In the female-oriented Merge-2 category, cooking—or food preparation—has long been more than a thematic layer placed on top of a merge board. It has developed into a relatively mature subgenre with its own established gameplay direction.

Unlike conventional products, which directly merge the items required for orders, cooking Merge-2 games add kitchen-equipment processing between generator output and order fulfillment. Players place selected ingredients into equipment such as frying pans, grills, or juicers, turn them into dishes, and submit the completed orders. They then use the coins earned to renovate existing restaurants and gradually unlock new themed restaurants, cuisines, and operating areas.

01

Major Publishers Accelerate Their Assault as Merge Cooking Is Pressured From Both Sides

Tiantian Player Launches Two More New Games, and One of Them Has Taken Off

Tiantian Player's Merge Cooking was one of the earliest representative products to successfully combine the loop of ingredient merging, kitchen-equipment processing, and order fulfillment.

Diandian data shows that the game launched in February 2022. Its early performance was not particularly strong: full-year revenue in 2022 was only about US$323,000, or approximately RMB 2.33 million, before rising to US$11.217 million, or RMB 80.76 million, the following year. It did not enter a high-growth phase until mid-2024, when monthly revenue rose from US$1.627 million, or RMB 11.71 million, in May to US$4.02 million, or RMB 28.94 million, by year-end. Growth accelerated further in the second half of 2025: monthly revenue exceeded US$10 million, or approximately RMB 72 million, for the first time in November, briefly establishing the game as the leader in the cooking Merge-2 segment. In May this year, it set a new historical high of US$18.877 million, or approximately RMB 136 million. Monthly revenue currently remains at US$17.707 million, or RMB 127 million. To date, the game has generated approximately US$254 million, or RMB 1.829 billion, in cumulative global revenue.

However, as the gameplay path and commercial potential have been validated, Merge Cooking is no longer the highest-earning product in the segment. During the first seven months of this year, Tasty Travels from Century Games generated average monthly revenue of approximately US$21.08 million, or RMB 152 million, 22.7% higher than Merge Cooking's US$17.18 million, or RMB 124 million, and has overtaken it. Flambé: Merge & Cook from Lemon Games generated average monthly revenue of approximately US$11.08 million, or RMB 79.77 million, during the same period. Although it still trails Merge Cooking, at 64.5% of its level, it has established a strong catch-up trajectory.

Faced with competition from a title ahead and another close behind, Tiantian Player did not choose to retreat or focus solely on operating its legacy product. In mid-to-late July 2026, the company launched Yumtopia: Merge & Cook for testing. The game attempts to combine cooking Merge-2 with a more relaxed and comforting miniature-space renovation experience, but it has not yet generated significant market data.

By contrast, Foodstars: Merge & Cook, which has undergone nearly a year of testing and adjustment, has recently shown clearer signs of breakout growth. After entering August, it began climbing global rankings rapidly. It now generates more than 100,000 daily downloads and approximately US$160,000 in daily revenue, or RMB 1.1 million. The game ranks among the top 50 free iOS games in 20 countries and regions and among the top 50 best-selling games in 29 regional markets.

What testing process has Foodstars undergone, and how has its market performance changed? What adjustments has it made within the now relatively mature cooking Merge-2 framework? Can it recreate the success of Merge Cooking and consolidate Tiantian Player's position in the cooking Merge-2 segment? Diandian Global breaks down and analyzes these questions below.

02

Foodstars Has Been Tested for Nearly a Year and Has Now Entered the Scaling Phase

Monthly Revenue Exceeded RMB 10 Million in April and Rose Above RMB 22 Million in July

Diandian data shows that Foodstars entered testing on both major platforms in selected countries and regions in mid-to-late October 2025. It first generated trackable market data in early November of that year, then gradually expanded its testing scope and advertising investment at the beginning of this year.

Looking at specific market performance, the game was tested in a small number of markets, mainly Brazil, the United Kingdom, Germany, and the Philippines, in early November last year, generating approximately 42,000 monthly downloads. In December, the addition of markets including the United States, India, South Korea, Japan, and Indonesia expanded testing into more regions, and monthly downloads rose to 95,000. During this period, the game remained in a relatively early validation phase.

After the start of 2026, markets gradually entered full measurement periods. Downloads increased further to 256,000 in January and remained at roughly that level in February.

Starting in March, the game clearly began a scaling test, with new-user acquisition accelerating. Downloads exceeded 900,000 for the first time in April. Although they pulled back slightly in May, they quickly recovered to 989,000 in June and rose 34.5% to 1.33 million in July. After entering August, growth accelerated further: the game obtained 1.374 million downloads in the first two weeks alone, while daily downloads reached 160,000 on August 13, a new high for the testing period.

The continued increase in downloads was naturally inseparable from advertising. According to Guangdada data, the game used 4,542 deduplicated advertising creatives on Android in the past 30 days, while the corresponding figure on iOS was considerably lower, at 494.

Image source: Guangdada

Compared with the fluctuations in downloads, the game's revenue curve has been more consistent.

Monthly revenue was only US$3,810, or approximately RMB 27,000, in November 2025. It then began a steady growth trajectory, reaching US$1.073 million, or RMB 7.73 million, for the first time in March this year and rising to US$3.283 million, or RMB 23.64 million, in July.

After entering August, the game generated US$2.11 million, or approximately RMB 14.21 million, in revenue during the first 14 days. Daily revenue has recently stabilized at roughly US$150,000 to US$160,000, or RMB 1.01 million to RMB 1.08 million.

To date, the game has accumulated approximately 6.413 million downloads. The United States, India, and Brazil rank as the top three markets, accounting for 18.76%, 10%, and 6.77%, respectively. Cumulative revenue is approximately US$14.10 million, or RMB 95 million, with the United States, the United Kingdom, and South Korea ranking as the top three contributors at 34.3%, 10%, and 9.99%, respectively.

Across the testing process, the game did not surge rapidly after launch on the back of a single advertising push. Instead, it spent several months validating baseline monetization before gradually expanding the scale of new-user acquisition. In particular, downloads declined in May while revenue continued to grow, and both downloads and revenue rose again in tandem from June through July. This indicates that the product has moved from early monetization validation into a more clearly defined scaling phase.

03

No New Mega-Systems—A More Efficient Loop From Cooking to Progression

Foodstars Reorders the Weight of Early Experience and Systems

At the game level, Foodstars retains the global food theme familiar from Tiantian Player's earlier work and uses a bright, highly saturated Western cartoon art style overall. Players start as ordinary chefs, travel to different cities to learn local dishes, take on challenges from famous chefs, and gradually renovate restaurants in each location.

This layer of narrative, however, has limited presence in the actual experience. Unlike story-driven Merge-2 games that sustain interest through character conflict, emotional crises, and continuous suspense, Foodstars has almost no long-form narrative or complex management. It devotes most of the experience to the merge board.

Its core loop follows the conventional pattern of 'generator produces ingredients → merge ingredients to upgrade them → choose whether to continue merging or place them in kitchen equipment → complete orders → receive coins and experience → renovate and unlock new themed restaurants.'

Compared with Merge Cooking, Foodstars' key adjustment is to reduce the burden of understanding and operating the game in the early phase, accelerate the overall pace, and make actions feel more rewarding.

Early orders generally require only short merge chains. Generator cooldowns are limited, while board space and energy supplies are relatively generous. Newly generated items also tend to land near ingredients of the same type. Coins no longer occupy the board as physical items for extended periods, reducing the cost of sorting and rearranging. In testing, players could complete their first restaurant in about 15 minutes and reach Level 13 in roughly one hour.

After completing an order, players use coins to repair walls, tables and chairs, kitchen equipment, and decorations, gradually refreshing rundown restaurants. This part does not offer complex management or renovation choices; it functions more as periodic feedback. Players spend coins, watch the renovation animation, and quickly return to the board. This approach sacrifices some renovation freedom and narrative capacity, but prevents peripheral content from frequently interrupting the core actions.

The game also deliberately reduces the burden of the cooking mechanic. Kitchen-equipment processing is introduced at around Level 4, after 10 to 12 orders have been completed. Even after reaching Level 15, players are not required to process every order through kitchen equipment. The cooking process also does not forcibly interrupt interaction with the board.

This makes cooking feel more like a 'seasoning' added to the merge process. When an order requires both high-level ingredients and a finished dish, players must decide whether to continue merging the items they hold or place them in the kitchen equipment to complete the immediate order. The operation itself is not complicated, but it adds a layer of choice related to the order, board space, and waiting time.

Star Chef Fever, which unlocks at around Level 14, is designed to improve efficiency during the early and middle stages. After players spend a certain amount of energy, they trigger a limited-time boost. Generators become more likely to produce high-tier items, and some production and cooking wait times are shortened. The feature directly connects energy consumption with efficiency rewards: players actively produce more items to trigger the boost, and once it is active, harder orders become easier to complete, driving the next round of resource consumption.

The resource design follows the same gradual progression. The game includes energy, speed-up tickets, and gems. Energy is used to tap generators, speed-up tickets shorten cooking times, and gems can skip waiting or replenish resources. During the first 15 levels, supplies of energy and speed-up tickets are relatively generous. Gems are usually the first resource to run out and are also the main basic in-app-purchase resource.

This means Foodstars does not create multiple resource shortages simultaneously at the outset. Instead, it first teaches players that 'gems can restore a smooth early-game pace.' As ingredient chains become longer in the mid-to-late game, generator cooldowns increase, and kitchen-equipment waiting times extend, the product gradually begins to sell efficiency.

In regular live operations, Foodstars also avoids stacking every mature Merge-2 system too early. The early game mainly introduces order-racing events such as Burger Showdown and independent boards such as the Taco Food Truck. A slot-machine-style spinning shop, more time-limited modes, and a card-collection system are added gradually, with card collection not appearing until after Level 15.

Image source: 'Congyou Bing'

Overall, the game's difference from comparable products does not lie in adding an exceptionally novel mega-system. Instead, it proactively reduces interference, compresses the narrative, simplifies renovation, shortens early order chains, delays the introduction of cooking and card collection, and then supports later resource consumption through Star Chef Fever, short-cycle events, and efficiency resources.

This design gives the game a smoother early experience, but restaurant management and narrative goals are relatively thin. Whether it can establish long-term objectives beyond 'complete the next order' in the mid-to-late game will depend on whether subsequent recipes, famous chefs, and event content can be supplied continuously.

04. Conclusion

Viewed in the context of Tiantian Player's development, Foodstars matters not only because it adds a new growth product, but also because it tests whether the success of Merge Cooking can be replicated.

From the perspective of the team's history, Tiantian Player was founded in 2020 and has offices in Beijing and Chengdu. Its core team mainly came from Talefun, which had long been engaged in overseas casual games and was acquired by Diandian Interactive in 2018.

The company's early product path was relatively clear: it began with brick-breaking and puzzle games. In 2020, it launched Breaker Fun and Block Puzzle in succession, with Breaker Fun later developing into a series. The team subsequently began combining solitaire gameplay with simulation management and released Solitaire Klondike Fish, Solitaire 3D Fish, and Solitaire Dragons, adding themed management elements such as raising fish and dinosaurs.

Merge Cooking, launched in 2022, gave Tiantian Player a clear advantage in the Merge-2 market for the first time. It also demonstrated that the company could do more than use casual games to acquire traffic: it could create a mature product in the Merge-2 segment, which relies more heavily on numerical pacing, content consumption, and long-term events. The title nevertheless required more than two years of adjustment before entering a period of rapid growth. By comparison, Foodstars began testing in the second half of 2025 and surpassed US$3 million in monthly revenue by July this year, significantly shortening the validation cycle.

This suggests that Tiantian Player is gradually turning the single-product experience accumulated through long-term experimentation into reusable product capabilities, including order difficulty, resource allocation, kitchen-equipment pacing, event unlocks, and efficiency-based monetization.

Of course, Foodstars still trails leading products such as Merge Cooking and Tasty Travels by a clear margin. Its current rapid growth only proves that it has earned the qualification to scale further. Its ultimate position will be determined by whether it can absorb a larger user base, maintain monetization efficiency, and establish a sustainable supply of long-term content.

For Tiantian Player, however, Foodstars' early scaling has already sent a positive signal. In addition to Merge Cooking, the company is finding a second cooking Merge-2 product capable of entering a growth trajectory. If this trend continues, Tiantian Player's identity in the segment will shift from a company dependent on one long-running hit to a product-focused publisher capable of consistently launching new titles.