No doubt Angry Birds is one of the top mobile games It is available on multiple platforms including iOS, webOS, Symbian 3, and Android. It is one of the leading games in both the Apple App Store and the Android Market. It boasts of over 7 million Android users, over 12 million iOS users, and over 30 million total downloads since its launch in late 2009. Needless to say, these are impressive statistics for a game that is about to celebrate its first anniversary.
The creators of Angry Birds were profiled in a recent video compiled by Google for its YouTube channel dedicated to mobile advertising and application development. The fun, five-minute video is hosted by Peter Vesterbacka, the man also known as Rovio’s Mighty Eagle. In this must-see video for Angry Birds fans, Vesterbacka reveals some interesting facts that confirm Angry Birds has captured the hearts and minds of people around the world.
According to Vesterbacka, people collectively spend an astounding 65 million minutes a day playing Angry Birds. The casual, level-based game lends itself to quick moments of play while waiting for the doctor, relaxing on the subway ride home, or even while on the loo. Once people try the game, most people get hooked. According to Rovio, the game has an 80% retention rate as measured by the number of people who download updates.
Of interest to mobile developers, Vesterbacka talks about the two different revenue models being used by Rovio. The iOS version of Angry Birds was launched as a paid application with a wallet-friendly price of 99 cents. The Android version was launched with an ad-based model. The application is available for free, but generates revenue from in-application advertisements.
Though both models generate revenue, the ad-based model is preferable to the paid app model, according to Rovio.One deciding factor is updates which are necessary to keep fans interested in the game. With iOS, updates are available for free to those who already purchased this app. All revenue for Rovio is generated on this first purchase only. With Android, revenue is generated throughout the life of the game – from the original version and through all future updates advertising is present.
So how successful is the ad-based model? Rovio did not state in this video but Vesterbacka has been quoted as saying “By end of year, we project earnings of over $1 million per month with the ad-supported version of Angry Birds” . One million per month is not too shabby, especially when you consider that the Android version only became available in October.
[Via Google]
