Ascend is a Bible study game that turns traditional Scripture reading into an engaging learning experience.

With the help of an AI Pet Phoenix, users can build a daily Bible study habit through gamified learning.

Think Duolingo for Bible.

After launching, earlier this year, Ascend initially struggled to gain traction.

Even during September they were still below 5K downloads.

But despite having such few downloads, they managed to keep $6K MRR.

This is because they run a paid-subscription only model.

This growth has been fueled by their social media strategy.

They have made 3.2M views and run a total of 38 accounts.

They are trying everything, from faceless slideshow accounts to UGCs.

But virality has been scarce.

The only viral video they have gotten so far was uploaded by Instagram ambassador bruce.ascend:

Only 3 people in the Bible were taken to heaven without dying. Guess who?

A bible quiz hook, with a selfie shot.

App promo in the caption –> “Ascend” has the answer.

maddie.ascend hit a 468K views faceless slideshow with bible stories.

The last slide being an app promo.

This format worked extremely well, with almost 50K saves and an engagement rate of 36%.

Their team is clearly testing every possible growth lever, from quiz-style hooks to faceless Bible story slideshows.

They seem to have slowed down on the content recently, and while virality hasn’t fully hit yet, the foundation for it is already there: a relatively small but loyal paying audience, that leads them to a consistent $6K MRR.