Minecraft: Pocket Edition is the hottest Christmas game for iOS

App Annie reported that Minecraft: Pocket Edition achieved a top spot in top-grossing category in the iOS App Store this Christmas. Mojang managed to get more money than Clash of Clans, Game of War and Candy Crush Saga. All these games are using F2P-model and therefore are free to access. Minecraft however is a premium title, that costs around $7. This is higher than an average F2P-check for games in developed countries. Usually “premium-priced” games earn much less than their F2P-counterparts.

Christmas is the biggest day of the year for mobile games developers (as well as game developers on the whole). A successful launch on Christmas Eve could earn a lucky studio millions of dollars in revenue. There is a catch. It became more difficult to push your games up the charts recently. With user acquisition prices going through the roof, little indie developers have virtually no chance this holiday season against big publishers with fat marketing budgets.

Minecraft is more of a black sheep in the mobile market, where it enjoyed success for several years. Now thanks to Microsoft’s support Mojang has the chance to increase its revenues tremendously. What we see now is only the beginning.

One of the key peculiarities that guarantee Minecraft its financial success is the popularity of this game among children and teenagers, who get a lot mobile devices on holidays. Parents consider this game to be a good fit for children. They are much more likely to buy an educational title that inspires creativity, than a mindless action-platformer.

While Minecraft may be bigger than Clash of Clans on Christmas, the strategy from Supercell was named the best-grossing iPhone and iPad app in 2014. It surpassed Candy Crush Saga, Game of War – Fire Age, Pandora Radio, Big Fish Casino, Hay Day, Farm Heroes Saga, Pet Rescue Saga and Slotomania. Among the biggest money-makers on mobile platforms is Kim Kardashian: Hollywood – a F2P-title based on life and adventures of notorious Kim Kardashian.

Minecraft like few other games out there had a luxury of release on almost all the available platforms. The game recently got released on Windows Phone, and had previously been published on various consoles and mobile devices. Because of multiplatform availability Minecraft managed to gather a huge community of players.

Minecraft’s creator Marcuss Persson will likely have no gain from the game’s performance. In September 2014  he sold Mojang to Microsoft, getting about $2,5 billion. It’s unknown whether Persson will be able to make something as great as Minecraft, but we do know that he will most likely work from his new mansion in Beverly Hills. He bought this huge estate this December for $70 million dollars.

App Annie via Venturebeat

Author: Alexandr Agapitov