Analyzing Ad Revenue Strategies in Games

I reverse engineered Block Blast to figure out how a free puzzle game makes over a

hundred million dollars in ads. That's more than Candy Crush.

And it turns out how well you do in the game has less to do with your skill, and

more to do with how much you're worth to them in ads.

It takes your phone model, your country, how much your past ads have made them,

even whether you turned off the vibration on your phone.

It all goes into an XGBoost model that runs locally on your phone

that predicts how

much you can be worth to them in ads.

Then, depending on your value, it'll make the game easier or harder.

One rule called boost then kill secretly makes it easier so you think you're on the

best run of your life right up until you hit your average game length.

And if it detects a really expensive ad is ready, that's when it turns on you.

A rule called high value ad harvest confirms that you have a history of

watching

ads, then helps you beat your high score before

it triggers something called the

death algorithm, which rigs your next turn so there's no

way to survive.

And the moment you lose, the first thing you see

is an offer to revive if you watch

that same ad. And if you do revive, they'll even secretly add ten percent to

your

high score, so you keep coming back for more.

In fact, they even run experiments on the exact

minute to make you lose, and they

measure which one gets you to watch the revive ad.

So all things considered, Block Blast isn't really a puzzle game.

It's more of an ad harvest with a rigged game loop built to squeeze every penny out

of you. Let me know in the comments what app you'd

like to see decompiled next.