Original title: Top 15 Overseas Revenue: Merge Games Went From 2 to 6 in a Year, and the No.1 Hasn't Changed
Author: Enjoy Chuhai
Source: Enjoy Chuhai Developer Services Platform
Hero image source: pexels
In September 2025, only two merge games appeared in the top 15 of Chinese mobile games' overseas revenue — both from LemonWeiQu. A year later, merge games hold six of the spots, with the number of merge publishers in the top 15 rising to four, and Gossip Harbor now sits atop the chart.
The six products still use the familiar boards, generators and orders. The differences only become apparent as you play deeper: some make order-delivery feedback more direct, some send ingredients into kitchen appliances, and others link the next order to disappearance mysteries and town secrets.
From 2 to 6, the change also happened beyond the board. When weekly completed tasks can push forward longer-term rewards, and exploration and tasks jointly feed a seasonal album, daily merge sessions connect to more downstream goals.
The Two Top-15 Snapshots: Merge Products Boxed Out
How the Four New Seats Spent Their Year
In January 2026, Gossip Harbor reached No.1 on the Chinese mobile games overseas revenue chart for the first time, with Tasty Travels and Seaside Escape at No.10 and No.12 respectively.
By May, the top 15 included five merge titles. Tasty Travels rose to No.5, with Merge Cooking and Flambé entering at No.11 and No.14. In September, Mystery...
Four monthly snapshots, not necessarily the first time each product entered the chart
Three of the four new seats had already appeared by May. Several products' upward momentum predates September, and each had its own period of product accumulation.
Tasty Travels had already ranked 19th in September 2025, later moving into the top 10 and top 5. Flambé's rise started even earlier: Diandian's May 2025 product teardown already documented...
The products entered the top 15 at different times and went through different operational journeys. Existing products continued to climb, tested projects gradually moved into the upper ranks, and by September this year the merge lineup reached six.
Gossip Harbor and Seaside Escape stayed in the top 15 while new products joined in succession. Existing titles kept operating, and new product lines also reached the top.
The Market Is Expanding, and Chinese Products Gained More Increment
AppMagic data shows that global merge-game IAP revenue reached about US$1.239 billion in H1 2026, versus about US$636 million in the same period last year; downloads rose from roughly 227 million to 273 million, up about 2...
Two H1 periods: global merge revenue grew faster than downloads
Downloads measure new installs in the period, while revenue includes spending from both new and existing players. With different growth rates, growth also involves operations beyond acquiring new installs.
After players enter a product, what goals exist after merging, how activities allocate resource consumption, and how paid content fits current progress all belong to downstream operations.
Chinese publishers also stand out in the increment. Sensor Tower's 2026 Merge Game Market Insights shows that of the top 10 products by global merge revenue growth in H1, nine come from Chinese publishers.
Original page with Chinese comparison; red box marks the revenue growth ranking info
According to AppMagic, from December 2025 to March 2026, Tasty Travels' monthly revenue grew 71%; by March it had become the No.2 global merge game by monthly revenue, behind Goss...
Several leading products also compete in many of the same markets. Naavik's comparison of Gossip Harbor, Travel Town and Merge Mansion shows the US is a major revenue market for all of them...
Several products compete directly in many markets. Beneath familiar merge mechanics, experience differences are increasingly landing on specific operations and goals.
All Merge, But What Attracts Players Has Split Into Several Routes
Tasty Travels has players merge ingredients to the level required by orders, hand them to customers, earn rewards, and then advance to the next travel destination. Early feedback centers on item upgrades and order completion, and the gameplay highlights deliverable items, matching board state with...
Tasty Travels: orders correspond to deliverable items on the board
Scene upgrades require coins and materials. To advance to the next travel destination, players need to keep producing, merging and completing orders. Completing one order also serves longer scene progress.
In publicly tested footage, some of Flambé's orders require placing merged ingredients into the corresponding cookware for processing before delivering the dish. Reaching the merge requirement is only one step for such orders; players then have to complete the corresponding preparation.
Flambé: some orders include an ingredient-processing step
Merge Cooking also combines ingredients with cooking appliances — players use frying pans, ovens and other equipment while managing a restaurant and encountering dishes from different regions. The interplay between ingredients and cookware becomes part of the order-completion process.
All three are food-themed, yet they arrange different operations between merging and delivering. Tasty Travels concentrates on item-upgrade and delivery feedback, while the two cooking products unfold ingredient processing, making cooking itself part of daily operations.
Tasty Travels' scene upgrades vs Flambé's business-day progress
Mystery Town's story revolves around Aurora searching for her missing uncle: players complete orders, restore the town, and gradually unlock new areas and plotlines. The board handles daily production, while disappearance mysteries and town secrets give the story its suspense.
Merge Cooking early gameplay (2023) and Mystery Town investigation content
Like Gossip Harbor, it is story-driven, but the suspense lands differently — one revolves around a disappearance, the other around restaurant rebuilding and character relationships. All involve completing orders, but the stories being advanced are distinct.
Seaside Escape combines a character rebuilding her life with island revival. It and Gossip Harbor remain near the top, while the new cooking and mystery products also entered the upper ranks. Several routes coexisting on the same chart shows that merge games have...
Same Merge Foundation, Different Daily Operations and Long-Term Goals
Art and story differ, and so do what players repeatedly do each day and what they get afterwards. The products place different emphasis on delivery feedback, preparation processes and downstream storylines.
Mistplay's 2025 survey of puzzle game players shows 46% of respondents play 2–4 mobile games weekly; among respondents who pay, 60% pay for only one game per week. Trying several products differs from continuously paying into...
Different experiences can attract players to try, but sustained operation requires continuously adding content so that the order in front of them has a follow-up.
After Finishing One Order, More Goals Follow
A merge board leaves unmerged items and undelivered orders. The next time players open it, once energy recovers, they can continue.
Whether continuing smoothly depends on board space, whether recovered energy can be used immediately, and how order requirements align with generated items.
In Naavik's 2024 teardown of Travel Town, it placed snapshots of the board at the 2nd, 10th and 60th session starts side by side and found these screens kept about 20%–25% of empty space...
Travel Town board snapshots at different play stages (Naavik, 2024)
Board space gives generators room to produce; generators consume energy to produce items; orders give items a destination. The rules need to work together for the first round of actions after a return visit to run smoothly.
Generator boosters change the pace of resource use. Taking Travel Town's double-speed mode as an example, one tap consumes more energy but may yield higher-level products. Players can complete high-level orders with fewer taps, while the system can distribute...
Once boosters raise the pace, subsequent tasks and rewards need to match resource-use rhythm. Items need a consumption destination, and order completion needs downstream goals. Naavik's later comparisons of leading merge games also place generator boosters alongside board fundamentals and event scheduling.
These designs existed before September 2025. Over the past year, existing mechanics have connected to longer-cycle goals, and the relationships between different events have tightened.
In September 2025, Gossip Harbor's restaurant goal event added accumulated stars. Players earn event points and stage rewards by completing daily tasks; after completing enough weekly tasks, they can also earn a star, and accumulating three unlocks a bigger long-term prize...
Gossip Harbor: daily tasks, weekly milestones and accumulated stars
Daily participation first advances current-period rewards; weekly milestones then contribute one star. Short-term completion affects the long-term prize, giving the event a cross-week participation goal.
By September 2026, Tasty Travels' map exploration event Wonder Quest and its task event Stamp Trail were already connected, jointly leading to the seasonal album. Both exploration and tasks can advance...
Tasty Travels exploration gameplay and official seasonal album promo image
Gossip Harbor extends within-week participation into cross-week goals, while Tasty Travels lets different events jointly drive collection. The core operations players repeat remain familiar, but completion now advances more goals.
Card trading extends collection beyond the game. When Tasty Travels released a new album in January 2026, it invited players to join a Facebook card-trading group, offering group events and rewards. Hunting missing cards became a touchpoint connecting players and...
Paid rewards are also linked to event progress. In summer 2026, Seaside Escape combined milestones with chain bundles in Spirit of the Spire: spending energy earns event points, advancing rewards...
Seaside Escape: reward and purchase nodes within event progress
In Gossip Harbor's anniversary spinner, players receive free rewards while also accumulating stored rewards. After purchasing, they can claim the corresponding accumulated content, and each subsequent spin grants extra rewards.
Gossip Harbor: free spinner and stored rewards claimable after purchase
Seaside Escape shows what later nodes unlock, while Gossip Harbor lets players see rewards they have already banked. What you get after paying aligns with the event progress in front of you, giving purchases a clear context...
Energy, albums and battle passes all existed long ago; the new operational detail lies mainly in how they fit together. Where resources go, which events tasks lead to, and which long-term progress rewards advance — these arrangements need to be coordinated.
In August 2026, Merge Cooking announced a SpongeBob collaboration (open in some regions), staging merge events, albums and decoration into phases within the event period. It had already entered the top 15 in May; the collaboration shows what entering the upper ranks...
In a September conversation, the Love & Pies lead mentioned that the team had adjusted the economy together with the community and was considering reducing the pressure of chasing event counts, leaving energy for more distinctive content. With more event entry points, resource and...
Entry Points Outside the Game Are Also Taking Different Routes
Differences inside products don't always appear the same way in advertising.
In AppMagic's observation of H1 2026 creatives, Gossip Harbor more often used character situations and plot conflicts; Tasty Travels featured continuous demos similar to fruit-merge gameplay, as well as rescue...
Story creatives first make viewers care about what happens to the characters; operation demos focus attention on actions and results. After entering the game, how the story continues and how the board opens form the subsequent experience.
The same product's story ad and actual order board
Mystery Town's creatives also featured shooting-and-shattering concepts. The actual mainline remains order-merge and town restoration; the ads tried another easily understood visual expression.
Mystery Town: shooting-style ad creatives vs actual order merge gameplay
What ads use to stop people and what the game uses to keep them are two connected links. Mystery stories, cooking processing and order feedback are both content inside the product and source material for different creative directions.
Sensor Tower analyst Sam Aune noted in March 2026 that among Gossip Harbor's downloads in the preceding 90 days, 82.9% were attributed to paid display advertising.
Even as a leading product, paid display still carries a large share of acquisition. Creatives capture the first glance, early experience catches the opening, and subsequent orders and events provide ongoing participation goals. Reaching users and sustaining engagement after entry are two connected operations.
In September 2025, Tasty Travels already gave monthly rewards to active Facebook followers, and later organized card trading around new albums. Connections outside the game also revolve around specific collection and rewards.
This year, merge games' creative-side expression kept expanding, and in-game participation content kept growing. Each new leading product's operations have extended into both links.
Behind the Chart: From One Publisher to Four
In September 2025, the two merge games in the top 15 both came from LemonWeiQu. By September 2026, LemonWeiQu had three, with Diandian Interactive, TianTianWanJia (Happibits) and Learnings each holding one.
The six merge titles in the top 15 belong to four companies
Beyond the serialized stories and order-merge gameplay of Gossip Harbor and Seaside Escape, LemonWeiQu expanded into cooking management with Flambé. Its two original titles stayed on the chart, and the new product entered the top 10 — the same company...
In May 2026 investor communication, Century Huatong said it would focus mainly on merge and match-3 directions with better long-term prospects and larger scale, with several casual products in testing and two to three more casual merge products planned for launch.
While Tasty Travels climbed, follow-up projects also advanced. Diandian Interactive's casual business layout covers both existing products and tested projects.
TianTianWanJia's official site simultaneously showcases Merge Cooking and Foodstars. By September, the two ranked No.14 and No.25 on the Chinese mobile games overseas revenue chart respectively. Products built around cooking have formed a lineup at this company.
Learnings already had casual products like Vita Mahjong, while Mystery Town combines ongoing storylines, town restoration and order-merge gameplay. Its product in the revenue top 15 presents content distinct from light puzzle games.
Each company's investment path has its own focus. LemonWeiQu expands different experiences within merge; TianTianWanJia builds multiple products around cooking; Diandian Interactive publicly advances follow-up casual projects.
From 2 to 6 merge titles, LemonWeiQu contributed one new seat and the other three came from other publishers. Existing companies expanded their product lines while other companies' projects entered the upper ranks — two changes that together enlarged the merge lineup on the chart.
By September, the four additional top-15 seats already correspond to several distinct product experiences. Delivery feedback, cooking processes and mystery progression each have their own emphasis; tasks, events and paid content continue to interlock; and creatives and communities outside the game provide additional reach. Several companies...
