Cracking the Cryptic: 8 Sudoku Apps, a $2 Monthly Puzzle, and the Finished-Pack Test

Key Takeaways:

Cracking the Cryptic, the sudoku channel run by Simon Anthony and Mark Goodliffe, showed 708K subscribers, 8,275 videos and 323,835,428 views on October 10, 2026, and promises two videos every day
The pair's US App Store catalog holds eight apps: seven standalone variant apps at $4.99 each, released between 2019 and 2021, and one free app from 2022 that sells puzzle packs from $0.99 to $4.99. None of the eight sells a subscription
Their Patreon does renew. It listed 7,435 paid members, and its entry tier is a $2 monthly reward puzzle
The useful test for any creator here is what a customer does after finishing the last puzzle they paid for. In the apps, the answer is to wait for a new pack. On Patreon, next month's puzzle arrives on its own

Most creators who build an app start from a product and go looking for a habit to attach to it. Cracking the Cryptic had the habit first: hundreds of thousands of people who sit down most evenings to watch someone solve a grid. Looking at where that habit is paid for, and where it isn't, says a lot about how puzzle and practice audiences actually spend money.

Who Are Simon Anthony and Mark Goodliffe?

Simon Anthony and Mark Goodliffe are English puzzle solvers who started the YouTube channel Cracking the Cryptic in 2017. Both have represented the UK at the World Sudoku and World Puzzle Championships. Goodliffe has won The Times Crossword Championship 14 times, and Anthony once held the record for consecutive Listener Crossword solves. Those credentials come from the channel's own description, which says it joined YouTube on May 2, 2017. Wikipedia adds that Anthony is a former investment banker and Goodliffe a financial director, and that the channel began with cryptic crosswords before sudoku took over. Each video is one host solving one puzzle live, talking through every deduction. The format turned out to suit lockdown. "The Miracle Sudoku", a puzzle by Mitchell Lee posted on May 10, 2020, had 4,846,130 views on October 10, 2026. The channel also posts on Instagram and X. Its October 9 video points viewers to a livestream of the Times Crossword Championship today, October 10.

How Does Cracking the Cryptic Make Money?

Cracking the Cryptic makes money from five sources its own video descriptions list: a Patreon membership from $2 a month, puzzle apps on iOS, Google Play and Steam, printed puzzle books, merchandise through Fourthwall, and the YouTube channel itself. Only the Patreon membership renews automatically. The October 9 video description lays that out in order. Patreon comes first: "Just $2/month for the monthly reward, $3/month (or higher) for solution videos." Then merchandise, then the newest pack in the app, then the books, which are sold through Coffee Bean Games. The first book, Cracking the Cryptic's Greatest Hits, was crowdfunded on Kickstarter in 2020 by 7,447 backers. The channel doesn't publish revenue, so nothing here ranks these lines by size. What can be counted is the shape of each one.

Eight Apps, Seven Variants, One Price

The eight Cracking the Cryptic apps on the US App Store sell handcrafted puzzles once. Seven are standalone $4.99 apps, each built around one sudoku variant. The eighth, the free Cracking the Cryptic app from July 2022, comes with a free starter collection and sells further packs from $0.99 to $4.99. No app lists a subscription.

App	Released	Price	Ratings	Last updated
Sandwich Sudoku	Aug 2019	$4.99	128	Sep 2020
Classic Sudoku!	Nov 2019	$4.99	250	Nov 2020
Chess Sudoku	Mar 2020	$4.99	148	Aug 2021
Thermo Sudoku	May 2020	$4.99	145	Apr 2022
Miracle Sudoku	Aug 2020	$4.99	117	May 2022
Killer Sudoku CTC	Dec 2020	$4.99	79	Apr 2022
Arrow Sudoku	May 2021	$4.99	45	May 2022
Cracking the Cryptic	Jul 2022	Free, packs $0.99 to $4.99	210	May 2026

The rows come from Apple's public lookup data for each listing. The apps are published under developer Nick Carney's App Store account, and the free app's copyright line reads Studio Goya LLC. The 2020 video descriptions link the same apps on Steam and Google Play. The timing tells a story. The Miracle Sudoku video went up in May 2020, and the Miracle Sudoku app followed in August. Viral solves became $4.99 apps within months.

Why Did the Apps Move Into One Free App?

In 2022 Cracking the Cryptic moved new releases into a single free app, Cracking the Cryptic, that sells packs as in-app purchases. Its listing showed packs such as Classic Volume #2 at $4.99, Domino Sudoku Pack at $4.99 and Sudoku Worms by individual setters at $0.99 to $1.99. Players seem to prefer it. A 2023 review on the listing says, "I really wish that all the different packs were integrated into one app on my phone," and adds that the reviewer was "happy to keep paying the same amount per pack." One app is easier to use and easier to keep selling in. Its latest release notes announce a new pack, The Sudoku Worm of Zetamath, and the newest Classic volume includes 20 puzzles commissioned from Nikoli, the Japanese publisher that named sudoku. But the model is still pay per pack. After someone solves the last puzzle they bought, the app has nothing new for them until the next release, and the next release has to be sold again.

What Does the $2 Patreon Tier Get You?

The $2 Cracking the Cryptic Patreon tier gets a member Simon and Mark's monthly reward puzzle plus bonus content such as extra puzzles and video solves. The $3 tier adds a monthly video on how to solve that reward puzzle. On October 10, 2026, the page showed 7,435 paid members out of 16,549 total. The tier ladder runs from $2 up to $500 a month. The $10 tier gets a cryptic crossword clue written for the member's chosen word, the $75 tier can request a video, and the $500 tier includes a ten-minute Zoom call in the first month. October's reward, according to the video description, is Eight Corners: eight sudokus whose solutions combine into a code.

This is the recurring product, and it's priced like a tip. It's also the only paid line with a calendar built in. The reward arrives whether or not the member remembers to look for it. Our Patreon review covers what the platform takes from that $2.

Your audience already shows up every day. Your business should be built around that.

Built by Foundry builds and runs the business your audience pays for, with $0 upfront and a revenue share. You own it. For practice audiences that's usually a subscription app, where the next puzzle, lesson or session is waiting and the renewal is built in.

See What We’d Build You →

The Finished-Pack Test

Ask what your customer does the day after they finish the last thing they paid for. If they have to find, choose and buy something new, you are running a series of launches. If the next piece is already on its way, you are running a subscription. Cracking the Cryptic runs both, side by side. The apps put the puzzles where people actually solve them, on the phone, with hints written by Simon and Mark, and they sell those puzzles a pack at a time. The Patreon renews every month but sits on a membership site, with one reward puzzle a month and a price set like a thank-you. The daily habit itself, two solves a day with the day's puzzle linked free in a browser tool under each video, earns its keep on YouTube. None of that is a mistake. A pack priced once suits a player who solves in bursts, and plenty of puzzle fans do. The test simply shows where the recurring revenue isn't yet: in the app where the solving happens. The same question works well outside puzzles. GothamChess's Chessly is a teaching product built around a daily practice audience. Our guide to annual vs monthly subscriptions covers what happens once a product does renew.

What We Can't See

Cracking the Cryptic does not publish revenue, app sales or download counts, so this post can't say which line earns the most. Patreon member counts include people on every tier, and the paid count does not show how many pay $2 rather than $75. The free app's listing showed ten in-app purchases, and it may sell packs that the listing does not show. Ratings measure reviews, not buyers. All figures are as read on October 10, 2026 and may change.

If Your Audience Practises Along With You

If you teach something people do every day, such as puzzles, chess, language, music or drawing, and 50K or more followers come back to practise with you, you already have the habit Cracking the Cryptic built over nine years. The question is where that habit is paid for. A free video gives people a reason to come back. A subscription gives them something new waiting each time they do. Building that product is the first step. Running it every month after launch, from new content and releases to pricing and retention, is what Built by Foundry does, and why we keep running products after launch.

See What We’d Build You →

Cracking the Cryptic: 8 Sudoku Apps, a $2 Monthly Puzzle, and the Finished-Pack Test

Get Creator Revenue Insights

Who Are Simon Anthony and Mark Goodliffe?

How Does Cracking the Cryptic Make Money?

Eight Apps, Seven Variants, One Price

Why Did the Apps Move Into One Free App?

What Does the $2 Patreon Tier Get You?

The Finished-Pack Test

What We Can't See

If Your Audience Practises Along With You

Creators who already did this

Ellie Fausett

Samantha Mae

Liv Merima

Curious what your app could be?

Keep reading