I'd say the percentage is much lower than that. From the looks of things on the App Store, the majority of traffic comes from Apple's own features - whether it be the "new releases" list, or the various featured tabs.
Oh, I hardly even go to the web to find an app if I'm looking for ideas. Most of it is from word of mouth, i.e., Touch Arcade and the App Store's top 50, and thankfully, no longer from Facebook's annoying game updates from Zynga. Maybe that 5% - 10% figure is more like it, at least from personal observation.
In order of most frequently used: - Appshopper - Toucharcade site and forum - Freeappaday I almost never use iTunes to browse for new games and stuff. How is this a developer related question though? Is this leading to something?
Probably around 1%. The overwhelming bulk of discovery probably happens on iTunes directly, word of mouth, and when an app breaks into mainstream media such as talk shows.
What seems interesting to me is the large disparity between using the internet for finding games between males and females. While probably close to 50% of iphone users are female, you rarely see many here on TA, and almost all of my female friends could care less about researching on the web, or even coming here for freebies. Not that they don't buy apps, but they seem to buy a lot of apps like Angry Birds, Cut the rope, etc... They seem to use peer pressure more as a way to buy apps. Then there are also a lot of adults and small children who don't really use internet for gaming use. So my guess is female ratios are between 0 to 1% closer to 0%, males, probably closer to 3-4%. So average those together, my guess is 2%.
I use the web sometimes because the search algorithm in the app store makes it hard sometimes to find good games. Sometimes it's easier for me to browse multiple websites to find some really great games really easy. The price, the screenshot, the description of the game, and the review is laid out right in front of u in a list. I find a few games I want to play at that moment and then I go into the app store to install it.
Ah! Of course! I didn't mean to come off as smug, I was curious how this question related to the developing process. Makes perfect sense now. Thanks. It's definitely impressive how "Oh man, you should totally try this game out!" affects people's decision. Just comes to mind the tremendous success of Angry Birds. A game I confess to falling victim of due to the buzz. Purchased it to find out it wasn't really my cup of tea. xD Precisely why I use the websites instead.
We are all victims to buzz....well at least most of us are. You see a huge crowd standing and ur attention is drawn to it. You hear music blasting from some store with a sale going on for merchandise you want....ur attracted to it. It's human instinct, biologically and psychologically But it's crazy because the media has control over what we should "like".
Kinda makes you wonder if it's worth spending untold hours trying to promote your game. Maybe it's better to spend that time polishing your game instead. And then making sure your screen shots and icon are eye-catching enough.
Yeah... I erased the 0. I'm not sure exactly how much but it certainly isn't anywhere near 50%. Edit: I considered adding a . in front of the 5... but figured that might have been too extreme. Apparently not.
It's all important. There are games I have checked out simply because I liked the way the icon looked in the app store. There are games I haven't bought because the screen shots looked boring, or were a complete mess where you couldn't see anything behind all the concept art of cartoon girls showing cleavage like it's Dolly Parton appreciation day, as if hiding the fact that the game really looks like crap. There are games I haven't bought because the description text was moronic, badly written, full of errors or written in hilarious Engrish. There are games I have checked out only because I read about them in the web in places like touch Arcade, or because I saw the add for it. If a buyer is not aware of the app, then how can he buy it? If the icon, the text and the screenshots look horrible, then why is he going to buy it? And if the game is crap, then why is he going to tell others about it? It's all important.
