Game mechanics
What games actually do, beyond their store category — 124K of 220K games (56%) carry at least one core mechanic.
What games actually do, beyond their store category — 124K of 220K games (56%) carry at least one core mechanic.
Games released in Last 12 months: 220K games, 124K with a tagged mechanic. Install growth and rising games count only this period's releases.
A game can have several mechanics — a puzzle game with a merge board and a renovation story is tagged Merge, Merge-2, Decorate and Story. Combine a mechanic with a category in the catalogue.
| Mechanic | Released | 1M+ | Installs gained · 30d |
|---|---|---|---|
| Merge Combine identical items into a higher tier. Any setting: puzzle, board, idle, battle. |
7.5K | 390.5% | +35M |
| Word game Word search, crossword, anagram / word connect, Wordle-style guessing, spelling and word stacks. |
7.4K | 90.1% | +7.7M |
| Color / water / ball sort Pour or move colours until every tube / stack holds one colour (water sort, ball sort, hexa sort). |
5.6K | 440.8% | +41M |
| Number & math puzzle 2048, number match / take ten, make ten, numpuz sliding numbers, math puzzles. |
4.7K | 60.1% | +3.3M |
| Block puzzle Place block shapes on a grid to clear full rows / columns (Block Blast, Woodoku, tetromino). |
4.4K | 120.3% | +12M |
| Arrow / snake escape Tap a piece and it slides out along its arrow if the lane is clear (Arrow Puzzle, Amaze GO!, Snake Escape, CubeAway). |
4.1K | 360.9% | +54M |
| Sudoku Sudoku and its variants (killer sudoku, jigsaw sudoku). |
3.8K | 50.1% | +14M |
| Match-3 Swap adjacent pieces to line up three or more of a kind. |
3.2K | 130.4% | +5M |
| Jam / unjam & escape Clear a jam by moving pieces out in the right order: car / bus / parking jam, colour block jam, unblock, knots. |
2.9K | 220.8% | +22M |
| Jigsaw Assemble picture pieces (jigsaw, jigsaw solitaire, picture tiles). |
2.5K | 150.6% | +14M |
| Connect / draw lines Connect dots, pipes or colours with lines; one-stroke drawing; flow / link / rotate pipes. |
2.3K | 100.4% | +6.8M |
| Memory & pairs Remember and repeat: flip-card pairs (concentration), Simon-style sequences, memory training. |
2K | 20.1% | +1.9M |
| Tile match (triple) Pick tiles into a tray; three identical tiles clear (Tile Busters, Zen Match). |
2K | 321.6% | +22M |
| Nonogram & grid logic Pen-and-paper grid logic: nonogram / picross, kakuro, star battle, queens, minesweeper, logic grids. |
1.9K | 10.1% | +2.3M |
| Brain teaser & tricky puzzles Tricky one-screen puzzles, riddles, IQ tests, 'Brain Out' / 'Brain Test' style lateral thinking, draw-one-part. |
1.7K | 392.3% | +35M |
| Physics puzzle Pull the pin, cut the rope, draw to save, stacking / balancing and other physics-driven puzzles. |
1.7K | 120.7% | +17M |
| Hidden object Search detailed scenes for listed objects (hidden object, seek & find, find it). |
1.5K | 140.9% | +15M |
| Bubble shooter Aim and shoot bubbles to form same-colour groups (Bubble Witch, Puzzle Bobble). |
1.5K | 60.4% | +2.1M |
| Mahjong & pair connect Mahjong solitaire, Onet / pair-connect and Shisen-sho style tile pairing. |
1.4K | 110.8% | +10M |
| Screw / nuts & bolts Unscrew pins and bolts in the right order, often sorting screws by colour into boxes. |
1.1K | 30.3% | +3.8M |
| Escape room & point-and-click Escape rooms and point-and-click adventure puzzles (find clues, combine items, unlock). |
1K | 161.6% | +6.6M |
| Goods / item sort Sort shop goods, items or objects on shelves into triples (Goods Sort, triple shelf). |
580 | 91.6% | +4.4M |
| Spot the difference Compare two pictures to find the differences. |
469 | 20.4% | +3.3M |
| Pixel shooter (queue → picture) Send coloured shooters / ants / bobbins from a stack; each one clears pixels of its colour from a picture, leftovers wait in a few slots (Pixel Flow, Colony Flow, Food Hunt, Yarn Loop). |
341 | 72.1% | +7.4M |
| Picture-card slide (jigsaw solitaire) Slide or swap shuffled picture cards; matching neighbours snap into groups that move together until the image is rebuilt (Jigsort, Jigsawcard, Jigsaw Drop). |
335 | 72.1% | +7M |
| Match 3D (pairs / triples) A pile of 3D objects; pick matching pairs or triples (Match 3D, Match Factory). |
258 | 20.8% | +1.9M |
| Merge-2 board & orders Item board with generators and customer orders (Merge Mansion, Travel Town, Gossip Harbor). |
232 | 73.0% | +6.5M |
| Tap blast / collapse Tap groups of two or more same-coloured blocks to pop them (Toon Blast, Toy Blast). |
54 | 11.9% | +183K |
| Mechanic | Released | 1M+ | Installs gained · 30d |
|---|---|---|---|
| Runner Endless / level runners: swipe lanes, jump and slide, crowd runners with gates. |
4.8K | 561.2% | +34M |
| Hyper-casual timing / tap One-touch timing and skill: stack, tap to time, knife hit, flip, aim-and-throw, satisfying tap games. |
3.8K | 160.4% | +16M |
| Platformer & jump Jump between platforms: classic platformers, jump / helix / stack-ball / geometry-dash style. |
2.6K | 451.8% | +27M |
| IO / hole / crowd arena Grow-and-eat arena games: hole.io, snake / worm io, crowd city, paper.io. |
926 | 91.0% | +7.6M |
| Rhythm & music Tap to the beat: piano tiles, beat hopping, music runners, rhythm games. |
914 | 182.0% | +9.5M |
| Brick breaker & ball shooter Aim and bounce balls to break numbered bricks (Bricks n Balls, Ballz, Breakout / Arkanoid). |
827 | 60.7% | +1.5M |
| Mechanic | Released | 1M+ | Installs gained · 30d |
|---|---|---|---|
| Racing Race against rivals or the clock: cars, bikes, karts, drift, hill climb. |
6.1K | 1442.4% | +98M |
| Shooter FPS / TPS / top-down / sniper / arcade shooting. |
4.9K | 681.4% | +40M |
| Sports Ball and athletic sports: soccer, basketball, cricket, golf, pool, bowling, tennis, archery. |
3.4K | 351.0% | +20M |
| Fighting & beat 'em up One-on-one fighting, brawlers, beat 'em ups, stickman fighting. |
2.4K | 562.3% | +33M |
| Roguelike / survivor-like Run-based progression with random upgrades: roguelikes, roguelites, bullet heaven / survivor.io-likes. |
2.4K | 130.5% | +6.6M |
| Survival & crafting sandbox Gather, craft and build to survive in an open world; block-craft sandboxes. |
1.3K | 624.7% | +42M |
| MOBA / arena brawler Team arena combat: MOBAs, 3v3 / 5v5 brawlers. |
347 | 92.6% | +5.3M |
| Battle royale Last player / squad standing on a shrinking map. |
335 | 61.8% | +2.3M |
| Mechanic | Released | 1M+ | Installs gained · 30d |
|---|---|---|---|
| RPG & hero collector Character progression with gear, skills, parties and quests; hero collectors, MMORPGs, ARPGs. |
4K | 441.1% | +31M |
| Tower defense Place towers or units along paths to stop waves. |
2.8K | 180.6% | +12M |
| 4X / war strategy Base building + army + conquest with alliances (Clash of Clans, Lords Mobile, Rise of Kingdoms). |
1.8K | 301.6% | +22M |
| City & base builder Build and manage a city, town, kingdom or colony (SimCity, Township-like builders). |
1.4K | 503.5% | +31M |
| Auto battler / merge battle Arrange units before a fight that plays itself: auto chess, merge-battle, squad placement. |
705 | 50.7% | +3.6M |
| Mechanic | Released | 1M+ | Installs gained · 30d |
|---|---|---|---|
| Idle / incremental Progress that keeps earning while away: idle tycoons, clickers, incremental upgrades. |
5K | 330.7% | +31M |
| Driving & parking simulator Realistic driving, parking, bus / truck / train / flight simulators and open-world driving. |
4.7K | 2294.9% | +127M |
| Tycoon & management Run and grow a business: restaurant, hotel, hospital, supermarket, theme park, factory tycoons. |
4K | 531.3% | +36M |
| Farming Plant, harvest, raise animals and trade crops (Hay Day, FarmVille). |
1.2K | 191.6% | +12M |
| Life sim & virtual pet Care for pets, avatars or families; doll-house / role-play toy worlds (Toca, Avatar World, My Talking Tom). |
990 | 353.5% | +19M |
| Cooking & time management Serve customers against the clock: cooking games, diner / restaurant dash. |
423 | 204.7% | +11M |
| Mechanic | Released | 1M+ | Installs gained · 30d |
|---|---|---|---|
| Classic board games Ludo, chess, checkers, backgammon, dominoes, carrom, mancala, snakes & ladders, go, reversi. |
7.4K | 110.1% | +9.2M |
| Casino, slots & bingo Social casino: slots, poker, bingo, roulette, keno, coin pushers, scratchers. |
3.2K | 130.4% | +10M |
| Solitaire (card) Patience card games: Klondike, Spider, FreeCell, TriPeaks, Pyramid, Golf. |
1.9K | 160.8% | +9.6M |
| Classic card games Multiplayer / classic card games: rummy, spades, hearts, uno-likes, gin, belote, durak, crazy eights. |
1.9K | 40.2% | +4M |
| Card battler / CCG Collectible and deck-building card battles: CCG, TCG, deckbuilders, card-strategy PvP. |
1.5K | 50.3% | +4.7M |
| Mechanic | Released | 1M+ | Installs gained · 30d |
|---|---|---|---|
| Trivia & quiz Trivia, quizzes, guess-the-X, questions with answers. |
6.7K | 110.2% | +8.3M |
| Coloring & paint by number Color by number, pixel art colouring, colouring books, glitter / paint drawing. |
2.4K | 220.9% | +22M |
| Kids learning Pre-school and kids learning games: ABC, numbers, shapes, toddlers. |
2.3K | 110.5% | +7.4M |
| ASMR & satisfying care Satisfying routines: cleaning, fixing, restoring, organizing, skincare, slicing and relaxing ASMR tasks. |
1.3K | 523.9% | +46M |
| Dress-up, fashion & makeover Outfits, makeup, hair salons, nail art, fashion styling and makeover. |
1.1K | 575.2% | +41M |
| Interactive story & choices Story-driven games where choices steer the plot: visual novels, choose-your-story, otome, chat stories. |
966 | 121.2% | +9.8M |
| Mechanic | Released | 1M+ | Installs gained · 30d |
|---|---|---|---|
| PvP & multiplayer Play against other real players: real-time or asynchronous PvP, online multiplayer, 1v1 duels. |
5.6K | 741.3% | +39M |
| Story & characters A storyline with chapters and characters wrapped around the core loop. |
2.9K | 1163.9% | +75M |
| Live events & tournaments Limited-time events, seasonal content, tournaments and leaderboards refreshed by live-ops. |
1.9K | 201.1% | +21M |
| Collection & albums Collect sets: sticker / card albums, character or item collections, completing sets for rewards. |
1.5K | 292.0% | +18M |
| Decorate & renovate Spend progress on decorating or renovating homes, gardens, towns or rooms between levels. |
1.1K | 474.1% | +26M |
| Teams, clans & guilds Join a team, clan, guild or alliance; team chat, help requests, team events. |
1K | 323.2% | +18M |
| Gacha & loot boxes Randomised draws: summons, gacha banners, loot boxes, chests with random items. |
508 | 61.2% | +3M |
| Battle pass / season pass Tiered season pass with free and premium reward tracks. |
92 | 33.3% | +2.9M |
Each listing's title, package name, short and long description, release notes and reviews are read against a versioned lexicon of 72 mechanics. Title and short-description mentions weigh most; negations (“no merging”), comparisons (“if you like match-3…”) and keyword lists are discounted. A learned text model, trained on those tags and a hand-checked sample, confirms borderline cases. Only medium- and high-confidence tags are shown; each game page lists the phrase behind every tag.
