Fall Angry Birds
Last year I conducted a webinar, participation in which was possible only by invitation, and each participant signed an NDA agreement before attending. In this webinar, I talked about the current state of the mobile gaming industry and how independent developers can take a dominant position.
In particular, I presented an in-depth analysis of the Angry Birds VS Tap Pet Hotel and how the $ 0.99 bonus games were defeated by free games. Now it sounds obvious, but I want to remind you that it was 12 months ago and during this webinar Tap Pet Hotel was only a few months old. Many people in the webinar did not really understand how social games work.
App stores have gone through two stages. The second stage was completed about 6 months ago.
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Stage 1 in the monetization of applications was due to paid games (at 0.99 per game).
Stage 2 is “Free to play” and now such applications run by the store.
None of the games of the Angry Birds series is now included in the Top 50 most profitable applications on the iPhone. The original game at 52 is closest to the chart:
The iPad is the same story. Now the most profitable game Angry Birds sits on the 55th place in the ranking of profitability:
What is interesting, while the iPad version is now ON THE SECOND PLACE in the ranking of paid applications:
If the iPad 2 game is not included even in the 50 most profitable, then who dominates the App Store in terms of profitability?
How easy to guess - free apps:
I knew that free games rule the ball even before I started this post, but in fact I didn’t know how much the situation was really running.
Currently, 18 of the 25 most profitable apps are Free To Play games (72%). It is also worth noting that 22 of the 25 most profitable applications are games (88%), which confirms the fact that you need to make games if you want to get the maximum profit. The reason for this is that people have a greater emotional attachment to games than to any other type of application, and therefore they spend money on games more easily.
Looking at the top most profitable applications you can see that it consists of many free games. There are social games, and games in which you just need to click, and gambling, step-by-step games, card games, etc., but they all have TWO common things: they all have a lot of purchases inside applications and they all encourage the user to shop (call to action).
These are the basics, but it is SUPER IMPORTANT, and here's why:
A very small percentage of people shopping in games. In this small percentage, you have people who buy MUCH. These are your most loyal fans. I know, because I myself can easily spend $ 50 in a game I like.
In Animal Mall, for example, the motivation for action is very simple. When a user tries to buy something and has no money, we just say "You do not have enough coins for it, do you want to buy some?". We do the same thing in every game we have. I tested it and it increases profits MANY TIMES.
I recently read an interesting article that made me write this post. It was an article about the game Gasketball, which was made by the same independent studio as the hit Solipskier.
It discussed how the game went sideways for them (a free game that has already gained 200,000 downloads, showed conversion to paid users at the level of 0.67% and was not even included in the Top 200 profitable applications, and its authors, who have spent 2 years on it homeless) and even try to say that the model of free games is no good (although then the developers refused these words). After reading the article, I immediately realized what was wrong:
It's simple. Figuratively speaking, they had friends who wanted to support the game, but did not know how to do it. In addition, they did not have many purchases, and there was only one - to unlock the game. This is a bad in-game purchase that does not give emotional affection and in fact does not give the player any goal. I can go on forever, but the basis is to give the player the opportunity to satisfy their curiosity or get some benefit in the game. Boring purchases like “Buy full game” or “Remove ads” are not effective.
Let's discuss how many purchases increase profits:
Above, I showed that Angry Birds is on the 52nd place in the ranking of profitable applications for the iPhone. It was the ORIGINAL version of Angry Birds. If you look at the rating of paid applications, you will see that Angry Birds SPACE is higher than the original Angry Birds ... and if so, why does the original game collect more money?
Yes, the answer is the same - they recently added a lot of purchases inside the app:
It is very simple - the more opportunities for purchase you give to consumers, the more money you get .
This is due to the fact that a small percentage of users spend money in games (like me). But despite this small percentage there are those who are willing to spend MUCH if they like the game (again, like me).
Of course, this only works if you provide VALUE and things that they are really interested in.
Let's talk how much top games get. At last year's webinar, I talked about $ 2-3 million dollars a month. I want to note that the situation is changing at an incredible speed.
The authors of CSR Racing, â„–9 by profit, have published some data on profits. Last month, this game received more than $ 12 million only on iOS. And they have not yet ported the game to Android. This is about $ 400,000 per day and at the same time they are no longer included in the marked. Just amazing.
Let's take an application that even performed better - Dragon Vale.
In the past 3 months, it did not fall below the TOP-5 on the iPhone or iPad. The game is positioned better than CSR racing, but it makes a minimum of about $ 300,000 per day, which is 25% less than that of CSR, whose positions are much lower.
If the positions of the game remain for the rest of the year, the game will earn about $ 109 million per year in the most pessimistic scenario.
Perfectly! Studios should learn how to make games that are innovative in the subject and design, instead of copying other applications on the market.
Does this mean that paid applications are DEAD?
Not at all. We released Milo and the Shadow as a paid game a few months ago. I think that it is difficult to compete in the market without in-game purchases, but this is a real opportunity for independent developers to gain strength and enter the Top 25, since the big developers are now focused on free games.
I finish, and this leads us to the last question - which Stage 3?
I will write more about this later, but I think there will be a phase when we see a real social game with better online features. It always amazed me why the first wave of free Facebook and mobile games called itself “social”, although there was no social communication in them. I think that we will see a big step forward in this direction and we have already planned changes for our future projects.
Thanks for reading and take care of yourself
Trey Smith
In particular, I presented an in-depth analysis of the Angry Birds VS Tap Pet Hotel and how the $ 0.99 bonus games were defeated by free games. Now it sounds obvious, but I want to remind you that it was 12 months ago and during this webinar Tap Pet Hotel was only a few months old. Many people in the webinar did not really understand how social games work.
App stores have gone through two stages. The second stage was completed about 6 months ago.
')
Stage 1 in the monetization of applications was due to paid games (at 0.99 per game).
Stage 2 is “Free to play” and now such applications run by the store.
Stage 2 in the App Store Life: Falling Evil Birds
None of the games of the Angry Birds series is now included in the Top 50 most profitable applications on the iPhone. The original game at 52 is closest to the chart:
The iPad is the same story. Now the most profitable game Angry Birds sits on the 55th place in the ranking of profitability:
What is interesting, while the iPad version is now ON THE SECOND PLACE in the ranking of paid applications:
If the iPad 2 game is not included even in the 50 most profitable, then who dominates the App Store in terms of profitability?
How easy to guess - free apps:
I knew that free games rule the ball even before I started this post, but in fact I didn’t know how much the situation was really running.
Currently, 18 of the 25 most profitable apps are Free To Play games (72%). It is also worth noting that 22 of the 25 most profitable applications are games (88%), which confirms the fact that you need to make games if you want to get the maximum profit. The reason for this is that people have a greater emotional attachment to games than to any other type of application, and therefore they spend money on games more easily.
How do free games win?
Looking at the top most profitable applications you can see that it consists of many free games. There are social games, and games in which you just need to click, and gambling, step-by-step games, card games, etc., but they all have TWO common things: they all have a lot of purchases inside applications and they all encourage the user to shop (call to action).
These are the basics, but it is SUPER IMPORTANT, and here's why:
A very small percentage of people shopping in games. In this small percentage, you have people who buy MUCH. These are your most loyal fans. I know, because I myself can easily spend $ 50 in a game I like.
In Animal Mall, for example, the motivation for action is very simple. When a user tries to buy something and has no money, we just say "You do not have enough coins for it, do you want to buy some?". We do the same thing in every game we have. I tested it and it increases profits MANY TIMES.
I recently read an interesting article that made me write this post. It was an article about the game Gasketball, which was made by the same independent studio as the hit Solipskier.
It discussed how the game went sideways for them (a free game that has already gained 200,000 downloads, showed conversion to paid users at the level of 0.67% and was not even included in the Top 200 profitable applications, and its authors, who have spent 2 years on it homeless) and even try to say that the model of free games is no good (although then the developers refused these words). After reading the article, I immediately realized what was wrong:
- They have limited in-app purchases.
- They do not encourage action.
It's simple. Figuratively speaking, they had friends who wanted to support the game, but did not know how to do it. In addition, they did not have many purchases, and there was only one - to unlock the game. This is a bad in-game purchase that does not give emotional affection and in fact does not give the player any goal. I can go on forever, but the basis is to give the player the opportunity to satisfy their curiosity or get some benefit in the game. Boring purchases like “Buy full game” or “Remove ads” are not effective.
Let's discuss how many purchases increase profits:
Above, I showed that Angry Birds is on the 52nd place in the ranking of profitable applications for the iPhone. It was the ORIGINAL version of Angry Birds. If you look at the rating of paid applications, you will see that Angry Birds SPACE is higher than the original Angry Birds ... and if so, why does the original game collect more money?
Yes, the answer is the same - they recently added a lot of purchases inside the app:
It is very simple - the more opportunities for purchase you give to consumers, the more money you get .
This is due to the fact that a small percentage of users spend money in games (like me). But despite this small percentage there are those who are willing to spend MUCH if they like the game (again, like me).
Of course, this only works if you provide VALUE and things that they are really interested in.
How much do these games earn?
Let's talk how much top games get. At last year's webinar, I talked about $ 2-3 million dollars a month. I want to note that the situation is changing at an incredible speed.
The authors of CSR Racing, â„–9 by profit, have published some data on profits. Last month, this game received more than $ 12 million only on iOS. And they have not yet ported the game to Android. This is about $ 400,000 per day and at the same time they are no longer included in the marked. Just amazing.
Let's take an application that even performed better - Dragon Vale.
In the past 3 months, it did not fall below the TOP-5 on the iPhone or iPad. The game is positioned better than CSR racing, but it makes a minimum of about $ 300,000 per day, which is 25% less than that of CSR, whose positions are much lower.
If the positions of the game remain for the rest of the year, the game will earn about $ 109 million per year in the most pessimistic scenario.
Perfectly! Studios should learn how to make games that are innovative in the subject and design, instead of copying other applications on the market.
Does this mean that paid applications are DEAD?
Not at all. We released Milo and the Shadow as a paid game a few months ago. I think that it is difficult to compete in the market without in-game purchases, but this is a real opportunity for independent developers to gain strength and enter the Top 25, since the big developers are now focused on free games.
I finish, and this leads us to the last question - which Stage 3?
I will write more about this later, but I think there will be a phase when we see a real social game with better online features. It always amazed me why the first wave of free Facebook and mobile games called itself “social”, although there was no social communication in them. I think that we will see a big step forward in this direction and we have already planned changes for our future projects.
Thanks for reading and take care of yourself
Trey Smith
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/150245/
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