Report updated May 20, 2026
Hole Pool: All People
For casual gamers interested in logic-based sorting puzzles and minimalist, stress-free mobile experiences.
Hole Pool: All People is an established games app that is free with in-app purchases. With a 4.7/5 rating from 7K reviews, it shows polarized user reception. Users particularly appreciate core logic puzzle mechanics provide a satisfying and addictive experience for casual players, though aggressive ad frequency interrupts the flow of gameplay and creates a negative experience remains a common concern.
What is Hole Pool: All People?
Hole Pool is a swimming-themed color-matching puzzle game for casual mobile users, available on iOS and Android.
Users hire the app for low-stakes, meditative puzzle-solving, but the current ad-heavy monetization creates a friction that contradicts the intended stress-free experience.
Current Momentum
v1.31 · 1d ago
Active- Ships frequent stability-focused updates.
- Maintains consistent top-150 Puzzle chart presence.
What makes this app unique?
What Does It Look Like?
What Are The Key Features?
Sorting stickman swimmers by color to guide them into specific holes
Full game functionality available without an active internet connection
How much does it cost?
- Free to play with ad support
Ad-supported model relying on high-volume casual engagement; lacks subscription tiers.
Who Built It?
UNICO STUDIO
Providing casual gamers with humorous, narrative-driven brain teasers and logic puzzles designed for short, offline-accessible sessions.
Portfolio
13
Apps
What other apps does UNICO STUDIO make?
Brain Test 2: Tricky Stories
Woody Sort: Color Puzzle
Screw Out 3D: Nut Sort Jam
Wiggle Tangle - Thread Puzzle
Brain Test Premium
Water Sort Tubes
Explore the full UNICO STUDIO report
Portfolio breakdown, audience, momentum, and every app published by UNICO STUDIO.
What do users think recently?
High confidence · Latest 94 of 142 total reviews analyzed · Based on 142 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 core logic puzzle mechanics provide a satisfying and addictive experience for casual players, but report aggressive ad frequency interrupts the flow of gameplay and creates a negative experience.
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 Hole Pool: All People?
How's The Games Market?
How does it evolve in the Games market?
Hole Pool holds a #124 Grossing rank in the Puzzle category, but the gap between its Free and Grossing performance signals monetization friction. The app maintains a 4.7+ rating across 6,966 total ratings, yet recent technical instability threatens this baseline.
Rank progression
21 active rankings tracked — 30-day window
The rivals identified
Nemeses(1)
This app is the dominant market leader in the color-sorting puzzle niche with over 1.3 million reviews and a high-frequency update cadence.
Differentiators
- Maintains a massive, highly active user base that creates a significant network effect for puzzle difficulty balancing.
- Aggressive update schedule of 8 releases in six months ensures constant content injection and bug resolution.
- Established brand presence in the sorting genre makes it the default choice for new users searching for color-matching games.
Head to head
The target app must lean into its unique 'swimmer' theme to avoid direct feature-for-feature comparison, as the nemesis holds an insurmountable lead in pure sorting mechanics.
Contenders(2)
A high-scale competitor that successfully transitioned sorting mechanics into a 3D environment, appealing to the same casual puzzle demographic.
Differentiators
- Employs 3D spatial reasoning that adds a layer of complexity beyond the 2D sorting found in the target app.
- Leverages the publishing power of Supersonic Studios to maintain high visibility and consistent user acquisition.
A direct thematic alternative that applies the same sorting logic to a different physical medium, capturing a massive segment of the same audience.
Differentiators
- Utilizes ball-based physics and visual feedback which offers a distinct tactile feel compared to liquid-based sorting.
- Maintains a consistent release cadence that keeps the game feeling fresh for long-term players.
Same space(3)
A long-standing puzzle peer that demonstrates how to maintain high ratings through deep, long-term live operations.
Differentiators
- Uses a dark, atmospheric narrative theme that contrasts sharply with the vibrant, lighthearted tone of the target app.
- Features complex, multi-layered match-3 mechanics that offer more strategic depth than simple sorting puzzles.
A high-quality puzzle peer that competes for the same 'leisure time' slot in the user's daily routine.
Differentiators
- Integrates educational trivia elements into the puzzle loop, providing a sense of progression beyond simple color matching.
- Features a highly polished, premium-feeling interface that sets a high bar for casual puzzle UX.
A massive peer in the casual puzzle category that competes for the same 'relaxing brain game' user intent.
Differentiators
- Focuses on lateral thinking and trick riddles rather than the repetitive sorting mechanics of the target app.
- Uses a highly successful 'absurdist' humor style that drives viral sharing and high organic growth.
New entrants(1)
An emerging threat with massive scale that is aggressively iterating on the 'brain teaser' puzzle format.
Differentiators
- Rapidly incorporates trending pop-culture themes into puzzle scenarios to maintain high relevance with younger audiences.
- Utilizes a 'test your IQ' positioning that gamifies the user's performance more aggressively than the target app.
Compare Hole Pool: All People 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 Hole Pool: All People
Strengths to defend, gaps to attack
Core Strengths
- Aquatic-themed stickman visual identity differentiates the core loop
- Offline-first architecture sustains engagement in low-connectivity segments
Critical Frictions
- Aggressive ad-frequency drives high uninstall rates
- Technical instability post-update causes progress loss
- Progression gating forces pay-to-win reliance
Growth Levers
- Implement accessibility features for colorblind users
- Introduce non-intrusive cosmetic IAP to reduce ad-reliance
Market Threats
- High-frequency update cadence of market leaders
- Increasing user sensitivity to aggressive ad-monetization
What are the next best moves?
Audit ad-frequency triggers because high ad-volume is the #1 uninstall reason → improve retention
Sentiment data identifies ad-frequency as the primary driver of negative reviews and churn.
Trade-off: Pause the level-difficulty tuning sprint — ad-churn has a higher impact on DAU than level-gating.
Ship stability patch for launch-crashes because post-update reports cite black screens → restore rating baseline
Technical instability is the top complaint following the latest release.
Trade-off: Deprioritize new level content — stability is the current rating-floor risk.
A counter-intuitive read
The app's #124 Grossing rank is a liability, not an asset, because it signals that the current ad-heavy monetization is failing to convert the existing user base into high-LTV players.
Feature Gaps vs Competitors
- Colorblind accessibility mode (available in peer puzzle titles but missing here)
Key Takeaways
Hole Pool succeeds as a relaxing puzzle loop, but aggressive ad-monetization and technical instability currently cannibalize its retention, so the PM must prioritize stability and ad-balance to protect the current chart position.
Where Is It Heading?
Declining
Casual puzzle traffic is consolidating around titles with more balanced live-ops, and Hole Pool's current reliance on forced ads leaves it exposed to churn. The team must shift from aggressive monetization to stability and accessibility to prevent further rating erosion and maintain its current chart position.
Technical instability post-update (crashes, black screens) erodes the daily active habit, which compounds the rating drag already visible on Android.
Aggressive ad-frequency reports indicate that the current monetization model is reaching a saturation point, accelerating churn pressure on the casual base.