Don't miss
  • 2,232
  • 6,844
  • 6097
  • 134
Nicholas Lovell
Home   >   Resources   >   ARPDAU

Self-publishing

Finance | Distribution | Sales | Marketing

GET THE BOOK: How to Publish a Game

ARPDAU

By on September 6, 2012

There are so many stats bandied around for F2P games, it can sometimes be difficult to choose which ones to track. We don’t currently use ARPDAU (Average Revenue Per Daily Active User) in the GAMESbrief spreadsheet, but it is a figure which many companies quote. It is a useful figure too: if you are focused on DAUs (which most designers are), you need to understand ARPDAU; if you are focused on MAUs (which many finance departments are), you use ARPU on a monthly basis.

So we are going to start keeping track of ARPDAU. One day, it might even make its way into the spreadsheet.

Benchmarks

Superdata research has published ARPDAU benchmarks for different gaming genres:

  • 0.01-0.05 USD for puzzle, caretaking and simulation games
  • 0.03-0.07 for hidden object, tournament and adventure games
  • 0.05-0.10 for RPGs, gambling and poker games

Mobile

Supercell: Q1’13 gross revenue (Clash of Clans and Hay Day combined) was $179MM on a base of 8.5MM DAU, so that’s about $0.23 ARPDAU over both games (source: Quora)

DeNA and A Thinking Ape have both claimed that for most mobile games, expected ARPDAU is less than $0.10. However, YuChiang Cheng of WGT said at Login conference 2012 that an ARPDAU less than $0.05 is a sign of poor performance, and that a good benchmark for ARPDAU is $0.12-015.

Cheng also said that ARPDAUs on tablets are 15-25% higher than on smartphones.

W3i have said “for most games, $0.05 is a good first benchmark. Games with excellent monetization will have ARPDAUs between $0.15 and $0.25.”

Blood Brothers and Ninja Royale, DeNA, $1 (source: eir-parts, August 2012)

Rage of Bahamut, DeNA, $0.60-$1 (source: Techcrunch, June 2012)

Future Combat, A Thinking Ape, $0.45 (source: Inside Network, November 2011)

Parallel Kingdoms, PerBlue: 0.40-0.50(source: inside social games)

Glu Mobile, average over all games: $0.085 (source: Pocketgamer, July 2012)

Stardom, Glu Mobile: $0.132 (Source: Pocketgamer, 9/8/12)

Deer Hunter, Glu Mobile: $0.089 (Source: Pocketgamer, 9/8/12)

Junkies, Glu Mobile: $0.085 (Source: Pocketgamer, 9/8/12)

Gun Bros, Glu Mobile: $0.083 (Source: Pocketgamer, 9/8/12)

Frontline Commando, Glu Mobile: $0.081 (Source: Pocketgamer, 9/8/12)

Contract Killer, Glu Mobile: $0.061 (Source: Pocketgamer, 9/8/12)

Anonymous W3i client: $0.029 from IAPs alone, $0.055 including revenue from cross-promotion offers (Source: W3i, 31/10/12)

Browser

Kixeye, $0.80 ARPDAU (source: Double Forte, April 2012)

Kabam, $0.50 estimated ARPDAU (source: Inside Social Games, 28/01/13)

 

About Nicholas Lovell

Nicholas is the founder of Gamesbrief, a blog dedicated to the business of games. It aims to be informative, authoritative and above all helpful to developers grappling with business strategy. He is the author of a growing list of books about making money in the games industry and other digital media, including How to Publish a Game and Design Rules for Free-to-Play Games, and Penguin-published title The Curve: thecurveonline.com