By Hosted Games
Report updated May 12, 2026
The Great Tournament
For fans of interactive fiction and text-based roleplaying games who prefer narrative-heavy experiences over graphical gameplay.
The Great Tournament is a well-regarded games app that is free with in-app purchases. With a 4.7/5 rating from 34.2K reviews, it maintains solid user satisfaction. Users particularly appreciate branching narrative choices provide high replay value and deep emotional immersion for players, though aggressive monetization tactics force wait times and ad viewing during critical story moments remains a common concern.
What is The Great Tournament?
The Great Tournament is a text-based interactive fiction game for iOS and Android where players navigate a medieval squire's rise to knighthood.
Users hire the app for low-stakes, high-immersion narrative agency that allows them to shape a story through repeated, branching playthroughs.
Current Momentum
v1.0 · 4mo ago
Maintenance- Added OpenDyslexic font support.
- Ships accessibility menu updates.
Active Nemesis
Choice of the Dragon
By Choice of Games
Other Rivals
7-Day Rank Pulse 🇺🇸
GamesNo ranking data
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?
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What Are The Key Features?
Interactive text-based storytelling where user decisions dictate character development and plot outcomes
Stat-based progression system for jousting, archery, and melee skills
Customizable font selection including OpenDyslexic and Helvetica
How much does it cost?
- Free to play with ad support
Ad-supported model leveraging high-volume, low-cost text content to monetize through display impressions.
Who Built It?
Hosted Games
Empowering independent authors to publish choice-driven interactive fiction through a specialized, text-based scripting engine.
Portfolio
13
Apps
Who is Hosted Games?
Hosted Games operates as a crowdsourced publishing platform for interactive fiction, distinguishing itself from traditional studios by leveraging a proprietary language (ChoiceScript) to lower technical barriers for writers. Their strategic moat is a community-driven content pipeline and a revenue-sharing model that incentivizes a steady stream of niche narrative experiences. The publisher maintains a distinct position in the market by prioritizing deep narrative agency and literary depth over graphical fidelity or sound design.
Who is Hosted Games for?
- Fans of interactive fiction
- Fantasy/historical literature who prioritize narrative agency
- Character development over visual gameplay
Portfolio momentum
Demonstrated high maintenance activity with 4 updates across 2 apps in the last 6 months, indicating consistent support for their existing titles.
What other apps does Hosted Games make?
Way Walkers: University
Somme Trench
Samurai of Hyuga Book 3
Highlands, Deep Waters
Life of a Wizard
Lost in the Pages
What do users think recently?
High confidence · Latest 66 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 excited sentiment. Users appreciate branching narrative choices provide high replay value and deep emotional immersion for players and minimalist interface design keeps focus on the text-based storytelling experience without distractions, but report aggressive monetization tactics force wait times and ad viewing during critical story moments.
What Users Love
What Frustrates Users
What Users Want
What is the competitive landscape for The Great Tournament?
How's The Games Market?
Market outlook for this category
Available very soon
The rivals identified
The Nemesis
Choice of the Dragon
★4.4 (30.8K)Choice of Games LLC
📈Dominates the text-based interactive fiction niche with a massive user base and high engagement, directly competing for the same narrative-focused audience.
Head-to-head analysis pending — refresh this report for a detailed comparison.
Contenders
Employs a more traditional high-fantasy quest structure compared to the target app's squire-to-knight progression arc.
Utilizes a more granular stat-tracking system that provides deeper mechanical feedback during combat and skill checks.
Creatures Such as We
★4.6 (12.5K)Choice of Games LLC
📈A high-performing narrative title that shares the same core engine and audience demographic as the target app.
Focuses on philosophical and meta-narrative themes that differentiate it from the target app's traditional medieval fantasy setting.
Leverages a highly polished, consistent UI framework that provides a premium reading experience across all mobile devices.
Peers
VERSUS: The Lost Ones
★4.5 (1.5K)Choice of Games LLC
A peer title within the same publishing ecosystem, competing for the same limited user attention span.
Features a sci-fi/dystopian setting that appeals to a broader speculative fiction audience than the target's medieval focus.
Utilizes a more aggressive, serialized release structure to maintain player engagement over longer periods.
AI Dungeon: RPG & Story Maker
★4.0 (105.3K)Latitude Inc.
🚀Represents the modern evolution of text-based RPGs through generative AI, posing a long-term threat to static narrative games.
Utilizes generative AI to provide infinite, non-linear storytelling possibilities that static narrative games cannot replicate.
Offers a sandbox creation mode allowing users to build and share their own custom RPG scenarios.
Sorcery! 2
★4.1 (4.3K)inkle
📈Shares the interactive fantasy narrative space but utilizes a distinct, map-based visual interface.
Integrates a visual, interactive map system that provides a stronger sense of spatial exploration than text-only interfaces.
Features a unique combat system that blends tactical decision-making with traditional narrative choices.
New Kids on the Block
Aggressive live-ops strategy with frequent content updates keeps the player base engaged far beyond the initial narrative arc.
Combines traditional RPG elements with base-building mechanics to increase session length and long-term monetization potential.
The outtake for The Great Tournament
Strengths to defend, gaps to attack
Core Strengths
- Branching narrative engine drives repeat session frequency
- Minimalist interface reduces production overhead for content scaling
- Accessibility features lower churn for reading-impaired segments
Critical Frictions
- Ad-supported wait walls trigger high-frequency churn complaints
- Stat-based progression lacks transparency for combat outcomes
- Save data persistence issues erode user trust
Growth Levers
- Expand gender customization to capture broader demographic interest
- Integrate non-linear AI elements to counter generative-narrative competitors
Market Threats
- AI-driven narrative apps offer infinite, non-linear storytelling
- Aggressive monetization risks long-term player sentiment degradation
What are the next best moves?
Audit ad-wall frequency because user complaints cite interrupted story flow → improve retention
High-frequency complaints regarding wait times during critical narrative moments.
Trade-off: Pause the stat-transparency UI overhaul — ad-wall churn has a higher immediate impact on session retention.
Ship cloud-save persistence because data-loss reports are a top technical frustration → reduce negative reviews
Users report progress loss forcing full restarts, which is a critical failure point.
Trade-off: Delay the font-selection expansion — data integrity is a higher priority for long-term player retention.
A counter-intuitive read
The game's minimalist, text-only interface is not a limitation but a high-margin moat that allows for rapid content iteration, which is a more sustainable path than competing with high-fidelity, resource-heavy RPGs.
Feature Gaps vs Competitors
- Infinite, non-linear storytelling (available in AI Dungeon)
- Tactical visual combat (available in Sorcery! 2)
Key Takeaways
The Great Tournament retains players through deep narrative branching, but aggressive ad-walls and save-data instability threaten its long-term viability, so the PM must prioritize technical stability and monetization balancing to prevent churn to AI-driven alternatives.
Where Is It Heading?
Stable
The interactive fiction market is shifting toward generative, non-linear experiences that make static narrative titles feel dated. The Great Tournament remains stable due to its established brand, but it must address technical instability to prevent losing its core audience to more modern, AI-enabled competitors.
Aggressive ad-wall complaints in reviews indicate that current monetization is hitting a ceiling, which will likely accelerate churn into Q2.
Recent accessibility updates show active maintenance, which helps defend the core user base against competitors lacking font-customization options.