Hello, at first I would like to say I’m a newbie, this data is just my personal data from my games, it’s not a study of a market or something like that.
Before I was releasing games only on Android, but just like 1–1.5 month ago I had released my last game “Fisherman” on IOS. To be honest I Was ready for fail (IOS version got a lot less promotion than my release on Android). Before I was not releasing games for IOS because of cost (license, devices, etc).
I got ~1.48k total downloads , 189 in one day (highest), for me it’s nice, I mean, I was thinking, I won’t even pass 100.
Fisherman Downloads
Download Countries
If we come to earnings it was $27.58 from Chartboost ads (full screen) and $14.18 from Unity Ads (reward video). Comparing IOS to Android, IOS got a lot higher earnings. On Chartboost ECPM (for Fisherman) it’s $6.30 for IOS and $1.50 for Android, so the difference is huge. I think it’s because CTR is 11.63% on IOS and 3.21% on Android. If we look at Chartboost earnings with ~5k downloads I got $38.71 earnings on Android and $27.58 on IOS (with 1.48k downloads). “Fisherman” is free to play game, no IAP, only reward videos and full screen ad (1x per ~7 minutes + players need to reach certain game level to see it).
My total cost of releasing a game on IOS was ~$185 (port from Android → IOS), total earnings are $41.76 (IOS) (not withdrawable + I need to deduce tax from that cash).
Like I said before, I was not releasing on IOS because costs (dev license cost ~$100 per year, when on Google it’s $25 per lifetime) + for developing on IOS you need MAC device. I just wanted to check out, how releasing games on IOS looks like. To be honest I must say that it’s a lot easier to promote the game on IOS than on Android + it’s easier to get organic downloads, earnings on IOS are a lot better.
Device Type
A lot of people ask how does the apple review work, to be honest, I was releasing a total of 3 games on IOS. Expect “Fisherman” game I was releasing “Mirkowanie” and “Casual Tree”. Casual tree earned ~$0.7 (47 downloads), Mirkowanie earned $0.07 (60 downloads). I’m using Unity, so I had to set few things on XCode (I had to edit info.plist, add few frameworks, add capability, and some other things). The process was easy and fast. I had been just suppressed by “Encryption Export Compliance” question, I don’t use any cryptography, but even if app use HTTPS or SSL connection I had to check “YES” (so if app got ads or use GameCenter, some API, we need to check “yes”). After It, I got 3 of my games rejected by Apple (description was suggesting, that players can get real cash, to be honest, I never had that purpose, I had change description, I got rejected again, then I had again changed description, then 2 of my 3 games got accepted. For the 3rd game I had to appeal (It got rejected because it was similar to others), after a few days my 3rd game got accepted.
Download types
I know what is Reddit and TouchAracde, iosgods is linking to “hacked” version of my game (with high cash), to be honest I don’t got problem with it, it’s extra promotion.
Check out my game:
And my social media:
Now I’m working on Yerba Mate tycoon game for Steam, I take a break from Mobile markets ;P Not sure if this data is useful for any1. Also, it don’t mean that you won’t earn cash from your game/app because, I didn’t earn it (there are games/apps which earn cash, and there are apps/games that don’t, it’s normal). Feel free to ask questions. Threat this post as a “curiosity” :-}