Hitster app

Hitster is a musical party game by royal Jumbo that took the Dutch board‑game market by storm in 2022. Simple and infectious, Hitster is accessible to everyone. It can be played in teams or individually, and the goal is straightforward: to get ten playing cards in a row. Each card features a QR code on one side and a year and track number on the other. Using the Hitster app, a player scans the QR code, after which the corresponding song is played via Spotify.

A massive hit
Hitster quickly found its way into living rooms across the country. One in five Dutch households owns the game, it is available in more than twenty countries, and the app has already surpassed one million downloads. This unexpected success placed new demands on the app. When Jumbo asked us to help think about the next step, we got to work together: first by strengthening the existing React Native app, and then by building completely new native iOS and Android apps that could effortlessly keep up with Hitster’s success.

A completely new app
Together with Jumbo, we decided to lay a brand‑new foundation for the apps. Two native apps for the smoothest possible user experience, a stable back end, and a user‑friendly CMS that allows Jumbo’s editors to add new songs with ease. We also gave the app a fresh new look, translating the iconic neon design of the Hitster packaging into the digital experience.

Nobody said it was easy
The most important foundation of the Hitster app is Spotify. All QR codes on the game cards link directly to tracks on the music streaming service. Sounds simple, but not everyone has the Spotify app on their phone. And some people don’t have an account, or only a free one with ads. Those players wouldn’t be able to play Hitster. Our challenge: make sure everyone, with or without a Spotify account, can use the Hitster app.

A brand‑new game mode
Via the web, it is possible to listen to a song preview of around thirty seconds. We used this functionality to make Hitster accessible for players without a paid Spotify subscription. At first glance, that solved the problem but it also introduced new challenges. Song previews are only available via the web, and in the web version the song title and artist are visible in the app. That’s exactly what you don’t want when playing Hitster.
To solve this, we introduced a new game mode: flip your phone mode. In this mode, designed specifically for players without a paid Spotify account, the song only starts playing once the player turns their device face down. This way, no one can see which track is being played. (When the paid Spotify app is available on a phone, the artist and track name are hidden behind a Hitster logo.)

Please don’t stop the music
The Spotify SDK is a crucial part of the Hitster app. But if something were to change in that SDK, the app could stop working. To prevent this, we also rely on flip your phone mode: if anything changes in the Spotify SDK, the Hitster back end automatically switches to this game mode. No matter what happens, players can keep on playing without interruption.

Adding new songs, whistling all the way
Not only did the Hitster app need replacing the entire CMS behind it had to be rebuilt as well. To support Jumbo’s editors as best as possible, we placed a strong focus on usability. All with one goal in mind: eliminating duplicate work and making it quick and easy for editors to add songs to new Hitster editions.

So I say thank you for the music
At the end of 2025, we rolled out the renewed Hitster app step by step. The impact was immediate: hundreds of new app‑store reviews with an average rating of 4.8 stars, and five million scanned game cards within one week of launch. Both apps are built natively, identical in use, and fully tailored to their respective operating systems. On iOS, the app integrates seamlessly with Liquid Glass; on Android, everything feels just as smooth.