How much are Developers making?

ZainZain Member Posts: 37
edited November -1 in Business and Marketing Theory
If a game is downloaded a million times in 4 months time and there are ads on it (iAds). I know there are tons of other factors but if we can use million downloads as the main factor and average the rest.

How much would a developer make? Guesstimate please....not looking for exact figures.

I just want to get an idea.

Comments

  • WeswogWeswog Member Posts: 1,171
    You would get about $5000 or more based off my 1.4% average ctr which is sometimes more so it can be higher or lower but this is based off that a lot of the 1,000,000 people will open the app.

    Cheers, Weswog
  • ZainZain Member Posts: 37
    Damn, that's it? I'm surprised.

    I guess a better strategy is to charge $.99.

    But I've been reading articles about developers that publish free games make more money than charging.
  • StusAppsStusApps Member, PRO Posts: 1,352
    iAds are generally hopeless as a way of making serious money. Here are some real stats from my iAd panel in iTunes connect:

    Hotel Rush - (Released August 2010 - Made free with iAds April 2011)

    - Number of downloads = 219267
    - Ad requests = 695356
    - Impressions = 62869
    - Fill Rate = 8.88%
    - Click through ratio = 0.33%

    Total iAd earnings = $64.81

    Cake Bake Ad Version (Released mid-april 2011)

    - Number of downloads = 93037
    - Ad Requests = 290376
    - Impressions = 91298
    - Fill Rate = 30.66%
    - Click through ratio = 0.66%

    Total iAd earnings = $137.93

    Then below are the earnings from my other iAd apps:

    Dynamite Fish = $13.24
    Finger Flex = $5.75
    Hotel Rush HD = $149.49
    Monkey Up HD Ad version = $11.90
    Toilet Monsters Gotta Go = $28.33
    Tolet Monsters Gotta Go HD = $34.42

    These have all been running iAds since april (Monkey Up only the last few weeks).

    So in total I actually have about a million downloads across all these apps since april. Which is just about the question you are asking.

    The total from that many downloads over 5 months is about $450. Not great at all!

    If you are wondering whether to release an app paid or free with iAds then I would go paid every time.
  • StusAppsStusApps Member, PRO Posts: 1,352
    Also depends on the orientation of the game. Landscape games seem to pull about a 10% fill rate and portrait about 30%.
  • ZainZain Member Posts: 37
    That is very impressive StusApps!

    But also discouraging.

    Have you changed strategies and started charging? If you have, have you seen a big difference?

    Would love it if you can share.
  • StusAppsStusApps Member, PRO Posts: 1,352
    Zain said:
    That is very impressive StusApps!

    But also discouraging.

    Have you changed strategies and started charging? If you have, have you seen a big difference?

    Would love it if you can share.

    These apps were all paid apps before. They're ones where the sales were tailing off to a few a week so I made them free with iAds. Whether they had iAds or not I would have made them free anyway as they are just used as a marketing tool for my other apps now. They all contain lots of links out to my other paid apps.

    My paid app revenue for the last year is $27000. To put it in perspective off a similar number of apps between the iAds ones and the paid ones since april, it was about $450 to $10000
  • ZainZain Member Posts: 37
    WOW!! That's very encouraging.

    I hope you plan to publish these apps on Andriod when available on Gamesalad.

    So charging is the way to go!
  • StusAppsStusApps Member, PRO Posts: 1,352
    Zain said:
    WOW!! That's very encouraging.

    I hope you plan to publish these apps on Andriod when available on Gamesalad.

    So charging is the way to go!

    Definitely will. If I dare say it .... my main phone is now a galaxy s2, I am looking forward to android on GS quite a bit.
  • calvin9403calvin9403 Member Posts: 3,186
    actually in a post says u can make it so when player touch the ad then give them something

    but don't know if Apple will allow

    _____________
    http://www.thatgameforum.com/
    http://gshelper.com/
    http://www.youtube.com/user/GameSaladCookbook#p/
    http://gamesalad.com/wiki/
    http://www.deepblueapps.com/Deep_Blue_Ideas_Ltd./Home.html
    http://www.gamesalad.es/
    http://thatgameforum.com/threads/gs-videos.360/
    my email: calvin9403@hotmail.com
    my skype: calvin9403
  • IcedBIcedB Member, PRO Posts: 384
    Stus I really want to play you beat break app but I can't find it anywhere!
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  • aarioaario Member, PRO Posts: 256
    ive been running iAds on Road Rage FREE and here are the alltime stats (released July 30):

    Downloads: 10314
    Requests: 82757
    Impressions: 42904
    Fill Rate: 51.84%
    CTR: 0.68%
    Revenue: 61.18$

    So from my perspective iAds looks like a viable way to make some money..
  • IcedBIcedB Member, PRO Posts: 384
    aario, did you're advert have topless ladies in or something that is a lot of revenue for 10k downloads!
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  • aarioaario Member, PRO Posts: 256
    hahaha not to sure IcedB all i see is the test ads ad lol

    although im not sure if this may help, I've noticed other people setting up their iAds on an actor that destroys itself after sometime and then respawns ..i didnt do that, i have one actor on my main menu and one in gameplay that just initiates iAds and thats it. So maybe that helps?
  • SlickZeroSlickZero Houston, TexasMember, Sous Chef Posts: 2,870
    Keep in mind your game has to be downloaded first before any of this can potentially happen. If it's a bad game, none of this information will matter.
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  • IcedBIcedB Member, PRO Posts: 384
    Okay, well i don't use iAds yet, I've got too many other tasks to be getting on with and my apps are still bringing in decent sales but I will take your advice for the future!
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  • TheMenOfHonorTheMenOfHonor Member Posts: 147
    aario, what marketing strategy did you use to get your downloads? Reviews? Ads? Facebook?

    you seem to be pretty successful with downloads so far, I'd like to know how you managed that if you wouldn't mind sharing ;)
  • ZainZain Member Posts: 37
    aario said:
    ive been running iAds on Road Rage FREE and here are the alltime stats (released July 30):

    Downloads: 10314
    Requests: 82757
    Impressions: 42904
    Fill Rate: 51.84%
    CTR: 0.68%
    Revenue: 61.18$

    So from my perspective iAds looks like a viable way to make some money..

    For over 10,000 downloads you made only $61.18?

    Do you think you could've made more by charging $.99?
  • BlackbirdStudiosBlackbirdStudios Member Posts: 493
    Zain said:
    For over 10,000 downloads you made only $61.18?

    Do you think you could've made more by charging $.99?

    He wouldn't have had that many downloads of the app if it had been payed (just an educated guess) But he probably would have made more yes.
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