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iOS game revenue survey: 50% of App Store games make less than $3k

by Mike Schramm Sep 29th 2011 at 6:05PM

Developer Owen Goss (the mind behind Landformer and Baby's Musical Hands) has spent the last few weeks or so putting together a really comprehensive survey on revenue for iOS games and apps, all based on answers from 252 actual iOS developers. He's shared the results on his blog, and they're pretty fascinating. Unfortunately, as he states early on, this is a pretty informal survey, with a self-selected sample group that's on its honor to answer truthfully (and some of the questions, Goss admits, may not have been completely clear).

But there's still some interesting info in here. The majority of the developers polled are working independently, and a surprising amount of them, exactly 50%, are working on their own as a one-person shop. And while some developers have made a lot of money on the store (the average lifetime earnings is actually around $165k), most developers don't make more than a few thousand dollars. 50% of developers polled in Goss' survey have made less than $3,000 in all of their app sales. The median game, too, made less than $1000, though of course there were some games that made much less and much more.

Goss also found a few other interesting stats, like the fact that most developers tend to make more revenue as they release more games (which is logical -- of course devs get better at making, marketing, and selling games as they get more experienced at it). If you're a developer, an aspiring dev, or just interested in how the iOS dev grind goes, you'll want to read through the results of the survey.



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Developer Owen Goss (the mind behind Landformer and Baby's Musical Hands) has spent the last few weeks or so putting together a really...
 

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Talobab

I'm sorry, but having reviewed the methodology used, this survey is completely inacurate. The majority of the large game developers would not share this information, would not have been invited (at least not the people that could actually answer the questions) and / or would not waste their time answering a survey monkey survey.
The survey itself actually proves this with the majority of people who filled it out being proverbial "one man bands" because they were the only ones willing to fill it out. So ultimately this survey tells us nothing except what type of money the developers who have the time and inclination to fill out surveys SAY they make on apps.

September 30 2011 at 10:32 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
r_r

That's pretty good side income if you do this as a hobby.

September 30 2011 at 3:33 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
mjar81

My app gained some traction when i released v2.0 and has been netting over $1k a month for the past 3 months since the release... the beauty of the App Store is about new users discovering your app creates a constant stream of revenue.

Lets hope my app keeps on that track and I'll be one of those top 37% :)

September 30 2011 at 9:56 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Fredrik Olsson

In what context should I look at these numbers? How much money do an average Flash, Android or WP7 app earn it's developer?

What is the development cost vs. revenue share?

September 30 2011 at 8:15 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
robogobo

Given the number of complete crap games out there, the surprising thing is that 50% of them make more than $3k.

September 30 2011 at 3:30 AM Report abuse +1 rate up rate down Reply
tpl

Nothing new here. This is true for most content creators. For example, most musicians/songs don't make money. Here's a piece of stat : According to the Nielsen research, only 2.1 percent of the albums released in 2009 sold even 5,000 copies. (source The Daily Swarm).

Compared to musicians, game developers do MUCH better. I suspect artists (painters) do much worse.

September 30 2011 at 12:04 AM Report abuse +1 rate up rate down Reply
1 reply to tpl's comment
tpl

Oh, and most of the money an album makes doesn't even go to the musician. For every $1000 worth of music sold, the average musician makes $23.40.

http://www.thedailyswarm.com/headlines/sad-pie-chart-illustrates-distribution-music-revenue/

September 30 2011 at 12:07 AM Report abuse +1 rate up rate down Reply
macserv

Wait, so you're saying that not everyone who fires up Xcode is going to be capable of creating a million-dollar app? Furthermore, in a highly competitive market, a game has to be in the top third to make serious money? Color me shocked!

In all seriousness, I *am* genuinely surprised that a game developer only has to get to the top 37% before they make $10,000.00. That actually seems pretty forgiving. If you're not seeing the kind of profits you want, reduce your costs, or make a better game.

September 29 2011 at 9:54 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
thirdopticaltool

Er... doesn't that also mean 50% makes more than $3k?

Why doesn't your headline read "11% of App Store games make more than $100,000"?

Jeez, don't be such a Negative Nancy.

September 29 2011 at 9:45 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
1 reply to thirdopticaltool's comment
giovanniporcari

You are wrong: the headline should be "15 % of App Store games make more than $100,000" as there is a 4% that make more than 1M. ;)

September 30 2011 at 10:12 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
1 reply to giovanniporcari's comment
mjar81

And that 7.5% of App store games make more than $100,000 and the money all goes to 1 guy since 50% of those surveyed are one-man shops.

September 30 2011 at 11:51 AM Report abuse rate up rate down
boriscleto

How's this. Based on a survey of 1 App Store user, 90% of App Store games suck.

September 29 2011 at 6:33 PM Report abuse +2 rate up rate down Reply
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