A clone based on indie game Unpacking reached the top of the Apple App Store on Monday night, sparking a viral conversation that came to the attention of the original developers — but it has since been removed. Witchbeam Games, the team behind the original game, was alerted of the clone, titled Unpacking Master, after concerned fans started to bring TikTok ads for the clone to their attention.
The official Unpacking Twitter account posted about the clone on Monday.
“While we’ve seen many imitators already, usually they don’t get much traction,” a follow-up tweet explained. “This one however is currently at the top of the charts for free games on iOS due to tons of advertising on TikTok and Instagram.”
If you’ve happened to catch an ad for a suspiciously similar-looking game to Unpacking on mobile recently, please know that this is not our game.
They sure seem to want to give the impression that it is, though! pic.twitter.com/d3ULxxbmSA
— Unpacking Out NOW! (@UnpackingALife) January 25, 2022
As of this morning, Unpacking Master is no longer available on the App Store or on the Google Play store.
Unpacking — a zen puzzle game about … well, unpacking — came out in November 2021. It became the second most popular indie game on Nintendo Switch for the year, praised for its calming gameplay and intense attention to detail.
This is not the first time Apple has removed high-profile clones from the App Store, even within the last month. Earlier in January, copycats of popular word game Wordle disappeared from the store (though a few without “Wordle” in the name still remain). There has, however, been no official statement from Apple as to why the games were removed. Polygon has reached out to Apple for further comment on the removal of Unpacking Master.
The real Unpacking is available on Linux, Mac, Nintendo Switch, Windows PC, and Xbox One.
