Leaves of Blocks vs. Block Blast
One of these games has 2.3 million ratings. The other has 5. We're not going to tell you which is which — but we will tell you which one has zero ads, collects zero data, and was named after a Walt Whitman poem. You decide.
Zero. Absolutely none.
No banners, no interstitials, no "watch a video to continue." Just the game.
Oh, there are ads.
Block Blast is widely known for aggressive ad placements between rounds. Enjoy your puzzle with a side of unskippable 30-second videos.
Collects nothing.
Zero data collection. No tracking, no analytics in the app, no ad identifiers. Your game stays entirely on your device.
Knows more about you than you might expect.
Block Blast tracks your device, your gameplay habits, and how you interact with every ad — then shares that profile with advertising partners. You can ask it to stop personalizing ads, but ads never actually stop. At least four separate companies receive your data just from playing the game. They are upfront about this in their privacy policy. We just think you should know.
One guy. Tim. USA.
A real solo indie developer based in the United States. You can email him. He will probably respond.
Hungry Studio. Hong Kong.
Founded in 2021, headquartered in Hong Kong, with corporate presence in Singapore and Beijing. A company. With a team. And multiple offices across Asia. They are very good at making popular games. We are not them.
5 ratings.
Mostly family and friends. One is definitely his mom. Possibly two are his mom on different Apple IDs. We're working on it.
~2.3 million ratings.
The undisputed #1 puzzle game in the App Store. They have more ratings than some countries have citizens. Respect.
Named after Walt Whitman.
"Leaves of Blocks" is a direct homage to "Leaves of Grass" (1855). This is the only puzzle game you will ever play with a connection to 19th-century American poetry.
Named after a thing that blasts.
"Block Blast." Descriptive, effective, and entirely devoid of Whitman energy. No judgment. Just facts.
Genuinely endorsed by the developer's mom.
She plays it every day. This is not a bit. She actually loves it. This is our most credible celebrity endorsement.
Unknown.
We have no data on whether anyone at Hungry Studio's mom plays Block Blast. We assume she does. She has plenty of ad breaks to think about it.
We're not the biggest.
No ads. No data collected. No corporate machine behind it — just one developer, a literary name, and a mom who plays it every single day.
If you're the kind of person who wants a clean, quiet puzzle game that respects your attention and your privacy, Leaves of Blocks was made for you.
(Walt Whitman is unavailable for comment. He passed in 1892. He probably would have liked it though.)
Free to download. No ads. No trackers. Just blocks.
Block Blast is a trademark of Hungry Studio. We have nothing against them personally. Their game is genuinely very popular. We just think ours is better for a specific kind of person.