should download stats be public?

Discussion in 'Public Game Developers Forum' started by Stroffolino, Apr 14, 2010.

  1. Stroffolino

    Stroffolino Well-Known Member
    Patreon Silver

    Apr 28, 2009
    1,100
    8
    38
    Software Engineer
    Pennsylvania
    App rankings are public for all the world to see, but not the associated daily downloads. Would any developer care if their actual sales figures were public knowledge? What would be the downside?
     
  2. Zincous

    Zincous Well-Known Member

    Dec 23, 2008
    4,567
    46
    36
    Sacramento, CA
    People would know exactly how much money they are making. Devs don't want that.
     
  3. Mykyl66

    Mykyl66 Well-Known Member

    Oct 10, 2009
    46
    0
    0
    Those kinds of figures should always be private in my opinion unless the devs themselves wish to reveal it themselves.

    Mike
     
  4. Eric5h5

    Eric5h5 Well-Known Member

    Those were in fact visible at the very beginning, but quickly eliminated for obvious reasons.

    --Eric
     
  5. It would probably be embarrassing for Apple to show just how few sales it takes to get to the top of the games sub categories in most countries.
     
  6. nattylux

    nattylux Well-Known Member

    Sep 17, 2008
    1,151
    5
    0
    Washington, DC
    Would you like to post up all your earnings, W2's, 1040's, and the content of all your bank accounts for the past few years? ;)
     
  7. Stroffolino

    Stroffolino Well-Known Member
    Patreon Silver

    Apr 28, 2009
    1,100
    8
    38
    Software Engineer
    Pennsylvania
    Hell no, but I don't buy that analogy.

    If you look at top-charts for music, they've traditionally always included the associated sales figures.

    It's not like sales data (for apps) is all that hard to estimate. If you have two ranked apps in a particular category, you can extraploate how many copies the stuff in-between is selling. But why should developers have to guess? Knowing how much money is being made (on average) for the top app in any given category, or on the flip side how many sales is sufficient to break into the lower (but still visible) ranks of each category is information that I think most developers would find useful.

     
  8. Pamx

    Pamx Well-Known Member

    Oct 9, 2009
    303
    0
    0
    UK
    Most app developers are individuals who may not even have incorporated a company. In the UK at least, the earnings of private individuals are private. Incorporated companies are required to file accounts which can then be accessed by the public. If Apple published all download numbers, I guess they would be breaching the rights of those private individuals.
     
  9. Astraware

    Astraware Well-Known Member

    Jan 22, 2010
    372
    2
    0
    Games Studio
    UK
    The difference with music charts is that Apple isn't the exclusive provider of music, so a musician/songwriter isn't releasing their entire income figures by having that information available, as they'll have numerous other sources of income. If a developer creates apps for iPhone, iTunes is the sole route of distribution, so publishing their sales figures is giving away the whole picture. In some countries, private individuals, and some privately owned companies, are not required to publish their accounts, so by releasing the information, Apple would breach that.

    Isn't it better that companies willingly release the information they want to?
     
  10. Uptown Arts

    Uptown Arts Well-Known Member

    Companies like Nielsen SoundScan track sales for music industry groups like the RIAA. This is more than just an analogy, these guys are branching into the mobile entertainment business. It's already been mentioned that these numbers aren't hard to estimate; I'm sure that some third party will make them available before the business matures very much more.

    In my case, someone would also have to estimate my ad revenue before they knew my income. I'm not convinced that even my ad provider has a good handle on that :eek:
     
  11. floydian05

    floydian05 Member

    Apr 15, 2010
    9
    0
    0
    Out of curiosity how long a time do the top-selling charts reflect. Like if a game is currently 17th, does that mean its sold the 17th most copies in the last day, hour, or week?
     
  12. Little White Bear Studios

    Little White Bear Studios Well-Known Member
    Patreon Silver

    Aug 27, 2008
    2,572
    0
    0
    It's a calculated average, based on several days of data, with the most recent day being weighted heavier. Nobody knows the exact algorithm, but several people have come up with a reasonable guess.

    Knowing the number of downloads an app has really won't tell you how much it's made, as prices change all the time. Plus, many of the downloads could be from going free for a day. The actual download count is fairly meaningless, except for bragging rights.
     
  13. nattylux

    nattylux Well-Known Member

    Sep 17, 2008
    1,151
    5
    0
    Washington, DC
    @lilwhitebear It looks like he wants to see the daily downloads, which is quite different.

    @Stroffolino Many private companies and individuals, myself included, get most of their income from the App Store. Displaying daily downloads for the public to see is effectively the same thing as you showing everyone your W2's. If Apple displays daily downloads, someone will immediately make a tool to aggregate and graph that over time, and now you and everyone else in the world knows my personal finances. So, no thanks.

    There are enough developers out there kindly sharing their stats of their own will to be able to extrapolate just about everything you need to know.
     
  14. floydian05

    floydian05 Member

    Apr 15, 2010
    9
    0
    0
    Thanks White bear that did answer my question!
     

Share This Page