Securing a high-profile spot on the iTunes App Store is a great way to boost awareness for a mobile game. It might not be easy to get such placement on the iOS storefront, but a new study from analyst group Distimo helps quantify that barrier to entry by revealing the minimum number of downloads required to get your game on an iTunes top 25 list.
Looking at data from April 2012, Distimo found that a free game needs to reach at least 25,300 daily downloads to reach the Top 25 Games chart. To make it on the overall iTunes chart, meanwhile, a free game would need to hit 38,400 daily downloads.
For paid apps, meanwhile, the Top 25 requirements are much lower. The Game category, for instance, only requires a minimum of 2,280 daily downloads, while the overall charts require 3,530 downloads.
Within the Game category, Distimo noted that certain genres are much more competitive than others.
The Arcade and Action genres are easily the most popular across both paid and free apps, and thus games in these categories need to see more frequent daily downloads if they hope to break that genre's Top 25 chart.
For a more detailed look at Distimo's analysis of the iTunes Top 25 listings, visit the group's official blog.
So, 30 days a month x $1 app x 2,280 = $68,400. Now, $68,400 x 70% (Apple gets 30%) = $47,880 / month in income. Of course, in-app purchases aren't being accounted for. Yet, this is still awesome for a small indie studio. It doesn't work out well for a team of 10 that requires office space, computers, software, and other monthly bills, ...
As the vast minority of games make it to the Top 25 chart, it is safe to say most people make a lot less than this - likely regardless of IAP options.
Yeah, still not seeing where you're getting these numbers from. Nothing in this reports mentions what the average income an app makes - this is just how many downloads you need to reach the 25 spot in the charts on a given day.
Last I heard, the average lifetime income for an app was around $2000.
It;s called mathematics, it gives you answers from data (mostly magic). ;)
That is interesting- I would have assumed most in the top 25 would make much, much more than that.
I guess that is the minimum amount of downloads to reach the top 25, so I would be interested to see how many downloads are needed to reach a top 10 spot. I would assume that it might be about 10x that much, but it would be interesting to see the numbers.
Well, at least being in the top 25 would probably be a reasonable payout for a small indie studio, but I've seen some pretty poor games in the top 100, even though they might only stay there for a couple of days at max.
Basically I got my numbers with the same assumption Christopher has.
30days x $1 x ~2k.
Some games charge more but you can adjust as you need. Given most of my apps aren't near the top, I am not that far behind but still is scary considering I have a staff, rent, computers, software and phones to buy constantly.
average lifetime of an app that never made it to the top 100 is about $2k.
But if your a large company with a staff of 100, those are not numbers you want to see daily.
As the vast minority of games make it to the Top 25 chart, it is safe to say most people make a lot less than this - likely regardless of IAP options.
Last I heard, the average lifetime income for an app was around $2000.
That is interesting- I would have assumed most in the top 25 would make much, much more than that.
I guess that is the minimum amount of downloads to reach the top 25, so I would be interested to see how many downloads are needed to reach a top 10 spot. I would assume that it might be about 10x that much, but it would be interesting to see the numbers.
Well, at least being in the top 25 would probably be a reasonable payout for a small indie studio, but I've seen some pretty poor games in the top 100, even though they might only stay there for a couple of days at max.
30days x $1 x ~2k.
Some games charge more but you can adjust as you need. Given most of my apps aren't near the top, I am not that far behind but still is scary considering I have a staff, rent, computers, software and phones to buy constantly.
average lifetime of an app that never made it to the top 100 is about $2k.
But if your a large company with a staff of 100, those are not numbers you want to see daily.