December 1, 2024

Sort. Jam. Competitor Analysis

What is Sort Jam Puzzle?

A trend that has emerged in recent months in the mobile games industry, “Sort & Jam Puzzle” combines the mechanics of two big hits, “Parking Jam 3D” by Popcore (215MM downloads) and “Block Jam 3D” by Voodoo (US$30MM in IAP revenue).

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The gameplay of “Sort & Jam Puzzle” has 3 elements:

1. Items - Not touchable by the player, items must match by color with the containers.

2. Containers - Movable by the player, each container must gather a specific number of items of the same color.

3. Slots - A “parking space” where the player can “park” incomplete containers.

Since Parking Jam 3D released in February 2020, many games with similar game mechanics mushroomed in the last 2 years. Here's a chart that maps the release timeline versus lifetime downloads.

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Now that you have an overview on how popular this hit mechanics is, let us take a look at the performance of Parking Jam 3D since it's inception!
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Parking Jam 3D

Publisher: Popcore

Released on: February 14, 2020

Lifetime Downloads: >215M

Revenue: >$3.1M

Top 5 Countries by Downloads: India, United States, Brazil, Mexico, Japan,

Top 5 Countries by Revenue: United States, United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, Japan, Germany

Top Ad Networks: AppLovin, Unity Ads, Mintegral, Smaato

The German publisher's second biggest hit, “Parking Jam 3D” is an exemplary hypercasual. It has turned an everyday theme (car parking) into a simple and fun game. Its gameplay referenced countless subsequent hits, generating hundreds of millions of downloads.

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The Competitors

Block Jam 3D

Publisher: Voodoo

Released on: April 15, 2022

Lifetime Downloads: >13M

Revenue: >$30M

Top 5 Countries by Downloads: United States, Japan, United Kingdom, Brazil, Germany

Top 5 Countries by Revenue: United States, United Kingdom, Japan, Germany, Canada

Top Ad Networks: AppLovin, Facebook, Google Admob, Mintegral

“Block Jam 3D” is a brilliant innovation of the successful Match Tile 3D mechanic. In a typical 3D Match Tile game, such as “Triple Match 3D” by Boombox, 3D objects are thrown on top of each other on the floor. This brings a spontaneous tone to the gameplay but limits the management of the degree of difficulty in the progression of levels. In the Voodoo puzzle, the 3D objects are replaced by dolls arranged in a grid zone. Spontaneity has decreased, but the grid zone makes it possible to fine-tune the degree of difficulty by jamming the pieces.

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Bus Jam

Publisher: Rollic Games

Released on: June 26, 2023

Lifetime Downloads: >14.6M

Revenue: >$7M

Top 5 Countries by Downloads: United States, India, Brazil, Germany, United Kingdom

Top 5 Countries by Revenue: United States, United Kingdom, Australia, Germany, Japan

Top Ad Networks: AppLovin, Tiktok, Meta, Unity Ads

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“Bus Jam” is an evolution of ‘Block Jam 3D’, but it's still not a Sort Jam Puzzle. It has the 3 elements, but the movable parts are still the items. The containers only include the color sequencing in the matching of the pieces.

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Park Match!

Publisher: Supersonic Studios

Released on: April 21, 2024

Lifetime Downloads: >500k

Revenue: >$340k

Top 5 Countries by Downloads: United States, India, Vietnam, Algeria, Brazil

Top 5 Countries by Revenue: United States, United Kingdom, Australia, Germany, Japan

Top Ad Networks: AppLovin, Unity Ads, Youtube, Google Admob

Developed by the Gemo and Lecten studios, “Park Match!” is one of the first games to be published using the 3 elements of the Sort & Jam Puzzle. Its jamming mechanics are close to “Block Jam 3D”. Just like its game art. Its high revenue per download stands out. This could be a promising KPI.

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