By UNICO STUDIO
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.
Active Nemesis
Water Sort Puzzle
By IEC Global Pty
Other Rivals
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?
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
Who is UNICO STUDIO?
Unico Studio has established a dominant position in the casual logic category by evolving the 'Brain Test' franchise from abstract puzzles into narrative-driven 'tricky stories' with recurring characters. Their strategic advantage lies in a high-volume production engine that rapidly iterates on successful mechanics, such as mystery-solving and 'Who is?' scenarios, to maintain a massive market footprint. The portfolio is currently signaling a move toward deeper meta-layers, incorporating inventory systems and interactive dialogues to increase retention in a category typically prone to high churn.
Who is UNICO STUDIO for?
- Casual mobile gamers seeking low-stress mental stimulation
- Attracted to humorous scenarios
- Mystery-solving logic challenges
Portfolio momentum
Maintaining an extremely high development cadence with 96 releases in the last 6 months and 49 out of 50 apps currently active.
What other apps does UNICO STUDIO make?
Brain Test 2: Tricky Stories
Woody Sort: Color Puzzle
Screw Out 3D: Nut Sort Jam
Brain Test Premium
Water Sort Tubes
Make It 10: Solitaire Puzzle
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
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.
| Country | Category | Chart | Rank | Change |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 🇹🇭 Thailand | Puzzle | AndroidGrossing | #160 | NEW |
| 🇨🇦 Canada | Puzzle | AndroidGrossing | #200 | NEW |
The rivals identified
The Nemesis
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.
What sets Hole Pool: All People apart
Offers a more thematic, narrative-driven experience with stickman swimmers compared to the abstract liquid-sorting mechanics of the rival.
Provides a more relaxed, leisure-focused aesthetic that differentiates it from the high-intensity, logic-heavy gameplay of standard water sorting.
What's Water Sort Puzzle's Edge
Features a highly refined, proven UI loop that has been optimized through millions of user interactions.
Delivers a deeper library of levels and game modes that keeps players engaged for significantly longer durations.
Contenders
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.
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.
Peers
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.
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.
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.
New Kids on the Block
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.
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.