[Crito]

I doubt I would have ever heard of the Threes game if it were not for all the 2048 games on HN.

Additionally, from the article: "For the makers of “Threes,” the good news is that the emergence of the clones hasn’t decimated its market share – the app is still a Top 10 title in Puzzle Games, Card Games and the general Games category in the U.S. and a top 20 Overall app on the U.S. App Store. (All Paid rankings, which, to be fair, is less competitive than the Free ranks.)"

It's also important to note that just because I played doge2048 for a few hours doesn't mean that I would have been willing to pay $2 for Threes. 2048 and it's variations exposed me to his idea, but did not cost him my purchase.