Do you crush candies? Maybe you prefer word games, collecting coins or playing cards. Your favorite phone game is probably collecting a lot more than you know. No wonder it’s free!
Privacy company Surfshark compiled a list of the most data-hungry games out there. Is your fave on the list?
Hunger games
They analyzed 510 popular mobile games, then used a 100-point “data hunger index” to calculate how much a given app collects. On average, the most popular games are at 33.33 … with a few notable outliers.
🏅 Here are the top 10 most popular games worldwide and their scores:
- 8 Ball Pool: 69.9
- Subway Surfers: 57.6
- Gardenscapes: 42
- Eggparty: 35
- Parking Jam 3D: 33.6
- Roblox: 30
- Chess – Play & Learn: 18
- Game for Peace: 16
- Royal Match: 14
- Survivor!.io: 10
You may recognize 6 and 7 on the list, as they’re most popular here in the U.S. Roblox takes the cake in collecting the most data, including (wait for it), your search history. Yeesh. I’m willing to bet a kid … or adult… in your life plays it.
♟️ Chess – Play & Learn also collects browsing history (super …). 8 Ball Pool wants access to your contacts.
✅ Asking for your contacts is a popular sneaky tactic apps use to gather more data to sell. Here’s why that’s a mistake — along with other app no-nos.