iPhone apps need to earn $47K per day to crack App Store's top 10 grossing
To be listed among the top 10 paid applications on the iOS App Store, software must average around 4,000 downloads per day, while a top grossing app must earn $47,000 per day, a new study has revealed.
The figures come from the June edition of mobile app analytics firm Distimo, in its monthly publication on iOS App Store trends. The report, provided to AppleInsider on Friday, reveals that an application ranked No. 10 on the paid charts generates 4,000 downloads per day on average in May 2013.
To crack the top 10 grossing App Store applications, a developer must rake in $47,000 per day. iPhone apps that ranked No. 50 generated an average of $12,000 per day.
Among free applications, the No. 10 spot averaged 72,000 downloads per day on the iPhone. Securing a spot in the top 50 required 23,000 downloads each day in the month of May.
For iPad-only applications, entering the top 50 grossing downloads required an average of $10,200 per day. And breaking into the top 50 free downloads on the iPad required at least 8,200 downloads a day, or about 2.8 times less than on the iPhone App Store.
In contrast, the Google Play store or Amazon's Appstore require much fewer downloads and income to rank among their respective top 50 lists. For example, the No. 50 top grossing app on Google play earned $6,600 in May, almost half that of the iPhone App Store.
In terms of volume, it took just 2,500 downloads per day to reach the top 50 in the Amazon Appstore, which was about nine times less than Apple's iPhone App Store. And the threshold for a top 50 grossing spot on the Amazon Appstore was 2.8 times lower than the iPhone App Store.
Finally, Distimo also found that it's much more difficult to break into a top 10 list on the App Store on weekends, when the number of downloads surges. Thursday is the day of the week when the least amount of downloads are necessary to rank among the top options on the App Store.
In its last report, Distimo revealed that the top applications on iOS earn 4.6 times more than Android's Google Play. But the data also showed that Google has managed to increase its share of mobile revenue significantly throughout the first half of 2013.
The figures come from the June edition of mobile app analytics firm Distimo, in its monthly publication on iOS App Store trends. The report, provided to AppleInsider on Friday, reveals that an application ranked No. 10 on the paid charts generates 4,000 downloads per day on average in May 2013.
To crack the top 10 grossing App Store applications, a developer must rake in $47,000 per day. iPhone apps that ranked No. 50 generated an average of $12,000 per day.
Among free applications, the No. 10 spot averaged 72,000 downloads per day on the iPhone. Securing a spot in the top 50 required 23,000 downloads each day in the month of May.
For iPad-only applications, entering the top 50 grossing downloads required an average of $10,200 per day. And breaking into the top 50 free downloads on the iPad required at least 8,200 downloads a day, or about 2.8 times less than on the iPhone App Store.
In contrast, the Google Play store or Amazon's Appstore require much fewer downloads and income to rank among their respective top 50 lists. For example, the No. 50 top grossing app on Google play earned $6,600 in May, almost half that of the iPhone App Store.
In terms of volume, it took just 2,500 downloads per day to reach the top 50 in the Amazon Appstore, which was about nine times less than Apple's iPhone App Store. And the threshold for a top 50 grossing spot on the Amazon Appstore was 2.8 times lower than the iPhone App Store.
Finally, Distimo also found that it's much more difficult to break into a top 10 list on the App Store on weekends, when the number of downloads surges. Thursday is the day of the week when the least amount of downloads are necessary to rank among the top options on the App Store.
In its last report, Distimo revealed that the top applications on iOS earn 4.6 times more than Android's Google Play. But the data also showed that Google has managed to increase its share of mobile revenue significantly throughout the first half of 2013.
Comments
$47k a day?.....nbd¡
That means Kingdom Rush Frontiers made a nice pile of cash. Good for them, I am already done playing it at veterant settings, need to more maps now
Such a great game.
There must be a shitload of people buying gems, because you always see the same freemium games on the top grossing list.
I just wanted to let everyone know Im ready for this. Im ready for the fame. Everyone download my game quick!
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/icoin$-hd/id380057485?mt=8
I am no longer a numismatist. The app is very nice. In my opinion, the only issue is that coin collecting apps is a niche market.
Yes, coin apps are a niche market, but that is not relevant to my original question.
Apps from banks, businesses, etc. make no money - but are merely media or maketing outlets for other products.
So that leaves smaller companies or independent developers - who, when they upload their app, get lost in that over XXXX zillion apps available for iPhone!
Tough way to make a living from Apps.
Yep only 1% of the population can afford to collect coins for fun/profit. The rest of us need to use them to buy food.
I have a tendency to try apps I've read about in articles online. Maybe getting some of the more popular journalists to try your app might help should they write an article on it.
I read something the other day that said that only 1/3 of apps break even (let alone make money).
We have realized that paid apps just do not sell, even at $1 per app. On the other hand, free apps with advertising do relatively well. We are seeing much better monetization on Android via advertising, than we are seeing on the AppStore.
Apple's penetration in the Indian Smartphone market is extremely low. Their sales went up 300% over the last 6 months, but still meaningless because it was off a very small base. Apple's pricing strategy in India needs to change. If they can make phones in Brazil, there is no reason why they cannot make iPhones in India - they will be much more competitively priced if they make the phones here itself. Foxconn has large operations in India, and Apple can leverage Foxconns's India presence to make phones locally. It makes sense for Apple to manufacture the rumored cheap phones in India, because that way, they get maximum benefit in the largest developing market in the world.
If Apple creates a push in India similar to what they did in China over the last 4 years, the results will be equally impressive for them. But for that, they should learn to think for the long term. Ideally, Apple should be creating a data center in India to target Indian users, building iPhones and iPads locally to get benefit of lower customs duty on components relative to finished products, and probably even start a small scale development center in India. These steps would ensure that Apple gets a much higher penetration in India over the next 3 years.
I've got two apps on the iOS store that have been up for a few months. Sales have been quite low, and I've done the basic marketing, though I can't afford to invest large sums into marketing for my after hours projects that have no clear ROI.
Unless I get really lucky, and somehow one of my apps gets some mainstream exposure, I doubt the trend will change.
Interestingly, my more expensive app for the programmer crowd has made more than my lower priced music remote control app, though the remote control app has moved a few more copies.
I cant believe people are buying the gems for real cash. On the other hand , some heroes are tempting. The 3 we got are max out, with the beast master being the best one by far. Imo the dragon is too expensive. I would buy a bundle of new maps if they make more.