Made $250k in 16 months - first game ever - AMA

[yakuzaemme]

First off; my apologies for being away. Used to be very active here - slowly getting back to it.
Bought a new house, got married and big work projects has eaten up all the spare time I had left.

It will be a pretty vague thread start - but my first game ever has finally surpassed $200k, and was uploaded 16 months ago.

Some stats:

Android Installs: 4.500.000
Android Revenue: $100,500
iOS Installs: 715.000
iOS Revenue: $100,900

Best month so far: $22,177.00
Worst month: $1,856.00


Some screenshots (else people yell troll)
[Screenshot] Revenue by Platform (Apple/Google)
[Screenshot] Revenue by Month
[Screenshot] Revenue by Country
[Screenshot] Revenue by Network
[Screenshot] Android Installs Past Months
[Screenshot] iOS Installs Lifetime
[Screenshot] Android Installs (AppAnnie)


Will leave the thread pretty much open for any type of questions, and do my best to answer them all.

This is my very first app and game ever - so it has been a really challenging but fun ride as I have only done web before.
Has been a true eye-opener for me how much money there is in apps and looking to trade knowledge with all of you here!

Emil

 

[M4XW3LL]

Impressive stats. Did you develop the game yourself or hired a team?

Can you tell us why it's so popular in Japan?

 

[scythe876]

what is programming language you use?
your games multiplayer or just single player?

 

[Deleted member 923340]

I'll ask the most obvious question.
What's your profit?

 

[ddlmanager]

What was the overall marketing strategy behind those numbers?

 

[awesomewebsites]

How much you spent in the development of the game ?

 

[yakuzaemme]

Impressive stats. Did you develop the game yourself or hired a team?

Can you tell us why it's so popular in Japan?

An app-game agency developed it. Looking into app development in my spare time (as I only know web myself).

Japan was an 'accident'. Was meant to try and rank on App Store in China - hired a translator which gave me a top keyword, but in Japanese.
Entered it, two weeks later the app was #1 making insane money.

Here's a fun screenshot of just Japan, before and just when it started:
https://i.gyazo.com/034f963e248129f24e066ba7c1f78121.png

A lot of people seem to forget about those rich countries outside the west - but they truly are a goldmine.

 

[aristocratic]

If it doesn't break BHW rules can you share the game?

 

[RealDaddy]

1. What type of game it was?

2. How much money did you invested?

Thanks

 

[yakuzaemme]

I'll ask the most obvious question.
What's your profit?

$150,000 so far. $40k towards development, $10k in translations and efforts to rank

What was the overall marketing strategy behind those numbers?

A mix between ASO and social media.

The perfect balance seems to be heavy ASO optimization (with keyword research), and then social media campaigns to generate
installs by the keywords you've just optimized for.

When we managed to get these two to align perfectly - ranks were (and are) insanely high thus generating
some really good install volume for high-revenue countries.

How much you spent in the development of the game ?

$40,000

 

[badshamayur]

Firstly congratulations bro for ur success @yakuzaemme
May i know which programing language did u use ?

 

[Nesh47]

An app-game agency developed it.

How did you choose the right app-game agency to develop your game? Which parameters you had to take under consideration?

 

[MrDzo]

Congratulation man. This is really motivation thread.

 

[GodAlmighty]

awesome results!

how did you monetize? in-app purchases? banners/ads/whatever? or both/something else?

thanks

 

[JessiPinkme]

I just want to ask, how you promoted your game. The stats are insane, just brief your expenses on promoting and what was the best platfrom to promote??

 

[scythe876]

awesome results!

how did you monetize? in-app purchases? banners/ads/whatever? or both/something else?

thanks

Monetize is not problem when you have alot of traffic, users etc.

 

[yakuzaemme]

Firstly congratulations bro for ur success @yakuzaemme
May i know which programing language did u use ?

The agency who developed it used Unity (C#)

How did you choose the right app-game agency to develop your game? Which parameters you had to take under consideration?

I was not the decision maker for that. I'm responsible for marketing, growth and revenue optimization. Sorry that I can't be of much help there.

awesome results!

how did you monetize? in-app purchases? banners/ads/whatever? or both/something else?

thanks

Primarily ads. In-app purchases is probably around $5-10k only.

The app was first paid ($0.99), but the results were so bad so it was changed to free but heavy ads.

Check the screenshots in the first post where it lists the top networks.
Here's a list of Ad Types, if that helps.
https://i.gyazo.com/a03fc6a0acb26b2e2f2b04ce5502f8b5.png

 

[GodAlmighty]

Monetize is not problem when you have alot of traffic, users etc.

i know, but still interested to hear the path he chose.

 

[kiks]

This is amazing results really!
What are some factors to rank the game in play store, reviews matters apart from install volume? Also users can buy in game currency to become better players,popups allowed?

Please check DM when you're free

 

[HustleTong]

Interested in trying out this game.
Did you create it fully by yourself?
GL mate