Arabic Post has identified a range of mobile games that were developed by Israeli companies or in which Israeli companies are partners, among them titles widely played across the Middle East. Some come built into certain versions of phones made by companies such as Samsung and Xiaomi, which means they are on the device from the start, without the buyer’s direct consent.
The investigation, current as of Oct. 19, 2026, distinguishes between an Israel-based game company, a foreign company founded by Israelis, a disclosed investment, and a direct or indirect link through a corporate group. It found that some Israeli game developers are former soldiers in the Israeli military who started making and developing games during their military service.
Some of the companies named in the investigation have acknowledged, in annual reports reviewed by Arabic Post, that dozens of their employees joined the Israeli military after Oct. 7, 2023.
The tracing relied on what the companies themselves publish on their websites, on acquisition announcements, on app store pages and on data showing how widely the games are played. Some games were originally developed by Israelis, or by an Israeli company headquartered in Tel Aviv. Others involve a documented partnership with an Israeli company or a direct acquisition by one, studios with a business relationship with such a company, or a “group founded by Israelis” whose original studios remain in various countries. Because the links take so many forms, the investigation specifies the nature of the link for each game.
Notably, after setting out what data they collect and of what kind, most of these apps say in their privacy policies that they may disclose users’ data, for instance “to any competent law enforcement body, regulatory, government agency,” and to respond to “requests from government authorities.” This investigation details both for each game.
The full list of game apps
No game identified by the investigation matches your search.
Games that come preinstalled on some phones
Arabic Post traced how some of the mobile games covered by this investigation reach new devices before users have chosen them. Open technical sources have documented four games from the list preinstalled on some Samsung and Xiaomi phones, or added to them through system updates. Three of the four belong to the Israeli company Playtika:
The list kept by Universal Android Debloater, an open-source project that documents preinstalled apps to help users remove them, describes Woodoku as a “preinstalled game on some Samsung phones.” The game also appeared in a 2022 user report about a Galaxy A20 phone.
Galaxy S21 and Galaxy Z Fold 3 users on U.S. carrier Verizon said a September 2022 system update added the game to their phones; it could not easily be removed.
These sources do not always specify the country where the phone was sold, and the investigation found no published source naming these games on phones sold in Arab countries.
A Galaxy A20 user’s report (March 2022) lists apps that “come preinstalled” after Samsung and Google updates “on new devices,” among them Woodoku, Solitaire Grand Harvest and Slotomania, alongside a Digital Turbine packageSamMobile (September 2022): Verizon’s update for the Galaxy S21 and Galaxy Z Fold 3 “includes two mobile games called Bingo Blitz and Blocks”
How games get onto a new phone
The setup screen: Xiaomi sells advertisers a placement called OOBE, an “App recommendation page” that appears “at the end of the new phone activation process”; up to seven apps can be installed from it onto the second screen. Xiaomi’s 2025 annual report says that in such cases it recognizes advertising revenue “per-download when the customers’ apps are downloaded by users.”
In the Arab world: In November 2022, Israeli company ironSource became Samsung’s “sole partner” on new Galaxy A-series and M-series phones in more than 50 markets across the Middle East and North Africa. The partnership runs through Aura, a platform that provides “smart recommendations during the initial setup of a device” and appears to users as AppCloud, as an earlier Arabic Post investigation revealed. Unity, into which ironSource merged, says Aura “installs the app icon on the user’s home screen” while the user completes the setup steps.
Carriers: U.S. company Digital Turbine sells “application slots” on phones from carriers and manufacturers. The delivery methods it lists include a “Silent” method on a device’s first boot. This technology traces back to Israeli company Logia, whose subsidiaries Digital Turbine bought in 2012. A Digital Turbine package appeared on the same Galaxy A20, alongside the games.
Xiaomi’s page for advertisers: the recommendation page appears “at the end of the new phone activation process,” and the app is “installed to the second screen”ironSource press release (November 2022): Samsung’s “sole partner” on new A-series and M-series phones in more than 50 markets in the region, with “smart recommendations during the initial setup of a device”
Users in the United States complained in 2023 and 2024 that ads for Wordscapes installed the game on their phones without their asking, through installer tools belonging to carriers and manufacturers, according to complaints compiled by researcher Ben Edelman. Wordscapes developer PeopleFun was owned at the time by AppLovin; it passed to Tripledot in June 2025.
On Samsung phones in the region, AppCloud suggests and installs games, but published sources do not name specific titles. According to ironSource, the platform picks them using its “AI and machine learning capabilities,” so their names do not appear in the system files.
What these apps collect
It cannot be documented that these games use their users’ data on behalf of government or military bodies in Israel. But the matter may still raise concerns about privacy and the security of personal data, particularly since the apps’ privacy policies acknowledge that they do collect user data for commercial purposes tied to advertising, while saying they may also make it available to government authorities, without specifying the conditions or circumstances.
The apps examined in the investigation obtain information such as location, IP addresses, device fingerprints and more without users’ clear consent. The investigation sets out what each app collects, separately: open a game’s details in the full list above.
An example from the privacy policy of the Israeli company Moon Active, developer of Coin Master: the company says it may use personal data to respond to “requests from government authorities,” and adds elsewhere that it may disclose it “to any competent law enforcement body, regulatory, government agency, court.” Privacy policy
The investigation also found that some of the Israeli companies behind games covered here have told investors they fear being affected by the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement against Israel, listing it among the risks that could affect their business.
Playtika17 games on the list; based in Herzliya
In its annual report for 2025 (Form 10-K), filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in February 2026, the company wrote, among the risks of its operations in Israel:
“A campaign of boycotts, divestment and sanctions has been undertaken against Israel, which could also adversely impact our business.”Playtika’s annual report for 2025 (Form 10-K), as archived from the SEC website by the Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine on Feb. 26, 2026. The highlighted passage refers to the boycott campaign.
ironSourceSupersonic, publisher of 19 games on the list, began inside it
In its annual report for 2021 (Form 20-F), before it merged into Unity, the Israeli company, then based in Tel Aviv, wrote:
“a campaign of boycotts, divestment and sanctions has been undertaken against Israel, which could also materially and adversely impact our business.”ironSource’s annual report for 2021 (Form 20-F), as archived from the SEC website by the Internet Archive. The highlighted passage refers to the boycott campaign.
After the merger, U.S. company Unity repeated the warning in its annual report for 2024 (Form 10-K), regarding Grow Solutions, its advertising and growth segment, much of which operates from Israel:
“There have also been calls to boycott Israeli goods and services. Such efforts may impact the operations of Grow Solutions and harm our business.”Unity’s annual report for 2024 (Form 10-K), as archived from the SEC website by the Internet Archive on Feb. 21, 2025. The highlighted passage refers to the boycott calls.
Israeli game company employees who served in the war in Gaza
Game companies with operations in Israel have acknowledged, in annual reports filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and in statements by their executives to the media, that some of their employees in Israel were called up to serve in the Israeli military after Oct. 7, 2023. Some of those employees have spoken about their service by name:
In its annual report (Form 10-K) for 2025, filed in February 2026, Playtika wrote that its employees in Israel, “including members of our senior management,” may be obligated to perform annual military reserve duty. It added:
“as a result of the Hamas attack on the State of Israel on October 7, 2023 and the ensuing war, dozens of the Company’s employees were called into active duty.”
The same report says that as of Dec. 31, 2025, the company employed approximately 1,000 people in Israel, including the majority of its senior leadership team.
Playtika’s annual report for 2025 (Form 10-K), as archived from the SEC website by the Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine on Feb. 26, 2026. Highlighted: the sentence on employees being called into active duty.
Robert Antokol, Playtika’s chief executive and also its founder, wrote in a letter to shareholders, as reported by PocketGamer.biz on Nov. 14, 2023:
“As of this week, about 14% of our colleagues in Israel have been activated from the Israeli military reserves”
PocketGamer.biz put the figure at about 150 of the company’s roughly 1,100 employees in Israel.
PocketGamer.biz (Nov. 14, 2023): “about 14% of our colleagues in Israel have been activated from the Israeli military reserves,” quoting the Playtika CEO’s letter to shareholders.
Example: a game company employee who served in the Israeli military after Oct. 7
On April 5, 2024, mako, the news website of Israel’s Channel 12, published a report on reservists who went through job interviews during the war. Matan Nissimov, monetization manager for Playtika’s Solitaire Grand Harvest, spoke to the site, which wrote:
“כלוחם קשר בחטיבה 55 במילואים הוא הוקפץ כבר במהלך השבת השחורה, והוריד את המדים רק כעבור ארבעה חודשים.”
Translation: “As a combat signaler in the 55th Brigade’s reserves, he was called up as early as ‘Black Saturday’ [Oct. 7] and did not take off his uniform until four months later.”
At the time, he was still in the application process for his job at Playtika. He signed his contract while in service and started work at the company after his release in February 2024. Solitaire Grand Harvest is one of the games on the list.
mako report (April 5, 2024), as archived by the Internet Archive on the day it was published: the employee’s name and his job at Playtika, and his reserve service in the 55th Brigade from Oct. 7.
Matan Nissimov’s LinkedIn page confirms that he previously worked at Playtika in monetization. On his Facebook page, he has posted repeatedly about his service in the Israeli military, documenting it with photos.
Arabic Post found a Facebook post of his from Jan. 23, 2024, in which Matan Nissimov and his father appear in military uniform, with a caption in Hebrew: “Fathers and sons in the 55th Brigade.” The 55th Brigade had been fighting in Khan Younis since December 2023 before the Israeli military withdrew it from the Gaza Strip in February 2024 as part of a reduction in reserve forces.
PLAYSTUDIOS, which moved the management of its myVEGAS Slots and myKONAMI Slots games to its Tel Aviv studio, wrote in its annual report (Form 10-K) for 2024, filed in March 2025:
“As a result of Israel’s October 7, 2023 declaration of a state of war and activation of Article 8 of the Reserve Service Law (2008), a number of our employees in Israel were activated for military duty”
Its report for 2025 repeated that some of its employees in Israel “are obliged to perform military reserve duty.”
PLAYSTUDIOS’ annual report for 2024 (Form 10-K), as archived from the SEC website by the Internet Archive. Highlighted: the sentence on employees in Israel being activated for military duty.
At Plarium, Batya Ivanizer, the company’s vice president of human resources, told Calcalist’s CTech on Nov. 6, 2023:
“many of our employees currently serve in Reserve Duty (emergency call-up) across various sectors and positions”
She added that the company had sent warm meals to its reservist employees and had supported the Nahal Brigade’s 931 Battalion, “which we routinely sponsor.”
CTech (Nov. 6, 2023): Plarium’s human resources executive says “many of our employees currently serve in Reserve Duty.”
Another example comes from vgames, an Israeli fund that invests in nine companies with games on the list. Its founder and managing partner, Eitan Reisel, said at a gaming conference organized by Calcalist in December 2024:
“Some of our founders spent eight months in reserve duty, yet these companies have grown exponentially every year.”
In the same session, Playtika executive vice president Lior Kenan said the company had faced challenges “with many employees being called up for reserve duty.”
CTech (Dec. 23, 2024): the vgames founder says “Some of our founders spent eight months in reserve duty,” and a Playtika executive refers to “many employees being called up for reserve duty.”
Unity, into which Israel’s ironSource merged, has not said in its reports how many of its employees were called up. In its report for 2023, it said only that “many of our employees, including certain management members, are located in Israel,” that the war had affected their productivity, and that “several hundred thousand Israeli military reservists have been drafted into immediate military service.”
Israeli game developers
The investigation identified a group of Israeli companies based in Tel Aviv that developed widely played games:
Annual revenue of the Israeli game developers
Most of these companies are privately held and do not publish their accounts; Playtika, listed on the Nasdaq, is the exception. The chart shows each company’s latest disclosed annual revenue, as stated in its own reports, its owner’s reports or its statements, with profit or loss where it has been disclosed. All figures are in U.S. dollars.
Posted a net loss of $206.4 million in 2025, reflecting a non-cash charge tied to the earnout for its SuperPlay acquisition, after net income of $162.2 million in 2024. Its revenue has included SuperPlay since November 2024.
Generated $137 million in adjusted EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization) in the same period, according to Sweden’s MTG, which bought it in 2025.
Its latest separately disclosed revenue, announced by Sweden’s Embracer when it agreed to buy the company. Its chief executive said in 2021 that it had been profitable since 2012.
Gross revenue announced by France’s Voodoo when it bought the studio. Its profit has not been published.
0$1B$2B$3B
No annual revenue disclosed: Candivore, whose Match Masters had generated more than $300 million since its launch, according to reports when Haveli invested in the company in August 2023 (PocketGamer.biz); Ilyon, owned since 2020 by Miniclip, which does not break out its figures in its published accounts; and Dramaton.
Donations by Israeli game companies to the Israeli military
The investigation searched public sources for support that the Israeli game developers it covers gave the Israeli military and its soldiers after Oct. 7, 2023. It documented such support at two of them, Playtika and Plarium, which announced backing for soldiers and for specific battalions without saying what it was worth:
In a letter Playtika posted on its website in the days after Oct. 7, titled “Playtika Stands Strong: Supporting Team and Community as Israel Goes to War,” CEO Robert Antokol wrote:
“Playtika is also donating supplies to support troops.”
The letter did not say what the supplies were, how much was given or who received them.
Letter from Playtika’s CEO on the company’s website after the Oct. 7, 2023, attack. The highlighted sentence is about donating supplies to support troops.
In August 2024, Playtika announced it was “adopting” Battalion 8101 of the Alexandroni Brigade, an Israeli military reserve battalion, according to a report by the Israeli website ICE on Aug. 5, 2024:
“חברת פלייטיקה מודיעה כי תעניק סיוע נרחב למשרתי המילואים של גדוד 8101 בחטיבת אלכסנדרוני ולבני משפחותיהם.”
Translation: “Playtika announces that it will provide extensive assistance to the reservists of Battalion 8101 in the Alexandroni Brigade and their families.”
According to the report, the “adoption program” opens the company’s health and fitness facilities and its cafe to the battalion’s soldiers and their wives, funds “fun days” for the battalion’s commanders, soldiers and their families, and provides shopping vouchers and summer camps for their children. The report did not give the value of the support.
ICE, an Israeli website (Aug. 5, 2024): Playtika announces extensive assistance for the reservists of Battalion 8101 in the Alexandroni Brigade and their families.
At Plarium, Batya Ivanizer, the company’s vice president of human resources, told Calcalist’s CTech on Nov. 6, 2023, that “we sent warm meals to reserve soldiers.” Ivanizer added that the company had:
“specifically supported the Nahal Brigade’s 931 Battalion, which we routinely sponsor.”
The 931st Battalion is one of the Nahal Brigade’s regular-service battalions. The company did not say what form the sponsorship takes or what it is worth.
CTech (Nov. 6, 2023): Plarium’s human resources executive on sending warm meals to reservists and supporting the Nahal Brigade’s 931 Battalion.
Separately from the companies themselves, Gigi Levy-Weiss, a co-founder of Playtika and Beach Bum, led the Civilian Emergency HQ of Brothers and Sisters for Israel, an organization of Israeli reservists, after Oct. 7. In an interview with CTech on May 2, 2024, Levy-Weiss said:
“we needed to fly things into the country, including equipment for the IDF that we bought for tens of millions [of shekels]”
Levy-Weiss added that the group fed 30,000 soldiers, transported 10,000 soldiers to their bases and paid for this with donations it raised. The interview does not link this support to either company.
CTech (May 2, 2024): Gigi Levy-Weiss on buying equipment for the Israeli military “for tens of millions” and feeding 30,000 soldiers.
The investigation found no donations to the Israeli military or its soldiers from the other companies in public sources: SuperPlay, Moon Active, CrazyLabs, Coco Play by TabTale, Supersonic Studios, Beach Bum, Candivore, Ilyon and Dramaton.
Other studios with a documented direct link
The investigation also identified studios that developed some of the games and have direct links to Israeli developers or development companies:
Company
Games
Disclosed link
Rummikub, TAKI
The company describes itself as based in Tel Aviv.
Hidden Hotel, Resort Hotel, Hotel Blast, Traveling Blast, Triple Factory, Blitz: Rise of Heroes
Its developer details include an office in Herzliya.
Trial Xtreme 4, Clan Race, Dirt Xtreme
Says it has development teams in Tel Aviv, among other locations.
Solitaire Cash, Bingo Cash, Bubble Cash
A company with an office and a team in Tel Aviv.
Solitaire Smash
A Tel Aviv-based game company.
Communix / Comunix
Poker Face: Texas Holdem Poker
The company address registered in the app store is in Tel Aviv.
Backgammon Live
A Tel Aviv-based studio acquired by SciPlay.
Sources for these links: company websites, developer details and acquisition announcements. Games & Apps
Israeli-founded groups abroad
The investigation identified groups founded by Israelis whose studios originated in different countries:
Tripledot
Based in London · Its founders include Israelis Lior Shiff and Eyal Chameides
WoodokuSolitaire.comTriple TileNut Sort
Studio that joined the Tripledot groupNotable games
Magic Tavern
Project Makeover, Matchington Mansion, Modern Community
PeopleFun
Wordscapes, Wordscapes Solitaire, Bricks n Balls
Lion Studios
Hexa Sort, Wordle!, Found It
Belka Games
Clockmaker, Train of Hope
Zenlife Games
Cooking Madness, Word Connect
Leyi
West Game, Mecha Fire
Athena Studio
Woody Block Puzzle, Woody 99
Clipwire Games
Bingo Story, The Price Is Right Bingo, Monopoly Bingo
On the investment side, vgames, an Israel-based investment fund, offers a documented example that goes beyond companies of Israeli origin: it publicly lists its portfolio and the games of its portfolio companies, including:
Portfolio company · Games listed on the fund’s website
vgames
Israel-based investment fund
9companies
StarformMetalstorm: Fighter Jet Game
Boom CorpBoom Slingers
DorianDorian: Romantasy Games Hub, Fictif: Interactive Romance
HalfBiteCandles ASMR, Lash Salon, Mahjong: Triple Match
PeerplayMerge Cruise
WhaloFish of Fortune
BanditosFive Heroes: The King’s War, Heroes & Dragons
Pocket HavenRogue Legend, Rumble Rush
MoaiOh Merge
The portfolio page alone does not show the size of the fund’s current stake, nor does it mean that the fund owns the game outright; it shows a disclosed investment relationship with the company. vgames.vc
Indirect links
Taking “any link” in its broadest corporate sense, there are further cases that must be kept separate:
Games or groupType of link and its limits
Subway Surfers, 8 Ball Pool, Carrom Pool, Golf Battle, Football Strike, Agar.io
Part of the Miniclip group, which also owns the Israeli studio Ilyon. This is a link through the parent group, not evidence that Ilyon developed these games.
Mob Control, Paper.io 2, Hole.io
Games under Voodoo, which owns the Israeli studio Beach Bum. The link is corporate and indirect.
POP! Slots, myVEGAS Slots, myKONAMI Slots
PLAYSTUDIOS has actual development operations in Tel Aviv and has announced that it moved myVEGAS and myKONAMI to its Tel Aviv studio.
The Tetris app from PLAYSTUDIOS, and Brainium games
The publisher has an Israeli studio; that does not make Tetris, or all of its versions, Israeli in origin.
Bridge Race, Going Balls, Build A Queen, Tall Man Run, Hide ’N Seek, Color Match, My Mini Mart, Basket Battle, Merge Miners, Slow Mo Run, Family Life, Design Family Life, Conquer Countries, Unravel Master, Screw Guru, Park Match, GossipMaster, Trash Tycoon, Soda Inc
Israel’s ironSource merged into Unity in 2022, and Unity’s largest office in the world is now in Tel Aviv. These games are published by Supersonic, ironSource’s publishing arm, which moved with it to Unity and stayed there until it was sold to Tripledot in August 2026. The ironSource name has also been linked to AppCloud, an app preinstalled on Samsung phones in the Arab world, as an Arabic Post investigation revealed.
These links are documented at the corporate level and are not treated here as equivalent to direct Israeli development. Miniclip
Collecting ID card and passport numbers
The data some Israeli companies acknowledge collecting goes beyond location and device fingerprints. In some of their privacy policies, it extends to official identity documents:
In its privacy policy, last modified July 2, 2025, Tel Aviv-based Papaya Gaming acknowledges that in the preceding 12 months it collected and/or disclosed data in the “Identifiers” category, which includes:
“passport or other government or state ID card number”
The same entry lists “debit or credit card number,” along with full name, date of birth, phone number, IP address and device identifier. According to the table, this category was disclosed to “affiliated companies,” “advertising networks” and “service providers.” The policy also says the company may disclose any data about a user “to government or law enforcement officials or private parties” as it sees fit, “in our sole discretion.”
A table in Papaya’s privacy policy listing the categories of data the company collected and/or disclosed in the preceding 12 months, including “passport or other government or state ID card number” (the word “passport” is highlighted).
The privacy policy for Solitaire Smash, a game developed by Tel Aviv-based Play Perfect, lists “social security number,” the U.S. national identification number, among the information a user may provide when creating an account. It adds:
“for the avoidance of doubt, the social security number shall not be stored or saved in any way”The “Personal Information That You Share With Us” section of the Solitaire Smash privacy policy, with the passage on the social security number highlighted.
The games identified by the investigation include digital versions of games well known to Arab audiences that are developed or owned by Israeli companies. Some have been officially celebrated in Israel as “original Israeli” games:
Rummikub and TAKI on Israeli postage stamps
In November 2019, Israel Post issued a set of stamps titled “Israeli Board Games” featuring Rummikub and TAKI. The text accompanying the issue called Rummikub “an original Israeli produced game,” sold in 59 countries and translated into 26 languages. The same promotional text described it as “Israel’s number one export,” without explaining the basis for that ranking.
But Rummikub is essentially identical to a well-known Turkish game, 101 Okey. The company credits the game to Ephraim Hertzano, a Romanian-born Jew who emigrated to Israel after World War II and said he invented it in the 1950s. TAKI is a card game launched by the Israeli company Shafir Games in 1983. Although it is almost identical to the hugely popular UNO, its creator says he invented it and that it is Israeli in origin.
The official digital versions of both games are registered on Google Play to KINKAJOO LTD, a company in Tel Aviv. Rummikub alone has more than 10 million downloads on Android.
A post on the Virtual Stamp Club website about the “Israeli Board Games” stamp set issued by Israel Post in 2019, with the name Rummikub highlighted.
Beach Bum, a studio based in the Israeli city of Ra’anana, develops six games on the list, all digital versions of games popular in the Arab world, such as backgammon, dominoes, rummy and card games: Lord of the Board Backgammon, Rummy Stars, Domino Go, Rummy Rush, OPA! and Tilez. Lord of the Board Backgammon and Rummy Stars each have more than 10 million downloads on Google Play.
According to CTech, the studio’s founders include Gigi Levy-Weiss and Uri Shahak, both co-founders of Playtika, and it still operates from Israel despite its sale to the French company Voodoo for about $500 million. On Google Play, all six of its games list the legal name BEACH BUM LTD, the address 15 Hatidhar, RAANANA, 4366517, Israel and an Israeli phone number.
Backgammon Live, an online version of backgammon, a game hugely popular in the Arab world, has more than 5 million downloads. It was developed by Come2Play, a studio that was based in Tel Aviv before the U.S. company SciPlay bought it in 2020, according to Globes.
Today the game appears on Google Play under the display name “Come2Play - Board Games,” but the “About the developer” section shows that its registered legal owner is SCIPLAY GAMES (ISRAEL) LTD, at 2 Jabotinsky, RAMAT GAN, 5250501, Israel, near Tel Aviv.
For Ilyon, the developer of games such as Bubble Shooter, there is direct evidence from the company itself that it was established in Israel:
The official privacy policy says so.Open the privacy policy and go to INTRODUCTION. There you will find the phrase:“a company incorporated in Israel”The same section gives the address of its office in Rosh HaAyin.
Company databases list its registration number, 515059236, and describe ILYON DYNAMICS LTD as a private Israeli company incorporated on March 23, 2014. These are commercial databases, not a government extract. For an official document, enter the number in the government’s company extract service. 515059236
Screenshot of Ilyon’s official privacy policy, with the phrase “company incorporated in Israel” highlighted.
The games by downloads and reach
Most-downloaded games on Android
Sources for the rows above: the store pages for Bubble Shooter, Bridge Race and Coin Master; My Cafe, Wordscapes and Project Makeover; and the CrazyLabs, Dramaton, Supersonic and Woodoku games. Apps on Google Play
These other games combine wide reach with high ratings or a regional presence:
These figures are taken from the games’ own store pages. Among the highest-rated games in the sample examined were Coin Master, Wordscapes, Solitaire Grand Harvest and Disney Solitaire, each showing a rating of about 4.7. This does not establish that they are the highest-rated games overall. Apps on Google Play
How some of the games perform in the Middle East
On reach in the Middle East and Arab markets, the following figures are more specific evidence than global popularity alone. They are Sensor Tower estimates published in its AI Insights series and cover the periods and platforms stated. They are not a current ranking for October 2026:
Regional sources for these figures: the Saudi Arabia and Egypt reports, then the Middle East reports. sensortower.com
No public list can claim to include every game with any link to Israelis: small shareholdings, development contracts and service providers are not all disclosed. The investigation instead sought to identify games whose links could be documented from public sources, such as developer details in app stores, privacy policies, company annual reports, and acquisition and investment announcements.
Background: Israeli surveillance technology in the region
The findings above about the Israeli apps cannot be separated from concerns that Israel leads the countries developing spying and surveillance technology. Israel has previously been accused of spying on politicians, activists, human rights defenders and journalists through programs such as Pegasus, sparking a global outcry and legal proceedings.
Some media reports also state that many Israeli technology companies were founded by former officers of Unit 8200, the Israeli military intelligence unit, which specializes in electronic eavesdropping.
These companies develop tools for hacking into phones, computers, networks and even social media platforms. The best known include:
NSO GroupDeveloper of the Pegasus spyware.
CandiruDevelops covert software for hacking Windows, Mac and Android devices.
CellebriteSpecializes in tools that extract data from mobile phones when there is physical access to the device.
TokaFounded by former Israeli officials, it specializes in spying on the Internet of Things (cameras, smart devices, networks).
AnyVision (now Oosto)Works on facial recognition technology and has been accused of using it to monitor Palestinians.
Most of these companies operate under the supervision of Israel’s Ministry of Defense, which grants export licenses, according to an earlier report by the Israeli newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth.
The United States has imposed restrictions on some of these Israeli companies, and companies such as Facebook and Apple have filed lawsuits against them.
Sources and methodology: The investigation distinguishes between an Israel-based game company, a foreign company founded by Israelis, a disclosed investment, and a direct or indirect link through a corporate group. Its findings are current as of Oct. 19, 2026, and draw on what the companies themselves disclose on their websites, acquisition announcements, app store pages, and Sensor Tower estimates for reach data. Download figures and ratings are as shown on the games’ Google Play pages.
