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TV Commercials Vault Games to Top Tier of App Store Rankings

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Original poster
Apr 12, 2001
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Analytics firm App Annie has released its February data (via AppleInsider) on top-performing apps on iOS and Android for the month of February, highlighting how large developers have increasingly been able to leverage television commercials to help boost their rankings. Such tactics are obviously not within financial reach of most developers, but established players such as King and Big Fish Games have the resources to make an impact on television.

In looking at the top App Store games by revenue in February, App Annie notes that King's Farm Heroes Saga leapt sixteen places from the previous month to land in seventh place, while Big Fish Casino moved up six places to just break into the top ten. Both games have benefited from television advertising in recent months, driving their visibility and user interest.
Farm Heroes Saga made major gains in iOS revenue in February, giving publisher King three of the Top 10 positions. [...] Farm Heroes Saga received extensive TV and print campaigns in the United Kingdom and United States, and performed strongly in both markets.

Another app receiving extensive TV commercials in the United States in February was Big Fish Casino, which made significant gains to join the Top 10 games by iOS revenue. It was interesting to note that the commercials for Big Fish Casino targeted female players, a marketing stance that has been adopted by several big game publishers in 2014.
Click to expand...
Long-standing top performers Clash of Clans and Candy Crush Saga have also seen significant television advertising in recent months.

The Flappy Bird phenomenon was obviously strong in the month of February, with developer Dong Nguyen's .Gears Studio ranking number one in total App Store game downloads in February, despite having only three titles in the store and Flappy Bird itself having been taken down on the 9th of the month. Even so, Flappy Bird ranked as the most downloaded game for the month, while another title, Super Ball Juggling, placed seventh.

And of course the rush of copycats also saw an impact, with a number of Flappy Bird clones seeing substantial success during the month, particularly in the wake of Flappy Bird's removal. At one point late last month, one-third of all new App Store games were either clones of Flappy Bird or inspired by the title. Only a small fraction of those titles seeking to ride on the popularity of Flappy Bird experienced success, but those that did saw very high numbers of downloads.

Article Link: TV Commercials Vault Games to Top Tier of App Store Rankings
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/2014/03/26/app-store-games-tv-ads/
luckydcxx

luckydcxx

macrumors 65816
Jun 13, 2013
1,158
419
those candy crush commercials are really annoying, the clash of clans isn't that bad.
 
P

pedromcm.pm

macrumors 6502
Mar 23, 2014
483
0
Porto, Portugal
Here's the deal.

We now reached a point where the amount of apps is meaningless. There are thousands and thousands of "apps" (at least on Android) that are nothing more than a single wallpaper, or theme, or something about farts, etc.

Now, the important metric should be app quality, supported APIs, design guidelines, etc. Of course the App Store is well above the others in this metric, but (as data shows) it's not enough.

Copycat apps should be fiercely hunted down, devs penalized and the "filtering" should be tougher.

Am I wrong?
 
Sky Blue

Sky Blue

Guest
Jan 8, 2005
6,856
11
pedromcm.pm said:
Am I wrong?
Click to expand...

Yes.

Who determines App quality? I have no interest in Clash of Clans, but obviously people enjoy it.

The success of Temple Run (arguably a copy of Canabalt) had a bunch of copycat games, some of which were better than the original.
 
street.cory

street.cory

macrumors 6502
Oct 13, 2009
379
168
pedromcm.pm said:
We now reached a point where the amount of apps is meaningless. There are thousands and thousands of "apps" (at least on Android) that are nothing more than a single wallpaper, or theme, or something about farts, etc.

Now, the important metric should be app quality, supported APIs, design guidelines, etc. Of course the App Store is well above the others in this metric, but (as data shows) it's not enough.

Copycat apps should be fiercely hunted down, devs penalized and the "filtering" should be tougher.

Am I wrong?
Click to expand...

Apple's App Review Guidelines


" Apps that duplicate apps already in the App Store may be rejected, particularly if there are many of them.
We have over 250,000 apps in the App Store. We don’t need any more Fart apps.
If your app doesn’t do something useful or provide some form of lasting entertainment, it may not be accepted. "
 
W

winston1236

macrumors 68000
Dec 13, 2010
1,902
319
I love how the Clash of Clans commercial shows graphics that look nothing like the actual game at all.
 
J

JHankwitz

macrumors 68000
Oct 31, 2005
1,911
58
Wisconsin
It always amazes me at how many people have so much time on their hands that they can spend so much time playing games. They either need a job or a real life interacting with other humans.
 
W

winston1236

macrumors 68000
Dec 13, 2010
1,902
319
Consultant said:
Video games do that a lot. Even desktop games like Diablo has tv ads that look nothing like the game.
Click to expand...

Yea I know, it just makes the original game look so disappointing after seeing an awesome 3d commercial only to find out the graphics are like a Tetris game.
 
whooleytoo

whooleytoo

macrumors 604
Aug 2, 2002
6,607
716
Cork, Ireland.
Great. So in 10+ years time when I finally finish developing my iOS game, I'll just have to find a few thousand euros/dollars to fund a TV marketing campaign to get it noticed.

I'm beginning to sense a flaw in my business plan..
 
W

winston1236

macrumors 68000
Dec 13, 2010
1,902
319
whooleytoo said:
Great. So in 10+ years time when I finally finish developing my iOS game, I'll just have to find a few thousand euros/dollars to fund a TV marketing campaign to get it noticed.

I'm beginning to sense a flaw in my business plan..
Click to expand...

TV ads cost a lot more than a few thousand euros.
 
bbeagle

bbeagle

macrumors 68040
Oct 19, 2010
3,541
2,981
Buffalo, NY
ActionableMango said:
Shocking news.
Click to expand...

Yes.

Advertising = More sales

And a whole article to describe this 'phenomenon'? Maybe my calling is to NOT be a journalist, because I wouldn't even think this was NEWS, yet alone even THINK to write an article about something so obvious.

Maybe the next MacRumors articles will be:
iPhone 6 confirmed to include a touch screen.
2014 MacBook Air to come in silver.
Samsung releases an ad that mocks Apple users.
 
M

Millah

macrumors 6502a
Aug 6, 2008
866
515
JHankwitz said:
It always amazes me at how many people have so much time on their hands that they can spend so much time playing games. They either need a job or a real life interacting with other humans.
Click to expand...

Hardy har, aren't you clever? Ugh, hasn't this stereotype died yet? I guess ignorance never truly dies.

Since when does working or interacting with other humans encompass 24 hours of a persons day? Work occupies 8 hours, leaving a person with 9 hours left in their day (assuming they sleep 7 hours a night.) So if a person spends 1 hour a night playing games, they still have lets say about 7 more hours in their day.

Give me a break. People like you act like you never have alone time to relax. Yea buddy, I bet you've got SUCH a busy life. Trolling aint easy.
 
69Mustang

69Mustang

macrumors 604
Jan 7, 2014
7,895
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In between a rock and a hard place
JHankwitz said:
It always amazes me at how many people have so much time on their hands that they can spend so much time playing games. They either need a job or a real life interacting with other humans.
Click to expand...

"Hey dude! Come check out this quote on MacRumors." - Pot

"Aw man, that's rich" - Kettle

They game and you post on internet forums. I don't see the difference.:confused:
 
mw360

mw360

macrumors 68020
Aug 15, 2010
2,032
2,395
JHankwitz said:
It always amazes me at how many people have so much time on their hands that they can spend so much time playing games. They either need a job or a real life interacting with other humans.
Click to expand...

And what are you doing right now that is so awesome?
 
iChrist

iChrist

macrumors 65816
Sep 7, 2011
1,479
432
3 countries for tax benefit
street.cory said:
Apple's App Review Guidelines


" Apps that duplicate apps already in the App Store may be rejected, particularly if there are many of them.
We have over 250,000 apps in the App Store. We don’t need any more Fart apps.
If your app doesn’t do something useful or provide some form of lasting entertainment, it may not be accepted. "
Click to expand...


Apple put this guideline up solely for comedic value. They in no way enforce it and their management of the App Store is a joke.

:apple:
 
bbeagle

bbeagle

macrumors 68040
Oct 19, 2010
3,541
2,981
Buffalo, NY
JHankwitz said:
It always amazes me at how many people have so much time on their hands that they can spend so much time playing games. They either need a job or a real life interacting with other humans.
Click to expand...

Everything in moderation.

8 hours of work, 8 hours of sleep, 8 hours of play.
 
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