Over 5 Million iOS Games Downloaded Every Day
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In a news release by DIstimo, it was announced that over 5 million games a day were downloaded from the App Store in March 2011. This represents the collective downloads of over 63 million iOS gamers across the US and European territories, averaging 2.5 games per month each.
Interestingly, Distimo recently announced their partnership with Newzoo, an international games market research firm. The demographic information Newzoo collects from Gamer Surveys will pair nicely with the detailed App Store data mined by Distimo to provide indepth and insightful information such as this to the gaming industry. Beginning in June 2011, access to this data (including the top 300 free and paid games downloaded, the game rankings, the publishers and the average selling prices) will be made commercially available using the Newzoo Data Explorer.
Their data also indicated that over 88% of the top 300 games in the App Store are free, but that a large number of these games included the ability to make in-app purchases to extend game-play. Overwhelmingly, gamers are taking advantage of this ability to the point that in-app spending amounted to 40% of the total revenues for iPhone/iPod Touch and 32% for iPad, representing a significant opportunity for game developers.
These numbers are particularly interesting when you consider that 50-75% of iPhone users and over 22 million iPad users worldwide are entertaining themselves by downloading games. These numbers put the iPad ahead of the Playstation Portable System (PSP) in device-specific adoption rates.
If anything can be taken from the results of this research, it is that iOS game development is a profitable industry and also that providing your software at no cost may still mean significant profits through the use of in-app purchases.
From the moment I purchased my own supply of additional Smurfberries in the Smurfs game, I became a part of that statistic. It makes sense that in-app purchases are becoming increasingly popular when users engaged by your game are a form of captive audience. The App Store makes it very easy to impulse buy these ‘items’ without leaving the comfort of our waiting rooms, subways and living room couches.
[via Distimo]
