I noticed a new word game climbing its way up the most downloaded chart on the App Store this week, and looking at the trend and timing, we could have a new Wordle here.
Cryptogram is a word puzzle where the user needs to find missing letters in famous quotes. It's not at all like Wordle, but it seems to be catching on much like Wordle did before it went viral.
Cryptogram, which I'm pretty sure is only available on the App Store but has an identical clone on Google Play, was the #2 most popular game in the US App Store last week.
In terms of downloads, Cryptogram was averaging 3K downloads in September and started seeing growth in October.
Last Friday, downloads ballooned to 62K, according to our estimates. That's a whopping 19.7x increase within just a few weeks.
But that wasn't all - downloads grew even more last Tuesday to 67K!
According to our estimates, Cryptogram made its way into 636K iOS devices in October. Up from 105K in September and just 3.7K in March.
But something is missing...
Unlike Wordle, and potentially why Cryptogram won't go viral, the game doesn't encourage social sharing, which was how Wordle spread like wildfire.
It looks like momentum is slowing down but there's still time to capitalize on active users by adding social sharing features - and integrating them into the game's flow - to turn this downward slope into a hockey stick.
December saw a curious split: downloads dropped 2% while revenue sat at $1.3B. ChatGPT and TikTok dominated both charts as the mobile industry enters a new maturity phase.
Wall Street bet $2 billion on Polymarket, and downloads surged 1,172% in December. The prediction market banned in 2022 is now where Wall Street looks for signals.