For Your Amusement

22 Oct, 2026

Blake Robbins on X, sharing @TheDonAyo's reverse engineering of Block Blast!:

this is the best breakdown I've seen of the dark arts behind Block Blast!, the most downloaded mobile game in the world last year

intentionally making players lose to optimize which ads they see, the sophistication behind such a "simple" game is stunning.

The video argues that the game adjusts its challenge according to the player's advertising value:

And it turns out how well you do in the game has less to do with your skill and more to do with how much you're worth to them in ads.

It takes your phone model, your country, how much your past ads have made them, even whether you turned off the vibration on your phone. It all goes into an XG boost model that runs locally on your phone that predicts how much you can be worth to them in ads. Then depending on your value, it'll make the game easier or harder.

[...]

A rule called high value ad harvest confirms that you have a history of watching ads, then helps you beat your high score before it triggers something called the death algorithm, which rigs your next turn so there's no way to survive. And the moment you lose, the first thing you see is an offer to revive if you watch that same ad. And if you do revive, they'll even secretly add 10% to your high score.

If the analysis holds up, this is dynamic difficulty adjustment with ad yield in the loop.

One industry reaction:

the real goal is to keep the player glued to the screen for as long as possible and force them to watch ads at specific moments. Developers calling themselves "game makers" is pure nonsense, because what they're doing isn't game design—it's behavioral engineering.

[...]

In short: These games are nothing more than an ad-harvesting engine dressed up as a "puzzle game." Developers might technically see themselves as making games because they upload to the games category on the Play Store and App Store, but we don't see you that way.

But what if treating Block Blast! as a game is too narrow a framework? Through the wider lens of amusements, Block Blast! looks, feels and flows like a pop plaything: comfort food for the masses.

A few minutes of rhythm, small victories, near misses and another go. Free at the point of access; paid for with attention.

The challenge may be manufactured. The amusement can still be real.

Illusion not simulation, as we used to say at Denki.

Players might happily accept that bargain: "wasted time, well spent". Whether they understand the machinery is a separate question.

What interests me is the direction of travel: hyper-personalised playthings that shape the difficulty, pacing, reward and drama around each player.

And around what their attention is worth.