Some Metrics and Comments About Rankings

Some Metrics

Here are some basic figures about my game that have come to light since making the full game free of charge to users.

The Lite version of the game has seen a daily install rate of about 6 installs per day - this has been fairly consistent with a slight increase over the 3-4 month period the game has been available for.

The Full version, since being made free, has had an average of 14 installs per day - also a consistent figure.

This is during periods when there is no advertising. The value spikes considerably when advertising is active. 

Each user appears to use the game for an average of about 2 to 3 days before ceasing activating the game.  The average user visits the front page of the game about 12 times during the lifetime of the game. (4-5 per day).

On average about 55 users play the game each day. This is of a total install base of about 160 - so on average one third of my users currently are active each day.

Some notes about monetisation strategies for this game.

Monetisation strategies typically require high volumes of users.  Either a high volume of users or a high activity with a moderate volume of users is required. As such - my game has neither (in my opinion) to be worth monetising.  

Unless the daily average users increased by a factor of about 30x it is most likely not worth the effort to place advertising within the game.  

Monetisation strategies such as IAPs are not of benefit either since the game is typically played for a short duration (a few days) and my design does not really cater to IAPs since there is nothing that really is suitable as a saleable item in the game.

What I have noticed however is that no matter what method I use for promoting and advertising the game - the organic install rates for both free and paid has remained fairly constant and consistent.  

In terms of ranking in the app store charts the game sits at what I consider about 4th tier.

The tiers that I have identified in the app store rankings can be broken down into the following:

Tier 1 -

50,000 installs minimum, most apps are above the 100k mark with many in the millions.

Tier 2 -

10,000 installs minimum, with most apps hovering around the 50k mark.

Tier 3 -

5,000 installs minimum, with most apps hovering between 5 and 10k.

Tier 4 -

Everything below 5,000 installs.

This is a rough guide to how the app store ranks apps. Note there are exceptions and sometimes these exceptions are very weird - especially in the lower Tiers (apps with 1 install in the 3rd tier sometimes, and apps with 10,000,000 installs in Tier 4).  

My own app currently sits in Tier 4. I estimate that without advertising it will take approximately 2 years to reach  Tier 3 and may never reach Tier 2.