From February 2021 onwards, during the lead-up to Apple's notorious iOS 14.5 patch (deprecating the IDFA) and the following months, download metrics of all match-3 games except Candy Crush Saga declined drastically. When looking at the top-grossing match-3 games above, the plot twist becomes quite clear. Weekly downloads of the biggest match-3 games during the last two years. In terms of downloads, it's largely the same story. It remains the only game that seems unaffected by the tightening noose that is King's monopolization of the match-3 segment. The only clear exception is Royal Match, which was covered in a thorough analysis in May. While all of the games in the graph above are multi-million-dollar success stories, it's clear that over the last year, Candy Crush Saga has been slowly eating most of its competitors' revenues. This seems to be the case to this day, and as the newest competitor with arguably the least loyal fanbase, Project Makeover has been dropping in the ranks quite heavily since early 2021. However, in March 2021, things took an unexpected turn - Candy Crush Saga revenues started picking up while its competitors suffered declines (a story Naavik Pro will break down further in December!).

Weekly(!) revenue of the biggest match-3 games during the last two years.

And, throughout the months that followed, Project Makeover actually seemed to be on schedule to potentially surpass the big three match-3 leaders: Gardenscapes, Homescapes, and Candy Crush Saga. It was released exactly two years ago at what seemed to be perfect timing - Candy Crush Saga's revenue had been slowly declining, and all bets seemed to be off. As most games in this genre, it combines the well-known puzzle levels with a decoration meta, but this time that meta is much more unique than usual. Project Makeover is the second match-3 game of Beijing-based studio Magic Tavern.

Gardenscape game breakdown