Report updated May 19, 2026
Criminal Case: Supernatural
For casual mobile gamers interested in mystery, detective narratives, and hidden object puzzles.
Criminal Case: Supernatural is an established games app that is free with in-app purchases. With a 4.7/5 rating from 37.8K reviews, it shows polarized user reception. Users particularly appreciate engaging mystery narratives and character development keep players invested across the entire series, though frequent ad interruptions and technical glitches break immersion during critical investigation sequences remains a common concern.
What is Criminal Case: Supernatural?
Criminal Case: Supernatural is a hidden-object investigation game for casual mystery fans on iOS and Android.
Players hire the app for episodic narrative-driven mystery solving, using the game to fill short-form daily leisure time.
Current Momentum
v1.44 · 8mo ago
Maintenance- Ships routine maintenance for system stability.
- Maintains consistent narrative-driven content updates.
What makes this app unique?
What Does It Look Like?
What Are The Key Features?
Locate specific items within crime scene environments to progress through narrative chapters.
Examine clues and process samples to identify suspects and advance the investigation.
Weekly service providing an increased energy cap of 170 and removal of advertisements.
Compare detective performance and progress with friends.
How much does it cost?
- Free to play with ad-supported progression
- Pizza subscription at $2.99/week
Freemium model anchored by a $2.99/week subscription that removes ads and expands the energy pool.
Who Built It?
Pretty Simple
Delivering narrative-driven hidden object mysteries to casual gamers worldwide. Focused on episodic storytelling and forensic puzzle mechanics.
Portfolio
9
Apps
What other apps does Pretty Simple make?
Criminal Case
Criminal Case: Pacific Bay
Criminal Case: Save the World!
Criminal Case: Mysteries
Criminal Case: The Conspiracy
Criminal Case: Paris
Explore the full Pretty Simple report
Portfolio breakdown, audience, momentum, and every app published by Pretty Simple.
What do users think recently?
High confidence · Latest 106 of 114 total reviews analyzed · Based on 114 reviews. Signal may be noisy.
How did the latest release land?
What is the recent mood?
Recent user voice shows a mixed sentiment. Users appreciate engaging mystery narratives and character development keep players invested across the entire series and diverse character representation and inclusive themes resonate with the core player base, but report frequent ad interruptions and technical glitches break immersion during critical investigation sequences and persistent login failures with social media accounts prevent progress synchronization and cloud saving.
What Users Love
What Frustrates Users
What Users Want
How have ratings & review volume moved?
Rating, review sentiment, and total reviews over time, with release markers showing the post-launch impact.
Vertical markers = app releases. Hover any release for the post-release impact delta.
View the full user-sentiment analysis
Mood gauge, ratings & review-volume history, every praise / complaint / request, and sentiment over time.
What is the competitive landscape for Criminal Case: Supernatural?
How's The Games Market?
How does it evolve in the Games market?
The app maintains a #167 Grossing rank in the US Adventure category, but the 8-spot gap between Free and Grossing ranks suggests monetization friction. The 36,266 Android rating count vs 1,570 iOS count confirms a heavy Android-first user base.
Rank progression
46 active rankings tracked — 30-day window
The rivals identified
Nemeses(1)
This title competes directly for the attention of casual gamers who prioritize high-production hidden object scenes and intricate puzzle-solving mechanics.
Contenders(4)
Competes by offering a narrative-driven hidden object experience that mirrors the target's focus on mystery and environmental puzzle-solving.
Targets the same casual mobile gamer segment by blending exploration with collection mechanics, creating a secondary overlap in player time-share.
A direct genre competitor that captures the same hidden object and puzzle-solving demographic through a similar premium adventure structure.
Competes for the same casual adventure audience by offering an immersive, exploration-heavy experience that contrasts with the target's structured investigation gameplay.
Same space(3)
A legacy platformer that competes for the same casual gaming demographic by offering a recognizable, high-IP adventure experience.
Competes for the same adventure-seeking audience by leveraging idle mechanics to capture users who prefer low-intensity progression.
Shares the target's focus on narrative-driven gameplay, appealing to players who value story-rich experiences over pure mechanics.
Compare Criminal Case: Supernatural against every rival
All rivals in one side-by-side table — identity, store metrics, ratings & sentiment, and strategic intel — plus a head-to-head page for each.
The outtake for Criminal Case: Supernatural
Strengths to defend, gaps to attack
Core Strengths
- Narrative-driven investigation loop sustains high engagement
- Diverse character representation builds niche community loyalty
Critical Frictions
- 0.11 rating gap between Android and iOS platforms
- Persistent social-login failures block progress synchronization
- Aggressive ad-frequency triggers high deletion rates
Growth Levers
- Untapped wearable integration for investigation alerts
- Expansion of supernatural lore into self-contained side-stories
Market Threats
- June's Journey's high-frequency content cadence
- Rising user intolerance for forced ad-loops in mystery games
What are the next best moves?
Audit social login infrastructure because login failures are a top-reported blocker → recover lost progress for churned users.
Sentiment analysis identifies persistent social login failures as a primary cause for progress loss and user frustration.
Trade-off: Pause the planned UI refresh for the main menu — login stability has a direct impact on retention.
Tighten ad-frequency thresholds because ad-related crashes are the #1 deletion driver → improve long-term retention.
User reviews explicitly cite forced ad frequency and non-closable loops as the primary reason for game deletion.
Trade-off: Delay the release of new crime scene assets by two weeks — ad-stability is a higher-leverage retention fix.
A counter-intuitive read
The app's reliance on a heavy Android user base is a hidden strength, as it allows for lower-cost acquisition in emerging markets where the supernatural theme remains under-served.
Feature Gaps vs Competitors
- Persistent island decoration meta-game (available in June's Journey but missing here)
- Team-based competitive events (available in June's Journey but missing here)
Key Takeaways
The app sustains a loyal base through narrative quality, but technical instability and aggressive ad-monetization are eroding the player experience, so the PM must prioritize login and ad-stability to prevent further churn.
Where Is It Heading?
Mixed Signals
The mystery-adventure market is consolidating around titles with robust meta-games and high-frequency live-ops, leaving this app exposed. Without addressing the technical blockers and ad-monetization friction, the app will continue to lose share to more polished competitors like June's Journey.
Technical instability in the latest release (ad-related crashes, social login failures) erodes the daily active habit, compounding the rating drag on Android.
Recent updates focused on routine maintenance rather than feature expansion, leaving the app vulnerable to rivals with higher-frequency content drops.