Promotional image for iOS app “Traffic Run!” Image: Geisha Tokyo/iTunes via AFP Relaxnews
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 United Kingdom, France, Germany and the Netherlands, second in the United States and Japan and third in South Korea, with a chain of Google Play number ones linking the U.S., U.K., 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 popularized 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 is now added to France, Canada and the U.S. 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 colored squares.
The Berlin-published game has begun building momentum in Europe with top-five placings in Germany and the U.K. 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 afterward.
App data compiled on May 3, 1 p.m. coordinated universal time (UTC) using App Annie rankings for selected regional iTunes and Google Play stores. CE/JB
RELATED STORIES: