Game Design Secrets

Surveying the iOS Market: What Players Spend, What Developers Earn

The current market for iOS gaming is about 110 million (as discussed), with rough gender parity. By mid-2012, just over half of consumers with an iOS system owned an iPad, as opposed to an iPhone, with just a small sliver of owners with an iPod (according to a Technology Tell report). This is important data to keep in mind, because of the iPad’s much larger screen/playspace and better graphics. And because it has the largest share of iOS gamers, it’s important to design your game so that it optimally runs as well on the iPad as on the iPhone/iPod.

This especially includes strategy, MMOs, and RPGs, which are suited well to the iOS platform.

Games directed at the hard-core market monetize particularly well (see Figure 11-1), as do casino/gambling games, as well as games in the casual/social quadrant, which includes disparate hits like Angry Birds, Draw Something, and Fruit Ninja.

Figure 11-1: Global Attack, a highly monetized strategy game from Spyra.

Mobile Game Spending Patterns (iOS and Android)

Read the company’s blog at blog.flurry.com.

Mobile analytics leader Flurry is an immensely important resource for data on mobile game spending patterns. While the company’s data aggregates information about iOS and Android gamers together, the numbers included in the following sections generally apply to ...