WHAT'S NEW
ON PIXELPICKED.

Every update to PixelPicked, for players and developers: new features, improvements and fixes, newest first.

Changelog

Every
release.
Newest first.

What changed, when, and why. Open any release to see everything that shipped in it.

A round of improvements to replays, reels and milestones, plus clearer page titles so players can find PixelPicked on Google.

New

  • NewMilestone notifications: when your game hits a milestone, you also get an in-app notification with the card. Share it or save it right from there.

Improved

  • ImprovedReplays show up in your Console a minute or two after a player leaves, instead of up to 20 minutes later.
  • ImprovedShort sessions under 20 seconds never use one of your 10 replay slots, and once a game keeps 10 replays, new sessions don't record at all, so players never get slowed down.
  • ImprovedClearer page titles and descriptions across the site, so PixelPicked is easier to find on Google.

Fixed

  • FixedReels now always come out at the length you pick. Before, a clip near the end of a replay could be cut short.
  • FixedRecordings with no video (from browsers that can't capture the game) are removed instead of showing up as broken replays.

Version 1.12.1 — Milestones in your notifications, faster replays and reels that come out right.

A round of improvements to replays, reels and milestones, plus clearer page titles so players can find PixelPicked on Google.

  • [new] Milestone notifications: when your game hits a milestone, you also get an in-app notification with the card. Share it or save it right from there.
  • [improved] Replays show up in your Console a minute or two after a player leaves, instead of up to 20 minutes later.
  • [improved] Short sessions under 20 seconds never use one of your 10 replay slots, and once a game keeps 10 replays, new sessions don't record at all, so players never get slowed down.
  • [improved] Clearer page titles and descriptions across the site, so PixelPicked is easier to find on Google.
  • [fixed] Reels now always come out at the length you pick. Before, a clip near the end of a replay could be cut short.
  • [fixed] Recordings with no video (from browsers that can't capture the game) are removed instead of showing up as broken replays.

Version 1.12.0 — Turn your game into posts, reels and cards in one tap.

Every game, milestone and play session can now become something ready to post on Instagram, TikTok, X or Discord. No design tools needed.

  • [new] Share a game as an image: the share button now makes a ready-to-post card with the game's banner, logo, name and a Play Free button. Save it, or send it straight to Instagram or WhatsApp from your phone.
  • [new] Make a reel from a session replay: pick the best 15, 30 or 60 seconds (or let Best moment choose), add a headline, and get a vertical video for TikTok, Reels and Shorts, with taps shown and a Play Free ending.
  • [new] Share your stats: turn your Console numbers into an image card. Pick up to 4 stats, then share, download or copy a ready-made caption with your game's link.
  • [new] Milestone cards: when your game passes 100 plays, 1,000 players, 250 likes and more, you get an email with a card made for posting, attached and ready to share.

Version 1.11.0 — Your Console now tells you what's working and what to fix.

The developer Console has been rebuilt from scratch. It shows how many people play each day, where they tap, how long they stay, where they come from and what to improve next. We also fixed several analytics bugs so the numbers are more accurate.

  • [new] What to fix next: plain-language tips from your numbers, like "36% of players leave in the first 10 seconds", with what to do about it.
  • [new] Daily players chart: players and plays for each of the last 30 days.
  • [new] Tap heatmap: see where players tap on the screen, in portrait and landscape.
  • [new] How long people play: sessions split by length, plus how many leave in the first 10 seconds.
  • [new] Where players come from: the PixelPicked feed, friend challenges, Discord, Reddit, search and more.
  • [new] Do players come back: Day 1, Day 3 and Day 7 retention, and where players drop off between levels for games using the SDK.
  • [new] Milestones: a banner when you pass 10, 100, 1,000 players and more, plus emails for player, play, page view and like milestones.
  • [new] Your week in plays: a new email every Monday for games with a demo, with last week's players, plays and play time compared to the week before, plus one tip for what to do next.
  • [improved] Session replays are sharper (30 FPS), shown as cards tagged with errors or lag, and each game keeps its 10 latest replays for 14 days.
  • [improved] Performance & devices: average and slowest FPS, sessions that froze, script errors, and which devices and browsers people use.
  • [fixed] More accurate numbers: one visit now counts as one play, idle time no longer counts as play time, returning players and retention are measured properly, and session replays save reliably.
  • [removed] The country breakdown has been removed from the Console.

Version 1.10.0 — The play feed now feels like a game console — and you can challenge friends on far more games.

The play feed has been rebuilt around the game: a HUD on top, a controller below, and a full arcade cabinet on PC. Leaderboards, a run-over screen and personal challenge cards make every run something worth sharing.

  • [improved] A console-style feed on phones — a HUD with the game, your best and live score on top, and a controller below with PREV, VS, a big NEXT button, RANKS and GET. Games get more room, too.
  • [improved] Landscape games are never covered — the controls move to the sides like a handheld console, so the game fills the screen and there's no need to hide anything.
  • [new] An arcade cabinet on PC — an Up Next queue you can jump through, a control panel with live high scores, keyboard shortcuts for everything (N next, P previous, R ranks, V challenge, L like, S share) and F for fullscreen.
  • [new] Leaderboards for every game — top score, furthest level, fastest time and most played, with a podium for the top three and your best always pinned.
  • [new] Challenge friends on many more games — beat my score, reach my level or beat my time, depending on the game. Your challenge is a Fight Night card with your name and result, shared as an image with the link, or copied in one tap.
  • [new] Result cards — finished a challenge? Share how it went, won or so close. Anyone who opens it can take the same challenge.
  • [new] Play fullscreen — a fullscreen button on Android that also turns your screen for landscape games, and on iPhone, add PixelPicked to your home screen to play without Safari's bars.
  • [improved] Faster downloads — game builds are now compressed automatically, and the size you see is what you actually download. Developers can upload builds up to 200 MB, as long as they download in 50 MB or less.
  • [fixed] Touch controls in landscape games — taps, swipes and drags now reach the game directly, so games built with Unity, Godot or Babylon respond properly.
  • [fixed] The Copy button in the share dialog now copies the link reliably.
  • [removed] The hide-controls button is gone — nothing covers the game any more, so it isn't needed.

Version 1.9.3 — A cleaner play feed where nothing gets in the way of the game.

The mobile play feed has been reworked so portrait games are never covered by controls, moving between games feels smoother, and every action sits where your thumb expects it.

  • [improved] Nothing covers portrait games — the game now fits between the top and bottom bars, so there's no need to hide the controls while you play.
  • [improved] Simpler controls — like and share sit in the top bar with a back arrow, Challenge sits next to NEXT, and the last button opens the game's store, or offers both stores when it's on Google Play and the App Store.
  • [new] Keep playing — when a timed demo ends, the next game starts after a 5-second countdown you can cancel.
  • [improved] Smoother transitions — games show their cover while loading, and switching between portrait and landscape games turns smoothly instead of snapping.
  • [improved] The demo timer now sits in the top bar, first-time visitors get a quick pointer to NEXT, and taps give a light vibration on supported phones.
  • [removed] Follow was removed from the play feed; liking a game is enough to get more games like it. You can still follow games from their game page.

Version 1.9.2 — Play mobile games online by genre, and new games show up in search sooner.

Every playable game now has a home in online games, sorted by genre and ranked by how much players actually enjoy them. New games and devlogs reach search engines within minutes, and Top Charts are back on the homepage.

  • [new] Online games — browse every game you can play instantly, with a page for each genre. Press play to go through a whole genre like a playlist.
  • [new] Ranked by players — online games are ordered by play time, how often players stay and come back, likes, and stability, so the best games come first.
  • [new] Games like your favorites — guides to indie mobile games similar to popular titles, with trailers, screenshots, and why each one is a match.
  • [new] Play mobile games online on the homepage — jump into any genre from below the devlogs, signed in or not.
  • [improved] Top Charts are back on the homepage for everyone, on desktop and mobile.
  • [improved] Instant Bing indexing — approved games, their play pages, and new devlogs are sent to Bing the moment they go live, so they appear on Bing, DuckDuckGo, Yahoo, and ChatGPT search within minutes instead of days.
  • [improved] Genre rankings now open with a short guide and common questions about each genre.
  • [fixed] Fixed broken links from some game store buttons and old URLs, and duplicate addresses for the same page.

Version 1.9.1 — Better visibility into how PixelPicked is used, and smaller builds for developers.

PixelPicked now tracks daily platform activity so the team can see what players and developers do each day, and developers get a free tool to shrink oversized game builds.

  • [new] Activity monitoring — the team can now follow daily games played, feed visits, games per feed visit, game submissions, devlogs, launch votes, comments, follows, likes, challenge plays, and signups, with a chart for each.
  • [new] Game Build Size Optimizer — a free tool that shows what takes up space in an HTML5, Unity WebGL, or Godot build and repacks it smaller, entirely in your browser. Builds over the 50 MB limit now link to it from the submission form.
  • [new] Show more in Explore — signed-in players can load more games in any Explore tab without leaving the homepage.
  • [improved] Welcome emails — players and developers now get separate welcome emails with next steps that match how they use PixelPicked, plus a link to the PixelPicked Discord.
  • [improved] Activity counts are gathered in memory and saved every 30 minutes, so tracking adds no delay to likes, votes, comments, or plays.

Version 1.9.0 — A faster way to find a game, and one place to see everything for developers.

The homepage has been rebuilt around playing and exploring games, the signed-in homepage now uses the same Explore section, and a new developers page shows everything PixelPicked offers a game before, during, and after launch.

  • [new] New homepage — play a featured game right on the page, browse games by tab and genre, follow devlogs, and try a swipe-style preview of personalized recommendations.
  • [new] Explore on the signed-in homepage — on desktop, the tabbed Explore section now sits below last week's launch winners, followed by devlogs and genre rows. On mobile, Play Instantly now appears right after the featured section.
  • [new] Vote from Explore — games in the Launching now tab can be voted for directly from their cards. Signed-out players are asked to log in first.
  • [new] Developers page — a new /developer page covers listing, playable builds, free playtesting with real players, discovery, analytics and session replays, devlogs, launch campaigns, and the weekly newsletter, with interactive examples built from real PixelPicked games.
  • [improved] Homepage game previews — the playable preview now rotates between Lineguard, Find My Car, 2048, tower stack, taproach, and circle, and the cards beside it always show the games that play next.
  • [improved] Submitting a game — pressing a submit button while signed out now opens the login window instead of sending you back to the homepage.
  • [improved] Developer links — the nav, footer, and homepage now point developers to the new developers page.
  • [fixed] Explore and homepage stats could briefly show no games or zero counts after a slow server response. Empty results are no longer cached.
  • [removed] The Most Waitlists section has been removed from the signed-in homepage.

Version 1.8.1 — A simpler way to coordinate features and share every game well.

PixelPicked's admin tools now bring game contacts, social channels, feature outreach, and published-post links into one focused workspace, while shared Play links represent the game itself.

  • [new] Admin Social Desk — admins can search approved games and see developer contacts, support email, social profiles, store listings, and PixelPicked game pages in one directory.
  • [new] Feature outreach — editable Social Feature, Game of the Day, and Launch Week email templates now send through PixelPicked's existing email system.
  • [improved] Send confirmation — every feature email now opens a final branded preview showing the recipient, subject, artwork, exact message, published links, and call to action before it is sent.
  • [improved] Multi-post features — a single outreach email can include up to ten published social links, with the first post used for the primary email action.
  • [improved] Game-aware Play previews — sharing a direct Play URL now uses that game's banner, title, studio, and description in Discord, X, and other supported link previews instead of the generic PixelPicked card.

Version 1.8.0 — Game conversations can now continue naturally.

Comments on games and devlogs now support focused replies without breaking or migrating the conversations already published on PixelPicked.

  • [new] Comment replies — players and developers can reply directly to game-page and devlog comments, with replies grouped beneath the original message for easier reading.
  • [improved] Reply notifications — the original commenter and the game's developer are notified when relevant, with duplicate notifications prevented when they are the same person.
  • [improved] Backward-compatible conversations — existing comments remain top-level comments and continue working without a data migration, while new reply relationships are added only when used.

Version 1.7.1 — A clearer, more accurate path through PixelPicked.

PixelPicked's public pages, navigation, search foundations, and game media have been refined to explain the platform more clearly and help players and search engines understand every page.

  • [improved] Public-page experience — marketing pages now use focused Platform, Developers, Players, Resources, and Play navigation, clearer calls to action, tighter layouts, and more balanced player and developer messaging.
  • [improved] Accurate analytics messaging — analytics pages now distinguish automatic hosted-session signals from game-specific funnels and monetization events that require supported game instrumentation.
  • [improved] SEO foundations — sitemap freshness and caching were improved, duplicate FAQ structured data was removed, protected admin and submission pages are excluded from indexing, and public game and studio data now use short-lived server caching.
  • [improved] Accessible game media — game banners, logos, screenshots, trailers, and devlog banners now use descriptive game-aware text, with cleaner heading structure across the Play experience.
  • [fixed] Game-page fixes — public pages no longer display editing-only required markers, and devlog cards retain the banner selected for each individual update.

Version 1.7.0 — Make a game playable from the moment it is submitted.

Playable builds are now part of the game-submission journey, while improved build controls give PixelPicked clearer oversight of the quality signals used in recommendations.

  • [new] Optional demo submission — developers can select a browser-ready build while submitting a game and continue directly into upload without making a playable build mandatory.
  • [improved] Games submitted without a demo now receive a focused upload prompt explaining playable discovery, free player testing, feedback, advanced analytics, heatmaps, performance insights, and session replays.
  • [new] Submission builds remain private during review and are published automatically when the game is approved, preserving moderation without making developers repeat the upload process.
  • [improved] Recommendation quality controls now live in the admin Builds pipeline. Admins can see the effective score calculated from player ratings and bounce behavior separately from an optional editorial override.

Version 1.6.0 — A Play feed that learns what each player wants next.

PixelPicked now builds a personalized playable-game feed from player taste, play history, engagement quality, and real behavior while continuing to work for signed-out visitors.

  • [new] Personalized recommendations — the Play feed combines selected genres with impressions, play time, likes, follows, skips, repeat sessions, ratings, and game quality to rank what each player sees next.
  • [new] Anonymous personalization gives signed-out players a persistent feed identity, while account and anonymous history are combined after sign-in.
  • [improved] Taste evolves from real play behavior over time, and cached game history records what was played, how often, and for how long without writing every interaction directly to the database.
  • [improved] Quality-aware ranking uses a bounded 0–1 score led by player ratings, reduces visibility for sustained bounce behavior, gives new games a temporary discovery boost, and keeps popularity secondary to quality.
  • [improved] Continuous feed delivery loads ten games at a time, requests the next set with two remaining, avoids immediate repetition, and returns proven favorites after the unique catalogue is exhausted so the feed never ends.
  • [improved] Faster first play shows a game immediately from the cached playable catalogue while personalized recommendations are prepared behind it without replacing the game already on screen.

Version 1.5.0 — See how players actually experience your playable game.

Playable-game analytics now go beyond summary numbers. Developers can watch qualifying play sessions, follow taps and clicks in context, and export useful recordings for deeper review.

  • [new] Session replay recording — qualifying browser-play sessions are captured automatically using lightweight segmented recording, with short sessions discarded and interrupted sessions recovered when possible.
  • [new] Replay viewer — developers can watch a complete session inside the analytics console, move through the timeline, change playback speed, jump to the next action, and inspect device, performance, and interaction details.
  • [improved] Player interaction overlays make taps and clicks visible during playback and can be enabled or hidden for a cleaner review.
  • [new] Watermarked MP4 exports — download QuickTime-compatible session recordings with optional interaction markers burned into the video for sharing and offline analysis.

Version 1.4.2 — More room to play, faster movement through the feed, and clearer controls.

The Play screen has been redesigned around the game itself, with a full-screen mobile experience and controls that stay useful without getting in the way.

  • [improved] Play screen UI improvements — games now use the full mobile screen, key actions sit in a compact vertical rail, navigation uses a translucent overlay, and players can move backward or forward, see next-game loading progress, hide controls, share games, and play landscape builds in the correct orientation.
  • [fixed] Devlog fixes — media previews and recent-devlog cards now preserve and display the correct banner for each individual update.

Version 1.4.1 — A clearer explanation of PixelPicked, with a smoother experience across the platform.

PixelPicked's public pages now explain the relationship between personalized player discovery, the mobile gaming social layer, and the infrastructure developers use to reach and understand players.

  • [improved] Marketing pages updated — Overview now covers the complete product, How It Works follows the developer-player loop, Why PixelPicked explains the market gap, and About focuses on the mission, principles, company, and team.
  • [fixed] Bug fixes and reliability improvements across profiles, game navigation, developer workflows, playable builds, forms, and responsive layouts.

Version 1.4.0 — Discover games by playing them, and build a player identity around what you love.

PixelPicked now puts playable discovery at the center of the player experience. The new Play feed moves directly between browser-playable games, while redesigned public profiles give every player a shareable identity built around their taste, activity, collections, and future achievements. Developers also get a faster demo publishing flow, and moderation tools now cover the complete lifecycle of hosted builds.

  • [new] Playable discovery feed — opening Play now enters a full-screen vertical feed where games start as they become active, with direct navigation between playable demos instead of an intermediary grid.
  • [improved] Adaptive game loading prepares upcoming demos without running hidden canvases, limits full preloading by connection quality and build size, and prevents skipped games from starting during fast scrolling.
  • [new] Public player profiles now live at shareable username URLs, with editable display names, bios, profile photos, cover artwork, featured games, and featured badges.
  • [new] Player-first profile design introduces profile stats, a prominent badge cabinet, featured achievements, and a dedicated liked-and-followed game library while keeping developer controls inside Studio.
  • [improved] Player taste is editable with up to ten favorite genres, while liked and followed game collections use cached data for faster profile loading.
  • [improved] Demo publishing is now a focused two-step experience with automatic engine handling, optional version labels, clearer progress, responsive modal behavior, and a 50 MB build limit enforced by both frontend and backend.
  • [new] Build moderation pipeline — admins can inspect active demos, send build warnings or information reminders, remove every hosted build version from PixelPicked and Cloudflare, and automatically notify the developer.
  • [improved] Developer publishing safeguards now require an approved game before demo uploads, devlogs, or launch campaigns can be created.
  • [improved] Image uploads across game and player experiences are optimized to WebP before upload, reducing the size of newly added artwork while preserving existing media.
  • [fixed] Bug fixes and reliability improvements across game submission, profile editing and image previews, rankings, build removal, responsive navigation, email states, and mobile layouts.

Version 1.3.0 — A clearer view of the mobile games earning momentum.

PixelPicked now turns real player discovery activity into transparent game rankings. Players can explore the overall chart, individual genres, iOS, and Android; see daily movement; and discover longer monthly guides built from the same ranking data. The system is cached for fast browsing, updates throughout the day, and gives developers a clearer view of where their games stand.

  • [new] Game rankings — explore the leading mobile games overall, by genre, and separately for iOS and Android.
  • [new] Daily rank movement — current and previous-day positions show which games are rising, falling, holding steady, or entering a chart for the first time.
  • [new] Ranking badges on game pages show eligible overall, genre, iOS, and Android positions without requiring players to leave the game.
  • [new] Monthly best-games guides — current-month pages cover qualifying genres, iOS, Android, and mobile overall with full game descriptions, ranking methodology, and direct discovery links.
  • [improved] Fast cached delivery and 20-game incremental loading keep ranking pages responsive while reducing repeated database and image requests.
  • [improved] Genre integrity — only a game's first three submitted genres qualify for rankings, and each game appears in only one genre guide per month.
  • [improved] Rankings are now available from player navigation on desktop and mobile, with developer access included inside developer options.
  • [new] Major Update devlogs give developers a dedicated way to mark substantial game releases and milestones.

Version 1.2.0 — A more active, focused, and connected PixelPicked.

This release is a major refinement of how players discover games and move through PixelPicked. Activity now earns meaningful visibility without affecting the New Games shelf, discovery filters are faster and clearer, home sections use layouts suited to how people browse them, launch campaigns open in a focused quick view, and devlogs are easier to continue reading. It also improves sign-in behavior, platform clarity, verified styling, campaign setup, and badge widgets.

  • [new] Activity-aware home ranking — active developers and games receive more visibility across featured, active, upcoming, beta, genre, and engagement-focused shelves. New Games remains chronological and does not use activity score.
  • [improved] Discovery now defaults to Most Active and includes verified-only, playable-build, Android, and iOS quick filters with a cleaner fixed filter panel and no duplicate search field.
  • [improved] Home browsing layouts — Most Active, Most Waitlists, and New Games use compact two-row grids with Show more, while other shelves keep horizontal scrolling and their original card sizes.
  • [new] Store platform indicators — Android and iOS marks are derived from each game's real store links and shown on relevant home and discovery cards.
  • [new] Launch campaign quick view — selecting a campaign game keeps voting and campaign navigation on the left while opening trailers, screenshots, game details, voting, and the full game-page link on the right.
  • [improved] Launch campaign setup now pre-fills the campaign tagline from the game's short description, preserves the original game-title casing, and removes unused campaign comments and the extra Preview button.
  • [improved] Devlog continuity — home previews render Markdown correctly, devlog pages show five recent posts with same-game updates first, and older/newer navigation keeps readers moving.
  • [fixed] Authentication-required actions such as follow, like, and vote now open the shared sign-in popup, preserve the current page after login, and display above side panels.
  • [improved] Verified identity is now consistently represented with a gold checkmark across game cards, discovery filters, profiles, game pages, and verification states.
  • [new] Light and dark badge widgets — preview a theme, copy theme-aware HTML, or download the matching approved-game and Launch Week ranking badge.
  • [fixed] Home and launch countdowns now render consistently without hydration mismatches, with improved responsive image sizing and metadata handling.

Version 1.1.0 — Smarter discovery, weekly reports, and verified badges.

This release reshapes how games get discovered on PixelPicked and adds two new tools to help developers track their growth and build trust with players. A new activity score now drives what shows up on the home page, featured section, similar games, and the weekly newsletter — the more active your game, the more visibility it gets. We've also added optional weekly report emails summarizing how PixelPicked helped you find your audience that week, and verified badges so players can tell legitimate developer submissions apart from games submitted by non-developers.

  • [new] Activity score now determines what's shown on the home page, featured section, similar games, and in the newsletter — the more active your game, the more visibility it gets.
  • [new] Weekly report emails — get a summary of how PixelPicked helped you find your audience this week, no login required. Can be turned off anytime.
  • [new] Verified badges — confirm your game is a legitimate developer submission by adding a badge to your site and verifying ownership, for 2x visibility.

Version 1.0.2 — Developer behavior and experience improvements.

Added improvements so developers know what to do next and how to do it. Added a share button to share the game page on social media.

  • [improved] UX improvement for dveloper behavior improvements.

Version 1.0.1 — Devlog and 404 page and UI fix.

There were issues with notifications of devlogs where likes and comments where linked to wrong page reasulting in 404.

  • [fixed] Notification for devlog likes and comments was taking to 404 instead of devlog page.
  • [fixed] 404 game page if a user is a devloper and not submitted any page.
  • [improved] Home page in Sidebar.

Version 1.0.0 — The pre-launch ecosystem is live.

PixelPicked v1.0 officially launches. We are bringing the missing layer to mobile gaming. Developers can now validate ideas, build an audience, host HTML5 builds for frictionless playtesting, gather zero-code analytics, and run coordinated launch campaigns. Players get a curated feed of creative upcoming games to discover, test, and shape before they hit the app stores.

  • [new] Game pages supporting all pre-launch stages: Idea, Prototype, Alpha, Beta, and Launched
  • [new] Frictionless playtesting — upload HTML5 builds that players can play instantly in their browser
  • [new] Zero-code analytics pipeline — automatically tracks sessions, playtime, and D1/D3/D7 retention on HTML5 builds
  • [new] Advanced build metrics — automatic framerate tracking (avg & p10 worst-case), crash detection, level funnels, and click heatmaps
  • [new] Structured feedback system — testers rate gameplay, visuals, performance, and difficulty, tied directly to the build version
  • [new] Devlog system — post progress updates, share media, and build a following before release day
  • [new] Launch Campaigns — time-boxed, vote-ranked release events grouped into Launch Weeks
  • [new] Notification engine — in-app bell feed and push notifications to followers for devlogs, beta drops, and launches
  • [new] Community voting — real players upvote their favorite launch campaigns to the top of the leaderboards
  • [new] Strict human curation — manual approval pipeline to filter out asset-flips, shovelware, and aggressive gacha traps
  • [new] Cross-platform social broadcast — launch amplification across Instagram, Reddit, Threads, X, YouTube, and Discord
  • [new] The Weekly Pixel newsletter — featuring the top community-voted games and developer stories
  • [new] Permanent post-launch discovery — games remain in the feed to stay discoverable long after day one

Have feedback or an idea? Tell us on Discord, or follow @thepixelpicked for new releases.

Shipped with care.