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How many downloads for paid apps, how profitable?

E

EmptyPockets

macrumors regular
Original poster
Jan 15, 2008
129
0
Are there any posted numbers on how profitable some of these apps are?

I am especially interested in finding out how many downloads some apps (just a general idea of the possibilities would be great)

Thanks,

Andrey
 
Users are not entitled to any information regarding app sales. The only way we can get this information is if the developer discloses it.

I agree it would be nice to see how many downloads etc, but apple have left it up to the dev to decide whether to tell people about their app's sales figures.
 
There are some news articles on the game Trism, saying that it sold about $250K worth in the first 2 months in the App store. There are also apps that sell only a few a week. Most apps are likely somewhere in between those two figures.

.
 
jlake02 said:
If you find out, please let us know! :)
Click to expand...

Is that website in your sig yours? If it is, if you want to do an interview with me you'd be more then welcome to. I have 5 paid apps on the store, and another 2 that are free.
 
My app (Rogue Vertex) recently passed 500 downloads... we're only seeing 0-3 downloads per day now so after the first payment from Apple, I don't expect to see another for a long time.

Disappointing, really... but I think the apps that earned huge amounts of money were released with the App Store when people were buying more apps regularly.

When you consider the costs, it's not that much... it's a great deal for Apple, though. That said, I'm working on a brand new game (an RPG actually) that will take far more time to develop and I hope it gets a large fan base... word of mouth is your friend, really.
 
I think the number of downloads each app gets really isn't a good measuring stick for how well another app may do. Off the top of my head, these will all help with getting a bigger download count:

1. Visibility
2. Good app idea
3. Execution of app idea
4. Value
5. Uniqueness
6. Planned upgrade path
7. Professionalism in public and tech support
8. Universal (other countries matter)
9. Luck

My game has been very fortunate the last three months, even though I wasn't on the store in the first month. By following the above rules, I've been able to keep my game in the top 100 games list since the beginning. If you can execute most of these steps, you have a very good chance of consistently getting between 200-2,000 paid downloads per day.
 
Delirium39 said:
I think the number of downloads each app gets really isn't a good measuring stick for how well another app may do. Off the top of my head, these will all help with getting a bigger download count:

1. Visibility
2. Good app idea
3. Execution of app idea
4. Value
5. Uniqueness
6. Planned upgrade path
7. Professionalism in public and tech support
8. Universal (other countries matter)
9. Luck

My game has been very fortunate the last three months, even though I wasn't on the store in the first month. By following the above rules, I've been able to keep my game in the top 100 games list since the beginning. If you can execute most of these steps, you have a very good chance of consistently getting between 200-2,000 paid downloads per day.
Click to expand...

Just from what I've seen, puzzle games seem to do better than other types of games, too. I actually considered (a month ago) doing that exact game as my next project but decided against it for various reasons.

I also think that #1 (Visibility) is tied into #9 (Luck) in a few ways... like if Apple decides to feature your app, that's free money.

Also, speaking for myself of course, my app sales in other countries will likely never add up to the $250 barrier.

If I got 200-2,000 paid downloads per day, I'd be thrilled... hell, if I got 100 per day I'd be thrilled :p
 
sesnir said:
I actually considered (a month ago) doing that exact game as my next project but decided against it for various reasons.
Click to expand...

Yeah, I'm afraid most of my six competitors didn't follow rule #5 (Uniqueness). It generally doesn't work out.

sesnir said:
I also think that #1 (Visibility) is tied into #9 (Luck) in a few ways... like if Apple decides to feature your app, that's free money.
Click to expand...

Absolutely. But only free for about a week, maybe two.

sesnir said:
Also, speaking for myself of course, my app sales in other countries will likely never add up to the $250 barrier.
Click to expand...

That's why rule #8 (Universal) is so important. Obviously, text based apps will have more trouble with this, though.
 
Glad you guys liked the interview. I'm looking for qualified volunteer contributors if anyone is interested in writing on the site. :)
 
This looks like a fun game. You should definitely introduce yourself and your game on toucharcade.com . Many developers post their games there, and it is a site devoted to games (it is one of arn's sites). You can try fingergaming.com as well. People will provide you with feedback as well, which is important in order for you to tweak your game and to provide a more refined product. You should also get a video of gameplay together and submit your app to some of the game sites so that it may be featured. All of that provides you with free advertising, and it doesn't cost much.

Good luck!

sesnir said:
My app (Rogue Vertex) recently passed 500 downloads... we're only seeing 0-3 downloads per day now so after the first payment from Apple, I don't expect to see another for a long time.

Disappointing, really... but I think the apps that earned huge amounts of money were released with the App Store when people were buying more apps regularly.

When you consider the costs, it's not that much... it's a great deal for Apple, though. That said, I'm working on a brand new game (an RPG actually) that will take far more time to develop and I hope it gets a large fan base... word of mouth is your friend, really.
Click to expand...
 
One more thing that will help you will be to provide a "Lite" version of your app for free. Many people will download it, and you will get exposure. Some of the people who download your app for free and like it will purchase the paid version. Just make sure that the paid version has some additional cool features!

sesnir said:
My app (Rogue Vertex) recently passed 500 downloads... we're only seeing 0-3 downloads per day now so after the first payment from Apple, I don't expect to see another for a long time.

Disappointing, really... but I think the apps that earned huge amounts of money were released with the App Store when people were buying more apps regularly.

When you consider the costs, it's not that much... it's a great deal for Apple, though. That said, I'm working on a brand new game (an RPG actually) that will take far more time to develop and I hope it gets a large fan base... word of mouth is your friend, really.
Click to expand...
 
I just regenerated my stats so I'll share...

Escape Pod has been out for just under 10 weeks at $1.99. In that time it's sold 4563 copies.

Alphonetic has been out for 8 weeks at $0.99 and has sold 573 copies.

Sleeps to Christmas has been out for just over 3 weeks, has been downloaded 101,236 times, is free but has generated $2300 in advertising revenue.

So what can we take from this?

Escape Pod I'd consider succesful. It's paid back the time I spent on it at a decent rate. It's caught some breaks like being well reviewed and was featured in BBC Focus Technology magazine.

Alphonetic was NOT worth the implementation time. I guess it's a bit of a niche app.

Sleeps to Christmas is an interesting one. It has one advert along the bottom of the screen and despite a really poor fill rate (only 60% of users actually see an ad, since my ad provider is struggling) it's generated an exceptional return. It took me 4 hours to implement the first version, with maybe another 6 hours on updates. So that's a good return...
 
Hey Pring, I would be interested to know if you the sales on your other apps jumped when you released the free one. I was thinking of releasing a free app with my own apps advertised at the bottom.
 
detz said:
Hey Pring, I would be interested to know if you the sales on your other apps jumped when you released the free one. I was thinking of releasing a free app with my own apps advertised at the bottom.
Click to expand...

Not noticeably to be honest, but nor did they decline... it maybe helped counteract some of the natural drops.
 
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