So strange that in a market of new games pouring in literally every day, some games just won't leave the top 100 or even 20. Pocket God Angry Birds Flight Control Doodle Jump Bejeweled 2 Tiger Woods Gold (from 2009) Need For Speed Undercover (lasted more than Shift even!) What is it? Advertising? Look of the icon?
I have no idea why Angry Birds is up there (personally only found the game so-so, 6/10 level), but the rest are all pioneers of their corresponding genre for the iDevice, and set the mark for a bunch of copycats to follow.
Those games benefit from the "new device effect." Apple sells a ton of iPhones/iPad touches every day -- millions every week. Whenever someone unpacks their shinny new toy and clicks on App Store icon, they often either: 1) buy the games that they saw on their friend's devices; or 2) pick something from the Top 10 list. It's a feedback loop that benefit of the games that are already popular. That's my guess, anyway.
That's...a really good theory. The question is, how did the games get into the top 25 in the first place? I think that most of the early sales that make a game popular come from either people who know the developer, people who are fans of the developer, people who see the app rated highly, and people who stumble upon it by random chance and are impressed by the screenshots and user reviews. When all of these types of buyers band together and buy the game around the same time, it will jump to the top 25 in no time. Now it's up to the "new device" people to keep it there.
Like squarezero said, new buyers would obviously look at the top charts first and start off buying games from there. Therefore, the top 10 is very inelastic most times, especially if the game in question is 0.99. Also, new buyers tend to buy titles they are familiar with: tetris, bejewled, etc.
Doodle Jump's spot in the App Store is well-deserved. And since the games in the Top 25 are usually popular, cheap, and addictive, people will keep purchasing them and keeping them in their spots.
I think that whatever the reason is, why the game gets into top 20, it says in top 100 long time. Self-generated awareness.
Pocket God? They USED to get a lot of updates. Now there coming monthly. I don't think it deserves to be there. But then again, not a lot of those games update a lot either so I guess I should be grateful..
