Puzzle Day vs Merge Maestro
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both games, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Puzzle Day
Discover a growing collection of unique, bite-sized puzzles added weekly. Enjoy daily challenges, quick gameplay, and no account required. Support the developer by watching ads.
- Unique daily and weekly puzzles
- Multiple puzzle types (Numby, Pathwords, Burbs, Hoots)
- Daily challenge mode
- No account or login required
- Quick and satisfying gameplay
- New puzzles added regularly
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Puzzle Day is a growing collection of bite-sized puzzles—fun, weird, and refreshingly different. Every week, a new one is added. Every day, a fresh challenge awaits. Hi, I’m Kurt. I’m a game designer and a dad. A few months ago, I lost my job. Instead of panicking (okay, I panicked a little), I decided to make you the best puzzle game on the planet! Puzzle Day is my way of turning that gamble into something real—one puzzle at a time. It’s a home for all the quirky little puzzle ideas I’ve had over the years but never got to share. Some are clever. Some are silly. Some are surprisingly tricky. All of them are built with care. Here’s what you’ll find inside: • Numby – The first of many! A clever little number-matching game with daily and random modes • Pathwords – Each words last letter is the next words first letter ... it's ... forget it, just try it • Burbs – Stranger Things meets Sudoku in this simple game of logic and deduction • Hoots – The smallest possible match 3 game you've ever played. It's fast, it's cute, and it's a hoot • New puzzle (almost) every week – I’m building and releasing new games right inside the app • Daily mode – Play once a day, share your score, and try to beat your friends • No accounts or logins – Just open and play • Quick and satisfying – Most puzzles take just a few minutes, but you’ll want to replay • Fun for your brain, not your wallet – You can support the app by watching ads (thank you!) and enjoy it for free Why I'm Doing This This app isn’t backed by a big company. It’s just me, in my home, designing, coding, testing, and sharing games. I’m also sharing the journey of trying to make $100K in 100 days by building indie games and posting about it on TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube (@kurtiswow). Every ad you watch, puzzle you share, or kind comment you leave helps me get a little closer to that goal—and helps me support my family doing what I love. Coming Soon: More puzzle types (word, logic, grid-based, memory, timing) Achievements, streaks, and unlockables Special limited-time puzzles and events Your feedback! I’m reading everything and building features based on what players ask for Thanks for checking out Puzzle Day. I hope these little puzzles brighten your day the way building them brightens mine. — Kurt Follow the journey: @kurtiswow on TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube
Merge Maestro
Combine hundreds of unique emoji tokens in a puzzle-like, rogue-like experience. Discover creative combinations of tokens and powers to fuse unique strategies and overcome increasingly challenging levels. Enjoy a twist on puzzle, rogue-like, and arcade gameplay.
- Hundreds of unique emoji tokens
- Combo-driven gameplay
- Puzzle-like rogue-like mechanics
- Discover creative token combinations
- Fuse unique strategies
- Challenging levels
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Combine 100's of unique emoji based tokens in this combo-driven puzzle-like rogue-like! Find ever more creative combinations of Tokens and Powers to fuse unique strategies and beat this ever more challenging twist on rogue-likes, puzzlers and arcadey games!
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is in-app purchases: Puzzle Day at none against Merge Maestro's 1. Merge Maestro's advantage is rating (4.8 vs 4.6) and ratings volume (138 vs 11). On price, review sentiment, update cadence and ads there is nothing between them.
Scored on Price · Rating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings · Update frequency · Ads · In-app purchases · Monetization · Best chart rank · Devices · Requires iOS
Both are free to download. Merge Maestro sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. Puzzle Day asks for nothing beyond the download.
Merge Maestro holds the better App Store score, 4.8 against 4.6. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Merge Maestro has 138 ratings behind it against 11, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 89% of Puzzle Day's written reviews are positive against 91% of Merge Maestro's.
Puzzle Day ships an update weekly, Merge Maestro every 9 days. The most recent releases landed on October 6, 2026 and October 9, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Puzzle Day | Merge Maestro |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.6 (11 ratings) | 4.8 (138 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 88.9% of reviews | 91.4% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 11 | 138 — better |
| Update frequency | Weekly — better | Every 9 days |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No — better | Yes |
| Monetization | Ad-supported — better | Free with in-app purchases |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod | iPhone, iPad, iPod |
| Requires iOS | 13.0 | 12.0 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 147 MB | 94 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 12+ |
| Developer | Simple Machine, LLC | DAVID HS TING |
Customer experience
Puzzle Day
Merge Maestro
Bugs and requests
Puzzle Day
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
Merge Maestro
Reported bugs
2 issues- Crashes on startup
- Medal tracking issues
Requested features
2 requests- Endless mode
- UI/text scale options
In-app purchases
Puzzle Day
No in-app purchases
Merge Maestro
- Full Access$2.99









