5 years ago I can get 100k download easily for free, today i get 0 download for free

Monetizing, Advertising & Marketing Marketing Methods
1

Hi, Can someone explain to me what happen?

I start publish my games 5 years ago in android market around year 2009, I dont have to pay anything for advertisement and i can get 100k download easily

I got 3 games reach more than 100k download with 0 promotion

  1. Fish Farmer lite
  2. Fun World Cup 2010
  3. Slot maniac

but during that time, there is no way to monetize the app, so I am just making those games for free, and ask them to buy the full version via paypal, not much money

5 years later, I read around and found that there are many ways to monetize the app, so I came back and build new games and try the market again

I publish my games “zombie Spitter” in the android market on 7 january 2015

guess what???

I only get 1 download on day 1, and 0 on day 2, 0 on day 3

Is this normal???

Is android market really becoming like this, if you do 0 promotion, you can only get 1 download out of the entire world ?

2

It was normal to get low downloads today. But abnormal to get only 1 download.

3

Times have changed A LOT over the years. In fact, even in 2013 it was still kinda easy.

2014 onwards app discovery is a big struggle for all indies.

More needs to be done now to get any traction and downloads.

4

I am so sad, But still , why I only get 1 download in 3 days? can anyone please check my game and see if there is anything I am doing wrong?

Did I put the wrong keyword or what? I put keyword “zombie”, “zombie spitter”

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.fundurian.zombiespit&hl=en

5

There is competition now on the market. Even big devs and publishers develop apps now. Your game looks just plain awful. No one would even bother to click on this disgusting app icon. Take a look at other popular games of today and then look at yours.

6
  1. Too much of zombie games currently. Your keyword is very competitive.
  2. Also, as an user, I am not quite sure what is the game about, so maybe a video game play could help.
  3. File size is a bit big.

But the main reason is 5 years ago and now had changed a lot.

7

What is the game about exactly? How long did it take you to make it?

8

Were you in jail at that time. Just kidding, you missed the best time

9

What happen with your old game? Why not update/ monetiZe your old game

10

sucky app icon

11

Hi I am new here but not new to Android development.
Yes indeed, it is always said the bird that rises up the earliest in the morning catches the worm.
5 years ago big players were not in the market but now they are all muscling in, indie developers are facing the heat.
This is a normal trend. Before we have big players in the PC desktop software, we have indie software like pkzip etc.
Once big players muscle in, what happens?

So how do indie developers (be it in mobile,web,PC desktop development) survive?
Some give up and join the big players as their employees to build software for their employer.
Some change career path.
Some who stays on to their trade survive based on filling the gaps the big players missed but badly needed by users.
Still this is not foolproof because if the big players decide to fill those missing gaps, where do indie developers stand?
Some focus on the gap that is specific to that geographic region. E.g in some country, this app requirements are badly needed but in other countries it is not needed

So maybe and end-to-end solution (mobile,web,back-end,database etc) all in one package is the way to survive?
But let’s be frank, how can a solo indie developer afford the resources and time to build end-to-end solution for users?
Then a group of solo indie developers band together to form a company and viola soon they tread on the path to be a big player muscling indie developers out along the way.

This is what life is for indie developers. Sad but true (metallica song).

12

5 years ago was the glory days for Android. ecpm’s were like 10x of what they are currently. Also it was much easier to get to the top back then.

13

there is a lot more competition now that the market has matured

14

Competition increased in last 5 years.Now the game/app ranking simply related to your pocket.