, with general optimisation and bug fixes.
The game may have returned, but there are still issues for creator Bingchuan to address. There are player complaints across the game’s Facebook, Reddit and Discord communities about accounts being reset, disappearing or the game simply not working any more.
A look at X-Hero’s most recent reviews also shows a barrage of complaints about the game, from its misleading ads to progress being wiped and accounts being reset. To the developer’s credit, it is responding to those reviews and directing players to a support email.
We have asked the developer to comment on why the game disappeared and what it is doing to address player complaints, and will report back if they respond.
As we reported a couple of weeks ago, X-Hero/Epic Heroes disappeared from app stores suddenly having topped charts all over the world. Sensor Tower estimated that at that point the games had earned $31m combined to date.
