The merge game scene has a new leader. Gossip Harbor: Merge & Story has climbed past giants like Merge Mansion and Travel Town to become the top merge title of 2025.
But how did it reach this level of success?
In this article, we break down the game’s audience appeal, design choices, monetization strategy, and user acquisition methods that helped it dominate the charts.
What Is Gossip Harbor?
Gossip Harbor: Merge & Story is a mobile merge puzzle game with a strong story and decoration meta, developed and published by Microfun. It mixes the relaxing gameplay of a merge game with the drama and mystery of an interactive story.
The story follows Quinn, a single mother rebuilding her life after a messy divorce. When a food poisoning scandal hits her restaurant, she must uncover the truth, repair her reputation, and reopen the business. Players merge items in her restaurant’s kitchen to complete tasks and serve customers, which pushes the story forward.
Merge Gameplay
At its core, Gossip Harbor uses a merge-2 board system.
You drag and combine identical items to create new ones that fill customer orders or help with repairs. The board is easy to understand and moves at a comfortable pace, making it appealing to casual players who want a relaxing experience.
Outside the main board, players decorate and renovate different parts of Quinn’s restaurant. The decoration meta lets you pick between design options for furniture, lighting, and other details. You can even go back and change your choices later, which encourages creativity and self-expression.
What really makes Gossip Harbor stand out is its focus on story and characters.
The game features mystery, romance, and drama, complete with multiple characters and ongoing story arcs. The plot evolves like a TV series, keeping players invested in what happens next. It even includes modern themes such as friendship, betrayal, and LGBTQ+ relationships, making it more inclusive and relatable.
Main Audience
Gossip Harbor mainly appeals to an older millennial female audience, according to Sensor Tower data.
Around 79% of players are women, and the average player age is 32. The game’s tone, art style, and storylines are built around this group’s interests in lighthearted drama, emotional storytelling, and creative design.
Games Like Gossip Harbor
- Merge Mansion by Metacore Games
- Travel Town by Magmatic Games
- Love & Pies by Trailmix
- Seaside Escape by Microfun
- Merge Fables by Microfun
- EverMerge by Big Fish Games
- Merge County by Microfun
These games share similar merge mechanics, puzzle-based progression, and narrative-driven metas focused on renovation or world-building.
Who Made Gossip Harbor?
Gossip Harbor was developed and published by Microfun, a mobile game studio based in China. Microfun specializes in casual and merge puzzle games and is behind several successful titles like Seaside Escape, Merge County, Merge Fables, and Jellipop Match.
The studio is now one of the top global publishers in the merge genre, known for combining relaxing gameplay with story-driven design.
When Was Gossip Harbor Released?
Gossip Harbor: Merge & Story was first released in 2022, but it rose to major popularity in late 2024, when it overtook long-time leaders like Merge Mansion and Travel Town.
How Many People Play Gossip Harbor?
Gossip Harbor is one of the most played mobile games in the merge category today. According to AppMagic data, the game averages around 5.4 million daily active users (DAU) and 28 million monthly active users (MAU).
These numbers highlight how massive its active player base has become. Gossip Harbor isn’t just pulling in new installs; it’s maintaining a steady, engaged audience that logs in daily to merge items, decorate spaces, and follow the ongoing storylines.
Its balance of short, easy gameplay sessions and longer story-driven experiences keeps users coming back. This steady engagement shows how Gossip Harbor has evolved from a niche merge title into a large-scale, consistently played mobile hit.
How Many Downloads Does Gossip Harbor Have?
Gossip Harbor is one of the most downloaded mobile games in the world. According to AppMagic, it has reached over 90 million total downloads across all platforms.
The game’s audience is truly global. The United States accounts for about 16% of total downloads, followed by Brazil with 12%, Indonesia with 6%, Turkey with 5%, and France with 4%.
This wide reach shows that Gossip Harbor’s mix of merge gameplay, story, and decoration appeals to players in many different regions. Its universal themes of drama, mystery, and creativity translate well across cultures, helping it grow into a worldwide hit that continues to attract millions of new players each month.
Gossip Harbor Ads & User Acquisition Strategy
Gossip Harbor’s massive success didn’t happen by accident.
The game’s rapid rise to the top of the charts is driven by an aggressive and highly effective user acquisition strategy built around paid ads, supported by solid app store optimization and organic growth.
AppMagic data shows that a large majority of Gossip Harbor’s downloads come from paid advertising, which means Microfun invests heavily in creative testing and scaling winning ad concepts. These ads follow one of the biggest trends in casual mobile marketing today: emotional storytelling through short, dramatic scenarios that grab attention instantly.
If you’ve spent time on social media, you’ve likely seen these ads.
They often feature a female character in distress, freezing in the cold, kicked out of her home, or betrayed by a partner, often with a child. Viewers are shown puzzles or merge actions as the way to “help” her, even though these scenes rarely reflect the real gameplay. This approach falls into the category of so-called fake mobile game ads, but they’re incredibly effective.
These ads tap into empathy and curiosity. The stories are designed to create tension and moral choice: you see someone struggling and feel the urge to step in. That emotional pull is powerful, especially for casual audiences that value light drama and personal stories. It also fits perfectly with Gossip Harbor’s real in-game themes, such as rebuilding, starting over, and overcoming challenges, even if the ad visuals don’t match the gameplay.
By using these emotionally charged ads, Gossip Harbor captures the attention of women who enjoy story-based, character-driven mobile games. This mirrors the game’s actual player demographic, where nearly 80% of players are female.
In addition to paid ads, Microfun supports growth through ASO strategies, like regular creative updates on app store pages, seasonal icon changes, and story-focused screenshots. These updates ensure the game converts well after users click on an ad.
Gossip Harbor Revenue (2025)
Gossip Harbor is one of the top-grossing mobile games of 2025. According to AppMagic, the game has earned $677 million in lifetime revenue, a huge milestone for a casual merge title.
Most of this revenue comes from the United States, which accounts for about 40% of total player spending. Japan contributes around 9%, while Germany adds another 6%. This spread shows that Gossip Harbor isn’t just successful in Western markets but also performs well in Asia and Europe, where spending habits for casual games are typically strong.
What’s remarkable is how fast Gossip Harbor reached this level of success.
The game started gaining traction in late 2024, quickly surpassing long-time leaders like Merge Mansion and Travel Town. Its combination of emotional storytelling, accessible gameplay, and frequent live events keeps players engaged and willing to spend regularly.
How Does Gossip Harbor Make Money?
Gossip Harbor makes money through a hybrid monetization model that combines in-app purchases (IAPs) with rewarded ads. This setup lets the game earn revenue from both paying players and free users, creating a strong and sustainable income stream.
In-App Purchases and the Diamond Economy
The core of Gossip Harbor’s revenue comes from in-app purchases. Players buy diamonds, the premium currency, to refill energy, skip timers, or unlock special decorations and story progress. The game’s pricing is balanced to encourage small, frequent purchases instead of relying only on high spenders.
The energy system plays a big role here.
Every merge action costs energy, which limits playtime. Energy refills slowly, so many players spend diamonds to keep playing longer. This creates a sense of steady progression that feels rewarding while subtly pushing toward spending.
Live Events That Drive Spending
Gossip Harbor keeps players spending through a constant rotation of live events. These include seasonal challenges, decoration contests, and limited-time merges that reward players with exclusive cosmetics or resources.
Because several events often run at the same time, players have multiple reasons to stay active and spend diamonds. Many of these events feature time limits or bonus milestones that make spending feel urgent but optional, striking the right balance between motivation and pressure.
Rewarded Ads for Free Players
While IAPs bring in most of the revenue, rewarded ads are also key to Gossip Harbor’s monetization strategy. Players can watch short videos to earn small rewards such as extra energy, faster timers, or bonus items.
These ads appear at the right moments, usually when players run out of energy or need a small boost. This timing makes the ads feel like a helpful feature instead of an interruption. We estimate that rewarded ads account for 15–20% of the game’s total revenue, showing how effective they are at converting attention into income.
Final Thoughts
Gossip Harbor: Merge & Story has turned the merge genre into something much bigger than a casual pastime. It combines emotional storytelling, smart monetization, and constant live events to create one of the most profitable and engaging mobile games today.
Its success shows how powerful audience-focused design and creative advertising can be when backed by a well-structured economy. Whether Microfun can repeat this formula across its other titles remains to be seen, but Gossip Harbor has already set a new benchmark for what a story-driven merge game can achieve.
Data Source
- AppMagic, 2025. App Data
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