The 'Impossible' Evolution Of Toy Blast

[music] Tomb Blast actually is like a decent business. That's the kind of evolution of what happened. Toy Blast could have been nothing. Do you know what I mean?
We also know that the teams that made those games were like, you know, unbelievably high quality teams. So, you know,
well, you're alluding to where they went next.
So, you moved to Tomblast then. That's the meat, right? That's the interesting bit. For those watching, you can see how we think in all of our notes. Go to these episodes [laughter]
based on the charts. Tomb Blast had a relatively stable performance up until the end of 2023. Starting from the end of 2023, beginning of 2024, the game had certain periods of time where it jumped 2xed or tripled its revenue and became bigger and bigger and bigger in a market where if you look at the rest of the

blast subre, all the other games fell down off a cliff except maybe toy blast which kind of like flattened uh after that point. So Tomb Blast was just on its own league and the rest of the blast space or market didn't even actually exist if you removed tomb blast from it. And the first kind of like that big jump that you can see on that chart on the like the third quarter if you see to the right is the time where Tomblas adapted the super light bulb from Royal Match which I think has become a very hot topic when it was first launched within Royal Match and like but it was adapted right now. You can basically see different adaptations of it in many different like puzzle games, match tree or blast or any other kind of like even other sub genres and other mechanism. And basically what super light ball does is the special item that you create in match three by matching five items and in last games I think nine items if I'm

not wrong. That special item which clears a single color of the board is basically doubled. So once you unlock that super light bulb after a certain kind of like win trick point which is 10 minutes in most games you start having that special item double its effect. So it clears like twice the colors from the board or if you combine it with different special items it just like doubles the effects of those special items as well. And that was first launched in Royal Match in the summer of 2023 if I'm not wrong. And like everybody was able to see that huge like jump in revenue in royal match and Tumblras was the fastest game that was able to adapt it like they took just like 3 months to adapt and put it inside the game. Like if you look at for example Candy Crash Saga they still have a very very very light version of super light bulb. Like they have this like

temporary version of it. You can use it only once every like four levels. that type of a thing. I want to say also brave for them to be that quick to adapt the super light bulb into the game because it was probably not possible for them to cover every kind of like edge case, every possibility or like make sure the level funnel was not going to be affected at all with the implementation. But they just took three months to adapt it and it became the first kind of like major bump in Tomblast's history as as you can see. I don't know. Does anyone have any kind of like personal experience with the Super Light Ball either like that they worked on or based on like your experience playing these games that you talk?
Well, I was going to say it's like quite an interesting it's echo of the history actually of the game, isn't it? Because Super Light Ball is obviously Royal Match feature and actually it was the Royal Match team that kind of was responsible for the first like the initial part of the game, wasn't it? Is

that right? The Dream guys built Tomb Blast and then went off to do Dream. It's interesting that the kind of game like a bunch of stuff happened in between them which we could talk about where the game started to drop off and then the remaining team or the replace the evolved team have kind of like picked up this feature from the original people that built the game in the first place and it's created this like wow just what an uplift. That must have been so satisfying to be on that team.
Dave was talking about like making the bullet games more like fun and like not that mathematical or not that static. This super light bulb of course its effect in like match three games is definitely huge and you can feel its impact on the core gameplay experience. But I think for a blast game, its impact was even more like pronounced because like you had a more static gameplay experience compared to the match three game. And now with the super light ball

like you can see it just becomes a like a different type of beast that always gives you something that visual feedback and also the game play wise feedback was also quite important I think especially from a mechanics perspective. Although Tomblas, as Dave mentioned, is not too like mechanical or too strategic dependent with the super light bulb, the core players, I assume, actually became more kind of like attached to the game because if you were able to combine two super light balls together, now you were able to clean the whole board twice, which is way more important in a blast game compared to a match game. It is very important for you to have that boardwide impact in a blast game. So I think although super light bulb was created or born in a match three game, it's impact in a blast game from a mechanical perspective is much more pronounced based on my own experience.
Like you guys already talked about,

you've got like this coming out pretty quick after rescue is out. You know, obviously does a lot better. If we take a look at downloads, it's also pretty interesting. the good oldfashioned hard launch like really push it's just classic if you look at the overall I mean the the installs are not that far away from each other but you know revenue is double which is very interesting so yeah not not too big a difference in the install base what is it you know 20 20% more or something but the 2x the revenue even though launched later pretty cool and I mean you can also see that this jump is not downloads cost.
The other thing you could think is maybe like ARP Dow's going up because active users are dropping. And I mean this makes it even more impressive. I think if you think of that peak revenue for Tune was here and now we're reaching those peak revenues with these numbers,

which is pretty incredible. I mean, you can only imagine how big the game would have been if they'd added if they'd had it here, right?
And we'll take a look at that revenue. Don't forget home. So here is the big this is where the big downloads and active users is. And here there's hardly nowhere near as many and yet you still have to jump. One fun thing I think is if you take a look at this revenue curve here and then we look at ARPD you see that the ARPD is actually climbing for both of them. This is an incredible change right? Let's make it a little bit easier and just look at us. It's hard when you're looking at a bunch of markets because ARP Dow can get kind of messy, but here you've got like, you know, 38 cent ARP Dow, 17 cent ARP Dow, you know, and then this huge chump up to
wow,
you know, somewhere in the $2 to3 range,
which I mean
a 10x of the Ordal 10x.

Well, this is Yes question, isn't it? And what I hadn't realized is is actually that it was pretty flat for the first kind of what's that five six years of the game and it's only over the past kind of third of its life where it's really taken off. It's like post the super light bulb phase, right?
And I mean just so that we uh get a clean look at it, we're looking at US. Let's split by devices. This is iOS only and you still see it and Android only and you still see it. So, the jump is there. Either way, I don't know what this little dip is. Who knows what it's very volatile, not like a huge user base or whatever, but
that jump on Android for Toy Blast is interesting.
The numbers aren't huge, right? The amount of users isn't huge. And like, you know, how are we getting the data? I mean, we're talking about
tiny.
The signal is correct. Like, the jump is real. The jump is big. Is it exactly

shaped the way it was there? Ah, probably not. It goes up from something like 30 cents to $3. I mean, it is really incredible. 3x 3x jump and and here's the the big question then after all that is it just engagement driven. So, is the Super Bowl super light bulb so powerful that you just want to keep playing and you don't want to lose and lose it so you're willing to pay? Is it driving like convert? We can't see any of this.
I mean, are people that never paid before willing to pay now because they don't want to lose the super light bulb? Well,
most likely I'd say that people that already paid or willing to pay even more often [clears throat] to make sure they don't lose it.
Yeah. And they kind of like supported like super light bulb was kind of the first thing in that journey and that they supported it with a more robust and I want to say modern live ops cadence as well like after super light ball came the collection meta which

I'm not sure like I don't know whom we can attribute the collection meta to there are a couple of social casin games that like I know were run it but still they also adapted the collection meta in their own structure and that also helped them kind of like have another jump in their journey and I think it's more of a like a case of yeah you have the super light bulb which increases the stakes and like if you lose a level and now you lose like more than you you would before and now you just increase those stakes like you add collection meta you add like different progression based offers on top of the current like structure current offers And now that whole like increase stakes just like gets bigger and bigger like they just compound. I think that's kind of the reason they continued growing so well even after like the initial phase of Super Light Ball adaptation.
We found this interesting quote from the CEO around the time of Super Light Ball

where he said that gross bookings had almost doubled and the main change was increasing the number of tests that we run and the relentless focus on gameplay. It almost feels like there's kind of a couple of phases of life of the game. The kind of initial one where it really takes off. It's being built by the dream guys. They're like high class operators and they build this great game which kind of comes from nothing to steal what like twothirds of the market something like that.
And then it kind of drops off and then they've got this second phase where it's game play experimentation testing live collections. And that's the real kind of uplift that Yesper was calling out happened
just like a throwback to Yesper. Clash Royale is like, you know, operating at a much lower than Tomb Blast and Toy Blast and like, hey, maybe you want to try to figure out how to get Super Lightball into Clash Royale.
Yes, player.
You need you need Super Light Ball in every game.
I [clears throat] can write some notes for you. I'm pretty deep in Clash Royale

myself.
That's why you picked it. I was like, what a weird one to throw into this mix. But now that makes perfect sense. [laughter]
Of course, as as soon as we change to revenue instead of ARPD, then everything looks very different, you know?
But I mean, it's it's still I mean on that user base, absolutely incredible, right? this is I we're looking at iOS only but like absolutely incredible that on this small user base driving that kind of revenue
that it's and it's still on the chart you know.
Yeah. I think like what Tom mentioned with the quote from American and like continuous testing and like improving the your existing features. Okay. With the super light ball you just like adapt it because royal match basically like one-shoted the whole feature. You just like adapt it and move on. But for example, tomb blast has a whole like wild journey feature where on based on your progression, you get wild cards that you can use in your own collection

and you can kind of finish certain sets within that collection which adds a whole like separate progression layer on top of the already the kind of like rich progression layers that you have. And it actually doesn't exist in many other games. It's more like an original thing that they found on their own. I don't know which one came off first, but Gossip Harbor has the same thing. Um, and and Gossip Harbor's Yeah. Yeah. And I mean, their card structure is awesome. I mean, basically, you get all the way to the end of it. Not that I've grinded Gossip Harbor all the way to the end of it.
I have I've completed a full collection in Gossip Harbor, and they did not have wild cards when I did. And let me tell you, I was playing every day, multiple sessions per day.
That is hard work. That That is hard work.
Yes. This is They did not have wild cards at that point.
Yeah. Now it's like locked. The last the last three cards you basically can't get them. I'm pretty sure it's impossible to get them except as wild cards and they're all at the end of things. Like there's one frozen at the end of
I mean if I show this I'm going to have

to admit a bunch of things publicly which is very uncomfortable but [laughter] I'm willing to take a hit for the hit for the team. I may or may not be spending um money inside of Gossip Harbor.
I'd spent probably about $200 $250 in Gossip Harbor. Not that much but enough. [laughter] I mean, so I mean, right now there's a wild card locked behind
purchases. So I need to make a purchase
every day for 5 days
to get the wild card.
Nice.
I mean, it's just and it's so well done. I mean, instead of feeling like screwed, you feel like that's such an opportunity. I get all this stuff. So good.
Gossip Harper purchases always felt really good, despite the fact that I burned through a lot of what I purchased very quickly. For some reason, you just feel like you're getting a ton of stuff. Anyway, we're getting off track. That's my hope.
No, but I mean, I think that I do think that's interesting. Maybe maybe they started the wild card thing and then it and then I moved over there. I'm not sure who uh
who had it in first. I mean,
yeah, I've been going through my own

screenshots and I found from October 4, 2025, that wild journey feature from Tomblast. So like they basically give you this like progression based feature where you finish like certain goals and you get card packs and then they promise you that wildfire at the end of that. I think
it would be very interesting to see what the difference is between the events and the you know what's driving what.
Yeah, this this one is not purchase based but Tumblr also has a had a purchase based wild card.
Look at that show show that screen again. So, for those listening, we're holding up our phones comparing. [laughter]
This is the the um an event screen. Same exact thing. It's all earned with rewards on it.
Mhm.
It's not for the wild card, but the exact same structure for the event.
Yeah. The one in Tumblrust is based on card packs, not wild cards, but card packs for the collection. And the last reward is the wild card itself. So, like you go through that getting card packs

for your collection. And the last one is just similar to the what thing that you mentioned in ghost fiber is a wild card that you can use later.
If we had to decide which how much the uplift goes towards super light bulb and how much of it goes towards the improved events. It might be one/ird super light bulb in the rest events. You know I mean if you told me that you were going to pull the events I'd say you probably lose more than if you pull super light bulb.
H yeah as a like as a total that I I could agree with that. Yeah. Yeah, because the events kind of stack on top of each other and they compound better because Super Light Pool is a single feature and like I said, it's very optimized. There is not much you can do about it.
Yeah.
Also, with the like experiments and like improvement and different kind of like tests that they are doing, Tomblas, if I'm not mistaken, is the first like major casual puzzle game that introduced a three tiered season pass. like at least I'm living in Germany and I

downloaded the game much like in the past so I'm not a new user and I got the three tier season pass last March so it's been like about 4 months.
Does Germany not have the latest internet? Is that why you have the old version of the game? Sure [laughter] is.
So like I'm not a I'm not a new user but I got this three tiered like season pass offer which okay it exists in almost every arch hero game or many of the midcore games but they are trying things both gameplay wise and both like offer wise feature wise on the like more like meta layer type of stuff. So that's the reason the install base is quite low and like they they cannot really improve their install base. But what you can do for your existing users which is your bread and butter most of your revenue comes from them. You can offer them new things, new progression layers, new ways to interact with the game so that like

they stay longer, they pay more and like they engage in a more kind of like concentrated matter. I think Tomblast is a great example of like you don't you don't have to be bound by the limitations of your own market. You can always kind of like improve optimize the facilities that you have on your own.
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