I tried it, it’s probably the WORST running game ever without any redeeming qualities (maybe art looks okay-ish). It has so many ads, you can barely “see” the game through the game. It was at top 5 free games some time ago.
This is exactly the kind of “story” that we should focus on and try to understand how it got so popular! @javaexp has done a great job researching for a previous game, I’d love to see his research about this.
After a very quick research, this is what I’ve found from Appannie:
The game was released on the 17th of February;
It was not ranked in any country until 4th of March, when it jumped to #39 for Arcade & Action in Saudi Arabia;
on the 11th of March it reached #1 for the first time: Saudi Arabia, Arcade & Action; it also reached #6 Overall;
one day later (12th of March), it suddenly jumped to #4 in Egypt Overall, out of nowhere;
16th of March: reached #1 Overall in Saudi Arabia for the first time;
18th of March: game category was changed from Arcade & Action to Adventure and was #1 for Adventure in 41 countries;
it continued climbing slowly but steady until the 28th of March when it reached #1 Adventure in 46 countries; also top 5 Overall in 12 countries;
from that point it started going down at an average pace but is still ranked #1 for Adventure in 2 countries and pretty decent in Overall in a lot of countries.
This seems like a very similar story to Flappy Bird, when the game was not ranked in any country for a while (in this case around 2 weeks) and then started going up like crazy.
I believe this game has earned at least $1M from ads so far. I wouldn’t be surprised if it has earned around $10M.
How many of us would be thrilled to have 1% of the success this game is having?
Just before 30 days were going to complete, such a high boost in ranking and ranking can’t go that high without huge downloads. Any body knows average PPI rate for Indonesia and Vietnam?
Do you believe the high rankings were achieved due to paid marketing, paying for downloads?
In case the guy paid for installs, he must have paid at least tens of thousands. But for such rankings I wouldn’t be surprised if millions are required.
In case he bought installs, my question is: why didn’t he buy any installs in the first 2 weeks the game was released? Why did he start advertising in the beginning of March and not before? You’d think someone willing to pay large amounts on advertising has a decent understanding of how Google Play works and knows that advertising as soon as a game is released is crucial. But the guy only started after about two weeks which makes me believe it wasn’t money that got him those high rankings.
Guys I have tried to replicate his method of promotion but unable to find the software/service used for it. So sharing it here hoping someone will know about it.
I searched for
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.sagego.panda.run&hl=en
on google and found that there are many blog posts and forum posts with backlink to google play url. Most of them were created around 14th March when the increase took place so may be the searching ranking in play store got boost from those backlinks.
Do u guys know software/service which do blog posting and forum posting on android review blogs and forums based on country specific languages. I sent a mail to the email id given in that game but I don’t expect any reply.
I tend to believe that, being ranked really well in Saudi Arabia, all the other countries picked up and ranked the game high.
I’ve seen posts on this forum saying that the countries are quite independent but, from my latest experience, looks like if you’re getting downloads ONLY from a country, your game will rise in rankings in other countries, too. So, let’s say the guy had a lot of installs from Saudi Arabia (purchased downloads, special marketing or using bots). Getting #1 overall in Saudi Arabia pushed him to the top of all the other countries.
So, as a conclusion: perhaps it’s better to spend $1000 only in one small country and try to reach as high as possible in the overall rankings instead of spending the same amount trying to buy your spot in several countries.
Java, this guy runs an app empire, I found so many connected apps, reskins and variations to not only this app but the rest of his apps, here are some of his accounts:
This is a sad fact nowadays, you can only spill loads of money on Admob, Facebook, app2top, ayetstudios, etc in order to get a CHANCE to win in the competition to let you earn money.
Indie developers have no chance without money spent.
