The above link doesn’t mention but I do read that video ads about candy crush soda saga was pushed to 100million users on FB on its launch day. Currently its ranking 1st in all app stores for majority of countries.
Even if u make quality apps/games, success is not guaranteed. Classic example is word search hero from mind. On the other hand is Construction city which earned the developer $80K in first month. The only difference I know between these two games was that developer of construction city posted on various forums, YouTube channels and FB groups before and on game launch to get traction. Minimal installs purchased in both cases.
I think that even if somebody repeat the exact same steps of promotion done in construction city, success is not guaranteed. So luck is required for indies.
I think at this point we all know there is no guarantee that a quality game will be successful or that a simple/basic game is doomed to fail (i am not saying quality is the opposite to simple/basic). Same with promotion, there is no guarantee that investing certain amount of $ will make your app succesful or that if you dont invest money on promotion you dont have any chance. In our case, our most successful game was not promoted at all.
But i believe that the better your game (quality, content, replay value, engagement, etc) and the more money you spend promoting it, the more chances to be successful. People tend to look at the charts and see some basic games like Flappy Bird or Dont step on the white tile and then see how some great games are doing so-so or pretty bad, drawing to the conclusion that quality does not matter.
But are they considering the 1000s of basic games that fail miserably? On the other hand, how many games as good as Cut the Rope or Hill Climb Racing fail?
[Classic example is word search hero from mind. On the other hand is Construction city which earned the developer $80K in first month.]
I think there way too many Word Search Game for a new word search game to be successful. (We have word search games on Play Store for 5 years now). Unless new Word Search is Completely unique or drastically better, I don’t think word search game in 2014/15 will be a winner.
On the other hand Construction City Concept is recent on Mobile and not many similar apps are around.
Moral of Story (The way I look at it) is: Build something unique if you want to differentiate.
(Note: No offense to Mind. Huge respects for his effort and openness).
I recently dumped a sizable chunk of money into promotion of my new Android/iOS game. The total came to around $10k and I spent it over 3 days. It wasn’t a total failure, but what I learned is that its a lottery, no matter the quality of your game. And the bigger the size of your cross promo network, the more chance you have at success.
Its sad but its true. And GPlay and iTunes “top charts” are to blame for this. The “download” counter is to blame for everything.
The charts, especially free app charts, are totally messed up, they should be based on hour/minute data, not days or weeks, and they should be based on retention and social circle use, rather than just download metric.
I think on Google Play “What’s Hot” section should be the default view when person navigates into a category, and then everything else. All the other charts should be based off usage/retention on hourly basis and should not factor in any downloads coming from “what’s hot” section exposure. This would give newcomers and old apps a real chance at success.
Right now, iOS charts get gamed by fake reviews and giveaways, and GPlay charts get gamed by large cross-promos and incentivized installs.
Once you are in the charts, you get exposure and your search rankings rise up. From search positions you get downloads which directly affect your charts. And that ends up in a stupid never ending circle of garbage statistics and apps. Downloads should be taken out of equation of what “Top Free” app should be.
Personally, I know all this shit will come to an end where only corporations will be in the top charts.
This has happened before with EVERYTHING, like google search, directories, and internet portals. SEO is now a huge business when it wasnt 10 years ago, and so is AdWords.
Appstore charts look like Yahoo Directory looked like 10 years ago, and that will change, hopefully soon. Hopefully by Facebook’s influence. Or by any other messaging app out there trying to break the bullcrap appstore mechanics