Number downloads for you app ?

[iamjot]

Hi guys

very interesting thread. I think we are all experiencing the same. So here are my numbers:

Stromfeld ( a FREE top down shooter) - wa downloaded about 1200 times since feb 15th. But as i said, its a free app

my second app "paypal" was downloaded around 100 times and its for 99cent.

i am very impressed by distant j´s numbers! How cool is it that we can create games and actually sell them (sometimes
for more, sometimes for less money) now. Or just the fact that a lot of people are really PLAYING the games now!

Jot

[DistantJ]

Has anyone tried releasing at a free price point for a single day to possibly drive sales for the following day?

Ive been reading about how the app store ranking algorithm works, and evidently its based on recent download counts. Im wondering if its possible to spike that ranking for a day and then benefit in the short term from the elevated ranking in the store.

I may be making invalid assumptions here about how their ranking works.... maybe they use different calculations for paid v.s. free apps ...

http://www.readwriteweb.com/start/20...-algorithm.php

Yeah I've done this, but the free rankings are separate from the paid rankings, so your only benefit really would be the word of mouth generated. However I put AWESOME Land free for a day and got 30,000 downloads in that day, and a small spike the next day when it was paid again, about 250 or so, but over about 3 days it quickly sank back to its 10 sales a day average. I've put it out for free for 3 days now, until Wednesday, not for the sake of the post-freebie spike this time but rather to increase the install base for the sequel.

Remember that price drops and free promotions are noticed. There are hundreds of bots watching the app store for price drops and then reporting them to hundreds of websites and twitter accounts which have a lot of followers. Essentially these things can be used for free advertising. Therefore releasing an app paid and then making it free a few days later is better than releasing it for free on day one. Equally, launching an app at $2 then knocking the price down to $1 will get you a load of free advertising from these bots.

My current free promotion has been good so far, no iTC reports yet but it's nice to see 5 figures on the GameCenter Leaderboard, though not as nice as it would be to see those figures in my bank account of course! :P As I said before, I'm hoping this will create a big enough fanbase for the sequel to be a big success.

[Koji_Kabuto]

However I put AWESOME Land free for a day and got 30,000 downloads in that day, and a small spike the next day when it was paid again, about 250 or so, but over about 3 days it quickly sank back to its 10 sales a day average.

DistantJ not think these numbers downloads is better to have a free app with iAds? in my case with Color Machine is my game to test the App Store (I'm developing several apps strong) I felt that people struggle to pay, when this free thousands of downloads and good reviews but when it is paid downloads drop to 1 or 2 per day and zero review. The game is short but not bad, good graphics, is different and I've noticed that the style and love in Asia (80% of the market) or are more download stores. Not saying this analysis?

[DistantJ]

No, because it got so many downloads because it's not normally free. When a paid game goes free bots pick up on it and it appears on hundreds of 'free app of the day' sites etc. getting it a tonne of notice, but if you launch it for free you don't get that coverage, and I don't think it'd be very good for my ratings if I put ads in a game which thousands of people paid for. I can't make a business out of pennies for ad views, even from 30,000 downloads iAds wouldn't cover this as I'm trying to make it into a full-time business. For people making games for a hobby though, sure!

[flechenoir]

Truly amazing! 30,000 downloads!

I only respond if you do not mind ...

DistantJ could you tell us the exact figure you've earned, including the -30% and paid if your graphics, levels disagner, ...

! I only respond if you do not mind ... !

Short, I really congratulate you for your game!

[Captain_Harris]

I have played your Game my friend. nice work. I gave you 5 stars

[jregork]

Day before release - 4
Day 1 - 81
Day 2 - 21
Day 3 - 7

[flechenoir]

day before release - 4
Day 1 to 81
Day 2 to 21
Day 3 to 7

It's already a good start!

it's a paid game ?

[jregork]

Yes, it's Clash Force, 99c.

It's an. . . ok start. . .

I still have more cards to play, I just haven't been able to dedicate to it full time. I've sent out marketing e-mails to about 20 sites so far, and only got 2 responses. One from a smaller site that reviewed it right away, and another from a huge site who just wanted to sell me advertising. I'm going to finish e-mailing the sites on my list, and then move over to more social marketing. I'll also be releasing a lite version in the next couple weeks, and updating the current version which should send it to the top of the list for a small sales spike. And then I'll be cross-promoting it with my future games.

[JasonDarby]

Nothing wrong with a small start use it to learn about how well you made your game, if you can re-use code and how you went about advertising it, and hopefully your next game will do better