we sold something like 35-40k 1112 ep 01 so far (75% just in france) and we thought it was a failure... still it's bankable enough to make the next episode and rogue planet We are planning somthing like 2k-5K a day for rogue planet with proper communication... still The Top10 us apps are selling between 3k and 30k a day.... Marketing and exposition seems to be the key here... (and yes we do SUCK at marketing ...)^^ I'm quite surprised with all the low number I keep reading on this thread anyway... And a bit worried about how the market may have change since last december...
And DaveMc99 meant that there are 6 times more applications in the store than last december (Over 60,000 versus about 10,000 last fall), but still only the same number of top 100 slots and Apple-featured spots to be seen in. This means you're about 1/6 as likely to achieve proper exposure of your app without some major marketing push outside of iTunes. So yeah, he's correct that the market has changed. A lot! I think your daily sales estimates for the top 10 in the USA are still reasonably accurate, but it's going to be tough for you to get into that elite group. I admit the landscape has me a bit worried too. There were about 32000 apps when Rogue Touch 1.0 was released, and I actually managed to get a little time in the sun with it. Now with twice that number, who knows if my next game will be visible at all... Oh well, lunch is over, back to work for me
Sales numbers in the top 10 just keep going up. This article and graph are pretty demonstrative: http://www.macrumors.com/2009/07/14/apple-announces-first-year-app-store-success-1-5-billion-downloads-65000-apps/ Our game Imangi Word Squares peaked at #32 on the US charts in October. When Harbor Master was at that position recently, it was selling at least 4x as much. Basically, the revenue for the top 5% just keeps increasing as the devices and apps go mainstream. However, since the competition is obviously bigger now, the tail is shorter. I would wager that about 50% of all apps are making close to $0.
I think you mean exposure and marketing, and if so I think you've hit the nail on the head. I know its a bit of a cliche but if no one knows about an app (or any product/service) they are not going to buy it. The marketing at a minimum should include decent app store description, screenshots and also a website with more info and youtube vids. Exposure is more difficult. I guess the best way for an indie dev to do it is with tons of effort, plugging their game on sites like this and more mainstream such as IGN. With any luck you'll get some positive reviews and maybe some newspapers or magazines like NYT will pick it up. The other option might be considered blasphemy by some indie devs - a publisher. But think about this: how many games published by the likes of Chillingo, ngmoco, Freeverse or Gameloft have not hit the top 100? These guys seem guaranteed to get featured and will most likely make the top 100 at any price point. Their brand will always attract potential customers attention to a title. I think Nat is right, thats gone up with more users, thus making it more difficult to get a spot in the top 10. In fact if you look at the figures for iFart at xmas it was about 10,000 per day; Flight Control was averaging about 18,000-20,000 per day in April (it peaked at over 30k). The market is still growing and quickly too.
yeah agree with the publisher quote, We are going to try this way with rogue planet and see for ourselves the difference... for 1112 since the brand is famous enough (well at least in france, we'll use the good old indie way)
I forgot to check in on this post yesterday...you guys are awesome! Thanks for all this feedback! This really helps me, as I was planning on investing around $3,000 into my app. Now I'm not so sure...although I'd never release an app that didn't have a nice icon, clean graphics and great gameplay. I already have a little website set up that I plan on putting videos and screenshots on. I would also advertise it to every website, and submit it in every forum I could. But, it still seems like a huge risk. I'm very surprised at the sales numbers people are bringing up. With the popularity of the AppStore, I would have thought it nearly impossible to sell less than 2,000-3,000 copies of almost any app.
I can add my own somewhat limited experience so far. I've released my app on the app store like...4 days ago and have seen a total of like... 25 downloads? I've tried, posting on all big name forums, like..8 of them and some lesser known ones as well. Added my app to sites/apps that will randomly advertise your app. Told friends, given out promo codes for reviews and everything. If you're gonna spend $2-3k, I'd personally suggest spending 70% of it on advertising, rather, you don't gotta spend money, but the amount of effort needed for advertising I'd say should make up for 70%. People say 50/50 app vs advertising, But really, it's must easier to patch/fix a game than it is to get people's attention after it's been launched Another suggestion is that when you do release, try and wait for the best possible time, ie make sure you tell all your friends/family/reviewers and stuff to try and buy it on the same day, cause you really want that huge influx of people just incase you had a shot at making the top 100 or whatever listing.
You guys bring up one of the points I was trying to address in my exposure vs total revenue thread. How exactly can you reach potential buyers with traditional forms of marketing and advertising? The AppStore seems broken since iTunes is the middleman between your app and target audience. I've noticed that iPhone apps have started to appear in tv commercials more frequently. How is an indie dev supposed to be able to compete with that?
you can't ... only AAA title or high quality titles have good chances to be exposed by apple now. Hence the rising importance of publishers... Appstore front page is responsible for 95% of exposure right now... you can also win with a huge word of mouth and big forum popularity to have the necessary exposure boost to get into the top 100 and rise...
If you can't be seen by casual shoppers, you will not be making money, period. There are about forty top 100 lists available, which means about 4,000 apps. Since games tend to take up two categories (like I'm in Puzzle and Board), cut that down to 3,000 apps. If you aren't one of those 3,000 apps, your sales are close to zero. Of course, each country has different lists, so you have more chances, but the sales outside the US are fairly small.
And if your game/app is any good, for each 10 copies you sell that day there is gonna be at least 100 pirated downloads...Apple does not seem to give a damn about this (as platform "hackability" helps their hardware sales) and most dev don't want to risk applying their own security measures and having false positives...
Doesn't make much sense to me. People pirating software have obviously already got the device and Apple loose out on their share of the sales. Seriously, at times I feel like developer = whiner. There are certainly stuff worth complaining about, but the amount of energy some individuals spend complaining about this stuff in web-forums could probably be used to conjure the next brilliant guerilla-marketing scheme for their apps, or even better, improve the apps in question.
I doubt very much that allowing pirates free reign on your platform encoruages more hardware sales. It's more likely the case Apple doesn't have the technical depth to actually do strong hardware / software encryption to actually reduce piracy. Either it's not in their strategic intrest or they just don't have the technical competence. Consoles have been struggling with this probelm for a while and only have in the last generation gain the upper hand with a combination of hardware and software encryption. -ddn
Funny, I sold one copy of my ABC Letters Tracing game in Pakistan, made it to number 3 in the category in Pakistan! I was very excited!!!
Don't worry so much about pirates. They would have never bought the app anyway. Those people spend more time trying to steal apps and hacking their iPhones then they do actually using them for something!
I don't believe an app dies over time, there are so many games/apps that are living proof of that. Apple continues to sell a staggering amount of new units a day, a majority of those buyers are new customers that have not seen the appstore or your app. Treat each Update as a completely new chance at reaching the Top Paid section of the app store. On the other hand, if you are not seeing the results after a new release or an update, you have to consider making a drastic change to the app. Graphics would be the 1st area to look at, being as how the app is marketed visually by apple. 2nd would be description and pricing, you have to start low, announce the sale and a reason for the sale. And quote some reviews. My experience with "Mummy's Revenge" has been a good one. Although it has been difficult to get professional reviews, If you appeal to the consumers directly and show them you are willing to make your product better, it will pay you back in dividends. Everytime I have produced an Update for Mummy's Revenge (they are all legitimate updates), it has boosted the app to #45 in Arcade and #20 in Adventure which correlates to around #60 in action (the toughest gaming category). Which in my estimate has resulted in 250 - 350 units a day in sales. Something tells me that reviews must play a part in the ranking system at these levels because I have seen my ranking for the day go up while sales go down. I have also seen the opposite happen. Of course the alternative could be that it is a rolling average (as others have mentioned). The first version of Mummy's Revenge paid for itself, however to keep the brand strong, I reinvested all that I had made into drastically updating and enhancing the game. Since the game engine was already made, I could focus on additional features that the fans really wanted. So far the gamble has payed off, I can see it in the reviews, the rankings, and the sales. I am able to charge another dollar because of the massive update, and people are willing to pay. Sorry for the extremely long post but I thought someone might learn from the experiences I've had.
Don't apologize! I read every word of it. Yes, I was very excited when I was #1 overall app in Mexico one day. I couldn't wait to check the sales the next morning. I thought it would be around 300 or so. I was disappointed with 3 I got almost as high a week ago in Guatemala, but it resulted in just one sales
well, our first game (great leaping lambrettinis) is out since three weeks and i didn´t know, if we will ever see one buck for it. we have got a good user review here at this page (thanks again, Devilishly Good) and in germany on a big mac website. mostly the reviews are really good, but the sales aren`t. ok, it`s a special game with a special artwork. really oldschool and maybe there are too much of these in the appstore. in the moment, we have somewhat about 5 downloads a day. maybe it will rise, if we made the update or any game&watch site will pushed the game. ah, i hate the thought, that apple will keep our hard earned money, because we didn`t break the 250,–$ bound. btw. i`m from germany, so my english is sometimes a little bit funny. hope, you understand me anyhow. edit: we were 14th in the family charts in austria. ^^ just need three downloads for that.
