Game genre analysis of the best selling android
and iPhone apps
Isabel Hughes (21161596)
University of West London
Ba Games Development (Games Art, Games Design)
[email protected]
Abstract
In this essay, I am taking data from the two most popular mobile game
application marketplaces, the Google Play store and the iPhone app store to
analyse which games genres are the most popular. I will then present the data
I collect in charts, showing the genre distribution in each of the stores and
show them side-by-side. I will then briefly discuss the benefits of each of the
stores, and try to explain the genre statistics.
Keywords – video games, genre, statistics, applications, android, iOS,
market research
Introduction
Since their conception, the Google Play store, starting up in 2008 has hit 25
billion downloads in September 2012 (Z. Lutz, 2012) and the iPhone app store
opening the same year and having hit 40 billion downloads (Apple, 2013).
Top Google Play games
In order to analyse what sells best on android phones, I went to the Google
play website, and compared the 50 games I found with the highest download
count. I looked at their genre, rating and price. The latter being free on all
games, showing that it’s probably a good strategy to keep the games free,
and include freemium type tactics for android if you want a top downloaded
application.
All the genres/ categories included in Google Play’s game store are: Arcade
and Action, Brain and Puzzle, Cards and Casino, Casual, Sports Games. I am
not including their categories named Live Wallpaper and Widgets as I am
merely looking for game applications.
Some games, I excluded, as I feel they didn’t quite count as games, e.g.
‘Perfect Piano’ – an app that teaches the user to play piano notes accurately.
Downloads
100,000,000 –
500,000,000
50,000,000 –
100,000,000
10,000,000 –
50,000,000
Game
Avg. Rating
Genre
Price
Angry Birds
4.6
Arcade and Action
Free
Fruit Ninja Free
4.6
Arcade and Action
Free
Angry Birds Rio
4.6
Arcade and Action
Free
Angry Birds Seasons
4.5
Arcade and Action
Free
Angry Birds Space
4.6
Arcade and Action
Free
Drag Racing
4.5
Racing
Free
Temple Run
4.6
Arcade and Action
Free
Candy Crush Saga
4.4
Casual
Free
Temple Run 2
4.5
Arcade and Action
Free
5,000,000 –
10,000,000
Draw Something Free
4.2
Brain and Puzzle
Free
SongPop Free
4.7
Casual
Free
Subway Surfers
4.7
Arcade and Action
Free
Hill Climb Racing
4.7
Racing
Free
Pou
4.7
Casual
Free
Diamond Dash
4.6
Arcade and Action
Free
Minecraft - Pocket Ed. Demo
4.3
Arcade and Action
Free
Jetpack Joyride
4.6
Arcade and Action
Free
Flow Free
4.7
Brain and Puzzle
Free
Bad Piggies
4.6
Arcade and Action
Free
Jewels Star
4.7
Brain and Puzzle
Free
Cut the Rope FULL FREE
4.6
Brain and Puzzle
Free
Solitaire (MobilityWare)
4.5
Cards and Casino
Free
Bubble Shooter
4.6
Casual
Free
Jewels
4.7
Brain and Puzzle
Free
Angry Birds Star Wars
4.5
Arcade and Action
Free
Jewels Deluxe
4.6
Casual
Free
Dragon, Fly!
4.5
Arcade and Action
Free
Dragon flight for Kakao
4.6
Arcade and Action
Free
Cut the Rope: Experiments
FREE
Solitaire (Ken Magic)
4.5
Brain and Puzzle
Free
4.3
Cards and Casino
Free
100 Floors
4.2
Brain and Puzzle
Free
100 Doors 2013
4.3
Brain and Puzzle
Free
Speed Night
4.3
Racing
Free
Logo Quiz
4.6
Brain and Puzzle
Free
Sudoku Free (genina.com)
4.5
Brain and Puzzle
Free
Coin Dozer
4.6
Cards and Casino
Free
4 Pics 1 Word
4.6
Brain and Puzzle
Free
Sudoku Free (AI Factory
Limited)
The Simpsons: Tapped Out
4.6
Brain and Puzzle
Free
4.3
Casual
Free
Jewels Legend
4.7
Brain and Puzzle
Free
Vector
4.3
Arcade and Action
Free
100 Doors of Revenge
4.1
Brain and Puzzle
Free
100 Gates
Speed night 2
4.5
3.8
Brain and Puzzle
Racing
Free
Free
Figure 1: All statistics taken from Google Play store
Google Play Store genre analysis
Sports
Racing
Casual
Cards and Casino
Brain and Puzzle
Arcade and Action
0
2
4
6
8
10
12
14
16
Games of genre featured in top 50
Figure 2: Statistics adapted from above table, shows spread of game genres
Top Apple App Store apps
In order to analyse the iPhone app store apps, I took top 25 data from free
and paid applications (appadvice.com, 2013). I have found their information
slightly difficult to represent statistically as they do not feature numerical
information such as downloads or rating, nor do they split the games into
genres, so have merely shown the games, with prices, release date, and have
categorised them into the genres as the Google Play store would have
categorised them.
Game
Temple Run: Oz
Minecraft – Pocket Edition
Sonic Dash
Wreck-it Ralph
Wipeout
Angry Birds Star Wars
Plague Inc.
Plants vs. Zombies
Arms Cartel Global
Super Stickman Golf 2
Fruit Ninja
NBA JAM by EA SPORTS
Vector for iPhone
Bloons TD 5
Cut the Rope
Block Fortress
Temple Run: Brave
Angry Birds
Bad Piggies
TETRIS ®
Scribblenauts Remix
Kick the Buddy: Second Kick
Eden – World Builder
Doodle Jump
Toy Story: Smash It!
Paid
Genre
Arcade and Action
Arcade and Action
Arcade and Action
Arcade and Action
Arcade and Action
Arcade and Action
Casual
Arcade and Action
Casual
Sports
Arcade and Action
Sports
Sports
Arcade and Action
Brain and Puzzle
Arcade and Action
Arcade and Action
Arcade and Action
Arcade and Action
Arcade and Action
Arcade and Action
Arcade and Action
Arcade and Action
Arcade and Action
Arcade and Action
Release Date
05/03/12
17/11/11
07/03/13
31/10/12
30/08/12
07/11/12
25/05/12
15/02/10
01/05/12
14/03/13
20/04/10
10/02/11
20/10/12
15/11/12
04/10/10
07/03/13
14/06/12
11/12/09
26/09/12
01/12/11
12/10/11
18/04/12
01/12/10
26/03/09
28/02/13
Price (USD)
0.99
6.99
0.99
0.99
0.99
0.99
0.99
0.99
0.99
0.99
0.99
0.99
0.99
2.99
0.99
1.99
0.99
0.99
0.99
0.99
0.99
0.99
0.99
0.99
0.99
Figure 3: Table showing data for top 25 paid iPhone apps (appadvice.com, 2013)
Free
Game
Mini Golf MatchUp
Skee-Ball 2
Candy Crush Saga ®
4 Pics 1 Word
TM
Nitro
Solitaire Blitz
What’s the Phrase Free
Icomania
Temple Run 2
Nemo’s Reef
Subway Surfers
MAYDAY! Emergency
Fix-it Felix Jr.
Megapolis
Streaker Run
Kick the Buddy: Independence Day
Toon Shooters
Paper Toss 2.0
Rivals at War
Hungry Shark Evolution
Real Racing 3
Words with Friends
TM
Slots
Design this Home
Hill Climb Racing
Genre
Sports
Arcade and Action
Casual
Brain and Puzzle
Racing
Cards and Casino
Brain and Puzzle
Brain and Puzzle
Arcade and Action
Casual
Arcade and Action
Casual
Arcade and Action
Casual
Arcade and Action
Arcade and Action
Arcade and Action
Casual
Arcade and Action
Casual
Racing
Brain and Puzzle
Cards and Casino
Casual
Racing
Release Date
04/03/2013
13/12/12
14/11/12
04/02/13
20/03/13
20/03/13
27/02/13
04/03/13
17/01/13
19/12/12
24/05/12
14/03/13
03/07/12
12/12/12
27/09/12
16/06/12
21/06/12
08/12/11
06/03/13
24/10/12
28/02/13
19/07/09
16/03/12
27/01/12
08/11/12
Figure 4: Table showing data for top 25 free iPhone apps (appadvice.com, 2013)
Apple App Store genre analysis
Sports
Racing
Casual
Cards and Casino
Brain and Puzzle
Arcade and Action
0
5
10
15
20
25
Games of genre featured in top 50
Figure5: Statistics adapted from above 2 tables, showing spread of game genres
30
Genre Analysis
Sports
Racing
Casual
Apple App
Cards and Casino
Google Play
Brain and Puzzle
Arcade and Action
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
Figure 6: Table comparing genre data from above tables
Discussion
An interesting point to note that I discovered in my research is that the buying
demographic is slightly different in those that download iPhone apps versus
android applications. iPhone users are more likely to pay for applications –
including games – than android users, as the top downloaded games on
android are all free and miles ahead of the top paid android applications. The
money for these is made through advertisements and micro transactions ingame.
It is also argued that game developers much prefer developing games for
iPhone due to the universal size of these mobiles. Android phones can come
in all kinds of different screen sizes and processing speeds, which can make
developers slightly uneasy (nbcnews.com, 2013).
It appears clear from the above graph, that for both phones, ‘Arcade and
Action’ is the top downloaded/ top selling game genre. The reason for this
may be that it is quite a broad genre and can include any types of games from
platformer – arcade – to shooter type games – action. Cards and casino are
at this point, the least popular, probably due to their links to gambling.
Bibliography
Lutz, Z., 2009. Google Play hits 25 billion app downloads. [online article]
Place:
engadget.com.
(26/09/12)
Available
at:
http://www.engadget.com/2012/09/26/google-play-hits-25-billion-appdownloads/
[22/03/13].
Apple, 2013. Google Play hits 25 billion app downloads. [online article] Place:
apple.com.
(07/01/13)
Available
at:
http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2013/01/07App-Store-Tops-40-BillionDownloads-with-Almost-Half-in-2012.html
[22/03/13].
Google, 2013. Google Play Store Games. [online
https://play.google.com/. Available at:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/category/GAME
[17/03/13].
shop]
Place:
Appadvice.com, 2013. Top 100 iPhone/ iPad apps. [online statistics] Place:
https://appadvice.com/. Available at:
http://appadvice.com/appcharts/100?genre=games
[19/03/13].
Rothman, W., 2013. App showdown: Android vs. iPhone. [online article]
Place: msnbc.com. (26/09/12) Available at:
http://www.nbcnews.com/id/38382217/#.UU-OVluAt20
[22/03/13].