Students are hooked on the Tetris-adjacent mobile game Block Blast. Commonly seen in advertisements on social media or in the bylines of internet pages, the app has skyrocketed in popularity in the past month and currently sits at the number one spot of Apple App Store’s Top Free Games Chart.
In this game, users must move and connect blocks of various shapes in rows horizontally and vertically in order for them to disappear and to earn points. Although the game is similar to Tetris, Block Blast is much more meditative and simple without the stress of a time limit or frenzy of falling blocks.
“From an outside perspective, it doesn’t even seem that fun,” senior Amanda Chin said. “Once you start playing, you just keep telling yourself, ‘One more game,’ again and again.”
Block Blast sounds simple. But, of course, users across social media have shared their complex strategies and tips for achieving a high score. Students are motivated to beat their record scores, with few exceeding over 10,000 points.
Players have reported an especially addictive nature to the game, spending hours at a time trying to beat their high score.
“When I’m bored I don’t go on Instagram or Tiktok anymore–it’s just Block Blast,” Chin said.
Tactics for earning a high score such as using the smallest blocks first, keeping the blocks all in one corner, and trying to clear the board in three moves have led to players on social media showing off their scores of up to 100,000 points.
“A strategy I use toward achieving a higher score is by making a combo with every block I place,” senior Yoshi Azhar, with a high score of 13,839, said.
More typically, multiplayer games such as Brawl Stars, Clash of Clans, and Roblox stand within the top-10 rankings of the App Store’s free mobile games chart. With Block Blast now also in the rankings, a more strategic and calming game has made its way to the top.
The game might just be a harmless pastime or a place for students to take a brain break during their day. However, it’s hard to minimize the stories about losing multiple hours at a time to the game and the absurdly high scores earned by the dedicated few.
“I think [Block Blast] could turn out to be pretty harmful,” Azhar said. “This game already distracts me a lot when I’m meant to be studying.”
