No worries. Looks like this thread is very well needed. Also if you guys are interested in learning game and ad metrics I'm pretty well versed on the subject..
Android devices have a larger market share, but device market share is completely irrelevant. What is relevant is Average Revenue Per User and Average Cost Per Install per store and Apple's App Store has outpaced Google Play on the ARPU and Average CPI which means, for the same game, 100,000 installs on iOS are worth more and make the developer more money than 100,000 installs on Google Play.
It's true that most developers can do a good percentage what publishers do, but is it's a calculation of opportunity costs. You can paint your own house, change your own oil in your car, and cook your own food. However, there are skilled professionals who do those things every day and make a living at it and thus are probably more efficient than you could ever be doing it for the first time. Getting a publisher is no different. The time and effort it would take me to make a decedent red velvet cake from scratch would be rewarding but it would take hours of my time and since I'm not somebody who deals with this every day, I could completely screw it up. Or I can just go to my favorite bakery and buy a better version of what I was trying to do. So not only would going to a professional be better tasting it would free up my time to concentrate on making more games instead of cake.
@gregorystorm, I agree with ARPU (although a better measure is ARPDAU and LTV of user, that's for a later thread) with one small issue on CPI? CPI is an advertising payment method used by performance advertiser, which has become a standard on mobile. As an advertiser it is very relevant but as a publisher or game developer monetizing, eCPM, Fill rates, total daily revenue should be the first and only concern. I think you hit on something, and that is, each platform has a very distinct economy. Apple by design, requires you the end user to place a credit card on iTunes, while on Android all you need is an email account which is free. So way back when this started, the iTunes end user would have a higher propensity to "spend on IAP or virtual currency," while the Android end user and by Google's design, was and continues to be ad-centric.
A little scary fact (from Sensor Tower) about Q4 2015: - The most surprising takeaway from our analysis of U.S. App Store publishers is that the top 1 percent of those who monetize their apps accounted for 94 percent of the store’s revenue last quarter. That means approximately $1.34 billion of the estimated $1.43 billion in net revenue generated by the store during Q1 went to 623 publishers, the remaining 6 percent—approximately $85.8 million—was divided among the other 61,677 publishers whose apps are paid or feature in-app purchases. [Now you decide if you need a publisher or not... I mean, it's hard enough with a publisher]
Just curious, did your apps gain success organically or did you do any paid promotions to get them going? Thanks
I'd be interested in starting some kind of cross-promotion group. The bottom line is its very hard for people to even find your apps at all by searching. The app store is poorly organized in my opinion.
I think it does include everything, Sensor Tower has access to this kind of info just as AppAnnie has.
Well that is discouraging but the app store is setup so that will be the result. When they took down the new releases section it made it 2000% harder for new apps to be discovered. It still happens, but the app store is not nearly as dynamic as it used to be. If you look at the top paid arcade apps as one example, the same apps are in the top 20 as were last year and the year before that. Think about that, is Tiny Wings or Back Flip madness really the best paid arcade games year after year? I doubt it. With competition better things come along. Probably a lot of good apps have never been discovered that would knock those apps out if people knew about them. I understand that Apple was concerned about the massive number of clone apps cluttering up the new releases section, but I think not approving clone apps in the first place would have been a better approach. They could also have a policy of deleting zombie apps that haven't been downloaded in 6 months. The new releases section didn't just benefit developers it benefited customers. Yes you can try to rank for a certain keyword but a new app automatically starts at the bottom so won't be discovered. I noticed on the iPad they added some new search filters for the user so they can sort on a keyword by release date or other parameters, and they should do that for the iPhone as well. I think Amazon's book store should be the model. It allows users to find new books, sort by price, and so on so discovery is possible and far more likely.
True, the app store offers almost Zero support to the new (non-featured) apps/games. In my experience ASO and localization and all those things help almost Zero these days... - But it is what it is, the model got saturated and now it's adept (find a way) or die... Games have always been complicated. You can't really define a clone (except the 99% obvious copies) - so you can't put a rule on 'what constitutes as a clone' - if you go too harsh - you'll end up with about 500-600 games and everything else would be a clone -- if you go too easy, almost everything will pass -- there's no middle ground, not really... So, as with many artforms and business models, publishers kick in, and push the apps through paid marketing and god knows what else...
SensorTower does not have the same information that App Annie has and thus is far less accurate. App Annie has real stats directly from Apple and the ad networks as authorized by each of their users. SensorTower only has algorithmic guesses and not real per app data.
@Pandemonium Here is how App Annie works. When you sign up with them, you create a separate account for App Annie to login in and access your iTunes connect information. That's how they process your stats and revenue directly from Apple. You also are able to give App Annie your ad network login information and that is how they pull in your ad network revenue into your earnings reports. Multiply that times the hundreds of thousands of developers including some of the biggest publishers on the planet using App Annie and you'll quickly see how their data is far superior. SensorTower has a really good algorithm doing guess work to figure out keywords. App Annie knows exactly what keywords a majority of apps on the App Store are using because App Annie has direct access to the accounts. SensorTower does not.
Right but a publisher that has been doing this for awhile and has a proven track record of success. And I would caution any game creator going with a publisher that signs a deal that can "guarantee going viral"
AppAnnie is one of many tools to use, I would stick to analytics that directly impact your specific app. You should care more about user experience and game play. What is the average time spent per session, at what specific event did the user decide to continue or exit. These are all very important and a few of the metrics that you as a creator should measure. AppAnnie doesn't not do that and it is more for an overall view of what your app is doing in terms of country rankings etc. If you focus on the micro the marcro should take care of itself. Tools in the marketplace that are very popular are.......... PM me and I'll let you know don't want to give away too much info here, since I've noticed most people here are just beginning as creators and publishers.
