The archive · Consumer Apps · Product decision · 2022–2026
Gossip Harbor bet: Microfun's story-led merge game tops $100M a month
Chinese studio Microfun bet Western women would pay for soap-opera merge games; Gossip Harbor became the genre's #1 with $650M in 2025 revenue.
Microfun Limited (Lemon Micro Fun / 柠檬微趣)
What the business is
Microfun Limited (Lemon Micro Fun), a Chinese casual-game studio, publishes Gossip Harbor: Merge & Story (浪漫餐厅), a merge-2 game in which players restore a seaside restaurant while a gossipy story unfolds; it launched in 2022.
How it started
Microfun (Lemon Micro Fun), a Chinese studio, released Gossip Harbor in 2022 and followed it with Seaside Escape, a second merge title. By 2023 Gossip Harbor had climbed to #3 in the genre with Seaside Escape at #4; by 2024 Microfun held the #2 and #3 slots at once, with the two games combined out-earning genre leader Travel Town by roughly $100M (Friendly GameDev).
What happened
Growth was steady rather than spiky. In 2025 Gossip Harbor became the genre's new leader with over $600M in IAP revenue and 55M downloads, nearly three times Travel Town's take (Friendly GameDev). Sensor Tower data cited by DataEye/Jiemian put the game's 2025 total revenue at $650M; from January 2026 it held the #1 spot on China's overseas revenue chart for five consecutive months, and from February 2026 its monthly revenue surpassed Candy Crush Saga, closing in on Royal Match.
How it ended up
Still scaling and setting records: March 2026 saw over $104M in estimated monthly IAP, July 2026 was just under $100M at Gossip Harbor's highest chart position to date, and downloads rose 136% month-over-month in January 2026 (Arbytestudios; ChinaBiz Insider).
Background
Gossip Harbor: Merge & Story is the flagship of Microfun Limited (Lemon Micro Fun), a Beijing casual-game studio. Released in 2022 alongside sister title Seaside Escape, it climbed the merge-game charts quickly: #3 in the genre by 2023, and by 2024 Microfun held both the #2 and #3 slots, with the two games combined out-earning leader Travel Town by about $100M (Friendly GameDev).
The bet was that merge-2, a genre defined by Western studios such as Metacore's Merge Mansion and Magmatic's Travel Town, would travel if led by story. Microfun kept the familiar merge loop but wrapped it in a gossipy seaside-restaurant narrative, ran story-led ads, and layered on seasonal battle passes, card albums and dense live events — a live-ops calendar that DataEye/Jiemian credits with sustaining player spending month after month.
By 2025 the game was the genre's leader: over $600M in IAP revenue with 55M downloads, nearly three times Travel Town's revenue (Friendly GameDev). Sensor Tower data cited by DataEye/Jiemian put total 2025 revenue at $650M, made Gossip Harbor China's #1 overseas revenue title for January–May 2026, and had its monthly revenue above Candy Crush Saga from February 2026, closing in on Royal Match.
The run has not peaked. Arbytestudios estimated over $104M in monthly in-app purchases for March 2026 and just under $100M for July 2026, at the game's highest chart position to date; ChinaBiz Insider reported January 2026 downloads up 136% month-over-month. Friendly GameDev's April 2026 genre review called Gossip Harbor the first merge-2 title to pass $1B in lifetime in-app purchases.
What has to be true
- Microfun shipped two merge titles in quick succession and let their combined scale fund aggressive user acquisition, rather than hoping one launch would stick.
- Story-led, gossip-driven positioning gave the ads an emotional hook that the genre's calmer renovation and mystery creatives lacked.
- A relentless live-ops calendar — seasons, passes, card albums and limited stores — turned a simple merge loop into a system players paid to keep running.
- The Chinese overseas playbook of rapid iteration and global buying let a Beijing team overtake Western studios inside their own casual genre.
What can be applied
Casual games are won on operations, not genre: Microfun beat Western merge incumbents by pairing their loop with sharper story ads, denser events and a battle pass.
Aftermath
As of September 2026 Gossip Harbor is Microfun's flagship and still growing: Sensor Tower data shows 2025 revenue of $650M, the #1 position on China's overseas revenue chart for January–May 2026, and monthly revenue above Candy Crush Saga since February 2026. Arbytestudios estimates March 2026 brought over $104M in IAP and July 2026 just under $100M at the game's highest chart position yet. ChinaBiz Insider reported January 2026 downloads up 136% month-over-month, and Friendly GameDev (April 2026) records the game as the first merge-2 title past $1B in lifetime in-app purchases.
Sources
- 年收入44亿，连续5个月收入第一，这一赛道比三消还猛
- Chinese Mobile Games Dominate Overseas Markets in January 2026 as Gossip Harbor Claims Top Revenue Spot
- July 2026's Top-Grossing Mobile Games: Honor of Kings, Roblox, PUBG Mobile and Pokémon Go Cash In
- The Rise of Merge-2 Games
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