Pixel Art coloring books are the new app craze

Pixel Art is one of the most universally loved art forms. A style of drawing that draws inspiration from low-res retro video games from the 90s, Pixel Art has been the trend for mobile games for a few years now.

While most of you have probably played a pixel art game at some point in your life, the newest craze on the Google Play Store and the Apple App Store are pixel art coloring books. In December alone, four pixel art coloring books climbed to the list of the top 10 apps on the Apple App Store. This really is something that has started recently: in November the trend started picking up, and today the four most popular coloring apps have a combined of 12 million installs (half of them in December).

And yes, this sounds like a thing for kids, but it after trying it for a while, I have found the coloring to be super addictive for adults as well. I spent nearly 20 minutes on a single pixel art drawing of a deer in Sandbox, an app that started the craze. It is a free-to-download app with a subscription monetization model, the same as other popular ones in this category, including the currently most popular Unicorn app.

Interestingly, all of these apps are indie apps with almost no budget, relying on kids' word-to-mouth marketing for their popularity. You can check out our favorite right below, or search through other popular options on the app stores.

via TechCrunch