How much do you earn via your Android app [paid or free]?

these geo games are far from new tho.

I think it almost exists 10 years where people go out with a GPS and need to find things on specific locations. (with handheld GPS devices, before smart phones had it)

sorex said:

these geo games are far from new tho.

I think it almost exists 10 years where people go out with a GPS and need to find things on specific locations. (with handheld GPS devices, before smart phones had it)

Click to expand...

Probably the Pokemon name that has brought success, then.

(Btw my smartphone's GPS has never worked, since the purchase . This is to say that I never approached issues relating to GPS)

yes, when you already have a fanbase of millions collected over almost 20 years that kind of helps

sorex said:

these geo games are far from new tho.

I think it almost exists 10 years where people go out with a GPS and need to find things on specific locations. (with handheld GPS devices, before smart phones had it)

Click to expand...

indeed - geocaching has been around for more than 15 years (thats when I used to play)

In-Q-Tel sheeple

I calculate that I make about £0.0075 per active user per month for my games. Is this what other people are seeing? So let's say I have 500 active users on one game, I make 500x0.0075=£3.75 per month in ad revenue.
Obviously I'd like to ramp this up, but I calculate then that if I had 2 games with 100,000 active users, I'd be making 200000*0.0075=£1500 per month in ad revenue.
I think getting 100k users for a game isn't un-realistic, and I'm sure some B4A users have managed this already.

andymc said:

Obviously I'd like to ramp this up, but I calculate then that if I had 2 games with 100,000 active users, I'd be making 200000*0.0075=£1500 per month in ad revenue. I think getting 100k users for a game isn't un-realistic, and I'm sure some B4A users have managed this already.

Click to expand...

Yes but for how long? You might spend a year writing a great game but it has high revenues for 3 months before people get tired of it and move onto something else. How many of you are still playing Flappy Bird? Creating games, to me at least, is a lot like manufacturing yogurt. They both have a short expiration date. If it sits on the shelf too long (doesn't sell) it has to be thrown out and the manufacturer bears the cost.

The attention span of the public is quite short. They are always in search of something new, something better, and will quickly move onto something else to entertain them. There might be a 1000 new games coming out each month. 95% of them will sit on the shelf and spoil. The 5% that make it will be played for maybe 3 months then discarded once the entertainment value wears off.

Twenty years ago developers could still make money doing this because games would cost $40 to $50 and the developer could recoup their development costs even if it didn't make the top 20% of the charts. But with smart phones the price of games have cratered to almost nothing and the developer has to survive on crumbs from advertising. Then you have developers in foreign countries creating knock offs of games in record time, so you end up competing against your own design!

In my opinion this revenue model is broken and very few developers can make a living at creating games any more. If you know some recent game developers who live in large mansions please let us know. They might need their grass cut! In other words, you can make more money cutting grass than developing games. If it takes you 1,000 hours to develop a game, and you charge $20/hr to cut grass, then you will make $20,000 at grass cutting. That might not sound like a lot, but it is risk free because you get paid immediately as soon as the job is done. Not so with game development because you need to work for 1,000 hours and hope to get some of your time paid for several months after the game ships and only if the game is successful. That is a great deal of risk that is built into the equation and the rewards are generally quite small. If you can't make $20,000 on your game, then maybe you should be cutting grass after all.

Andy,

there ain't exact math to calculate what you could earn.

It depends on too many factors. (active users, impressions, clicks, average clicks/impressions, the amount someone want to pay per click, per install)

But I guess the more players the better

Widget said:

You might spend a year writing a great game but it has high revenues for 3 months before people get tired of it and move onto something else.

Click to expand...

but meanwhile you could get new users (who might play just three months)
[I'm pretty sure that new people are born everyday ]

All good points. One thing to point out since Flappy bird was mentioned, is that flappy bird sat on the appstore with no real interest or downloads for nine months before it got popular, and it only got popular when someone with a lot of twitter followers tweeted about it when they stumbled across it.

I know it's not in the same league, but I've had a space invaders clone sat on the google play store for two years, only getting a few downloads a day, but in the last two weeks it seems to have picked up very fast, the last four days it's averaged £1 a day in ad revenue, when previosly it's only been making a few pence a day. I don't know what's changed, but I've pushed a few updates to improve it anyway to see if I can keep the numbers going up. I'll release a sequel soon if it carries on too to push for even more downloads. It's very exciting.

Regarding effort on games, I don't usually spend more than a few weeks on a game before I release it or stop working on it. So I'm not worried about spending a year working on something that won't get any attention. And this is all done in my free time when I'd usually be watching TV or falling asleep on the train so I'm happy with anything I make, it's a labour of love rather than a job right now.

andymc said:

All good points. One thing to point out since Flappy bird was mentioned, is that flappy bird sat on the appstore with no real interest or downloads for nine months before it got popular, and it only got popular when someone with a lot of twitter followers tweeted about it when they stumbled across it.

Click to expand...

https://www.b4x.com/android/forum/threads/good-ways-to-promote-an-app.70732/#post-449682
see: (a)

that is the luck factor that you need with your app.

also the play store is to blame.

their new and updated games list isn't listing only new apps at all, sometimes the apps you see there hasn't been updated for over a year.

so that leaves out that your new app gets visible there.

actually that counts for most of their lists. only those that are really popular appear on it, so it's always the same games/apps.

Hi everyone,
I read this post in an attempt to find out if I should drop or continue my app development, but I am none the wiser (still).
Anyway, to add my 50 cents to the discussion:

Most app devs here (and everywhere else) rely heavily on PlayStore or other app markets to get them large numbers of users so that in-app purchases occur or ads money start rolling in. I also listed my app in Google store, but had little success. For me it is just another channel of marketing.

I have an app that is intended for business users and syncs with an ERP popular in my country and so far I have 8 clients (about 50 people using it). I charge them monthly fee per user. This covers about a half of all my business expenses, but I am currently a one-man-band working from home. If I had to hire all the people needed to run this system and buy all the equipment and rent space - I would cover about a quarter or a fifth of expenses with this revenue.

For me the dev work is a breeze. Business admin, marketing, advertising, sales, lead generation, ASO, SEO, website and all the things leading to a sale are a struggle (especially since I am not a salesperson myself, I hate being sold something and I feel awkward selling something).

The thing I realized is this: for a developer app development is never finished. There is always something to be added, improved or if nothing else - a makeover is due. To wait for an app do be finished to start selling it (or monetizing it in any way) is a suicide.

The only thing that is standing between your app and its commercial success is THE SALE.

I am going to persist with my app until it covers 100% of my business expenses, or until it fails totally.

(BTW, sorry for bumping this thread, but I think someone may find this useful)

mokrokuce said:

Hi everyone,
I read this post in an attempt to find out if I should drop or continue my app development, but I am none the wiser (still).
Anyway, to add my 50 cents to the discussion:

Most app devs here (and everywhere else) rely heavily on PlayStore or other app markets to get them large numbers of users so that in-app purchases occur or ads money start rolling in. I also listed my app in Google store, but had little success. For me it is just another channel of marketing.

Click to expand...

Marketing is definitely the hardest part of developing apps. You can build the best mousetrap but if no one hears about it, or no one has mouse problems, you've got a problem.

There are many books written on the subject. Like most programmers, I haven't had the time to pursue it just yet. Perhaps you can check Amazon for book reviews?

Do a Google search on "how to market mobile app" and you may come up with some new ideas.

Find out how successful apps became successful. What did they do that put them heads and shoulders above the rest?

Uhm...

I was thinking to write a joke: "Well, hire Ronaldo to make TV ads for your app".

Then, a "not so stupid idea": TV ads is very expensive; we could share the costs to advertise (Tv) a page with all of our apps! This page may be on this site, so B4X would also benefit.

Yes, this is a very good idea. Erel will pay 99%, we all together 1%

LucaMs said:

Uhm...

I was thinking to write a joke: "Well, hire Ronaldo to make TV ads for your app".

Then, a "not so stupid idea": TV ads is very expensive; we could share the costs to advertise (Tv) a page with all of our apps! This page may be on this site, so B4X would also benefit.

Yes, this is a very good idea. Erel will pay 99%, we all together 1%

Click to expand...

No one watches TV anymore unless it is for the Super Bowl and Fox charges around $5 million for a 30 second spot. I'm not sure Erel will go for it. LOL

aidymp said:

My app makes around £900 p/m (adsense) according to analytics its on about 70,000 devices, and its not on any stores, I do have an app on Google & Amazon Stores that has had about 250,000 installs but that only makes about $60 (Startapp) a month. I dont understand the maths, but adsense is my favorite!

Click to expand...

Isn't AdSense for sites and not for mobile?

It all depends on what kind of app your write.
Game apps are a hard market to enter with any meaningful success.

I target utility and tool apps.
Find a niche and fill it.

I have an app on Google that brings in $140.00 to $160.00 in sales every moth. It has done that for the last 5 years.
I ported it over to Ios and it took off there. My 1 year anniversary for that app is coming up in about a month. I have made over $2500.00 in sales on that version.

karld said:

I have an app on Google that brings in $140.00 to $160.00 in sales every moth. It has done that for the last 5 years.

Click to expand...

[Totò says: "Ma mi faccia il piacere"; I think you can translate it to: "Do not make me laugh!"]

Why do not indicate the app name? FBI? CIA? KGB?

Also, I usually do not trust who seems to be member since many years (5.5) but has only written a few posts (79)! (and there are too many of this kind of members, I think).

Screenshot of Google console




Screenshot off Apple Payouts for last month


Slightly under 1 year mark since I released it.



This also does not take into consideration Airpush or AdMob revenue.
Keep on laughing...