A lot of iOS developers are still on the fence about bringing their games to Android, mostly due to a revenue concern. Let this be yet another case and point for Android gaming and also a point for us as we have been saying for awhile now that Freemium is a great business model for your game if you can integrate it.
Spacetime Studios, developers of Pocket Legends and the upcoming space MMORPG Blackstar, has a talk with Computer World about Android vs. iOS and revenue. Surprisingly, for as short of a time period that Pocket Legends has been out on Android, it generates more revenue than its iOS brother. We aren’t talking just a few dollars either but a significant difference in revenue generated as well as other interesting statistics such as usage.
First, diving into the stats, Pocket Legends is currently downloaded 9,000 times a day on average on Android as opposed to 3,000-4,000 on the App Store. Also, Android users who have Pocket Legends installed play it three times more than iOS players. This last statistic though helps support a previous article we wrote about the value of the Android gamers and that mobile gaming in general is now considered the mass-market by advertisers. Android users click ads in Pocket Legends three times as much as iOS users and end up making a purchase from those clickthroughs twice as often as iOS players.
Charts show revenue from the game’s first 30 and 60 days in the Apple App Store compared with its first 30 and 60 days in the Android Market.
So what does this all boil down to for Pocket Legends and Spacetime Studios? A significant difference in revenue generated from Android over iOS the size of 30%-50% more. Even though iOS has a polished in-game purchasing system and Android’s hasn’t even debuted yet (next month apparently) so Spacetime has to use their own setup, Android brings in much more revenue.
While you don’t need to be a Freemium game to be successful on the Android Market, it is one proven avenue that has been successful on many platforms. Generally though, to see success on Android, you just need to have a great, polished and original game. Success like this should make other iOS-only developers take a second look at Android and bringing their games to the platform.
Developer Website: Spacetime Studios
Website Referenced: Computer World
