Review Insights · App Store
Word Stacks
PeopleFun, Inc. · 178,362 ratings · ★ 4.9
4.9
★★★★★
178,362 ratings
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Top complaints - extracted from 29 negative reviews
Recurring phrases mined from 1-2★ reviews. The bigger the percentage, the more users have the same problem. Fix the top 2-3 in your version and you have product-market fit on day one.
1
"game"
17 negative reviews mention this · 59% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Fix this!. You can’t even get coins for watching ads anymore. The game buffers and does nothing." - Princess of Gryffindor
2
"play"
12 negative reviews mention this · 41% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Cheating on this app. I’ve played this game for years and have enjoyed the competition! Until recently. Very recently a person was “deposited” as the winner in an event. I played until the very end, showing a score well over 2000 points ahead. However, when I ne…" - oregon-girl
3
"years"
8 negative reviews mention this · 28% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Cheating on this app. I’ve played this game for years and have enjoyed the competition! Until recently. Very recently a person was “deposited” as the winner in an event. I played until the very end, showing a score well over 2000 points ahead. However, when I ne…" - oregon-girl
4
"crown"
7 negative reviews mention this · 24% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Cheating on this app. I’ve played this game for years and have enjoyed the competition! Until recently. Very recently a person was “deposited” as the winner in an event. I played until the very end, showing a score well over 2000 points ahead. However, when I ne…" - oregon-girl
5
"been"
7 negative reviews mention this · 24% of all complaints
★★★★★ "EX user-bad bots. Been a player for years but recently I could not reach higher levels. After much research I’ve learned of their use of algorithms and bots that are programmed to beat you. I had a bot gain 1800 points to pass me in just a few minutes. That …" - Thgriday
6
"playing"
7 negative reviews mention this · 24% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Dr. Pop Up Ads. I love playing this game daily! It appears over the last couple of weeks while playing random doctor pop ads interrupt my game play. This is occurring during the daily puzzle complete. This is frustrating and has made this app now less enjo…" - B_Simply
7
"tournament"
7 negative reviews mention this · 24% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Get it right support. You admit the two weekends people couldn’t get into tournament was your problem, but when asked directly to compensate me for the crown points and coins I missed out on by adding them, I get canned responses and no action. It’s sickening to…" - xzy1zy
8
"coins"
6 negative reviews mention this · 21% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Fix this!. You can’t even get coins for watching ads anymore. The game buffers and does nothing." - Princess of Gryffindor
9
"support"
6 negative reviews mention this · 21% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Can’t find instructions. I haven’t played in so long I forgot how and believe it or not, you can’t find the instructions for a refresh and their support doesn’t even alert to the word “instructions”" - BSPOS71
10
"started"
5 negative reviews mention this · 17% of all complaints
★★★★★ "EX user-bad bots. Been a player for years but recently I could not reach higher levels. After much research I’ve learned of their use of algorithms and bots that are programmed to beat you. I had a bot gain 1800 points to pass me in just a few minutes. That …" - Thgriday
11
"playing game"
5 negative reviews mention this · 17% of all complaints
12
"daily"
4 negative reviews mention this · 14% of all complaints
★★★★★ "No daily puzzle. I downloaded this app in hopes to play the daily puzzle with my in-laws but my mother-in-law and me cannot access the daily puzzle on our Apple devices. There isn’t even an option on the Home Screen like there is supposed to be. My MIL has …" - Roxi_Lanai
📋 All 29 negative reviews
Every 1-2★ review we fetched. Use the copy button to grab them all for your own analysis (paste into ChatGPT/Claude with a prompt like "summarize core user problems, group by theme, ignore bugs, focus on missing features").
Fix this!
You can’t even get coins for watching ads anymore. The game buffers and does nothing.
Cheating on this app
I’ve played this game for years and have enjoyed the competition! Until recently. Very recently a person was “deposited” as the winner in an event. I played until the very end, showing a score well over 2000 points ahead. However, when I next got on the app, I found I was in 2nd place. Another time a player had a crown before there was even a competition…like on the very first play! Someone cheats here. I’m forever done. You’re dishonest!
Stop the bouncing ball
The stupid bouncing ball is so unnecessary and so distracting. This used to be a favorite game until someone thought that bouncing ball was a good idea.
EX user-bad bots
Been a player for years but recently I could not reach higher levels. After much research I’ve learned of their use of algorithms and bots that are programmed to beat you. I had a bot gain 1800 points to pass me in just a few minutes. That started my research and decision to delete the app after years of game play.
Can’t find instructions
I haven’t played in so long I forgot how and believe it or not, you can’t find the instructions for a refresh and their support doesn’t even alert to the word “instructions”
Dr. Pop Up Ads
I love playing this game daily! It appears over the last couple of weeks while playing random doctor pop ads interrupt my game play. This is occurring during the daily puzzle complete. This is frustrating and has made this app now less enjoyable! I ran the update it hopes that it would resolve the issue, but no luck there…
Not free
The words cannot be found without shuffling the letters, which costs $ or ads you have to watch. They claim wrongly that it can be solved without that.
No daily challenge
I know this app is to have a daily challenge. Mine doesn’t. I have reached out to support. I get told to do all the things I have already done. Then it’s crickets. I am really disappointed.
Garbage
Weekly challenges are rigged. Was in third place with 1300. Two ahead of me had 2300 & 2800. Suddenly I’m dropped to fourth place and the new first place score is 4300 and the two who were first and second are now second and third. How does anyone skip from over three players to first place with double what the previous first place score was? How??? Right. Rigged!!
Unhappy
It used to be more fun. Now it is really frustrating. I used to be able to find words to start with however no longer true. I enjoyed it much more a month or so ago. I may take time away.
Have to swipe ad to play now?
Is a fun game. But now an ad pops up over the submit button constantly. You have to swipe it away to submit a word. I deleted this app.
What are the coins for?
65000 coins. Nothing to spend them on. Why spend money to buy more?
Keeps crashing since last update
I love this game. Can’t play if right now. It crashes every time I try to play. 😢😢😢
Nasty game
They aim to make it so you have to either watch a free video or in app purchases just to even shuffle the words it’s 50 coins. I understand the need to earn but games should be solvable for the most part without the need to multiple shuffle spending at least 3 shuffles per game. Deleting the app. 😆
Get it right support
You admit the two weekends people couldn’t get into tournament was your problem, but when asked directly to compensate me for the crown points and coins I missed out on by adding them, I get canned responses and no action. It’s sickening to get that treatment after years playing this game
Fun game but!
New top banner ads are quite annoying and work in a way that I don't think Apple would approve of. While playing the game, frequently the screen redirects to Safari. Today it redirected to a page indicating that my antivirus software had expired.
What Happened to the Crown Tournament?
I’ve been playing for several years and at a high level with all the game goals. The Crown Tournament hasn’t been available for 2 weeks. I rated this a 1 only because the tournament is gone. There isnt any reason to play without it.
Crown tournament issue
Two weeks in a row that the weekend crown tournament is not active.
No tournament
Again, no weekly tournament. What is going on? @&$!!
Crown tournament
I just started my fifth year of playing this game and this is the second weekend that I have not been able to play the crown tournament. I tried going through the app support system and it didn’t help. I’ve restarted my phone, the game is all updated and now I can’t play the weekend game. I haven’t been able to play the Tuesday game for a couple of years now but I really liked the crown tournament.
Challenge
I started the challenge with the 10 coins, then collect the 3 icons that get dumped into 12 icons. But these icons go to a lock box that promises a big prize, but ends up only being a couple that were put in. I continued until I filled up the second lock box that dumped 1 icon out, then required a 3rd lock box. At that point, I quit the game and deleted the app. I’ve never been so frustrated playing a game. That was complete overkill and a huge waste of time. Not fun at all!
Couldn’t get a decent answer
Contacted support regarding the purpose of building the coins. Asked why I could not purchase boosters with the coins I had gathered.
Kept receiving responses that they were not understanding my question.
I really do like the game, but I am disgruntled with the fact that I gather coins that serve no purpose toward my enjoying the game even more.
Kept receiving responses that they were not understanding my question.
I really do like the game, but I am disgruntled with the fact that I gather coins that serve no purpose toward my enjoying the game even more.
Weekend tournament
For multiple years there has been a weekend tournament that starts Friday and goes through Sunday night. The recent update has took that away. Bad decision imo. Probably won’t ever use the app again (just like with Wordscapes).
Bush league cheesy overly animated birds and so many other annoying additions.
On to the next one…
Bush league cheesy overly animated birds and so many other annoying additions.
On to the next one…
No daily puzzle
I downloaded this app in hopes to play the daily puzzle with my in-laws but my mother-in-law and me cannot access the daily puzzle on our Apple devices. There isn’t even an option on the Home Screen like there is supposed to be. My MIL has it available on her Kindle and my FIL is able to access the daily puzzle on his IPhone so we have no clue what the problem is.
Poor ad choices
I have had this app downloaded for a long time and play daily. Unfortunately, I removed it today. For quite a while I have been disappointed with the ads that appear and have not found them to be appropriate for the general public. Today my first ad was to choose between keeping twins or having an abortion. My teenage granddaughters (twins) play this game on my device at times and I would be horrified of this showed up as they tried to play. We can do better and have ads that don’t share this message and some of the others I have seen that are not appropriate for anyone, let alone teens and young adults.
Picky
I have played WS for about 8 years. Joining a team a few years ago, enhanced the fun in playing. Recently, in a weekend tournament, there was definite cheating and bot playing. I reported this to Support and sent screenshots. In the past, I always received a personal response from Support when submitting concerns or comments. This time, with the obvious cheating incident, I have only received the same automatic response to my 3 requests for answers….”we will pass along the information….” I am very disappointed with Support’s lack of communication! The above review was supposed to appear on Wordscapes, not Word Stack. Part of the Word Stack glitch involving no weekend tournament going on the THIRD weekend must involve crossover reviews between these 2 apps! Adding my disappointment that there are updates, some of which causes glitches. Word Stack Support…yes, you acknowledge the problem of no weekend crown tournament….when will there be an update to correct it? I normally only play in the crown tournament!
Update 1/23/25. Same Word Stack problem is back after it ‘cleared up’ for 2 weekends. The timer says the weekday event will last 183 hours. I have tried all the suggestions provided by Support…to no avail! Support does respond quickly and they said they would look into it. I hope they are true to their word!
Update 1/23/25. Same Word Stack problem is back after it ‘cleared up’ for 2 weekends. The timer says the weekday event will last 183 hours. I have tried all the suggestions provided by Support…to no avail! Support does respond quickly and they said they would look into it. I hope they are true to their word!
Where is the Crown Challenge?
WHERE IS THE CROWN CHALLENGE?
When this quarter’s Crown Challenge started, it only went through the end of the year. When it was corrected, I no longer had access to the Challenge. I still don’t. There have been no updates to fix the problem.
I have had full, complete crowns for two years. This will end my streak.
FIX THE PROBLEM!
☃️🐈⬛🐈❄️🐈🐈⬛☃️
When this quarter’s Crown Challenge started, it only went through the end of the year. When it was corrected, I no longer had access to the Challenge. I still don’t. There have been no updates to fix the problem.
I have had full, complete crowns for two years. This will end my streak.
FIX THE PROBLEM!
☃️🐈⬛🐈❄️🐈🐈⬛☃️
No progression in level
This game gives you something to do, but there is no progression of difficultly as you get to the higher levels. The English language is so wide with unlimited connections of topics, yet this game is very limited in topics. How many times can I possibly go through "uncommon occupations"?! I continue to play because I'm a person who is committed to finishing a task I started, but at the upper thousand-levels, I'm struggling to see this through to completion.
☹️ New LOUD ads DURING play 🤬
IMPOSSIBLE TO PLAY! I do regret not giving a review before the latest nonsense that has made it impossible to play. Would have given it 4 stars before because it’s a fun but repetitive game without decent rewards. I love word games so this was a good one. There used to be ads in between games and quiet ads during. Both unpleasant but worth it for the free game. But NOW DURING the game the loudest ads are blaring so unless you silence everything then you can’t play. I’ll give it a few days and if it keeps up I’ll have to delete the app. Boo! Hiss! 😂 but seriously!
Sentiment summary
98%
Positive (4-5★)
1%
Neutral (3★)
1%
Negative (1-2★)