Christmas 2022 was made very special for some as Moon Active announced the acquisition of the casual puzzle game Zen Match for as much as $150M. It is hard to say if this acquisition of a single game hints at a future deal where Moon Active acquires the game’s developer, similar to Zynga's acquisition of Peak. But we can safely say that Moon Active saw a potential in Zen Match. And it was really hard to question this decision after looking at the game’s performance leading up to the acquisition. So, what made Zen Match so successful until the acquisition and how did it perform after that?

*Zen Match revenue trend until the Moon Active acquisition.*

In a previous article, we talked about the characteristics that put a game inside the Tile Match genre:

Use square tiles with universally recognized symbols instead of the rectangle tiles with Chinese symbols in Mahjong Solitaire to facilitate pattern recognition
Require matches of three instead of two in order to increase the depth of gameplay
Provide a “rack” for players to gather tiles before matching, allowing for more strategic gameplay

Zen Match was a pioneer when it was first launched as a game using all of the above. Now, let's examine how these features and more were introduced to the players.

Designing a Tile Match level

When designing puzzle levels, one of the initial goals should be to ensure that players can easily recognize patterns. Zen Match achieves this by substituting the Chinese symbols used in Mahjong Solitaire games with images of flowers, vegetables, or other easily recognizable items. Using square tiles instead of the rectangular ones from Mahjong Solitaire games enhances this further. The images on each tile take up most of the space, with a clear white background that aids in identifying matches.

*A classical Mahjong Solitaire level (left) vs. a classical Tile Match level (right)*

Zen Match introduces an important twist in how they present their levels: Every level comes in two waves. The first wave is always very easy and can be solved in under a minute. This wave-like structure holds true even for the most challenging levels, underscoring its clear purpose: Zen Match wants to ease players’ way into each level. By starting with an easy win, players feel more invested and encouraged to continue playing and beat the level.

One downside to this is how the first waves feel like a chore after a while. They are a useful tool for helping a new player get into the rhythm. But for an experienced player, they become a bit of a nuisance to get rid of before the real deal. So, I think it might make sense to remove them after some point like level 50 or 100.

*Zen Match getting players in the zone.*

Although Zen Match offers players an easy first step with its wave structure, the design of levels in the second wave is notably less forgiving. Since Tile Match is a pretty deterministic genre, anything that the player can’t see increases the difficulty. And the number of tiles in Layer 3 (the ones that can’t be seen at all) is a direct indicator of this. Because the player needs to make several blind guesses to reveal the Layer 3 tiles that can’t be seen. Zen Match puts this at the core of its level design and populates Layer 3 much more than the other Tile Match games.

This is not to say that a good Tile Match game should not use Layer 3. On the contrary, it should be used to a certain extent where players make blind guesses and experience the thrill of seeing the consequences. But when it is used too frequently, it may feel like the player needs to take several blind guesses just to make a single match. Then it works in the opposite direction where the game feels less fun. So, this is a sort of a double-edged sword situation which needs to be treated gently.

*Look at all the hidden tiles and the blind guesses the player has to make…*

When it comes to the metagame, Zen Match doesn’t really spend too much effort on providing anything new. The game takes the player through rooms that are colorized by using the points earned after beating levels. There is no real decoration or a heavy personalization as you can’t choose what you want to have in the room. The game also uses realistic assets like Property Brothers that gives it a bit of an old fashioned look in my opinion.

*The first room being colorized in Zen Match.*

A tale of two games…

Despite the design challenges of the Tile Match genre and how Zen Match itself is structured, it was the first widely successful Tile Match game “before it was cool”. They showed the potential of this new mechanic 2 years ago when merge was all the rage. However, the story of Zen Match is twofold: Before and after the Moon Active acquisition.

Before it was acquired, Zen Match saw a stable growth on iOS and a less stable one on Android, albeit both seeming very successful. In the six months leading up to the acquisition, the game exhibited a similar trend in terms of the number of downloads. So, it is safe to assume that Good Job Games, the original developer of the game, was content with the game’s performance and didn’t want to scale it further. Then two months before the acquisition, it experienced a sudden surge in downloads on Android, which abruptly declined right after the acquisition. This was most probably Moon Active testing the game’s scalability and resulting performance.

*Worldwide download trend for IOS and Android since launch.*

Then things took a very strong turn. Since the game was acquired, user acquisition has been at its lowest point ever. It seems like the game has been operating on auto-pilot since the beginning of the year. Although it’s hard to know the exact reasons for this sudden change, there maybe a couple of possible culprits:

Acquiring not just a game, but a whole studio: Moon Active didn’t only acquire the game, but also the studio developing the game itself. Since the studio is based in Istanbul, Moon Active had to establish a presence there and ensure that the teams were integrated effectively. So, it's possible that they are still in the process of working out the details of this integration, both in terms of cultural alignment and operational aspects.
Observing the game’s potential: Zen Match had a quite stable RPD performance on Android for a long time with iOS also stabilizing for the last couple of months. Moon Active might well be trying to see if the game is worth scaling any further.

*Worldwide RPD trend for IOS and Android since launch.*

So, it is safe to say that the game has left its growth trajectory behind until Moon Active decides to make certain changes to it or wants to ramp up the user acquisition to reach a larger scale.

Playing Catch Up

Zen Match may have been the first widely successful Tile Match game, but there is one undeniable fact: Others are catching up. Since the beginning of the year, two Tile Match games have been on a steady revenue growth: Tile Busters and Tile Match - Match Puzzle Game. Although the latter is still on a small scale and has a long way to go before being a serious rival, the former has already surpassed Zen Match.

*Revenue trend of the top 4 Tile Match games since the beginning of the year.*

I think this is a true sign that Zen Match has struggled to remain relevant amidst the recent Tile Match trend. They might have been the first in the market and saw great success in their heyday, but they need to adapt to the changing conditions. Otherwise, the declining trend is there for anyone to see, and it may not be long before more new games enter the market and steal Zen Match’s lunch.

While we already explored potential reasons for the game's declining revenue, there's another possibility to consider regarding why they are losing market share to other games. New games like Tile Busters entered the market with a fresh take on the genre. They propose a deeper gameplay to the players. Zen Match, on the other hand, has been caught by the Innovator’s Dilemma where they seem to have been stuck with their current design. If they continue sticking to the same old game from two years ago, they might end up losing all of their lunch in the end…

Where to go from here?

The Tile Match market is still taking its baby steps, and Zen Match is not far from regaining and securing the top spot once again. However, I think they will need to change a few things in order to do so:

Eliminate or change the wave structure: It makes perfect sense to ease players’ way into the levels at the beginning in order to make their playing experience smoother. But, for an experienced player, they don’t really add too much value while stealing their precious time. It is like going through a short training sequence before each campaign in a shooter. So, whether it happens on level 50 or 100 or another point, eliminating the first waves would improve the game for experienced players.
Depopulate Layer 3: Making the player make a blind guess to reveal a single tile every time is not an ideal experience which Zen Match has a lot of. So, just making that layer less crowded could help the game overall.
More complex metagame: I know it is not as easy as it sounds, but increasing the depth of the metagame would certainly help with the player engagement. It doesn’t have to have the classical “You inherited a mansion!” or “Help this crew fix others’ lives!” story, but a richer experience than the current “coloring book” one would suffice…
Steal from Match-3 design: Tile Busters is a very good example that utilizes Match-3 design to enhance the gameplay experience. Zen Match can also take some inspiration from Match-3 games to include more obstacles and boosters into its design.

We are talking about a game that’s been around for three years. So, I’m sure there are at least a couple of things there that the Zen Match team already tried. But the markets change and player expectations evolve. So, I think there are still many things the game can try to change its declining trend and to be the leading Tile Match game again…

Written by Ahmetcan Demirel.