Some Amazing Analytics for an iOS Game

General (non-technical) Off-Topic
#1

Domino Dog is the first app I’ve released since Launchpad Analytics were introduced, so I’ve been able to uncover some insights beyond that provided by Admob, OpenFeint, Facebook, and iTunes Connect. I thought it would be a good idea to share what I’ve found out.

Some useful information before I get into stats:

The game includes both OpenFeint and Game Center support. Both of them get a dedicated button. The user is prompted to use both of them when the game first starts.

The game lets you post progress to Facebook and Twitter. Both of them get a dedicated button.

The game was designed for an iPhone, but I used Corona’s scaling features to release it as a universal app for iPhone and iPad.

The game prompts the user to provide a review after a few levels have been played.

These statistics only cover the first day of availability, during which the game was downloaded by about 2300 unique users.

  1. LaunchPad only captured information on about 40% of users. There could be many reasons for this, including lack of internet connectivity, not playing the game after downloading it, or unknown bugs hahaha.

  2. 25% of users used OpenFeint for high scores and achievements. Less than 0.1% for Game Center.

  3. 20 users tried the “post to Facebook” feature. 0 used the “post to Twitter” one. In either case, it’s the equivalent of 0% :stuck_out_tongue:

  4. Over 80% of users played the game on an iPad, not an iPhone.

  5. Users on an iPad spent over 5x as long playing than users on an iPhone.

  6. A couple of people left reviews despite the fact that at least half (if not almost all) users made it far enough in the game to be prompted to provide one. The equivalent of 0%.

  7. Despite Ads receiving prime placement at the top-center, very few users clicked through anyway. I’m convinced that unless your App is downloaded over a million times, you probably couldn’t afford to pay a single person using only Ad revenue. :stuck_out_tongue:

[import]uid: 36054 topic_id: 17659 reply_id: 317659[/import]

#2

Was it downloaded by 2300 unique users the very first day?! That’s amazing! :smiley:

Did you make any ads for your app anywhere? [import]uid: 24111 topic_id: 17659 reply_id: 67200[/import]

#3

Advertising isn’t a one and done thing. I’m still working on it. For instance, I still need to submit my game to some review sites.

With that said, here’s what I’ve done so far:

  1. Tweeted the crap out of it (some people have retweeted).
  2. Posted on Facebook a few times.
  3. Submitted to the Corona Showcase.
  4. Created a YouTube video. I often include it in tweets.
  5. Added a page for the game on my “Google Sites” webpage. I needed this so I had a place to put the Corona badges and be eligible for prizes/promos/etc.
  6. Posted the game on some other showcases, still in process of doing that too.

I’ve also submitted a new version (mainly for bug fixes), but it includes a “More Apps” button that shows the user my other apps in the store (perhaps that will net Clock Cannon some downloads, lol)
[import]uid: 36054 topic_id: 17659 reply_id: 67205[/import]

#4

Great info, blasterv, thanks very much for sharing. On a related note, my experience with YouTube app videos, after “marketing”, tweeting and submitting it to various/numerous sites, it only gets a very small number of viewers…and about 99% of those are from this Corona site! :wink: [import]uid: 40033 topic_id: 17659 reply_id: 67213[/import]

#5

Fava, I agree with your comments, but I don’t really know of any better approaches right now. I’d like to think there’s something I can do other than releasing a game to help it be successful :stuck_out_tongue: [import]uid: 36054 topic_id: 17659 reply_id: 67214[/import]

#6

Thanks, your feedback about Open Feint is interesting for my 1st game coming! [import]uid: 67641 topic_id: 17659 reply_id: 67740[/import]

#7

Just some updated stats from my second game, Line Bot:

  1. 80% of the users are still on an iPad, just like with Domino Dog. 10% iPhone 10% iPod Touch

  2. You can get more ad revenue by placing the ad in place that’s more likely to be hit accidentally, but not more than once or twice, rather than some place far outside the reach of gameplay (yes, slightly evil I know :P)

  3. Domino Dog prompted people to join OpenFeint and passed stuff to Game Center. As I mentioned above, 25% of users ended up using OpenFeint, but less than .1% chose to pass information to Game Center.

Line Bot on the other hand, shipped out with Native Game Center support and no OpenFeint and prompted the user to make or log-in to an account. 29% of users used Game Center, an even higher rate than OpenFeint. But that’s not all, the vast majority of Game Center users had “real accounts” and were not just player 124345435834.

This tells me two things:

  1. Doing Game Center through OpenFeint is worthless (no surprise there really, that’s why we’ve all pushed for native support). No one uses it.

  2. Game Center has caught up with (maybe even surpassed) OpenFeint in terms of usage now, and Game Center users can’t just be given an account as player 23535325325, they actually have to want to create one and fill in their information to get it.

[import]uid: 36054 topic_id: 17659 reply_id: 81480[/import]

#8

Thank you for sharing your insights. These are very helpful. [import]uid: 9422 topic_id: 17659 reply_id: 81533[/import]

#9

Thank you for sharing. I have both OF and GC implemented, and it’s sad to hear OF appears to be useless. I wonder if there’s a way to help the users understand how OF works (and how they can easily change their screen name, etc., etc…)

Thanks again, and best of luck with all your game releases!

Naomi [import]uid: 67217 topic_id: 17659 reply_id: 81548[/import]