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How many downloads?

By on December 14, 2011

How many units of a paid-for game can you sell? For a free game, what is the total number of downloads you can expect?

The answer is “it depends”. To help you form a view for your own game, we will collect sales and download data as it enters the public domain. With app downloads growing at over 11% month on month, this scale is shifting all the time. Check this page regularly for the latest figures, and don’t forget to watch your daily and monthly active users for meaningful data on how your game is growing. And if you notice any data that we haven’t seen, please feel free to add them in the comments.

Free games downloads

Forever Drive, Supermono Studios,  iOS, 1 million downloads in approx. 24 days (Source: Tak Fung, 4/11/2011)

UFO Invader, Halotis, iOS: 50 paid installs in eight weeks at $0.99 price point, 5200 downloads in eight weeks free (Source: Halotis)

Neon Play, iOS: 1.5m downloads per month Jan 2010 – Nov 2011 (Source: Pocketgamer)

DC Universe Online, Sony Entertainment, PS3 and PC: 1m downloads in first week of free (Source: Gamasutra, 11/11/2011)

Funpark Friends, Tag, iOS: 68,000 installs in first five weeks (Source: Evolve 2011, 1/12/11)

Modern War, Funzio, iOS: 1.5 million downloads in first week (Source: Pocketgamer, 8/12/11)

My Horse, NaturalMotion, iOS: 7 million downloads in four months (Source: Develop 6/1/12)

Flower Garden, Games from Within, iOS (lite): 800 downloads a day (Source: Games from Within, 5/5/11)

Trainyard Express, Struct.ca: 450,000 downloads in 12 days (Source: Struct.ca, 12/10/10)

Big Mountain Snowboarding, Big Hammer Software: 1000 downloads a day (Source: Big Hammer Software, 29/7/10)

Thunder BANG!, Triolith: 4878 downloads in 9 months (Source: Gamesbrief, 31/1/12)

Jetpack Joyride, Halfbrick: 14 million downloads in six months (Source: Gamasutra, 8/2/12)

Foldit: 240,000 downloads in four years (Source: Erik Andersen GDC talk, 8/3/12)

Temple Run, Imangi Studios: 100 million downloads in one year (Source: Pocketgamer, 16/1/12)

Fight my Monster: 1.8 million registered users (source: Login conference, 27/09/12)

Whale Trail, ustwo: 800,000 downloads in four months since going free (source: the app side, October 2012)

Glu Mobile: 227 million downloads across all games (source: Pocketgamer)

CSR racing is installed on nearly 10% of all iOS devices. That’s about 60 million installs. (Source: Torsten Reil, 10th June 2013)

Subway Surfers got 175 million downloads in one year (source: Forbes, 06/05/2013)

Paid games downloads

The Room, Fireproof: 1 million downloads in 4 months (source: Pocketgamer.biz, 24/01/13)

Whale Trail, ustwo: 200,000 sales in 8 months before going free (source: the app side, October 2012)

Angry Birds, Rovio: 50 million downloads in 35 days (source: Gamesbrief, October 2012)

GSB, Positech: 100,000+ sales in two years on Steam (Source: Positech December 2011)

Limbo, Playdead: 1m sales in 16 months (Source: Gamasutra, 10/11/2011)

Frozen Synapse, Mode 7 Games, PC/Mac/Linux: 300,000+ sales (Source: Mode 7 Games, 11/11/2011)

Great Little War Game, Rubicon, Android: 250-300 sales per day (Source: Paul Johnson, 13 December 2011, making $700-900 per day with $2.88 downloads)

Super Meat Boy, Team Meat, XBLA: 1m sales in 15 months (Source: Develop, Jan 2012)

Fishmoto, Overpowered Games, iOS: 160 sales in 20 days (Source: Overpowered games, 8/7/2011)

Dapple, Streaming Colour Studios, iOS: 131 sales in 24 days (Source: Streaming colour studios, 09/03/09)

Wooords, Stray Robot, iOS: 20,000 sales in one month (Source: Stray Robot, 28/8/11)

Portaball, Bartosz Ciecanowski, iOS: 4000 sales in 11 months (Source: Bartosz Ciecanowski, 24/8/11)

Heist, Tap Tap Tap, iOS: 500,000 sales in seven days (Source: Tap Tap Tap, 1/6/11)

Jetpack Joyride, Halfbrick, iOS: 350,000 sales in one week (Source: Gamasutra, 13/9/11)

Cut the Rope, Chillingo, iOS: 3 million sales in forty days (Source: Joystiq, 17/11/2010)

Sword and Sworcery, Capy Games, iOS: 300,000 sales in six months (Source: Gamasutra, 13/11/11)

Magicka, Paradox Interactive, PC download $5.99: 1.3 million sales plus 4 million DLC packs sold in one year (Source: Gamasutra, 19/01/12)

Thunder BANG!, Triolith, 142 downloads in 9 months (Source: Gamesbrief, 31/01/2012)

Grabatron, Android, Future Games of London, 30,000 downloads in 2 weeks (Source: Future Games of London newsletter, 6/2/12)

The Magic of Reality, Richard Dawkins: Not a game, but an app containing a book, sold 15,000 copies in its first seven weeks after release and cost £10. (Source: The Literary Platform, 2/11/2011)

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About Zoya Street

I’m responsible for all written content on the site. As a freelance journalist and historian, I write widely on how game design and development have changed in the past, how they will change in the future, and how that relates to society and culture as a whole. I’m working on a crowdfunded book about the Dreamcast, in which I treat three of the game-worlds it hosted as historical places. I also write at Pocketgamer.biz and The Borderhouse.