Ring-unlocking is hardly a new mechanic, yet Beijing Jiayou has used it to produce a new hit with nearly 12 million downloads in the past 30 days. After pursuing Lemon Games in mahjong, arrow-blasting and animal sudoku, can Rotate Rings open a new growth path?

Tencent has long supplemented its global casual-game portfolio through acquisitions and external investments, with particularly frequent moves this year.

In February, Bloomberg reported that Tencent was in talks to acquire a minority stake in Hungry Studio, a brand under Beijing Jiayou Network Co., Ltd. In July, Israeli listed game company Playtika was reported to be considering selling SuperPlay, the studio behind Disney Solitaire, to Tencent. In August, Tencent quietly acquired a stake in Happibits, the overseas entity of Tiantian Players and the operator of Merge Cooking. In September, it led a $25 million Series A round for Turkish developer Circle Games. In mid-October, PocketGamer.biz reported that Turkish developer Flow Games, maker of Smash Fest!, had raised $46 million, with Tencent contributing approximately three-quarters, or $34.5 million.

Tencent’s continued investment reflects its confidence in the ability of casual teams to consistently create hits. Hungry Studio is a typical example, and it has recently delivered another breakout title: its IAA game Rotate Rings generated nearly 12 million downloads in the past 30 days.

How exactly has the game performed? What are its gameplay experience and user-acquisition logic? How did the publisher develop, and how is its product portfolio structured? Diandian Overseas breaks down and analyzes these questions below.

01

Aggressive User Acquisition Drives Daily Downloads from Thousands to 700,000

Rotate Rings Reaches the Top 50 Free-Game Charts in 171 Markets

Diandian data shows that Rotate Rings first launched on Google Play in selected countries and regions in late July this year, followed by the App Store in early August. It began generating measurable market data in the middle of that month, but at a very low scale.

It was not until the middle and latter part of September that the game entered scaled testing and sharply increased its user-acquisition spend. The pace began to slow only on October 7, but nearly 110,000 ads were still run in the following week, with 4,722 creatives. By mid-October, cumulative ad placements had reached 150,000. During this period, its iOS free-game rankings rose sharply.

On September 22, the game was in the free-game Top 50 in only eight regional markets, ranking No. 198 in the United States. By October 4, it had entered the Top 50 in 171 markets, ranking No. 3 in the US. It currently remains in the Top 50 in 62 countries and regions, ranking No. 7 in the US.

Downloads performed just as strongly. Daily downloads were only around 1,000 on September 22, reached 622,000 on September 28, and peaked at nearly 700,000 on October 4. They then began a relatively slow, fluctuating decline and currently hover around 500,000 per day.

The game has now been live for two months and has accumulated approximately 12 million downloads, including about 11.97 million in the past month. The US, Brazil and Mexico are the top three markets, contributing 14.4%, 6.83% and 4.78%, respectively. Industry estimates suggest daily active users have reached 1.3 million, with daily ad revenue of approximately $45,000–$50,000.

02

Rotate, Disassemble and Shatter: Ring-Unlocking Is Not New

How Is Rotate Rings Sustaining Its Growth?

Rotate Rings’ explosive rise in such a short period is driven most directly by its gameplay.

The core mechanic is simple: players rotate interlocking rings so that gaps align with pins or connecting structures, gradually releasing them. Successfully unlocked rings quickly shatter and disappear. Players then use the changing board to handle the remaining structures until every ring is cleared. Levels generally follow the loop of observing the structure, selecting a target, rotating into alignment, releasing the connection and disassembling continuously.

The real challenge lies not in the controls but in the order of disassembly. Whether a ring can be released first often depends on the positions of other rings, the direction of their gaps and constraints between pins. Players must first find an opening in the outer structure, then gradually free the inner space. As levels progress, irregular structures such as D-shaped rings, S-shaped locks, triangular frames and U-shaped rails are added, preserving the rotation mechanic while introducing new connection relationships.

The advantage of this design is its low learning cost, while each successful disassembly produces strong feedback. Rings fly away and shatter after being released, accompanied by sound, vibration and instant rewards that create a clear sense of completion. Early levels generally avoid excessive pressure, complex countdowns or move limits, allowing players to complete dozens of levels in a relaxed state.

When boards become more complex, hints, hammers and random-clearing items reduce the cost of failure. Hints identify a possible next target, hammers directly destroy a selected structure, and random clearing helps players quickly skip difficult situations. Consecutive wins, daily challenges and leaderboards further encourage repeat play.

As a pure IAA product, Rotate Rings monetizes mainly through interstitial and rewarded ads. Interstitials generally begin only after players complete level 30 or 34, giving them time to learn the core rotation, alignment and disassembly loop before gradually recovering advertising value. Items are tied to rewarded ads, but demand is limited because early levels are easy. Overall, the product protects the early experience through delayed advertising, then improves monetization efficiency through later-level difficulty and ad pacing.

In terms of experience, Rotate Rings is closer to a relaxing puzzle game than a hardcore puzzle title built around harsh failure penalties. Players need to think during disassembly without facing constant failure pressure. The shattering feedback when rings come loose gives immediate rewards for every action. This combination of low barriers, short sessions and strong feedback is well suited to repeated casual play.

It should be noted that Rotate Rings was not the first game to introduce ring unlocking.

As early as 2023, another title, Rotate the Rings, achieved solid results in several markets, accumulating approximately 4.81 million downloads, with daily downloads exceeding 120,000 in September 2023. Many similar products have appeared since then.

Earlier, ring-unlocking mechanics often appeared as ad creatives or minigames. Chizicheng Technology’s Alice’s Dream: Merge Games added a ring-puzzle minigame in 2023 and produced user-acquisition creatives around it. Diandian Interactive’s Dragonscapes Adventure also used ring puzzles in minigames and advertising, while Tasty Travels turned the mechanic into an in-game minigame. Similar products, including Ring Matrix, have also appeared in China’s minigame market.

Therefore, Rotate Rings’ breakthrough is not reinventing ring unlocking, but expanding a mechanic repeatedly validated in advertising into a standalone product with complete levels, items and an advertising loop. Its breakout shows that a simple mechanic can still find incremental growth in a mature casual market when it provides clear feedback and is packaged effectively for large-scale acquisition.

03

Looking Beyond Block Blast!, Beijing Jiayou Searches for a New Pillar

After Chasing Lemon Games and Building a Casual Portfolio, Rotate Rings Finally Breaks Through

A naturally appealing mechanic does not by itself explain how a product can jump from four-digit daily downloads to nearly 700,000 in two weeks. The team behind Rotate Rings clearly has strong capabilities in prototype validation, level production, creative development and acquisition testing.

Product information shows that the developer brand used in the stores is Nebula Studio, while the merchant entity is Singapore-based HURELAX PTE. LTD. HURELAX has product, trademark and publishing connections with the Aretis system behind Hungry Studio. It can therefore be reasonably confirmed that Rotate Rings is a product of Hungry Studio, within the Beijing Jiayou Network ecosystem.

Public information shows that Beijing Jiayou was founded in 2018 and was closely connected to the 7K7K minigame ecosystem in its early years. One of its shareholders, Liu Xue, founded 7K7K. The company initially focused on H5 games and lightweight products, releasing titles such as The Scheming Daughter and The Strongest King.

Image source: Bagua Candy House

Around 2021, Beijing Jiayou established Hungry Studio and began shifting its focus toward the development and publishing of global casual games. Unlike publishers that start with mid-core products and later try casual games, Jiayou built its capabilities from the outset around low barriers, strong feedback and IAA monetization.

The title that truly brought the company to global attention was Block Blast!, launched in April 2022. Centered on block-puzzle elimination, it asks players to drag differently shaped blocks onto a board and clear them by filling a complete row or column. Unlike traditional Tetris, it removes the time pressure of continuously falling pieces and shifts the challenge to board-space management and placement order. This lowers the control barrier while preserving room for high-score pursuit.

Downloads continued to grow after launch, reaching a monthly peak of 40.24 million in March this year. Although they have fluctuated since then, monthly downloads currently remain above 20 million, and cumulative downloads are approximately 1.06 billion.

After Block Blast!, Beijing Jiayou expanded horizontally around proven casual mechanics. It launched the similar title Block Puzzle in May 2025. First-month downloads were only about 210,000, but they quickly rose to a peak of approximately 508,000 in August of the same year. Data then declined and stabilized. From May through September this year, monthly downloads stayed between 78,000 and 86,000, with approximately 77,000 downloads in the past 30 days and 2.81 million cumulative downloads to date.

During this period, it also entered direct competition with Lemon Games. Both companies focused on high-reach categories such as lightweight puzzles, elimination and solitaire, creating increasing overlap in gameplay and market competition.

For example, Lemon Games launched the mahjong-themed matching game Vita Mahjong in 2023. Monthly downloads have exceeded 5 million since August 2024, reaching approximately 16.615 million in February 2026 and 11.52 million in September. Cumulative downloads are now about 326 million. Beijing Jiayou launched the similar Mahjong Blast in 2025. Monthly downloads peaked at approximately 9.977 million in March this year, reached about 7.668 million in September and total approximately 88.63 million. Although it has grown quickly, it has yet to surpass Vita Mahjong in peak monthly downloads, current monthly downloads or cumulative scale.

In arrow-blasting, Lemon Games launched Amaze GO in February this year. Monthly downloads peaked at approximately 27.932 million in May, reached about 10.976 million in September and total approximately 119 million. Beijing Jiayou launched GOGO! Blast in May. Growth began in August, with full-month downloads peaking at approximately 1.91 million in September and cumulative downloads at about 2.707 million, leaving a substantial gap with Amaze GO.

In animal-themed sudoku, Lemon Games launched Meowdoku in May this year. Monthly downloads peaked at approximately 13.184 million in September, with cumulative downloads of about 49.445 million. Beijing Jiayou launched Zoodoku! in July. Monthly downloads peaked at approximately 1.345 million in August, reached about 963,000 in September and total approximately 2.314 million, still far from Meowdoku’s scale.

The three comparisons show that Beijing Jiayou has achieved considerable scale in mahjong matching, but Mahjong Blast has not surpassed Vita Mahjong. GOGO! Blast and Zoodoku! are also still catching up. Proven mechanics lower the barrier to entry, but do not guarantee that followers will match a leader’s results. Acquisition efficiency, content quality, launch timing and long-term operations all affect the final outcome.

Rotate Rings allows Beijing Jiayou to avoid directly chasing established leaders. By entering a ring-unlocking category without a stable market leader, it has an opportunity to build a new casual pillar beyond Block Blast!.

04 Conclusion

Based on its current performance, Rotate Rings is another example of Beijing Jiayou using lightweight mechanics to reach a mass audience after block, mahjong and sudoku products. It transforms a ring-unlocking mechanic often used in advertising into a standalone product capable of continuously delivering level content and ad revenue. Low barriers, direct feedback and efficient distribution are the main reasons for its rapid scale-up.

The product also has clear limitations. Its monetization depends heavily on advertising, so its revenue ceiling is determined by daily active users, ad frequency and retention. Ring-unlocking rules are relatively simple, and as the number of levels increases, the ability to create new structural variations will directly affect the lifecycle. If later levels mainly progress by adding more rings and changing arrangements, players may quickly feel repetition.

At the same time, copycat products are already increasing. Because ring-unlocking is visually intuitive, other publishers can quickly reuse its advertising structure, metallic aesthetic and rotate–disassemble–shatter feedback loop. Beijing Jiayou must now solve a different problem: not whether it can reach the charts, but how to extend organic growth through new mechanisms, settings, modes and more consistent content updates.

From a broader perspective, Rotate Rings once again shows that IAA casual-game competition is not limited to traditional major categories. Beijing Jiayou has built a foundation in block and puzzle categories through products such as Block Puzzle, while continuing to seek new growth through mahjong, sudoku, blast and ring unlocking. Tencent’s continued interest in Hungry Studio reflects the fact that such teams can rapidly test around mature casual frameworks and turn seemingly simple mechanics into global products.

Whatever happens next, Rotate Rings has already provided an important validation: mature casual publishers can still find new product opportunities in old creatives and peripheral mechanics, then rapidly amplify them through established acquisition systems. Whether it can continue growing will determine whether Beijing Jiayou can build a stable casual pillar beyond Block Blast!. The path from ad creative to standalone product will also continue to be studied and replicated by more publishers.