Tuesday, October 8, 2013

Are iOS games more blockbuster driven than even Hollywood?

We classically hear about some industries (such as movies, pharmaceautical drugs or games) as having a blockbuster business model.  The top products make a ton of money, making up for all the loses of the average product.

I've always thought that the iOS game market might rely even more on blockbusters than Hollywood itself.  Sensortower recently released their app leaderboards, which estimate how much each App is worth.  I obviously can't say whether or not their estimates are correct (and they don't claim to be representing revenue exactly), but I just took it as the truth and compared it with the top grossing movies of 2012.


I represented the revenue of each game or movie as a percentage of the top grossing example in its category. The results are interesting - movies exhibited a much flatter curve than the iPhone games.

Why is this?  It could be because more people discover iPhone games by looking at the top charts, whereas movie recommendations work in a variety of ways.  It could be that it is difficult to market to a niche iPhone game segment compared to a niche movie segment - leading to mass market games being most popular.  And it could be because the top iPhone games really are that much better than the 100th iPhone game.

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