Report updated Apr 18, 2026

TL;DR:Granny is a category-defining stealth-horror title with a massive legacy footprint of over 4.3 million Android ratings. Users feel Excited, praising horror atmosphere & gameplay but frustrated by performance & lag. Granny is a legacy powerhouse currently coasting on brand equity while rivals like The Baby In Yellow innovate with higher update velocities.|TL;DR:Granny is a category-defining stealth-horror title with a massive legacy footprint of over 4.3 million Android ratings. Users feel Excited, praising horror atmosphere & gameplay but frustrated by performance & lag. Granny is a legacy powerhouse currently coasting on brand equity while rivals like The Baby In Yellow innovate with higher update velocities.

Granny is a well-regarded games app that is free with in-app purchases. With a 4.3/5 rating from 4.4M reviews, it maintains solid user satisfaction. Users particularly appreciate horror atmosphere & gameplay, though performance & lag remains a common concern.

What is Granny?

Granny is a category-defining stealth-horror title with a massive legacy footprint of over 4.3 million Android ratings. It centers on a high-tension 'escape the house' loop where the primary differentiator is an acoustic detection system that forces players into silent, strategic movement. While it remains a top-100 category performer in the US, the app is currently in a maintenance phase, facing significant technical debt and aggressive competition from newer, high-velocity titles like The Baby In Yellow.

Current Momentum

v1.8 · 4mo ago

Maintenance

Granny is currently in maintenance mode, with the last major content update occurring in November 2022. Recent activity is limited to seasonal theme updates.

AI-powered deep analysis surfacing high-signal insights. Still in beta, accuracy improves daily. For informational purposes only.

Active Nemesis

The Baby In Yellow

The Baby In Yellow

By Team Terrible

Other Rivals

Scary Teacher 3D
Identity V
Death Park: Scary Horror Clown
Five Nights at Freddy's
Metel Horror Escape

7-Day Rank Pulse 🇺🇸

Casual
#79
2

Rating Pulse 🇺🇸

Recent User MoodAI-powered deep analysis surfacing high-signal insights. Still in beta, accuracy improves daily. For informational purposes only.

What makes this app unique?

What Does It Look Like?

How Is The App's Momentum Right Now?

Loading...

What Are The Key Features?

Acoustic Detection SystemDifferentiator

The antagonist reacts to environmental sounds, such as dropped items, forcing players to be cautious.

Stealth-based SurvivalStandard

Players must navigate a house while remaining silent to avoid detection by the antagonist.

Hiding MechanicsStandard

Players can utilize wardrobes and under-bed spaces to evade the antagonist.

How much does it cost?

Freemium
  • Free to play with advertisements

The app utilizes a pure ad-supported model, providing full access to the game experience. Users generally perceive the ad frequency as fair compared to other mobile titles.

Who Built It?

Dennis Vukanovic app icon

Delivering high-tension, stealth-horror experiences to mobile players. Focused on atmospheric survival gameplay through acoustic-based mechanics.

Portfolio

1

Apps

Who is Dennis Vukanovic?

The publisher has established a dominant niche in mobile horror by leveraging a proprietary acoustic detection mechanic that forces players into silent, strategic movement. Their strategy relies on a cohesive, interconnected universe of titles that share core survival-horror mechanics, creating a recognizable brand identity that drives organic discovery. The primary tension is the transition from active expansion to a maintenance phase, as the portfolio currently focuses on sustaining legacy titles rather than introducing new IP.

Who is Dennis Vukanovic for?

  • Fans of atmospheric horror
  • Survival-puzzle games who prefer high-tension
  • Stealth-based mechanics
Intense

Portfolio momentum

Released 13 updates across 11 apps in the last 6 months, maintaining high activity levels across the entire portfolio.

Last release · 141d agoActive apps · 11

What do users think recently?

High confidence · Latest 100 of 98.6K total reviews analyzed

How did the latest release land?

Overall
4.3/ 5
(4.4M)
Current version
4.4/ 5
+0.1 vs overall
(98.7K)
Main signal post-update: horror Atmosphere & Gameplay.

What is the recent mood?

Excited

Recent user voice shows a excited sentiment. Users appreciate horror atmosphere & gameplay and nostalgia & longevity, but report performance & lag and technical bugs & crashes.

What Users Love

Horror Atmosphere & Gameplay
Nostalgia & Longevity

What Frustrates Users

Performance & Lag
Technical Bugs & Crashes

What is the competitive landscape for Granny?

How's The Games Market?

How does it evolve in the Games market?

ChartRankChange
AndroidFree#412
AndroidFree#41

The rivals identified

The Nemesis

Head to Head

Granny remains the category leader by volume with 4.3M+ Android ratings, but The Baby In Yellow has the edge in engagement and fresh content delivery, making it the most dangerous active threat.

What sets Granny apart

  • Granny maintains a dominant market share with over 4.3M ratings on Android alone, dwarfing the rival's 656k total.

  • Granny holds a slightly higher user sentiment score (4.35 on iOS) compared to the rival's 4.26.

What's The Baby In Yellow's Edge

  • The Baby In Yellow is far more active, with 7 updates in the last 6 months compared to Granny's single update in late 2025.

  • The rival is a newer property (2021 release) showing stronger growth momentum than the 2017-era target app.

Contenders

Scale: With 2,071,226 ratings, it is the only rival in the pool that approaches Granny's multi-million review scale.

Live Ops: Updated as recently as March 2026, showing a highly active development roadmap.

Asymmetric multiplayer focus compared to Granny's single-player stealth experience.

Lower overall sentiment (3.38 rating) suggests a more polarized or technically demanding user experience than Granny's 4.3+.

Death Park: Scary Horror Clown

Death Park: Scary Horror Clown

4.6 (249K)

Anton Nazarov

🚀

A quality-focused contender with a high 4.56 rating and recent activity in February 2026.

Superior user satisfaction (4.56 rating) compared to Granny's 4.35.

Smaller but highly engaged niche audience with 15,791 ratings.

Peers

Boasts the highest rating in the set (4.72) across 162k reviews, indicating extreme brand loyalty.

Legacy status: Released in 2014, it serves as a foundational peer rather than a direct growth competitor.

Metel Horror Escape

Metel Horror Escape

4.4 (108.1K)

Anton Shuligin

🔧

A smaller, adjacent escape-room horror title with a respectable 4.58 rating.

Niche appeal with only 921 ratings, focusing on a smaller subset of the horror-escape market.

Stagnant development with no releases in the last six months.

The outtake for Granny

Strengths to defend, gaps to attack

Core Strengths

  • Massive legacy user base (4.3M+ Android ratings)
  • Strong brand recognition as a genre classic
  • Unique Acoustic Detection differentiator
  • High nostalgic value for long-term players

Critical Frictions

  • Technical debt (30FPS cap on modern hardware)
  • Critical ad-related crashes (black screen bug)
  • Lack of a save progress feature
  • Low update frequency (maintenance mode)

Growth Levers

  • Multiplayer mode implementation to increase session depth
  • Optimization for 120FPS displays to improve high-end device sentiment
  • Introduction of a save system to reduce churn from crashes

Market Threats

  • High-velocity rivals like The Baby In Yellow (7 updates in 6 months)
  • Market share loss to newer, more active horror titles
  • Technical obsolescence on modern mobile OS versions

What are the next best moves?

high

Optimize for high refresh rates (120FPS)

Users on modern devices like iPhone 14 Pro are complaining about 30FPS caps, which negatively impacts the perception of a 'premium' horror experience.

high

Implement a 'Save Progress' feature

This is a top-requested feature to mitigate the high frustration caused by game-breaking crashes and phone battery deaths.

high

Resolve post-ad black screen crashes

This bug directly impacts the primary revenue stream (ads) and is cited as a reason for 1-star reviews.

Feature Gaps vs Competitors

  • Multiplayer mode (available in Identity V but missing here)
  • High update frequency/Live Ops (available in The Baby In Yellow and Scary Teacher 3D)
  • Save progress system (standard in modern horror-escape peers)

Key Takeaways

Granny is a legacy powerhouse currently coasting on brand equity while rivals like The Baby In Yellow innovate with higher update velocities. To maintain its #91 category rank, the PM must address the technical debt (30FPS cap) and implement a save system to prevent churn from the app's increasingly frequent stability issues.

Where Is It Heading?

Stable

Last updated Dec 2025 with only a seasonal theme — indicates maintenance mode rather than growth.

High-frequency complaints about 30FPS caps on 120FPS hardware — technical debt is mounting.

Maintains a massive 4.3M+ rating base — brand loyalty remains a significant barrier to entry for new competitors.

Disclosure

Independent intel to help builders create better apps.

AI-powered analysis with editorial review, built from publicly available sources. See methodology.

Marlvel.ai is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by Granny, its developer, the app publisher, Apple, or Google Play. All trademarks, logos, and screenshots referenced remain the property of their respective owners.

Hope this helps & keep building! · Found an error?

What's new in this report

The report reflects a transition from a neutral development status to a maintenance-heavy phase, characterized by technical debt, performance complaints, and increased competitive pressure.

shifted

Maintenance Mode Status

declined

Emergence of Technical Complaints

shifted

Monetization Clarification

improved

Acoustic Detection Differentiator

shifted

Audience Narrowing

Cite this report

Marlvel.ai. “Granny Intelligence Report.” Updated Apr 18, 2026. https://marlvel.ai/intel-report/games/com-dvloper-granny

Agent Markdown (.md)·

Data licensed under CC-BY-NC 4.0