About new applications/game released and downloads

Hi,

Last week we released a new game. It is called TapMania: Pirates!. You can check it here https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.FosforeStudios.TapManiaPirates . Well, this post is not about spam. This post is about trying to learn what is happening here. How is possible this game has only 24 installs? I mean, I don’t want to sound arrogant or anything but this is crazy. I’m sure people is not downloading it because they don’t find it.

There’s a category in google play application where new games are listed but my game haven’t been listed there in the 7 days it is on the store. How can this be? How are applications ranked when they are released? All applications start with 0 downloads, so, how do they do to get to the top? I’m confident that there are a lot of games/applications that have not spent a penny on advertising and are in the tops. Is google discriminating some applications from others?

If anyone could shed a bit of light on this subject I would really appreciate it. It is something I haven’t understood since I started creating games for google store.

Thanks in advance.

Yes I can explain it

  1. The top new free category section is only for games that have been new games that have been released . Your game can only stay on that list for the 1st 30 days.

  2. For example in U.S. store in action games category. You will need around 5,000-10,000 downloads a day to get placed in Top New Free in Action Game Category. Google does not place your game in top new free because your game is new. Unless you get enough downloads , your game will not be visible.

  3. Which brings up the question how the hell can I get downloads if I am not visible? You have to promote your game.

Here is a link for places to promote your game to get exposure

http://forums.makingmoneywithandroid.com/marketing-methods/7262-websites-promote-your-android-games-apps-free.html

And here is a link on the process of ranking your app

http://forums.makingmoneywithandroid.com/marketing-methods/14059-how-i-reached-top-50-adventure-category-india-google-play-appstore-long-read.html

Why did Amazing Loops perform better?

What’s the difference in these games regarding how you marketed them?

We spent some money in advertising Amazing Loop. But this leads to another question. I have other apps with 0 marketing that have made far better than this both applications so, marketing is not always the key. I suspect that finding a non crowded niche is the important thing.

On the other hand I have seen a lot of games with ridiculous names that have performed really well. So, I still not see what is happening. Where do new released games go, how people find them, and why ones get to the tops and others don’t? The advertising answer is the obvious one but I have seen too many cases where this does not apply.

Thanks in advance.

Google Play is full of spam app/games.
Google Play search algorithm is not even showing new apps. Suck…
Google Play is changed so much in last years… It was full of spam 2 years ago too, but now, I’m seeing top new free lists are %90 spam apps (at least my country).

I agree and I’ve been asking myself the same question over and over again.

Why would someone invest a lot of money to market a bad game? Why not spend little money on developing a decent game and the rest of the money on marketing? The only answer I can think of is that those games didn’t get to the top positions because of advertising but because of something else. So what could it be?

Here is an example of a really crappy game: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.kmldrn.championsleague

How did this game get more than 100 000 downloads in less than a month? I don’t believe it’s paying for installs.

Publisher of that game is Turkish. A lot of turkish users love crappy things, spams and absurd apps. I know because I’m turkish publisher too.

Can you tell me what you like about that game?

Things that I noticed that would make me uninstall it (aside for not installing it at all in the first place): full of ads, extremely limited gameplay options, nothing to really do.

If Turkish users love crappy things, why didn’t they install my crappy games?

He had no harm intent.(If I understand you true you pissed off?)

Anyway here is some crappy developers.

1 - Golden Brain - He is 13 year old child and spamming Turkish market : https://play.google.com/store/apps/developer?id=Golden+Brain


2 - (A) - Banu Aksu : https://play.google.com/store/apps/developer?id=BANU+AKSU
2 - (B) - Florantine Küster : https://play.google.com/store/apps/developer?id=Florentina+Küster

These publishers is same person and he is spamming all market. He is probably earning 1K$/day with spam.


3 - (A) - Furkan Gül : https://play.google.com/store/apps/developer?id=Furkan+Gül
3 - (B) - Nuray Aydın : https://play.google.com/store/apps/developer?id=Nuray+Aydın
3 - (C) - Safak Temel : https://play.google.com/store/apps/developer?id=Şafak+TEMEL

These publishers is same person too and he is spamming all market. He is probably earning 1K$/day too with spam.


4 - VascoGames : https://play.google.com/store/apps/developer?id=VascoGames

This publisher is not Turkish(I did not research) but he is spamming market too. All of his games are full of ads and completely copy of each other.

Probably earning 30k$+/DAY with spam.

Also he is spamming iOS too : https://itunes.apple.com/us/artist/vascogames/id555298558


Because of these bitc*es our games aren’t seen even when search. And I don’t have any hope Google Play will remove these spammers.

I am pissed off at me for not figuring out why my games don’t succeed, for not being able to understand why these games get so many installs.

I really don’t blame all these developers for spamming the stores, they are trying to earn money. Aren’t we all trying to do that?

What I want to know is why do some crappy games have so much success when decent games don’t.

Well what u call crappy may not be crappy for someone else. A toyota may be crappy for someone but other person may like it too much. My 2 cents.

Please have a look at that Champions League game and tell me if you think anyone can like that. It’s not a matter of differences between two cars but between something that does nothing and something that does something. :slight_smile:

My point is that this game has more than 100k downloads in less than a month and I am trying to understand how it happened so I can do the same thing (if legal and possible).

We all leave trail. Here is my analysis why he got so many installs.

  1. He has edited the description some time back only. Earlier the keyword UEFEA (whatever) had 11% keyword density in his description. Look at the keyword/ASO history for the app at: Champions League - Keywords / ASO | App Annie

  2. When you search for Champions League, you get so many apps for that.
    Search | App Annie App Store Data
    Look at the gradual increase in number of ratings of this app as the league started:
    Champions League - Google Play App Store Reviews | App Annie

  3. Champions League is in progress now. 6th week I guess so people searching for it.

  4. The developer published here: Champions League Android Download and got 10,000,000+ downloads and most of us wouldn’t have heard of that app store.

  5. Copy his description from Champions League Android Download into keyword density tool (choose plain text) at Free Keyword Density Analyzer Tool and see results. We don’t have his past descriptions otherwise we can analyse the keyword density for those too and I am sure the description was more keyword rich in the past than now on google play.

  6. Other app stores tried by him:
    Apps by “Kemal Duran” on Best Apps Market for Android
    Champions League - Applications Android et Tests - AndroidPIT
    Champions League APK | Champions League 1.6 APK Download | Champions League alternative
    Champions League - Android - Apk
    Champions League App for Android
    Champions League | Free Download APK for Android

  7. Searchman.com tells me that he got ranked at position less than 25 for keyword “uefa champions league”
    https://searchman.com/android/app/us/com.kmldrn.championsleague/en/kemal-duran/champions-league/?d=android

  8. The guy has updated the app almost daily. May be content update with respect to championship:
    1.6 Current Version 08/05/2014
    1.5 Upgrade 08/04/2014
    1.4 Upgrade 08/02/2014
    1.3 Upgrade 07/31/2014
    1.2 Upgrade 07/30/2014
    1.1 Upgrade 07/22/2014
    1.0 First Tracked 07/11/2014

  9. He got into top new sports game categories in many countries:
    Champions League - Google Play Store - US - Category Rankings, Keyword Rankings, Sales Rankings, Research, Performance, and Growth Metrics.

  10. Here is how the guy looks like:
    User Kemal Duran - Stack Overflow

  11. Now he may have bought those installs or the app may have got reviewed in some newspaper is something I can’t tell without more research

  12. After he makes so much effort, don’t u think he deserved 100K installs. lol

unfortunately his app is not on google web results when searched for UEFA championship league, other wise we could have seen 1000K installs:
https://www.google.co.in/search?q=UEFA+Champions+League

Now I am exhausted. Never knew I could research that much :slight_smile:

Good research!

Sorry, but I still don’t understand why he’s got so many installs. Can you point out the obvious?

Multiple factors.

  1. Keywords in title and description
  2. May be buying installs
  3. Translation
  4. Reaching in Top new Sports games category in 30 days in multiple countries
  5. May be buying reviews too
  1. Don’t know what his previous title and description was but the current ones are very light and don’t seem to have a positive impact;
  2. If he did that, he must have spent a few thousand dollars. Why would he spend thousands of dollars for a game that does almost nothing instead of paying $500-$1000 to build a decent one and spend the rest of marketing? I see no point in advertising such a poor game because the lifetime of an user must be very short for this game;
  3. Translations don’t usually get you more than 25% extra installs, do they?
  4. My latest game has reached better ranks in more countries and has 18k installs after a month;
  5. Plausible since there are a lot of 5 stars in there for such a bad game.

In the case of that soccer app, I would guess a short phone call here Impressum - FC Bayern München AG would end that nonsens quickly. FIFA or some of the other clubs should work to.

Great stuff you’re bringing into the thread. Thanks a lot.

I see there are a lot of people like me pulling hair out… I hope we could understand a bit more how all this works.

Thanks in advance.