8 replies to this topic

[Telios]

Hiya,

I'm trying to mock up a business proposal for a mobile game. Is anyone aware of a place offering sales figures/research for the Android and/or Apple platforms?

This kind of information seems an important basis for writing the proposal, but it's actually been really difficult to find! I'm happy to consider buying the information if there are market research firms out there who offer it.

Thanks for any advice.

Cheers!

[frob]

Sales figures are legally a trade secret, so it is understandable to have trouble finding them.

For medium-to-large companies, revealing sales figures is generally a fire-able offense. For publicly traded companies it can result in severe penalties, and using that knowledge to make trades can result in jail time.

There are many market research sources, ranging from the free VGChartz web site to the rather expensive NPD research numbers. A quick Google search of "video game market research" pulled up five well-known companies on the first ten search results --- although maybe that is just Google's profile of me recognizing that I have a business interest.

[Tom Sloper]

Yes, that stuff can be hard to find. Even NPD has only just now started collecting that kind of data.
I recommend you keep on searching, and subscribe to gamesindustry.biz, and try these links:
http://www.researchandmarkets.com
http://www.marketresearch.com
http://www.abiresearch.com
http://www.vgchartz.com
http://archives.igda.org/faq.php#biz01
http://www.gamesindustry.biz
http://www.gamasutra.com
http://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/bigfishgames.com
http://www.gamesindustry.com/about-newzoo/todaysgamers_graphs_international
http://www.joysticklabs.com/the-quest-for-the-missing-app-data

Two case studies:
http://mikengreg.com/blog/2010/10/2-months-of-solipskier-app-store-sales/
http://struct.ca/2010/the-story-so-far/

Mobile:
http://mashable.com/2011/02/24/mobile-app-dev-cost/
http://communities-dominate.blogs.com/...its-bad-news-and-then-it-gets-worse.html

Edited by Tom Sloper, 16 June 2012 - 10:49 AM.

[Sik_the_hedgehog]

Not many people trust VGChartz so I'm not sure I'd recommend that =P Though no idea about the rest, and there's of course the odd moment when a company decides to release sales figures (mainly when their games do well).

For medium-to-large companies, revealing sales figures is generally a fire-able offense. For publicly traded companies it can result in severe penalties, and using that knowledge to make trades can result in jail time.

Just to make it clear: I assume that's when the company doesn't want to reveal sales figures, right? Or is there some kind of legal restriction that can prevent companies from releasing that information even if they want to? I would find that stupid (if all the entities involved in a trade secret want it to not be secret anymore I don't see why they should be stopped), but you made me wonder that, especially with the whole thing about publicly traded companies.

[Telios]

That's great, thanks for the information and all of those links! It's good to hear how those two developers were successful with their games - their stories (and numbers) are very useful.

All the best.

[mdwh]

Is the rough download count categories given by Google Play of any use? No idea about other download sites like Nokia or Apple though.

[Cubictofu]

Almost none of the sites provide sales figures, they do tend to provide ranking information on downloads and, in the case of apple, top grossing games. I suggest using AppAnnie as a good source of ranking information worldwide.

Since this industry, like so many others, is dictated by an 80/20 rule (or something really close), I suggest googling around for an estimate and back calculate the daily revenue of say the iTunes store. Then apply it to a power curve to estimate the daily revenue of games in the top 200 listing. Its not completely accurate of course, but it provides you an indication of how much money is made at what ranking daily.

[Orymus3]

http://communities-d...gets-worse.html

That one appears to be a broken link Tom.
Otherwise, nice list!

[Tom Sloper]

Googled and found the full link
http://communities-dominate.blogs.com/brands/2010/06/full-analysis-of-iphone-economics-its-bad-news-and-then-it-gets-worse.html/