The old package was pulled, and three weeks later it came back under a new name: an Indian "free cricket watching" alt account, 15k installs in one month
What it is: an ad-supported Android cricket scores and player stats app for India. It is titled Live Cricket TV, but its description makes no promise of live streaming.
Why it took off: Indian users searched Play for "free live cricket" and it stuffed those terms into its package name and title to capture search traffic. The two install peaks lined up with India vs New Zealand matches. In essence, it's a relaunch under a new package after the old one was pulled.
DHow you could follow it: I don't recommend chasing this keyword. If you do want to learn from it, learn the event-tide approach: find another sport with a fixed schedule and poor official access, and one or two weeks before the season starts, ship a score app with compliant wording and rely on store search for traffic.
- Data (updated daily) · first launch 2026-10-10 · 11-07 installs 14,754
Android · Total installs worldwide Data 2026-10-29 → 2026-11-07 (10 days, 10 observations). Google's detail page only refreshes install counts every other day, so a flat day doesn't mean nobody installed.
Live Cricket TV & Score is an ad-supported cricket scores app for India, launched in Oct 10, with 14,754 installs by Nov 6. It is not new. The same developer's earlier app, which claimed to "watch live" and had 100k+ installs, has disappeared from Google Play. This one is a relaunch under a new package name and new wording. Its volume comes from the Play search term "live cricket tv" plus India's men's tour of New Zealand. The business behind it is worth studying more than the product itself. If you're thinking of following, this niche already has more than a hundred nearly identical apps.
One vanished package, one new package
Sep 19, an app called *Live Cricket TV HD Streaming* published its last update on APKPure. Its description was direct: "offer Cricket matches Streaming." AppBrain shows 100k+ downloads.
Opening its Google Play page now returns 404 (11-06 read). The developer "Fast Live Cricket Score Technologies & Media Labs" has only one app left on its profile: this Live Cricket TV & Score, launched Oct 10.
The new package is named livecricket.freewatchmatches.fastcricketupdates.livecrickettvhdstreaming, stuffing in the search terms live cricket, free watch matches, fast cricket updates, and live cricket tv hd streaming. But its description never mentions streaming. It only talks about scores, squads, and player rankings, and ends with two disclaimers: "Live Cricket TV & Score is an independent cricket information app, not affiliated with any cricket board, league, team, or broadcaster," plus a copyright notice: if your rights are infringed, contact us.
Why the old package came down has no public explanation, unverified. But "the streaming package disappears, and a new one appears with compliant wording that only describes information" is a common move for these apps after complaints (inferred).
What it actually is
A 5.3 MB Android app: scores, ball-by-ball updates, toss and playing XI, schedules, player search, and ICC rankings for three formats. Ad-supported, no in-app purchases. The privacy policy sits on a Blogspot blog and covers AdMob and Google's consent popup, with a personal Gmail as the contact.
Cricbuzz and CREX offer all of these features, and do them better. Its users aren't coming for these features, though. An Indian user searching "live cricket tv" on Play wants free Indian team matches, and an app titled Live Cricket TV gets tapped. Whether it actually streams, we didn't verify by installing. Judging by the size, it looks more like a score feed wrapped in a web shell (inferred).
How big it got, following the matches
- Google Play installs 14,754, +6,679 in the last 7 days (11-06).
- Daily estimates (third-party): 10-20 about 1,000,10-27, about 8,000,11-03, about 14,300; 11-05 one day 370,11-06, one day 73.
- The two spikes ran from 10-24 to 10-26 and from 11-02 to 11-03, at about 2,000 a day. India's men's team played 5 T20I matches in New Zealand from 10-22 to 11-01, and the ODI series started 11-04 (Cricinfo schedule). When matches come thick and fast, more people search for "free watch," and between matches installs drop off.
- Only charted on the free Sports chart: best in India at #45 (11-02), and #11-06 in 58; in the UAE it sat between roughly #100 and #200. Never charted on the overall or Top Grossing charts.
- Rating 4.7 with 25 reviews on the Play page (11-06). Another chart tracker showed 51 ratings within a month of launch, all five stars. The visible reviews are one or two words: "Best app," "good," "nice." Whether ratings were solicited is unverified.
Where the money comes from
Ads only. Ad rates in India are low, so 15k installs won't bring in much (inferred, no public figures). This business doesn't make money from one package. It runs several at once and swaps in another when one gets banned. Its Blogspot blog published a "Live Cricket Score Fast" privacy policy in Nov 2, likely a sign the next package is already in the works (inferred).
Another app, "Live Cricket TV HD Streaming" (developer Global Live Cricket TV & Match Score Hub, launched in July, 22k installs), uses the same privacy policy template, dated just two days apart, and its package name also starts with livecricket.. Whether it's the same operator or the same template vendor is unverified.
Who it's competing with
First, the legitimate players, far bigger (Google Play installs, 11-06):
| Product | Scale | Difference |
|---|---|---|
| Cricbuzz | 239M, +310k in 7 days, #4 on India's free Sports chart | Legitimate data and content |
| CREX | 105M, #9 | Top score apps |
| FanCode | 73M, #3 | Real broadcast rights, and it does stream |
| JioHotstar | Not on the Sports chart | India's official cricket broadcaster; the "TV" demand is riding on it |
The real competition is clones of "Live Cricket TV." 149 apps have both cricket and live or tv in the title, and 24 of them launched after August. Those 24 together got 480k installs in the last 7 days. Similar apps ranking above it on India's free Sports chart:
| Product (developer) | Launched | Installs / 7-day new | Chart position |
|---|---|---|---|
| Live Cricket TV HD(LiveZone Apps) | 10-17 | 116k / +116k | 2 |
| Live Cricket TV Streaming(PixelGrid Studios) | — | 1.49M / +267k | 5 |
| Live Cricket TV HD(SISHYAKULAM ACADEMY) | 10-12 | 149k / +128k | 8 |
| Live Cricket Tv App(Learning Techno) | — | 232k / +98k | 12 |
| Live Cricket TV HD(SkyPixel Apps) | 07-12 | 570k / +226k | 13 |
| Live Cricket TV HD(KiBo Apps) | 10-18 | 9,545 / +9,492 | 39 |
LiveZone, SkyPixel, and KiBo all use the same contact email. SISHYAKULAM and LiveZone, which launched around the same time, pulled 15 to 20 times its weekly installs, so it sits in the lower half of this niche. One reason may be that its wording is too "clean": others put HD Streaming in the title, while it only says TV & Score, so clicks naturally trail (inferred).
If it were you
Verdict: D. It's worth understanding how this business works, but I wouldn't follow it. The demand is real and the playbook is simple: event-driven search spikes, keyword-stuffed package names and titles, ad monetization, and swapping packages when one is banned. Because it's simple, over a hundred packages already run it, and rivals launched at the same time are ahead by more than a hundred thousand installs a week. Ad rates in India are low, so one package earns little. And the whole approach sits on the edge of copyright complaints and removal.
Who it suits: teams that already have a stack of Play developer accounts, know Indian sports ASO well, and already earn from volume, treating this as one more category to test.
Who it doesn't suit: indie devs who want a product that keeps users and can charge money, or anyone without backup accounts who can't absorb a single takedown.
How to do it (if you must): Stop using the term "Live Cricket TV," it's already saturated. What's worth copying is the timing: find a sport with a fixed schedule, audiences concentrated in one or two countries, and official viewing that's expensive or hard to find, such as another country's cricket league, kabaddi, or a national football league (inferred; first search Play in the local language for "live + sport name" and count how many of the top 20 are reskinned clones). Launch a clean score app one to two weeks before the season, with compliant wording from day one that makes no streaming promises.
How to get users: there's no content or creator angle here, just store search and sports category charts. Match the title, package name, and description to the terms people search during the season, and time the launch to just before the season starts.
When to get in: the window is the two weeks before each season starts. Search volume disappears once the season ends.
Signs that would mean you read it wrong:
- This package still held a few hundred installs a day during the ODI series and the gaps after it, which means some people really do use it as a score app, not just for the search terms;
- If you search Play for "live + your sport" and five or six reskinned clones already sit in the top 20, that space is crowded too, so pick something else;
- Clones of this type start getting removed in batches and no new packages replace them within a month, which means Google is tightening up and this route is closing.
Research notes: competitor table, acquisition evidence, full research report
- Competitors
Name Where Launched Scale How it differs from this one Cricbuzz Android Early on 239M installs, 7 days +310k, #4 in India's Sports chart Legitimate data and content brands; this is just a small clone chasing search terms CREX Android Early on 105M installs, #9 Top score apps, with better experience and data FanCode / JioHotstar Big-company features Early on FanCode with 73M installs; JioHotstar is India's official cricket broadcaster Holds real broadcast rights; this app's "TV" demand is siphoned from them Live Cricket TV HD(LiveZone Apps) Android 2026-10-17 116k installs, +116k in 7 days, #2 on India's Sports chart Same niche, launched at the same time, with a weekly volume 17 times its own; the same contact name also covers SkyPixel (570k) and KiBo Live Cricket TV HD(SISHYAKULAM ACADEMY) Android 2026-10-12 149k installs, +128 in 7 days, #8 Launched at the same time, one order of magnitude bigger Live Cricket TV Streaming(PixelGrid Studios) Android Not verified 1.49M installs, +267k in 7 days, #5 Title says Streaming outright, so conversion is stronger Live Cricket TV HD Streaming(Global Live Cricket TV & Match Score Hub) Android 2026-07-07 22k installs, +6,858 in 7 days, #59 A suspected matrix account run by the same operator, similar in scale - Where users come from
- Confirmed Play store search / ASO keyword stuffing: the package name stacks livecricket.freewatchmatches.fastcricketupdates.livecrickettvhdstreaming, the title uses the big term "Live Cricket TV"; only listed on the sports category chart, with no external traffic traces
- Confirmed Event-driven spikes: install peaks from 10-24 to 26 and from 11-02 to 03, matching India vs New Zealand T20I (10-22 to 11-01) and the ODI (from 11-04)
- Inferred Relaunch under a new package after a ban: the same developer's earlier package, Live Cricket TV HD Streaming (AppBrain shows 100k+, APKPure shows it still updating 09-19, and its description promises streaming), now 404 on Play, with the developer page listing only this app; 10-10 a new package appeared with a description reframed as an "independent information app"
- Inferred Matrix clone: it shares the same privacy policy template as the livecricketriya.blogspot app (both 2026-06), and the package name also begins with livecricket.; the blog published a "Live Cricket Score Fast" privacy policy in 11-02
- Inferred Solicited ratings: Applyra shows 51 ratings and a 5.0 score within a month of launch
- Inferred Paid acquisition / TikTok creators: nothing found on TikHub search over the last 30 days or x-radar; the ad libraries don't track it
Live Cricket TV & Score (Google Play) research report
Package livecricket.freewatchmatches.fastcricketupdates.livecrickettvhdstreaming, developer Fast Live Cricket Score Technologies & Media Labs (developer_id 8855378744913849734, email [email protected], website and privacy policy on livecricketscoretvfast.blogspot.com). Store launch 2026-10-10, v1.0 APK released 10-13 (APKPure), v3.0 updated 10-14; 5.3 MB, ad-supported, no in-app purchases (googleplay library app_snap).
Bottom line
This product never really took off. It's a relaunch within India's "Live Cricket TV" ad-reskin niche: the same developer's earlier *Live Cricket TV HD Streaming*, with 100k+ installs and claims of live viewing, has disappeared from Google Play, replaced by this new package whose description complies and only mentions scores and information. The new package rode keyword-stuffed titles and package names on the Play search term "live cricket tv," plus the viewing peak around India's New Zealand series, and reached about 15k installs in a month. On India's free Sports chart it ranked #58, with at least a dozen near-identical rivals ahead of it.
1. Data: how big it really is
- Cumulative global installs 14,754 (11-06), +6,679 in the last 7 days (googleplay library app_profile).
- Trajectory since launch (AppstoreSpy estimate, googleplay library app_day_ext): 10-20 at 1,033,10-23 1,523; 10-24 to 10-26 about 2,000 a day, reaching 8,074 cumulative by 10-27; 10-30 to 11-01 about 800 a day; 11-02 to 11-03 about 1,900 a day, 14,311 cumulative; then it fell to 185 a day and 73 (11-06).
- Charts (googleplay library chart_rank): only charted on the free Sports chart, best in India at #45 (11-02), #104 to #197 in the UAE, and once at #200 in Hong Kong (11-02). Never charted on the overall or Top Grossing charts.
- Ratings: our library is empty; Applyra's India Sports chart first showed 5.0 stars from 51 ratings (at the time of retrieval), and now shows 4.7 (applyra.io top-charts google-play/in/sports/free, read 2026-11-06). Within a month of launch it had 51 ratings, all five stars, which suggests ratings may have been solicited; unverified.
The two install peaks line up exactly with India's men's schedule. India's tour of New Zealand, 5 T20I matches running from 10-22 to 11-01 (starting in Christchurch and wrapping up in Hamilton), with the ODI series beginning 11-04 (Quora / indianswan.com / Cricinfo schedules). The daily peaks from 10-24 to 10-26 and from 11-02 to 11-03 both fall around match days, and installs drop off between matches. Users come here to "watch India's matches free live," not for this product specifically.
2. Competitors: the same thing is crowded with players
What it does: serves the Android need for "free cricket live streams / scores." It falls into two groups:
Legitimate scores / broadcasts (one or more orders of magnitude bigger)
| Product | Scale (googleplay library, cumulative installs / +installs over 7 days) | How it differs |
|---|---|---|
| Cricbuzz | 239M / +312k, #4 on India's free Sports chart | Has official data and content, big brand; this app's score data most likely comes from a third-party API |
| CREX | 105M / +337k, #9 | Same as above |
| Cricket Guru / Cricket Live Line etc. | 74M / 8.3M | An old player in the "live line" niche |
| FanCode(Dream11) | 73M / +335k, #3 | Holds broadcast rights, so it can actually stream live |
| JioHotstar (big player) | Not on the Sports chart | India's official cricket broadcaster. Clones in this category ride its demand by putting "TV" in the name |
Reskinned "Live Cricket TV" apps (the real direct rivals) The library has 149 apps with both cricket and live/tv in the title; 24 of them were listed after 2026-08. These 24 new apps added +7k installs in the last 483 days combined (Google Play library). The same-category apps ranking above it on India's free Sports chart (11-06) are:
| Product | Developer / email | Launched | Installs / 7-day gain | India Sports chart rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Live Cricket TV HD | LiveZone Apps(toxiingamer007@) | 10-17 | 115,785 / +115,539 | 2 |
| Live Cricket TV Streaming | PixelGrid Studios | — | 1,489,610 / +266,977 | 5 |
| Live Cricket TV HD | SISHYAKULAM ACADEMY(sparkletechzone@) | 10-12 | 148,799 / +128,263 | 8 |
| Live Cricket TV HD | SkyPixel Apps(toxiingamer007@) | 07-12 | 570,293 / +225,663 | 13 |
| Live Cricket Tv App | Learning Techno | — | 231,870 / +97,761 | 12 |
| Live Cricket TV HD Streaming | Easy Money Apps | — | 523,968 / +28,794 | 27 |
| Live Cricket TV HD | Science Center | — | 1,251,856 / +40,748 | 28 |
| Live Cricket TV HD | KiBo Apps(toxiingamer007@) | 10-18 | 9,545 / +9,492 | 39 |
| Live Cricket TV HD Streaming | Global Live Cricket TV & Match Score Hub(livecricketriya@) | 07-07 | 21,686 / +6,858 | 59 |
SISHYAKULAM and LiveZone, listed in the same period (mid-October), each pulled 15 to 20 times its weekly installs. So it isn't the winner in this niche, just a mid-to-lower-tier player.
3. Growth tactics: how users find it
- Store search + keyword stuffing (confirmed). The package name is packed with livecricket, freewatchmatches, fastcricketupdates, livecrickettvhdstreaming; the title uses the big term "Live Cricket TV"; the description repeats "cricket TV" and "live cricket score". Installs spike only around match days, with no sign of external channels, so traffic mostly comes from Play search and the Sports category chart.
- Got pulled, then re-listed under a new package (likely). The same developer previously had *Live Cricket TV HD Streaming* (
live.ipl.cricket.tv.score.match.watch.fast.live.stream.hd.cricketlive.app): AppBrain shows 100,000+ downloads, the last APKPure update was 2026-09-19, and the description openly says it "offers Cricket matches Streaming". Its Google Play listing now returns 404, and the developer page (play.google.com/store/apps/dev?id=8855378744913849734,11-06) lists only this app. Less than a month later, on 10-10, the developer shipped a new package with the description rewritten as "independent cricket information application… not affiliated with any broadcaster," plus a copyright notice. This is the usual compliance rewrite these apps do after takedown complaints. The reason for the takedown has not been verified. - Matrix / alt accounts (partly confirmed). This app's privacy policy page (blogspot, 2026-06-08) and the privacy policy page of "Global Live Cricket TV & Match Score Hub" (livecrickettvriya.blogspot.com, 2026-06-10) use the same template, and both package names start with the keyword string
livecricket.. These two may come from the same operator or the same template vendor; not verified. Also, its blog published a "Live Cricket Score Fast" privacy policy on 11-02, suggesting another new package is likely coming. Matrix setups are common in this niche: the contact email toxiingamer007@ is linked to three developer names, SkyPixel, LiveZone and KiBo. Lumora Technologies uses package names likecom.puzzle.game.arrow.escape, which looks like an old puzzle-game package repurposed into a cricket app. - Event timing (confirmed). India's T20I and ODI schedule against New Zealand lines up with the install peaks (see section 1).
- Incentivized reviews (unverified). The new app already has 51 5.0 ratings, consistent with common practice in this niche. We have no review samples for it in our library.
- Paid acquisition / creators (no evidence found). A TikHub search for "live cricket tv score app" over the last 30 days found no videos for this app; x-radar shows no discussion in 30 days. Our ad library only tracks products on our list, so not finding it doesn't mean it isn't advertised.
Where the money comes from: ads. AppBrain and our library both tag it ad_supported=True, with no in-app purchases. The privacy policy names AdMob and a UMP consent prompt. Ad rates for Indian users are low, so 15k installs bring limited revenue; the business works by running several packages at once and swapping in a new one whenever one gets pulled.
4. Differentiation
Hardly any. Features (scores, player search, ICC rankings) are standard for this category. The only real difference is tighter wording: the name is "TV & Score", the description says "information" and never promises live streaming. That lowers the risk of another takedown, but it also makes it convert worse than rivals that openly write "HD Streaming". This isn't why it grew; it grew on keywords and events.
5. How visible it is
No media or X discussion, no public revenue figures. It only appears on auto-indexed sites like Applyra, AppBrain, Similarweb and APKPure. But the category itself is an open red ocean: the chart holds a dozen near-identical rivals, and new packages keep arriving. Copycats are the whole category.
6. Takeaways
- Demand for Indian cricket apps moves in clear waves: wherever matches are on, search traffic follows. A new package with keywords stuffed into both name and title can reach several thousand to a hundred-odd thousand installs within a week or two.
- Set up the privacy policy and GDPR pages on blogspot first. One account can have the next package pre-staged, so when one gets pulled you swap in a new one immediately and the business never stops.
- Store descriptions using disclaimers like "independent information app, not affiliated with any broadcaster" can lower the risk of takedown.
7. Uncertain
- Whether the app can actually stream live (not verified by installing it; its 5.3 MB size suggests a score API plus WebView).
- Why the old package was removed (copyright complaint or policy violation).
- Whether it and the livecricketriya app were made by the same person.
- Whether the 51 5.0 ratings were bought.
Sources
- Google Play library (agent-im, DuckDB): app, app_snap, app_day_ext (AppstoreSpy estimates), chart_rank, v_chart, app_profile, 2026-10-29 to 11-06.
- Google Play app and developer pages (read 2026-11-06); old package detail page 404: play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=live.ipl.cricket.tv.sc…
- APKPure: apkpure.com/live-cricket-tv-hd-streaming/live.ipl.cricket.tv… (updated 2026-09-19); m.apkpure.com shows this app v1.0 on 2026-10-13
- AppBrain search summary: old package 100000+ downloads; this app 10000+, contains ads
- Applyra India Sports free chart: www.applyra.io/tools/top-charts/google-play/in/sports/free
- Privacy policy: livecricketscoretvfast.blogspot.com/2026/06/live-cricket-tv-…; livecrickettvriya.blogspot.com/
- Schedule: Cricinfo India schedule page, indianswan.com, Quora "India Tour of New Zealand Oct–Nov 2026"