SAN FRANCISCO, May 4 — Following a slow start, Traffic Run! has become a worldwide hit, while Harry Potter: Wizards Unite enters regional testing, Crowd City and House Paint amass Android followings, and Folding Blocks gains momentum in Europe.
Released on iOS towards the end of 2018, with an Android equivalent launched early April, Traffic Run! racked up a stream of app store feature promotions for both systems since halfway through the month, and has since gone on to find a worldwide audience.
A simple control scheme — tap to go, release to stop — leads to busy roads, twitchy traffic lights, railway crossings, jumps, and sudden turns to negotiate, with coins to collect and a host of alternative vehicles to unlock.
It requires rapid reactions and an intense focus, delivering split-second escapes over the course of each miniature level.
Come Friday May 3, it was the top game download for iPhone in Canada, the UK, France, Germany, and the Netherlands, second in the US and Japan, and third in South Korea, with a chain of Google Play number ones linking the US, UK, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Australia, South Korea and Singapore.
Just as Traffic Run! has benefited from an overlap of familiar concepts from Clean Road and Crossy Road, Crowd City is providing a new take on a mass movement genre popularised by Agar.io and urban-themed challenger Hole.io.
Released on iOS in November 2018, it arrived on Android in February 2019. A top five Google Play download in Singapore and South Korea by early April, it’s now added France, Canada and the USA to its most appreciative locales.
After Amaze!!! and Roller Splat! had players tracing pathways across a tile-shaped grid earlier this year, “Folding Blocks” released early to mid-April on both iOS and Android.
Instead of filling out a grid by moving a ball or paint roller, here players unfold a single stacked tile to eventually cover a gray panel with coloured squares.
The Berlin-published game has begun building momentum in Europe with top five placings in Germany and the UK on Android, and on both Android and iOS in the Netherlands.
House Paint is another app iterating on the Roller Splat! and Amaze!!! concept, this time adding an architectural twist and a three-dimensional perspective.
Finally, Harry Potter: Wizards Unite has launched in a restricted manner, limited for now to the Australian and New Zealand iOS App Stores.
An international release has been telegraphed for June at the latest; predecessor Pokémon Go also landed in Oceania first, with a worldwide rollout coming three months afterwards.
App data compiled on May 3, 1pm UTC using App Annie rankings for selected regional iTunes and Google Play stores. — AFP-Relaxnews
