head to head
Neither is meaningfully harder - they pose close to the same test. The widest gap is execution, and it is a single point.

Optimization · Pure Optimization
A cozy island life-sim about building a community at your pace.

Optimization · Pure Optimization
Idle tycoon compounding where building placement efficiency is everything.
Animal Crossing: New Horizons leans Optimization (Pure Optimization); Loaded Lions: Mane City leans Optimization (Pure Optimization).
Animal Crossing: New Horizons leans a little harder on execution, though the gap is small.
Animal Crossing: New Horizons
Trivial inputs.
Loaded Lions: Mane City
Idle clicking with no dexterity component
Same score on reads - which means the number cannot separate them. The difference is in what each one asks of you.
Animal Crossing: New Horizons
NPCs are scripted.
Loaded Lions: Mane City
No opponent adapts to your city
Animal Crossing: New Horizons leans a little harder on variance, though the gap is small.
Animal Crossing: New Horizons
Daily visitors and fossils randomize.
Loaded Lions: Mane City
Reward rolls add minor randomness
Same score on optimization - which means the number cannot separate them. The difference is in what each one asks of you.
Animal Crossing: New Horizons
Turnips, layout, and time-routing reward planning.
Loaded Lions: Mane City
Placement efficiency and income compounding are the whole game
A matching score does not mean a matching test. Two games can both sit at 10 on execution and demand completely different things of you - which is why the reasoning above matters more than the number beside it.