How much $$$ can you make from a 20K downloaded iOS Game? (article)

Discussion in 'Public Game Developers Forum' started by alpsoy, Dec 19, 2014.

  1. alpsoy

    alpsoy Member

    Apr 18, 2014
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    Istanbul
    Hi everyone,

    I've just published an article on Medium today. It's story of one of our games (Catena) during 2014, focusing on sale numbers and statistics which may be useful for game developers.

    The article also mentions how different type of monetisation did during one year, and also what was the effect of review articles published about our game.
    I tries to write as detailed as I can while trying to keep it brief.

    Hope you like it, and if you have questions or need extra information which I might have skipped, please feel free to ask. I like sharing information.

    https://medium.com/@alpsoy/how-much-can-you-make-from-a-20k-downloaded-ios-game-ed91e5caf67d
     
  2. Touchmint

    Touchmint Well-Known Member

    Oct 19, 2011
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    91
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    Developer
    Phoenix
    So you are pretty much telling me I gotta get lucky? haha. but yea interesting read especially on the iap and ad parts
     
  3. maggiesgames

    maggiesgames Well-Known Member

    Oct 10, 2014
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    Really interesting read! Thanks for sharing.
     
  4. younesouhbi

    younesouhbi Well-Known Member

    Nov 19, 2014
    55
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    Great read!

    Thank you for sharing this article with us! It was a great read! We have worked for 2 years on Stealers Steal only to face a very disappointing reality and stats I feel ashamed to talk about. Making games for mobile is a pure gamble so better make games that have restricted scopes and casual gameplays...
     
  5. phongtt

    phongtt Well-Known Member

    Mar 2, 2012
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    Very interesting article. Thanks for sharing. I'm also still playing this lottery for almost 3 years lol.
     
  6. maggiesgames

    maggiesgames Well-Known Member

    Oct 10, 2014
    53
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    Are you winning?:)
     
  7. _Max_

    _Max_ Well-Known Member

    Apr 19, 2012
    1,500
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    Great article and interesting story.
     
  8. 1stSPIN

    1stSPIN Well-Known Member

    Nov 15, 2014
    605
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    Own 1stSPIN
    China / Canadian
    I am in China and get an error message when I try to connect to your link.

    Anyways thank for sharing.
     
  9. iamagame

    iamagame Active Member

    Nov 19, 2014
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    Thanks for sharing it. Admob seems to be the way to go.
     
  10. phongtt

    phongtt Well-Known Member

    Mar 2, 2012
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    Still praying for a jackpot haha :p
     
  11. OnlyJoe

    OnlyJoe Well-Known Member

    Sep 29, 2013
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    Auckland
    Nice article. I think your numbers are pretty good really, anything approaching 10cents average revenue per install is pretty good. That is after you added advertising. So by the title of this feed, $2,000 is a good amount for 20,000 installs.
    It is hard to get over this number unless your game has a very long play time, with lots of options to buy things, like Boom Beach, or Candy Crush style. These can get over a $1 per install, but it will be less than 5% of the people who download it that are earning them the money. Which means that IAP must be done in such a way that it allows you to repurchase again and again.
    I think for IAPs to work it must be possible for a user to spend at least $100 on your app, from repeat purchases. Apps that offer a pay gate model, it is only a pay once setup. And you will find that if someone is willing to spend something in your game, most of the time they are willing to spend more.
     
  12. NelsonH

    NelsonH Member

    Nov 18, 2014
    23
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    Game Developer
    US
    Really great read. I've been watching the numbers of my first game, so far so good. After reading, I think I will change my monetization strategy... :D
     
  13. YoloChase

    YoloChase Member

    Nov 14, 2014
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    Pretty bleak outlook. It makes farming potatoes look like a very attractive career option. :)
     
  14. ChickenFeetStudios

    Sep 29, 2014
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    Software Developer/Architect
    San Francisco
    Thanks for sharing.

    We recently released Super Looper.

    We did a lot of initial legwork and had a game preview page with AppAdvice, and positive reviews from PocketGamer and iFanzine at launch. This got us around 500 installs in the first 4 days, which was enough for increased app store visibility, which in turn drove and additional 14k installs in the next 5 days.

    Around 2/3rds of the installs have played the game. 1/4 of players make it to level 11. Around 30% of sessions overall are from returning players. We have had around 45 $0.99 transactions.
     
  15. RTamminen

    RTamminen Well-Known Member
    Patreon Bronze

    Jul 2, 2014
    151
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    Finland
    Enjoyed reading it! Thank you for the post. :)
     
  16. mrm83

    mrm83 Well-Known Member

    Jan 20, 2015
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    6
    Toronto
    nice stats.

    do you have any tips to getting those review sites to do reviews?

    I just published my apps and visibility is close to 0.. struggling to get even 1 download.. a week.
     

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