In February 2025, the casual gaming giant King launched a new game, "Candy Crush Solitaire," making a high-profile entry into the "Solitaire" game track.
The game combines the classic solitaire card game mechanics with Candy Crush's iconic candy aesthetics. It broke through 334,000 downloads worldwide on the first day and topped the free iOS game charts in 67 countries and regions.
Its core innovation lies in integrating traditional tri-peaks solitaire rules with a match-elimination mechanism. Players need to strategically save cards in "holding slots" or use "Candy Bombs" to break through complex levels, while collecting candy-themed postcards to unlock a global travel storyline.
Solitaire gameplay has maintained vitality in the game market for a long time, starting from the early built-in Windows games like "Spider Solitaire" and "FreeCell," to recent mobile hits like "Solitaire Grand Harvest" and "Fishdom Solitaire." Its longevity stems not only from the universal appeal of classic rules but also from developers' continuous breakthroughs in gameplay boundaries and commercial innovations.
Recently, I observed a game called "Epic Solitaire - Soluno Game" (hereinafter referred to as "Epic Solitaire"), published by Gamehaus. Its Android version was globally launched in August 2024, while the iOS version just started testing in the US in March 2025 and is still in the tuning phase.
This game incorporates innovative mechanisms on top of traditional Solitaire gameplay, such as a "card chameleon" style random design, making operations smoother and more rhythmic.
Solitaire + Building, Can It Shake Up the Card Game Red Ocean Market?
The core gameplay of "Epic Solitaire" is still solitaire card stacking, but compared to the traditional Tripeaks Solitaire framework of "Solitaire Grand Harvest," the gameplay of "Epic Solitaire" is simpler. Players only need to stack cards of the same color, without following the traditional rule of stacking cards of consecutive numbers.
Additionally, cards with the same number can also be stacked. After successful stacking, the stack can change to a new color. Once all the cards on the table are stacked, the level is completed.
The game also includes various sub-gameplays, such as a building mode (common in gameplay fusion games like match-3, synthesis, etc.), mainly using the currency obtained from the main gameplay to build or renovate. There are also similar modes to the game "Blossom Sort - Flower Games" where players can merge flowers, and a brick-breaking gameplay, where players can receive corresponding rewards.
It is important to note that several mini-games adopt a limited-time event mode, enhancing the fun through diverse tasks and rewards, which fits well with the target user demographics.
In terms of payment mechanisms, the game uses a "stamina + coins" dual system. For example, when a player's coins are exhausted, they can continue playing by consuming stamina. This design cleverly utilizes the player's "loss aversion" psychology, especially by enhancing the impulse to pay through the "double" function, making the payment rate quite substantial. The game also includes incentive video ads, offering opportunities for free draws or double rewards by watching ads.
As the competition in the card game track becomes increasingly fierce, although the leading products are mostly old games, since 2025, many major factories have begun to layout this field. Epic Solitaire attempts to attract users through differentiated hybrid gameplay (such as natural randomness design, event task integration) and refined experience polishing. Its market performance will depend on the cost of user acquisition (CPI) and long-term retention capabilities. From the test feedback, the game is highly complete, but whether it can continue to break through in the red ocean market remains to be seen in subsequent operational strategies.
Old Factories Targeting New Solitaire Tracks
The publisher of "Epic Solitaire," Gamehaus, may be unfamiliar to many, but its founder, Xie Feng, is a well-known serial entrepreneur in the industry. Xie Feng's entrepreneurial journey began with Shanghai Euler Network, which, with its overseas strategy for utility apps, garnered 390 million users globally in just nine months, once ranking alongside giants like Facebook and Google among the world's top four Android developers.
After Euler Network was acquired by Qihoo 360 in 2016, Xie Feng started his second venture, Shanghai Frenzy Network, focusing on the overseas distribution of casual and Casino games. The company achieved profitability in its first year and entered the top 30 Chinese APP publishers in terms of overseas revenue within two years.
In 2020, Xie Feng expanded his business territory by registering Gamehaus overseas, gradually integrating Shanghai Frenzy and Chongqing Hao Han Network. It is worth noting that Gamehaus initiated its plan to go public in the US as early as September 2023. After overcoming multiple challenges such as signing merger agreements, submitting prospectuses, and undergoing filing reviews, it finally received the overseas listing notification in November 2024. On January 27, 2025, Gamehaus successfully listed on the US stock market through a SPAC merger.
Currently, among the products issued by Gamehaus, Casino games are the most popular. "Bingo Party" is a bingo-type social game that launched in 2017 and has already exceeded 1.6 billion RMB in cumulative revenue, consistently ranking in the top three of the US bingo category bestseller list. The game maintains user activity through high-frequency operational strategies such as limited-time theme parties and holiday events, with monthly revenue still exceeding 7 million RMB.
"Double Win Slots" has been online for over six years, with cumulative revenue exceeding 1 billion RMB. It is the most popular Slots game issued by Gamehaus. This game adopts a "Slots + storyline" fusion design, including over 100 different themed Slots mini-games. The game uses an "in-app purchase + advertising" dual monetization model, where players can unlock high-multiplier slot machines by purchasing virtual coins or obtain free coins by watching incentive ads.
"Whispers: Interactive Stories" is an interactive narrative game under the Gamehaus banner, which has been steadily in the top ten of the European and American iOS interactive story categories since its launch in 2021. The game focuses on multi-branch storylines and character customization, covering genres such as romance and mystery, particularly attracting female users aged 18-35.
Gamehaus's casual puzzle game "Match Tile Scenery" has gradually gained momentum since its launch in 2022, steadily entering the top 200 of the US iOS bestseller list from 2023, with nearly 1.5 million monthly active users on both platforms. The game attracts female players who prefer casual and creative gameplay through a meta-play of eliminating resources to unlock home decorations.
In addition, Gamehaus has also laid out more than 20 game development teams through acquisitions, shareholdings, or incubations, covering casual, Casino, interactive narrative, and mid-to-heavy RPG genres. Its investment landscape shows two major characteristics: for example, by investing in teams like Beijing Red Heart Tip and Shanghai Motion Shadow to consolidate its advantages in core tracks such as Casino and interactive narratives. By investing in teams like Fan Maple Sword and Card Game Network, it compensates for the lack of mid-to-heavy development experience and reduces the risk of a single category.
Conclusion
As "Candy Crush Solitaire" enters the card game track with a giant's stance, sparking a new round of arms race, Gamehaus's entry with "Epic Solitaire" is like a classic narrative of "David versus Goliath."
The outcome of this battle not only concerns the gameplay innovation of a single product but also reflects the underlying logic of "differentiated survival" for small and medium-sized manufacturers in the red ocean market. The century-long history of solitaire card games has already proven that classic gameplay is never outdated; the key lies in how to cater to contemporary players' preferences and better reconstruct the rules.
