TECH NEWS

The dark side of 'free' mobile games — how developers reverse-engineer your patience to milk ad revenue

Block Blast allegedly adjusts difficulty to encourage players to watch advertisements
The free puzzle game reportedly generated $127 million from advertising in five months
Hidden gameplay mechanisms may turn player frustration into advertising revenue

A developer known as Ayoships has reverse-engineered the code of Block Blast, a puzzle app by Hungry Games, revealing deliberate tricks that push players toward ads.

The app costs nothing to download, yet it earned close to $127 million from ads in five months from January through May 2026.

According to the developer, the app allegedly adjusts its difficulty based on what each player is worth to the developers rather than the skill of that player

How free games allegedly manipulate your patience

The game's code reportedly contains mechanisms that assess players using data such as smartphone models, geographical locations, and previous ad interactions.

These indicators can help estimate users’ purchasing power and ad value, potentially...

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How free games allegedly manipulate your patience

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