Candy Crush is huge, I hear about it on CNN, Jimmy Falon has skits about it, etc. its really become a huge phenomenon.
ioi said:
Then you made a lucky escape! |
I thank my lucky stars!
I hope you do write the article on game revenue in 2014. It should be an interesting read. Since candy crush is essentialy free, I guess the free-to-play model really does work wonders.
"Dr. Tenma, according to you, lives are equal. That's why I live today. But you must have realised it by now...the only thing people are equal in is death"---Johann Liebert (MONSTER)
"WAR is a racket. It always has been.
It is possibly the oldest, easily the most profitable, surely the most vicious. It is the only one international in scope. It is the only one in which the profits are reckoned in dollars and the losses in lives"---Maj. Gen. Smedley Butler
Angry birds is pretty small compared to Candy Crush.
It probably released to soon into the growth of the smarthphone development lifecycle, or just not addictive enough.
"I think people should define the word crap" - Kirby007
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ioi said:
"Thats revenue...not profit. Platform holders get a sizeable % from that revenue. Apple, Facebook and Google all take their share." Platform holders get 30-40%, much less than retail margins are so this works in favour of mobile games vs retail games in terms of the amount of revenue they actually end up seeing as profit. "Secondly, most mobile game franchises have a very limited lifespan. In 1 or 2 years time people would have moved on from Candy Crush and their publisher might have the same fate as Zynga who are struggling at the moment." Few retail games have a two year lifespan - most have a couple of months of activity then drop away so I don't see how this is any different? League of Legends also makes good money but not as much as Candy Crush which could gross more than $1.5b dollars in 2014 alone (to add to about $800m in 2013). These kinds of numbers are unprecidented. I know the thread has taken a different turn to which it was originally intended but I think for the best. Comparing numbers of downloads / installs / retail purchases becomes hard cross-platform with drastically different price points so at that point the only real way of doing a comparison is via total revenues that each game makes and the fact that a game like Candy Crush is making as much money in a year as GTA V (and far more in profit) is of huge significance for the industry. |
"Platform holders get 30-40%, much less than retail margins are so this works in favour of mobile games vs retail games in terms of the amount of revenue they actually end up seeing as profit."
This only applies to retail games though and you assumed I was speaking about retail games when i wasnt...Some games like LoL, Dota 2, Hearthstone etc. are relatively free from platform costs and have the potential to be bigger than Candy Crush in the long term. Personally i dont see retail games as the main competition here to mobile games but rather popular PC games.
"Few retail games have a two year lifespan - most have a couple of months of activity then drop away so I don't see how this is any different?"
Again the assumption here is that you thought my comment applied specifically to retail it didnt. Looking at games like Dota 2 and LoL and you will see that these games have an ever increasing active player base over VERY long periods. This is very different to Candy Crush and retail :)
"League of Legends also makes good money but not as much as Candy Crush which could gross more than $1.5b dollars in 2014 alone (to add to about $800m in 2013). These kinds of numbers are unprecidented."
Since we both agree that Candy Crush has a limited lifespan..LoL will probably come out on top if we compare the two for lifetime revenue when all is said and done. And I think LoL has a very good track record of sustainability and growth. Same with Dota 2 and I see Hearthstone (this will end up on mobile though, not sure how Blizzard plans to release it) having similar kind of success as well as a few other PC games.
Again my response was about the raw numbers that Kirby used in the OP. And my detailed response was for Outlawauron's comment:
"and yet it makes more than just about every other video game. Quite a business model."
And since we are comparing lifetime sales, I would say thats a very difficult thing to prove and hence my response.
kirby007 said:
Candy Crush Saga has 46 million average monthly users When we calculate this back to a per game avarage thats STILL 46 million |
Not really a big deal when you consider that it's also free.
Uncharted and zelda have more hours of play overall, and bigger benefits. (something like 2$ ARPU for candy crush)
lt_dan_27 said:
Not really a big deal when you consider that it's also free. |
updated the OP just for you! 
"I think people should define the word crap" - Kirby007
Join the Prediction League http://www.vgchartz.com/predictions
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Level 280, I never spent a penny on it though.
Adding in Angry bird fiscal numbers
Rovio, the company that makes the popular Angry Birds game, reported just under $200 million in revenue for 2012. It also reported $71 million in profit for the year.
The Finnish company reports that its full year revenue grew by 101 percent in 2012, up from approximately $96 million in 2011.
"I think people should define the word crap" - Kirby007
Join the Prediction League http://www.vgchartz.com/predictions
Instead of seeking to convince others, we can be open to changing our own minds, and seek out information that contradicts our own steadfast point of view. Maybe it’ll turn out that those who disagree with you actually have a solid grasp of the facts. There’s a slight possibility that, after all, you’re the one who’s wrong.
ioi said:
Well you made no allusion that you weren't talking about retail games and since that had been the topic of the thread up to that point then it is fair assumption to make! Games like Candy Crush, Clash of Clans, League of Legends and DOTA 2 I'd actually group into the same freemium model. My point was to those who weren't that aware that games like this (including LOL and DOTA 2) are actually making a lot more money over sustained periods of time than the retail market that we have been used to for so long. I have been trying for a long time to nail down some hard figures for League of Legends. I see annual revenue estimates of $100m in some places (which would put it way below the big iOS / Android titles) but I suspect it is quite a bit higher than that. Until I have some hard data I wouldn't like to make a call but certainly I'd put LOL, Candy Crush, Clash of Clans and P&D in the top 10 grossing games of 2013 somewhere along with the more expected suspects like GTA 5, COD Ghosts etc. |
"Well you made no allusion that you weren't talking about retail games and since that had been the topic of the thread up to that point then it is fair assumption to make!"
True, but considering that this was a response to Outlawauron who metioned "every other video game", my mind went immediately to what i think are the biggest games in the world. Games which i consider good competition to Candy Crush.
As for the rest of your post I agree with you 100%.
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