Alright, so Doodle Find is approved and ready to go. It's a free game and I'm going to launch it on the 15th of May. Just trying to figure out my advertising and advertising budget and where to put the money. Does anyone know how many downloads are required to crack the Top 10 Free chart in the US? Or the Top 5? Or the number 1 free game?
I believe its something like 50-100k per day. At the 150-200 spot we were getting around 3000 downloads a day, and it ramps up exponentially as you get higher on the list.
From what I've seen, you'll need over 50,000 downloads to reach #30 overall free app in the US charts. You'll need over 200,000 to 250,000 downloads to reach #1 overall free app, depending on the day and what app is already holding the #1 spot. Sometimes an app that just recently reached #1 has a great day and you might need over 350,000 downloads to top it. Good luck!
I've had 2 games in the top 10 overall free in the US app store. US numbers only. 1st game - 76k downloads in 1 day brought me to #9 spot. Eventually climbed to #3. Peaked at 82k before quickly spiraling down. 2nd game - 72k download brought me to #8 spot. Eventually climbed to #4. Peaked at 72k. It was free for only a day. Both hit the charts in the middle of the week. Game #1 maintained top 10 rank until after the weekend racking up over 900k downloads world wide over 12 days. Numbers may differ depending on day, month, and year.
I can share some experience. Our game had the number 1 spot, and we needed 350,000 in one day to reach this spot (friday). Then we were in the #1 spot for 10 days, and each day our downloads went down. On the last day of being #1, we had 200,000 downloads. Since then, we've had 3 million downloads in less than 3 weeks. Not to bad Our app is still currently in the top 50 (#40) and we get 30,000-40,000 downloads/day. I hope this helps you!
omg i never had thought it would be that many... because steve once mentioned that about 70 million ipod touches and iphones where sold so far, and also i have read that about 50% of these are located in the us. and if these numbers are for the us store, then it means that with 3 million downloads, every 12th owner of an ipod/iphone has a copy.. doodle jump has been #1 for a long time, in the german itunes store also, and it is not for free. so i always thought it would be like 200-300 copies (in the german store, maybe 2,000-3,000 in the us store...)... thanks for your answers, dear devs, im just another random user enjoying games on my ipod...
I was asking about free games. Doodle Jump isn't free so your estimates for that game could be correct.
I have been looking at this market for a little while and these numbers still completely blow my mind. After releasing a couple of apps, it makes sense that you really need to be very tuned-in to be able to make a dent in any kind of charts. We did an experiment late last year and got some decent download numbers for one of our apps when we put it free, temporarily. I am hoping we can get at least as good of a reception when we launch a lite version eventually, it is so difficult to gauge the market when you are looking from a very tiny perspective.
those numbers are insane... Afternoon peeps... The numbers for getting in to the 10 for free are incredible... I've just submitted a free version of Quake Builder, Quake Builder Lite.... hopefully this will help boost sales... Quake Builder has only been in the store for 5 days, but could do with a boost. Paid Version: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/quake-builder/id355345146?mt=8
Your lite version will not receive anywhere near as many downloads as making the paid version free. Human nature. People like getting "paid" stuff for free.
I am also curious about this too, hehe. Just wondering why someone would release a game free, right off the bat. Why not release it for 99c at least and see how it goes...then release it for free (if that was the whole intention anyways).
This is very true. The "top free lists" are extremely competetive. Lite vesions used to get lots of attention, but today they are a dime a dozen, and there are plenty of users that don't bother with them at all. The easiest way to snag a spot on a top free chart is to start pay and later go free with a promotion on a site like freeAppCalender.
Yes. We use IAP and also Admob to generate revenue. It's only going to work if your app can generate enough downloads/day. Otherwise you might be better off going with $0.99 route. You could start at $0.99 and then if that doesn't work out, you could just switch to the IAP/ads model.
Sad truth. Still, I think our game is intriguing enough that there's a sizable base of people (who I can connect with) who'd at least like to "try it out" before commiting to spending a couple of bucks, and I think the gameplay is immediately captivating enough that a player will want more (I say this based on a lot of the testing we've done). Still, you never know and the appstore is a crazy, crazy market. Even so, I have seen people go completely free w/ ad support and have a lot of trouble competing in Free. it's such a mess over there. I'd rather take my chances with the paid market for now and see how we are doing in the short term, and then decide what to do from there. I do have some other pretty sure-fire ideas about how to exploit what you just mentioned, but unfortunately I dunno if I can get support to implement it for the time being :/ If sales are pretty unspectacular and our Free ends up languishing, then maybe I will push something unconventional...
